Editorial and a quick introduction to the issue — Our theme for the WINTER 2019 Maine Arts Journal is SKETCHBOOK.
We asked you to send us your sketchbooks, to share who you are, and how you got here. This issue of the Maine Arts Journal: UMVA Quarterly is full of the wisdom (and secrets) of 35 artists. Many of you have shared pages from past and present sketchbooks, with both...
Editorial and a quick introduction to the issue — Our theme for the WINTER 2019 Maine Arts Journal is SKETCHBOOK.
We asked you to send us your sketchbooks, to share who you are, and how you got here. This issue of the Maine Arts Journal: UMVA Quarterly is full of the wisdom (and secrets) of 35 artists. Many of you have shared pages from past and present sketchbooks, with both...
First Traces at CMCA 2008
Highlighting the creative processes by exhibiting artists’ first drafts, thoughts, and inspirations, the Center for Maine Contemporary Art (CMCA) presented an exhibition of sketchbooks titled First Traces, curated by Britta Konau from October 31 – December 20, 2008....
Lewis Rossingol discusses “tic” for “tack”: Maneuvering around Tourette Syndrome.
The thing about Tourette syndrome that many people don’t know is that it hardly ever presents itself as uncontrollable loud swearing. I wish I knew this because I was especially well-read, and not as a result of nearly three decades of first-hand experience, but...
Nikki Schumann — Thirty years apart
I hold my sketchbooks near and dear as they’ve always been a safe and solitary place to play, like the swing set in a nearby park when no one else is there. These images are from two sketchbooks filled more than thirty years apart. The black and white thumbnail...
Sketchbook: Jeff Woodbury at 117 and Counting… by Daniel Kany
Jeff Woodbury has a shelf in his studio stuffed tightly with 117 sketchbooks (at least, as I write this). I’ve published columns, catalogs and articles about more than 1000 Maine artists over the years, but I don’t know of another artist whose sketchbooks contain more...
Streaming Consciousness with Richard Iammarino
“Wanderer—there is no path…the path is made by walking…” Luigi Nono Introduced By Kathy Weinberg I recently took a ramble through Richard Iammarino’s selection of his works from his 60 years of making art, featuring sculpture, drawing, painting, woodcarving, travel...
Sketchbook: North Yarmouth Naturalist & Painter Michael Boardman By Daniel Kany
North Yarmouth artist Michael Boardman grew up in Blue Hill. He graduated from the University of Maine at Orono with a degree in studio art in 1986. Since then, drawing and sketching have been critical to his art practice. And Boardman has only ever made his living...
Judy LaBrasca — Why I keep a sketchbook
For quite a few years, I’ve been teaching a class called “Sketchbooks: Cultivating a Daily Practice”. The students who take this class are invariably interesting people. Each one has a particular reason for signing up, often including a desire to start drawing, or to...
Stephen Petroff — Sketchbooks as Publication
Reading a poem aloud is publication. Stapling a few drawings and poems together, and handing out the results to strangers in Tompkins Square Park is publication. Working out the project of creation as it spreads through the pages of a sketchbook is...
Edgar Allen Beem — City as Sketchbook: Painting on Portland
My good friends Carl and David Little just published a handsome new book entitled Paintings of Portland (Down East Books $29.95) which details the many ways the city has been seen and painted by artists over the centuries. Here I propose a little corollary essay about...
Water, Water Everywhere: Tom Burckhardt’s Studio Flood by Michael Torlen
Relentless flooding is the new normal. Hurricanes ravage the land, and rivers overflow, destroying property and infrastructure, killing people, wild animals, and livestock. Our government’s response through FEMA is a reactive one. We spend billions of dollars after...
Sarah Bouchard — TCELFER REFLECT
The first snow of the season fell on a Saturday evening, December 10th, 2017. The weather was mild, and it was an easy and eagerly awaited start to the coming winter. That night, I received images of SELF TCELFER (pronounced “self self-er”), an outdoor sculpture I had...
MAJ Editorial Response to Sarah Bouchard’s TCELFER REFLECT Story
This is a disturbing story for several reasons: Just the idea that an individual would intentionally destroy a large work of art -- even taking the parts and disposing of them -- is monstrous. It is also troubling that there were not sufficient legal or professional...
Without Question: Legal Commentary by Ari Solotoff, Esq.
Without question, Sarah Bouchard’s story recounting the destruction of her sculpture is disheartening. There is a natural feeling of injustice when something of value has been damaged, in this case irreversibly. Whether faced with physical damage to a...
Elizabeth Tibbetts Poetry — Introduced by Betsy Sholl
The following three poems are by Elizabeth Tibbetts, from her new book, Say What You Can, to be published by Deerbrook Editions, Spring 2019. Elizabeth grew up in Camden and has worked as a nurse for many years. Her poetry is rich, in observation, stunning sensual...
Kifah Abdullah Poetry — Introduced by Betsy Sholl
Kifah has translated his poem H.O.M.E. into English from the Arabic. In English it shows the influence of the ghazal, a Persian poetic form, which involves couplets that repeat the same word at the end of each couplet. You can hear the influence of that pattern here...
Insight/Incite — Shared Language: Art and Process (a Cony High School Art Journey) by Jason Morgan
After 7 years at Cony High School in Augusta, Maine, I have seen many images in sketchbooks and studio projects that give unique perspectives into students’ personal lives. These images open discussions that go beyond technical skills and knowledge. It’s the...
