Poetry — Jeri Theriault

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...

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Poetry — Betsy Sholl

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...

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Poetry — Phil Carlsen

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...

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Robert Shetterly — AWTT/ Why Art

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...

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Alan Magee

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...

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Michel Droge

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...

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Peter Buotte

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...

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Carl Little – Avy Claire: The World Is a Messy Place

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,...

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Kenny Cole interviews Whitetrashcoon

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...

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Véronique Plesch – Art Activism in the Classroom

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...

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David Greenham – Working from Scratch

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...

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Letter from UMVA President — William Hessian

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...

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ARRT! Update Winter 2020

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...

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LumenARRT! Update Winter 2020

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...

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Maine Masters Update — Truth Tellers

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...

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Maine Masters Update — Carlo Pittore Film

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:...

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UMVA Portland Chapter Update — Winter 2020

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...

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Pat and Tony Owen — From the Archives

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...

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Invitation and Theme for Spring Issue 2020: Macro/Micro

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...

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Letters to the Editor: Portland Museum of Art Triennial Further Violates Donor’s Vision

Invitation and Theme for Spring Issue 2020: Macro/Micro