The Feathered Hand
Through the Lens of Eight Photographers
Previous page: Photograph by Peter Ralston This page: Photograph by Joanne Arnold
The Feathered Hand Through the Lens of Eight Photographers
photography by Joanne Arnold Kevin Callahan Monica Ann Dominak Alina Gallo Diane Hudson Deb Locke Peter Ralston Katarina Weslien
Photograph by Peter Ralston
This book is a heartfelt thank you to the friends who engaged
with the making of the Feathered Hand by spontaneously taking such wonderful photographs at every stage of the process. From the studio to the gallery, it was very touching that you recorded this piece through your unique lenses. There is no way we would have been able to document the variety of components in the piece without the impromptu participation of these wonderful photographers. There are eight sections in this book. Each section features the work of an individual contributing photographer. The sections are presented here in chronological order, highlighting the piece from the process of making the work in the studio, to transporting it and installing it in the gallery, to the opening and final exhibition. The Feathered Hand is a multimedia installation created by artist Alison Hildreth. The installation is based on her life long interest in puppets. In the piece, winged puppets are seen hanging through groups of lenses, which surround hand-blown glass vessels and tubes of various sizes, forming a twenty foot tall cylinder of elements suspended by glittering individual silver wires over a dark reflection pool. The Feathered Hand was on display in the Payson Gallery at the University of New England in Westbrook, Maine in 2011.
Joanne Arnold For me, photographing The Feathered Hand in Wooly’s studio was an experience of walking three dimensionally through one of her remarkable two-dimensional drawings. It was as if I were given access to a portal allowing a virtual tour of some new level opening from a deeply embedded place within her drawing. Labyrinths and mazes, compass bearings and lines of sight all pointing toward the characters of her imagining. Objects and subjects simultaneously taking flight and landing; being held; letting go. Words wound about themselves and held in sealed glass chalices repeating themselves over and over like a mantra, like an endless rumination of memory. It was as if I were permitted to wander through her private journal of images, objects, figures and baubles, winged and un-winged, all dancing their dance in space on the spider web of fishing line cast from somewhere above. And I, some spectator casting my eyes up, down and through her world feeling both as if under the sea and held in the sky. And, oh, were I to be a mouse, might I be blessed to discover Woolie’s studio and scramble table top to table top amidst thread and wire, paint and paper satiating my gluttonous appetite with leftover crumbs of fresh baked scones, cookies and the remnants of dark chocolate amidst the detritus of her makings. ~ J.A.
Composite photograph of the Feathered Hand in progress in Alison Hildreth’s studio.
Winged puppets for the Feathered Hand in progress in Alison Hildreth’s studio.
Elements of the Feathered Hand in progress on Alison Hildreth’s studio tables.
Joanne Arnold is a photographer
as well as a professional strength trainer exploring what strength really is. She is a Maine College of Art graduate, 1979, though she still thinks of it as Portland School of Art. She considers herself a lapsed artist doing her best to recover. Photography on Facebook.
Katarina Weslien
For the past 17 years we have wandered in and out of each other’s studios on the second floor of the Bakery building in Portland, Maine. Observing at close range the development of ideas, process and pacing. The pace changed a few years’ back as glass bats, bulbs, cylinders, lenses and puppet parts appeared and began being filled with bees, bugs, written text and organic matter–all suspended in the space above the intricate drawings of Alison Hildreth. The intimate workings turned to massive production, a solo practice to hands of collaborators. As the work multiplied, for me, it became the space of theater– back stage–where tools and intentions are crafted and refined to make the seamless complexity on stage possible. ~ K.W.
Alison Hildreth and Deborah Luhrs making puppet wings in the studio.
Irina Skornyakova and Alina Gallo sewing wings in tandem.
Katarina Weslien is an artist and educator
based in Portland, Maine. She is currently Director/Editor of the MFA Archive and Moth Press, Maine College of Art, Visiting Artist at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and faculty in their India; Study Abroad program. www.katarinaweslien.com
Alina Gallo From Alison’s first conception of the piece that would become the Feathered Hand to its completion and installation at the Payson Gallery, the clarity of her vision was staggering. That is the magic of a true artist. To shepherd a vision from an invisible realm and bring it to life for others to share in. ~ A.G.
Alison Hildreth collaging one of the multitude of puppet legs.
A moth inside a glass lens. In the background are dead bees from one of beekeeper Deborah Luhrs’ failed hives. These bees were placed inside several of the glass puppets.
Master glassblower, Ernie Paterno, at work in his Portland studio on the glass components of The Feathered Hand.
Ernie Paterno creating glass hands with a torch. On the opposite page he heats glass on a pipe in the furnace.
All the individual components are brought from the studio to the Payson Gallery at the University of New England. On the opposite page, a scissor lift is delivered and driven with great skill into the gallery.
Alison Hildreth positions one of the hundreds of individual elements and Ernie Paterno operates the scissor lift.
