Remembering Concept, A School of Visual Arts in Portland, on its 50th Anniversary
Impact and Influence of Concept on Its Students Maury Colton – The ‘60s The late 60s was a period of educational upheaval. The Concept School of Visual Studies was part of the zeitgeist of that period. William Manning and Polly Brown were the founders of the...
William David Barry – The Roots of the Modern: Maine Art Scenes, 1945–1979
This essay was originally commissioned to appear in Maine Art New, a selection of essays and artist profiles edited by Edgar Allen Beem and Andres Verzosa and to have been published by the University of Maine Press. In February 2019, after a long and difficult...
Edgar Allen Beem — Very Few People: Contemporary Figurative Art in Maine
The most famous works of art in the world portray human figures—Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Last Supper, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling and David, Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, Rembrandt’s Nightwatch, Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. “Figure painting...
Poetry — Jeri Theriault
Perhaps these poems aren’t political in the way we think of when we look at cable TV news. But they are about identity and consciousness and are responding to cultural norms and expectations—all of which have to do with being aware of and improving the status and...
Poetry — Betsy Sholl
In this poem I was thinking about the story of this Sybil, punished for resisting the god’s advance. But I was also imagining different kinds of power. The emperor has one kind, that of the autocrats who have to bolster and defend, and may always fear the loss of...
Poetry — Phil Carlsen
Phil Carlsen Here is a poem by Phil Carlsen, also a political poem rendered slant, as Emily Dickinson advises. The poem hints at the way privilege blinds us to others and to our own vulnerabilities, perhaps to our fear of that vulnerability. Phil Carlsen is a...
Robert Shetterly — AWTT/ Why Art
The Americans Who Tell the Truth project began with art. Part of the reason for that is obvious: I am an artist. And I choose art because it enables me to communicate most profoundly and honestly. When I say communicate, however, I don’t mean that my first concern is...
Alan Magee
ALAN MAGEE – INFLUENCES In the final days before Germany’s 1918 surrender to the Allies at the end of the First World War, the German Admiralty ordered its fleet to launch a suicidal “honor battle” against the British. The sailors revolted and within days the...
Al Farrow interview with introduction by Alan Magee and commentary by Chris Hedges
Alan Magee – Al Farrow I remember Monika saying, “Alan, come over here. You have to see this.” We were at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco, in a room displaying recent acquisitions of contemporary political art. I had been standing in front of Gottfried Helnwein’s...
Michel Droge
What is the role of the political in your work? I am a painter, printmaker, and educator whose work engages with the environment and the human condition in an era of conscious disruption and change. Not unlike the naturalists and transcendentalists from the early 19th...
Peter Buotte
Note from Peter Buotte, featured artist: I have sequenced the questions for flow and responded first as a therapist, second as a maker. What do you think is the role of the political in your art? I see politics as personal first. Over decades, my identity has grown...
Carl Little – Avy Claire: The World Is a Messy Place
“This is not our world with trees in it. It’s a world of trees, where humans have just arrived.” —Richard Powers, The Overstory The 2011 Portland Museum of Art Biennial, the seventh edition of this showcase, offered a highly diverse assortment of art,...
Members’ Showcase: Jean Noon, Lesley MacVane, Leslie Woods
Three Members of the UMVA Share Their Art and Thoughts Jean Noon Collaborating with my fellow Artist Rapid Response Team (ARRT!) members satisfies a lot of my guilt about not being more politically involved. I am quite active as a volunteer on environmental...
Members’ Showcase: Lin Lisberger, Cynthia Motian McGuirl, Laura Waller
Three Members of the UMVA Share Their Art and Thoughts Lin Lisberger My sculpture has come in and out of the overtly political over the years. Right now it is hard for me to avoid commenting in some way, which I am doing with the series, Who’s...
Kenny Cole interviews Whitetrashcoon
Whitetrashcoon is a NYC performance artist that I recently discovered via my Instagram feed, a place I frequent too obsessively for my own comfort. Our psychic existence has truly been challenged by technology. Our ability to outmaneuver, moderate, parse, or cut...
Véronique Plesch – Art Activism in the Classroom
This fall, I attended at Colby College a class meeting that was billed “Propaganda Party.” Undergraduates from an extremely wide range of majors and minors gathered in a classroom in the Colby College Museum of Art reserved for hands-on activities. The students...
David Greenham – Working from Scratch
The Michael Klahr Center, home of the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine (HHRC), was opened in 2008. My first interaction with the HHRC was a couple of years later when I was the Producing Director of The Theater At Monmouth. We were invited to partner and...
Cheryl Novins and Michele Benoit – Awareness through Photography, Science, and Prose
Using art as a vehicle for awareness and mindfulness is our motivation. While we are both educators—a high school science teacher and a college literacy professor—we also see ourselves as conservation photographers who can make a difference in regard to how others...
Letter from UMVA President — William Hessian
It is pretty surreal to be the President of the Union of Maine Visual Artists (UMVA), and be the one asking you to JOIN or RENEW your MEMBERSHIP on our brand new website (http://www.theumva.org)or mail your check for our sliding-scale membership ($25 to $45), whatever...
ARRT! Update Winter 2020
ARRT! The Artists Rapid Response Team (ARRT!) is a project of the Union of Maine Visual Artists. The ARRTists are members of the UMVA who collaborate with progressive organizations throughout Maine to create “visual soundbites,” frequently in the form of banners, to...
LumenARRT! Update Winter 2020
LumenARRT! is a project of the Artists Rapid Response Team (ARRT!). We work through the Union of Maine Visual Artists (UMVA), a members’ organization that advocates for artists and furthers the work of progressive non-profits in the state of Maine. Our video...
Maine Masters Update — Truth Tellers
The new documentary, TRUTH TELLERS, about artist/author Robert Shetterly and his portrait project Americans Who Tell the Truth (AWTT) will be going into production in Charlottesville, Virginia in late February 2020. The film's production team, Director Richard Kane...
Maine Masters Update — Carlo Pittore Film
The Maine Masters Project has revived interest in expanding its short film The Raw Essence of Carlo Pittore, about the UMVA co-founder Carlo Pittore, into a half hour documentary. Here is a private link to the short permitted for all UMVA members:...
UMVA Portland Chapter Update — Winter 2020
The Portland Chapter of UMVA has had an exciting and productive fall. First, we welcomed new members inspired, at least in part, by the UMVA Gallery and the opportunities it represents for Maine artists. Our shows in September (Visible Discourse From Maine's Western...
Pat and Tony Owen — From the Archives
In the April 1982 issue (vol. 1, number 1) of the UMVA Newsletter, there are excerpts from a conversation with the artist Christo, best known for his monumental installations, such as Running Fence, or the wrapping of the Reichstag in Berlin. His use of fabric to...
Letters to the Editor: Portland Museum of Art Triennial Further Violates Donor’s Vision
Below is a Letter to the Editor from the Portland Sunday Telegram, 12/15/2019. https://www.pressherald.com/?p= The Maine Arts Journal thinks this is a very important issue, so we are reprinting the letter here and some UMVA members’ initial responses. If Maine artists...
Invitation and Theme for Spring Issue 2020: Macro/Micro
Macro/Micro Do you take the macro or micro as the source, starting big or starting small, then narrowing down or opening up? Or do you allude to both the infinite and miniscule simultaneously to establish connections? This issue on Macro/Micro will examine the...
Letters to the Editor: Portland Museum of Art Triennial Further Violates Donor’s Vision
