UMVA Midcoast presents ‘Waterworks’ at the Y
DAMARISCOTTA – The Midcoast Chapter of the Union of Maine Visual Artists presents “Waterways,” a dynamic curated collection of artworks celebrating water at the Central Lincoln County YMCA, 525 Main Street, Damariscotta, from July 17 to Sept 15. The artists’ reception is July 22 from 2-4 p.m. and is free and open to the public. Artists in this show include: Sett Balise, Chris Covert, Bernadette De Cesare, Jean Kigel, Linda Leach, Arlene Jurewicz Leighton, Sandy Olson, Linda Packard, Rachel Robbins, Liv Kristin Robinson, Emily Sabino, Marcia Sewell, Kathryn Shagas, Ann Tracy, and Leslie Woods.
The exhibit, juried by Matthew Barter of the Barter Art House Gallery, includes representational waterscapes with a twist; fantasy marine creatures; crashing waves, prayers for rain, buried treasure, ghosts and more. This show will delight art lovers, nature enthusiasts, and daydreamers who wonder what lies at the bottom of the ocean.
For Rachel Robbins, while she hopes to beautify the world around her, she also attempts, with her artwork, to help increase understanding about the neurodiverse community. Specifically Robbins wants to raise awareness about epilepsy, as this medical condition plays a role in all she does.
Gestural and non-objective, Linda Packard’s work is subconsciously but strongly informed by her years as a plein-air landscape painter. She continues to be drawn to the same organic shapes and marks, rich textures, and earthy palette. Embracing the physicality of oil paint, Packard finds excitement in the way it behaves with a wide variety of mark-making tools and different surfaces.
Although it’s been many decades since Ann Tracy performed as a modern dancer, she loves shooting dancers in the wild and on the stage. In addition to visual art and photography, she weaves her interest in quantum string theory, specifically the concept of other shadow dimensions operating alongside our four dimensions, into her artwork. Tracy also wonders how AI – artificial intelligence – factors into all this. She’s long been interested in fractals and digital art and is now adding bits of AI generated images to her “digital alchemy” collage work.
After Marcia Sewell’s many years of illustrating children’s books, she turned to painting in 2000. She is interested in the meeting/melding of the abstract into representational subject matter…how a red square can be a barn and at the same time a red square, the cove a horizontal blue-black shape and yet a cove. Sewell finds her own art moving more and more toward abstraction, as an exploration of her own perceptual sensibilities.
For years Leslie Woods painted sports focusing on the geometry of bodies and actions. Then her husband died and, after a few stymied years, she is finding her voice with a new direction. “Edible Islands” was painted for fun and as a guessing game.
As soon as she gets to a forest or shoreline, Kathryn Shagas feels different — calmer, happier and part of worlds humming with life. From the point of view of physics, everything in our universe is vibrating at various frequencies, including rocks, trees and objects that appear stationary. Yet, within these connections, the delicate balance of rhythms that we depend on for life is now threatened by an approaching tipping point in climate change. Drawing from my early training in music and this interplay between equilibrium and chaos, my paintings are a visual interpretation of the world in continuous motion at a time when there is still an option to choose connection and renewal.
Over many summers Arlene Jurewicz Leighton’s mornings begin with a swim at Barrett’s Cove in Camden. One early morning, as the sun rose over the Camden Hills, a slight breeze rippled the water creating patterns of liquid sunlight. For over 50 years l have been ‘feeling the light’ with many imaging systems. It’s a time to ‘breathe an image into existence’ be it with a camera, a laser or an iPhone.
Jean Kigel finds inspiration in subjects from eclectic sources most notably the Mid-coast Maine environment and world travels. She paints with energy and passion, seeking a poetic response to the world. We have a few short moments of influence on this earth; for many reasons to me it seems critical that my art serve to preserve our environment, if by nothing more than creating portraits of the earth’s natural wonders.
For as long as she can remember, Liv Kristin Robinson has been fascinated- perhaps even a bit obsessed by water—of all shapes and sizes. my trajectory as a photographer was the direct result of sailing to Block Island in the summer of 1982 and capturing on black & white film the Bath House there (the store had run out of color slide film) and subsequently learning how to develop my own black & white, silver prints and then hand painting them once they dried. Since 1986, when I moved from New York City to Maine, I have been mostly drawn to Maine’s ever changing and captivating coastline and communities. It took a little longer to fully appreciate the unmanaged, chaotic beauty of swamps and other wild water habitats one may find in some of the more remote areas away from the coast.
She loves living near water, surrounded by trees and hills. So when Emily Sabino traced her arms for this particular painting, she was thinking about how veins and arteries are the human version of rivers and waterways. Her work has been exhibited at Waterfall Arts in Belfast; River Arts in Damariscotta, Maine Art Gallery in Wiscasset, and Kerr Jones Gallery in East Boothbay.
Sett Balise is a self-taught artist influenced by the Hudson River School and its luminism movement. His focus is capturing atmosphere and light in paint, and he hopes to convey the feelings of the moments depicted.
Bernadette De Cesare weaves symbolic imagery and mystical connections throughout her work. They emerge from a form of daydreams, which result from simple to complex patterns that include images of deep-felt stories. Color is a powerful element which aids in representing her personal style. They reflect her ever-changing choices where, as she says, the realm of the subconscious is part of the journey for this self-described visionary artist and storyteller. Her mediums were mostly in oil and acrylic until about a decade ago. De Cesare’s discovery of the soft pastel medium has given her an extraordinary selection of colors seen throughout her work. Over the past few years, the acrylic medium has returned with a passion.
After a long hiatus full of life and explorations, Sandy Olson started painting again a few years ago. At first she wooed her path of twenty years ago and that failed to catch. Then she ran from it, seeking higher ground, addressing the vast issues of our times.
Chris Covert’s work originates in quick mark making, progresses through random color application in forms generated by the intersection of those lines, is subjected to intuitive and thoughtful examination of possibilities, and is ultimately refined by careful editing and adjustment. I am often surprised by what occurs to me during the process and pleased by the results.