If you’ve never had your portrait painted, you should. It is one of life’s enduring pleasures. I sat for a student at the old Portland School of Art back in the 1970s and, looking at the portrait today, I can still recall – and feel – how relaxing and soothing it was to have the […]
portland
Maine
Portland, ME, Weekend
Portland is a mix of things. It’s old and new; gritty and chic; polished and weathered: identities, all of them, that combine to give this city a flavor all its own. And although its working flavor remains, the Old Port has also been creatively re-imagined as a tourist hotspot, where you can pick up an […]
He was lionized as the first man to reach the North Pole on April 6, 1909, then later accused of “the biggest lie of the 20th century.” Still today, Robert E. Peary remains an enigmatic hero. This Yankee Classic was originally published in April, 1989. At high tide Eagle Island is 17 acres of rocks and trees […]
Living
Art “Associated” With Maine
The nature and character of a juried exhibition is in part a function of the artists who submit and in part a reflection of the tastes and judgments of the jurors. The 2009 Portland Museum of Art Biennial (April 8 to June 7)looks to be mostly a matter of the latter. From the 970 artists […]
The vast majority of artists are never able to make a living from their art, and the fate of even those who do is typically to slip into obscurity after death. If they were any good at all, their work may enjoy a second life on the antique and auction market 50, 75, 100 years […]
When I drove down to the Elizabeth Moss Gallery in the Falmouth, Maine, Shopping Center, the show I expected to see was not there. I was expecting photographs and all I found were paintings and picture frames. Turns out A Picture’s Worth, the photo show I was looking for, was hung in temporary space less […]
Yankee
Nicole Duennebier is NEW/NOW
Remember the name, Nicole Duennebier. Back in 1990, I published a book entitled Maine Art Now, a survey of contemporary art in Maine in the form of reviews, essays, and profiles. A decade later, in February of 2000, I wrote an article in Maine Times updating the book with profiles of nine artists who emerged […]
Yankee
Art as Invention and Play
Last week, in reporting on the Boston Art Awards, I noted that “When the market is bad and the money is gone, the pressure is off and artists can make art for all the right reasons – to discover what’s meaningful to them, to express what it means to be human.” I can think of […]
Yankee
Boston Art Awards and Beyond
Almost one year ago, in my March 6, 2008 posting, I called your attention to Greg Cook and his indispensable website, New England Journal of Aesthetic Research. NEJAR is probably the best regional art site in the country, so I was flattered when Cook invited me to submit nominations and to vote on the just-released […]
Magazine
Poetry of Claire Hersom
Anadama Bread Winter was the worst. The farm windows iced inside, wind howled down off the upper field; through the gauze curtains it kissed our foreheads, noses buried in featherbed crazy-quilts. Wooden spindle framed our heads. It was too cold for ceiling mice. We always had to pee just before dawn. When the […]
Dorothy Eisner (1906-1984) was a thoroughly modernist painter who worked her way through most of the artistic trends of the 20th century from the Ashcan School and Social Realism to Abstract Expressionism. Her mature work, however, took the form of a rather Matisse-like application of painterly expressionism, very loose, free, and colorful, to paintings of […]
I once read in a guidebook: “Of all the natural regions of the United States, New England is the smallest, the most compact and convenient to get around in, the most homogeneous… ” For four decades now, I’ve lived and worked in New England, the land from which America evolved. There are few nooks and […]