I like to joke that I found freedom in Maine. And in a way, it’s true. Recently, I traveled up the coast to the small town of Freedom for a much-needed weekend away. While there, I was delighted to find not just the peaceful, bucolic scenery I had been craving but also a region bursting with local flavor — from lobster shacks, farm-to-table restaurants and an Amish charcuterie to open studios, galleries and off the beaten path museums. Though summer is nearly over, the foliage will soon be blazing, and there is plenty of time to visit Midcoast Maine before winter. Local Color Gallery and Local Foods // Belfast, ME Belfast, at the mouth of the Passagassawakeag River, has a bustling arts scene for such a small city. Many artists live and work in the region, displaying their work in Belfast’s many galleries, and the city hosts a monthly Fourth Friday Art Walk. Finch Gallery, Belfast … [Read more...] about MIDCOAST MAINE: LOCAL COLOR AND FOODS AWAIT FALL ADVENTURERS
Current Issue
LIFE’S DECISIVE MOMENTS: MALEK CELEBRATES PEOPLE AT WORK
Photographer Tad Malek knows a bit about patience. With a background in color landscape photography, Malek has spent full days immersed in natural surroundings, waiting for the perfect still. Malek’s current exhibition, “People at Work and Other Environmental Portraits,” on view at Springfield Museums, marks a departure from the restraint of waiting for that consummate shot into the realm of portraiture in the moment, with all its alluring fallibility and epiphanic fulfillment. Choosing almost exclusively black-and-white images for “People at Work and Other Environmental Portraits,” Malek has deliberately shifted media to capture the rich textures and nuanced variations within each piece. Sharp exposure delineates the finest detail, whether it be the lines along the walkway of the “Brooklyn Bridge Lady in the Shade,” 2008; the sculpted musculature of a male bather in “Rio de Janeiro … [Read more...] about LIFE’S DECISIVE MOMENTS: MALEK CELEBRATES PEOPLE AT WORK
ESKIN AT GALATEA: FINDING ABSTRACT LANDING SPACE
Barbara Eskin professes to chart disasters without a leg to stand on — multiple disasters, pieces flying everywhere. Before you think about her person — “What a pessimist!” and about her art: “What a downer!” — listen to some history. Eskin was born in Germany during the waning years of the Second World War. She was taken out of Germany by her parents when still a toddler, and then before she came to America, 20-some years ago, she was a resident of multiple European countries where she picked up a taste for languages and literature. A teacher by vocation and a canny European by upbringing, she has strong opinions which rarely veer towards the dogmatic, and, if they do, find little landing place. I’m looking at “In Pieces (4)” — a dynamo of vectors strong enough to bend its frame — yet all within a boundary of 24 x 30 inches. Perhaps boundaries are as good a concept as any to … [Read more...] about ESKIN AT GALATEA: FINDING ABSTRACT LANDING SPACE
DISAPPEARING IN PLEIN AIR: HUNTER GOES BETWEEN MEMORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY
Ask folks who know Vermont artist Charlie Hunter’s work to describe it and you might hear words like “ethereal and mysterious,” “straightforward and real” and “highly evocative.” Ask them to describe the man, and they are likely to say “funny,” “smart,” “sensitive” and “thoughtful.” They would all be right. Hunter, who lives in the small town of Bellows Falls, once a mill town, on the banks of the Connecticut River dividing Vermont and New Hampshire, works in a sprawling studio housed in an old paper mill. A visit there reveals how labor intensive his work is and reveals his creative and philosophical approach to his work. “I’m fascinated with how each viewer brings their life, memories and associations to a painting or work of art,” Hunter said. “I try to create a resonance that conspires to exist between memory and photography. By mimicking old photographic techniques, I can … [Read more...] about DISAPPEARING IN PLEIN AIR: HUNTER GOES BETWEEN MEMORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY
ART IN THE ORCHARD: A BIENNIAL SCULPTURE HARVEST AT PARK HILL
Alane Hartley and Russell Braen, owners of Park Hill Orchard in Easthampton, Massachusetts, harmoniously blend into a single vision — their commitment to land conservation, sustainable farming, culture and community. While September through October are peak months for visitors of all ages to come to the 127-acre pick-your-own orchard, there also is the added treat of seeing the Art in the Orchard biennial (AIO 2019), which continues through November 24. There is no admission fee to enjoy this exhibition. The orchard has lots of picnic tables throughout its property to sit, take a break, relax, eat and perhaps discuss the art around you with friends and family. The rolling orchard landscape has exquisite views of Mount Tom from its Pioneer Valley location, precursor to the Berkshires for those traveling from the east. The town’s large network of mills almost rivals the scale of the … [Read more...] about ART IN THE ORCHARD: A BIENNIAL SCULPTURE HARVEST AT PARK HILL
LOVE LETTERS: MILLER WHITE COVERS YOU IN LOVE
Susan Danton, owner of Miller White Fine Arts on Cape Cod, said the exhibit “Love Letters,” that she originated and curated, was inspired by an 1846 letter from Gustave Flaubert to his lover, Louise Colet: “I will cover you with love when next I see you, with caresses, with ecstasy. I want to gorge you with all the joys of the flesh, so that you faint and die.” If you are wondering if there is a further French connection, no, she isn’t a descendant of the French revolutionary Georges Jacques Danton. Her stockbroker father changed their surname to Danton. Danton has multiple raisons d’êtres for the exhibit, calling it “an evocative inquiry into physical love, from gender to sex to sexual orientation.” Motivated in part by a “sociopolitical agenda,” to wit, the Me Too Movement, “Love Letters” is also an antidote to the hate we are seeing in our nation and “a way to provoke a discussion … [Read more...] about LOVE LETTERS: MILLER WHITE COVERS YOU IN LOVE