Alina Gallo is an artist and a graduate of the Maine College of Art (2008 MFA) where she first met Alison Hildreth. She has had the pleasure of being Alison’s studio assistant since 2009. Currently she lives and works in Portland, Maine. She was an artist in residence on Monhegan Island in 2011 and is a MacDowell Colony Fellow (2010). Her work has shown at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, the Center for Maine Contemporary Art (CMCA) and the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Portland. Alina’s work can be found in the permanent collection of the Nauossa Gallery, Ruth O. Cowell Sculpture Garden in Tyringham, Massachusetts. www.alinagallo.com
Peter Ralston When I first beheld the Feathered Hand I could scarcely breathe, I certainly couldn’t move for what seemed long minutes. The brilliance and passion of the vision literally riveted me, and then as I began to slowly circle, ascend and explore the great piece, I understood that I was truly in the presence of an exceptional work. I told Wooly that it moved me as have some of the great artworks I have seen in a lifetime in the arts. No toss -away line that, I absolutely meant it. There is absolutely nothing lightweight about it. It’s brilliant, it’s profound, it’s honest and it is incredibly beautiful. How I yearn to see it flown again...Maine will be a better place when Wooly’s masterwork is forever hung for all to relish and wonder. ~PMR
The Feathered Hand installed at the Payson Gallery at the University of England, Westbrook, Maine.
Peter
Ralston has photographed
the coast of Maine since 1978, drawn especially to the working communities that define coastal Maine’s character. His work has been seen in countless books and magazines, featured on network television and has been exhibited in galleries, collections and museums throughout the United States and abroad. Most recently his work was added to the permanent collections of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. In 2003 his photography as well as his role as cofounder of the Island Institute was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree at Colby College. He is a life-long friend of the Wyeth family and credits them with inspiring much of what his life has become.
Deb Locke
Deb Locke has a passion for travel
and for sharing her view of the world as seen and interpreted through the lens of her camera. Retired from a 35year career as a school library media specialist, with an advanced degree in Children’s Literature, she now divides her time between Maine and Provence, but will soon become a full-time RV gypsy. With husband Gary Vines she enjoys telemark skiing, bike touring, sea kayaking and many other ways of exploring the outdoors.
Diane Hudson
Eddie Fitzpatrick ascending the stairs to the second floor of the installation at the Payson Gallery.
Diane Hudson takes pictures wherever
she finds them as often as possible. This propensity had led to gratifying connections with the amazingly active and generous creative community throughout Maine. Represented by the Addison Woolley Gallery in Portland, she has appeared in numerous exhibits including: “My Chicago,” 2011 at Addison Woolley; “Photographing Maine: Ten Years Later,” at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, 2010; Maine Arts Commission Exhibit, State House, Augusta, 2009; and “On and Off the Midway,” Center for Maine Contemporary Art, 2009. www.dianehudsonphotography.vpweb.com
Monica Ann Dominak
Monica Ann Dominak grew up
in Northern Ohio and studied At Pratt Institute in NYC and at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen. After her studies she worked for Manhattan firms, producing designs for theatres, schools and corporate offices around the country. Now has her own company MDesigns in Falmouth Maine, she designs for residential, corporate, retail, restaurants, hospitality and consults with local Architects. Monica is also a passionate artist working in encaustics and oil; and photographer catching the moment and telling a story.
Kevin Callahan
Working with Wooly [Alison] was a creative and methodical process. It was wonderful to work in the environment of hanging objects and giant paper works of art. The show was experiential as much as it was a visual design. Wooly had a way of interacting with every one and getting them to work in a happy group together. ~K.C.
Puppet shadow cast on gallery wall inscription that reads in full: “To the artists of yesterday, today and tomorrow/ may your spirit forever be free.�
Kevin
Callahan
attended the Portland School of Art in the eighties, and has been a lifelong artist with an emphasis on drawing. He says, “As a professional museum art roadie I have seen hundreds of shows but none I liked as much as this one.� www.kimballstreetstudios.com
Photo by Monica Ann Dominak
Chosen By The Stars
It is not an angel it is a poet
he has no wings only a right hand covered by feathers he beats the air with his hand flies up three inches and immediately falls again When he has fallen all the way he kicks with his legs hangs for a moment waving his feathered hand Oh if he could break from the gravity of clay he would dwell in the stars’ nest he would leap from ray to ray he would--but at the thought they would be the earth for him the stars fall down in fright the poet shades his eyes with his feathered hand he no longer dreams of flight but of a fall that draws like lightning a profile of infinity Zbigniew Herbert
About the Artist Alison Hildreth began work on the
Feathered Hand in 2009. She has had a life long interest in puppets.
After graduating from Vassar College with a B.A. in Art History, Alison worked in New York and went to night school at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Art. After she moved to Maine and continued her studies in Studio Art graduating from the Maine College of Art in 1976. Since that time Alison has had several studios in Portland and now is located at the Bakery Studios at 61 Pleasant Street. Her practice includes mixed media drawing, painting, print making, and some installation work. Photograph by Alina Gallo
Photograph by Charles Hildreth
Copyright Š 2012 by Alison Hildreth. All rights reserved. The photographs of Joanne Arnold, Kevin Callahan, Monica Ann Dominak, Alina Gallo, Charles Hildreth, Diane Hudson, Deb Locke, Peter Ralston and Katarina Weslien are the property of the individual photographers Š 2012. Book Design: Alina Gallo Text: Alison Hildreth with Alina Gallo Front Cover: Photograph in studio by Alina Gallo Back Cover: Photograph by Alina Gallo Bakery Studios 61 Pleasant Street Portland, Maine