UMVA Showcase – Summer 2025: Jean Noon, Leeann Rhoades, David Wade, Betsey Foster

Jean Noon

As an artist and a farmer, I have been gifted with a particular opportunity to observe and experience the drama of our natural and built environment through all our amazing seasons. For many years, I have documented these experiences and have accumulated thousands of photographs. Great photos involve personal encounters.

He is a true artist whose life is his material.

—Henry David Thoreau

 

Leeann Rhoades

Chores: Ironing after school every day was my daily encounter with chores. My dad needed carefully pressed shirts for work everyday. 

Dementia: There is an old tale that tells of leaves withering, and upon dying, turn into butterflies, transforming them into life again. Witnessing the slow, ambiguous loss of my mother through dementia taught me so much about the mysterious transformation of the mind and spirit.

Turkeys: I encounter turkeys as well as deer almost everyday as I travel around Mount Desert Island. The turkey strut always makes me chuckle.

Winter Picnic: A first time winter visit to my family’s summer cottage inspired me to engage in the summer ritual of lemonade, chips, and sandwiches at the picnic table. Why should it matter that there was three feet of snow? 

 

David Wade – The Heron and the Turtle

You know the parable about the rabbit and the tortoise, don’t you? Here’s a recent version of this classic encounter between two unlikely contenders.

The story unfolds in the middle of a half submerged log, where a turf war has broken out between two critters whose claim to the real estate is at best tenuous, one being more a creature of the air, and the other, a part time denizen of the deep. Neither one of them is fully a land animal, and that’s where the trouble starts. Meeting midway on the log, the turtle and the heron face off. The turtle, not a ninja type, but more the pond variety, is feeling ownership and convinced he has the right of way, and is telling the heron to buzz off. But the heron is hearing none of it. “Where does this little low life get off, mocking me,” thinks the heron, who has a very high opinion of himself.

What had at first appeared only a chance photo op is starting to turn into a heavyweight title fight for the universe, smack dab in the middle of the pond! A witness to this encounter, I began to reflect upon the place of these animals in the greater scheme of things . . .

The Heron in Greek mythology was believed to be a messenger from the gods. To the Chinese, it represented strength, purity and long life. The Turtle represented immortality in Chinese and Taoist philosophy. It also loomed large in the “Creation Story” in native American lore, where it was believed the turtle was the creature who dove deep into the primeval waters to bring back mud from which Mother Earth was first formed. To the First People, the turtle is the keeper of the land, and represents healing and wisdom.

There’s an old tribal tale about how the heron and the hummingbird raced for possession of all the fish in the rivers and lakes. The story goes that they agreed to race for four days. Whoever landed first on a big dead tree on the bank of the river on the fourth, would own rights to all the fish in the water. The heron flew slowly but never stopped.The speedy little hummingbird would zip ahead but would stop to taste the flowers and sleep at night, when the night-flying Heron would pass him again. The race went on for three days and nights, and on the fourth day, the hummingbird arrived to find the heron already standing there on the dead tree, the winner of the rights to all the fish and water. Ever since, the hummingbird does not drink the water and eats only nectar while the heron feasts on fish.

Two very different animals indeed. The heron is a cocky type, a show off and a dandy, given to preening his fine feathers and displaying his bright combed doo. The turtle is a bit of a stick in the mud, and doesn’t really give a hoot for fine threads. In fact, he wears the same outfit every single day. A quiet, reserved type, Mr. Turtle is not given to any outward display of emotion like the flighty heron, but plods on slow and steady . . .

Our two contenders remain at serious loggerheads. I can respect the heron for its patience and dignity, and the turtle for its determination and self dependence. Both of them seem to have a legitimate claim to their place on the log, and I would hate to see any losers. If somehow they could only arrive at an amicable solution and find the middle road to resolve this impasse…

Even in the animal kingdom, it seems, a little flattery can get you somewhere, so I reminded each of them of their fabled past, the heron’s soaring triumph over the hummingbird, and the tortoise’s legendary victory over the hare. And sure enough, with their egos massaged, soon they were both basking in their fame. And so, with the turtle and the heron both declared winners, calm was restored upon the waters, and peace once more prevailed in the kingdom of the pond.

 

Betsey Foster

Maybe the most profound encounter many of us have is encountering the child we have born. Sometimes it is a joy. Sometimes it is a terror. Oftentimes it is something between these two extremes, and, hopefully, it settles into some sort of peaceful resolution. These four watercolors represent the stages of this encounter over the years. I am submitting these either as a series or as individual pieces.

I am an artist living in western Maine. While most of my work is about the world of nature, I occasionally use my art to explore my relationships with other humans. This is about my relationship with my daughter.

I have been painting watercolors for about twenty years. It is the interaction of water and pigment that intrigues me. About eight years ago, I began exploring encaustics. This allows me to explore the interaction of pigment and fire. I have found that some subject matter lends itself to encaustic while other subjects are more suited to watercolors. Human relationships/encounters seem to want the fluidity of watercolors.