Member Submissions: Kay Carter, Alan Crichton, Crichton and Abby Shahn collaborative sketchbook
Kay Carter Fine Sand BeachKay Carter I use my sketchbooks as a place to look, study, be present, and free myself up. The pages of the sketchbooks are typically heavy, textured watercolor paper. I work on both the front and back of the page. This...
Member Submissions: Mark Nelsen, Marcus Parsons, Wendy Newbold-Patterson, Brian Reeves, Claire Seidl
Mark Nelsen Long Island Soundcollage, ink, graphite, 8"x 11"Mark Nelsen Money Babelcollage, ink, graphite, 8"x 11"Mark Nelsen These pages are from trip journals. Begun as a way to process and archive ephemera collected while traveling, they developed into a...
Member Submissions: Pam Smith, Bonnie Spiegel, Mary Becker Weiss, Amy Peters Wood
Pam Smith June 1981 When confusion visits me these days, I tell myself it is the blur of growth. Suggestion is too coy for the real meaning of a painting. I struggle with whether my images are complete or incomplete, not with what they might suggest. July 1981 It is...
Member Submissions: Ellen Hodgkin, Nina Jerome, Suzanna Lasker, Lin Lisberger
Ellen Hodgkin Ceramics WorkshopSharpie and graphite on paper in handmade book, 13.5"x 9.25"Ellen Hodgkin Stedelijk Museumgraphite and acrylic on paper in handmade book, 10.5"x 7.25"Ellen Hodgkin My sketchbook is always with me. It is my memory, my datebook, my...
Member Submissions: Valera Crofoot, David Estey, Emma Geiger
Valera Crofoot Alaska Range on Locationink on paper, 3"x 5"Valera Crofoot I was born in Bangor, Maine in 1958, and began drawing and painting as a youth. My early influences were the seasonal moods of the wild coastline of Maine and the artists in my family and...
Member Submissions: Don Mallow, Anne McGurk, Leonard Meiselman, Janice Moore
Don Mallow Sunflowers 1ink on paper, 8"x 10"Don Mallow Sunflowers 2ink on paper, 8"x 10"Don Mallow Sunflowers 3ink on paper, 8"x 10"Don Mallow Anne McGurk Cape May Beachcolored pencil on paper, 2.5"x 3.5"Anne McGurk My sketchbook drawings always begin with the idea...
Carlo Pittore — The Impossible Dream
There are no exceptions: without independence there can be no art. The history of art tells us that all powerful artists broke with the past, and with their contemporaries, and created independently. Giotto broke with Cimabue and the Byzantine tradition and developed...
Robert Shetterly — Reflections on Portrait Exhibit
Before coming to Syracuse University for the opening of the Americans Who Tell the Truth portrait exhibit, a number of people asked me what it was going to feel like to see all the portraits at once. In retrospect, this question seems like asking a thirteen year old...
ARRT! and LumenARRT!
The Artists' Rapid Response Team! is a project of the Union of Maine Visual Artists, and receives additional help from the Broad Reach Fund at the Maine Community Foundation. ARRT! works to give a visual voice to progressive organizations, schools and community groups...
Robert Shetterly — UMVA Request
Dear Friends and Members of the UMVA: Money is not an easy thing for me to ask for. But if the UMVA is going to carry on doing all the important things we do (see below) we need you to JOIN or RENEW your MEMBERSHIP today. Go to www.umvaonline.org...
William Hessian — UMVA News
Dear Members of the UMVA, I am proud and honored to be named the interim President of the Union of Maine Visual Artists. President Robert Shetterly's skilled leadership and excellence in the position has been a huge inspiration to me and my work within the UMVA....
UMVA Portland Chapter Winter 2019 Update, Call for Submissions, and Exhibition Schedule
On the morning of December 22nd, in the spirit of celebrating light at the winter solstice, a small crew of UMVA Portland members prepared and painted the walls of the UMVA Gallery at the Portland Media Center. The group included Gregg Harper, Jen Joaquin, Arthur...
Maine Masters — Film on Robert Shetterly and Americans Who Tell the Truth
Robert Shetterly, political artist and former president of the Union of Maine Visual Artists, and his project, Americans Who Tell the Truth: Models of Courageous Citizenship have become the subject of the latest episode in the Maine Masters film series directed by...
UMVA Lewiston Auburn Winter 2019 Update
UMVA-LA has had an exciting few months! Our Annual Harvest Masquerade Ball was wonderful as always and the new owners of the Agora Grand Event Center offered a magnificent venue. We have hope that this event will continue to grow and be a staple for the community’s...
Notes from the UMVA Archives: What’s Lost, What’s Gained? by Pat and Tony Owen
Pat and I have been pouring over early (very early) UMVA newsletters. This ephemera goes back to 1975 and UMVA's first issue. What struck us was, not how much has changed, but how much has stayed the same. The struggle goes on. Artists continue to look for...
Invitation to contribute to the Spring 2019 Issue: Sanctuary
Art, in its various forms, helps to define an era. For many of a certain generation the opening chords to the song “Gimme Shelter” send a chill and recall the chaos of the 1960’s. In childhood, sanctuary can come from a fort between two chairs and blanket, or a perch...