U•M•V•A UNION OF MAINE VISUAL ARTISTS NEWSLETTER
Volume 33, No.12
We want this news letter to reach all Maine artists. Can you please help by forwarding this to every artist you know? This is one way we will be able to strengthen our collective voice, mount exciting exhibits, attract new members, and more. We would like to send this out (free) for at least the first few months to anybody who emails us that they would like to receive it, so please let us know.
www.umvaonline.org
January 2014
Welcome All Artists The UMVA has been around for almost 40 years! We have been an important voice of artists. In the beginning we helped introduce a percent for art program in the state, opposed jury fees, and most importantly brought artists together. For many years at monthly gatherings throughout the state we have met to share our work, renew our energies, plot, plan, laugh, rage and learn. Over the years we mounted exhibitions about homelessness, racism, the Ghost Dance, the New World Order, transformed swords into plowshares, and many more shows, featuring the work of our members and others. Some of us spent time in Lubec giving it an art infusion.
UMVA members, past, present and future, be sure to check out our new and revised newsletter! More recently we rallied support for the labor mural and held Drawa-thons for the Bring Our War $$ Home campaign. Currently ARRT! (Artists’ Rapid Response Team) is meeting monthly to make banners/ props/videos/posters for activist non-profit groups in Maine, while the Maine Masters Project continues to make award-winning video documentaries about Maine artists. And Rob Shetterly, UMVA President, paints, writes, speaks, and tours his important Americans Who Tell the Truth portrait series which informs, inspires and empowers action throughout the country.
Thank you for your help and possible future participation in the Union of Maine Visual Artists exhibits, newsletter, and other activities. Parabellum
Kenny Cole
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Beginning Anew Much gratitude and thanks is due
to Kathleen Galligan for her 15 years of wonderful work as UMVA newsletter editor. Kathleen always kept us informed and presented opportunities for our growth and connections to each other. She spread the news whenever we asked to get the word out. She was the vital voice, the heart of UMVA. We will miss her greatly. We hope she will occasionally send the newsletter images of her beautiful paintings and pastels to reproduce.
january 2014 A Happy Landing I’m feeling both pleased and excited to take on the editorship of the UMVA newsletter! I’m a painter in Westbrook, Maine this after a 20-year career in graphic design and moving to Maine - whoa! - another 17 years ago now.
Welcome to new editor, Mary Brooking. We look forward to working with her, to the changes she will make, to the opportunities she will present us. We are very grateful for her willingness to take on this challenge.
Since this is the first edition under a new
editor, we wanted to take the opportunity to reach more Maine artists and to solicit your participation in newsletters to come. We are excited about some new directions for the newsletter as we envision it becoming a vital source for information and opinions that link Maine artists with each other and the art world. We hope some of you will become new readers and contributors to the newsletter and new members of the UMVA. We want your reviews, photos of your work, rants, interviews, critiques, new discoveries we should all know about, guest columns, articles, information about you, proposals, critiques, links to your blogs, ideas for exhibits, and of course, your other creative ideas that we can’t even imagine!
The UMVA and its newsletter are the best ways we know of to connect all the art communities of Maine. We are grassroots and we are active. We fear no art. So far Kenny Cole, Abby Shahn, Harold Garde, Stephen Petroff, ARRT! (Artists’ Rapid Response Team),. Alan Crichton, and Rob Shetterly have agreed to provide monthly columns or contributions. Richard Kane of Maine Masters will provide photos and links to videos. Geoff Leighton and continued on page 3
Alight
Mary Brooking
With the editorial committee, I will be instituting some changes in format in order to reach more Maine artists. You can no doubt see some changes to the newsletter already. Have no fear, we will leave no member behind in our zeal to expand our editorial horizons. As a member, you may submit ads, editorial content and ideas to me at mary.brooking@gmail.com. Please preface your subject line with “UMVA”. I look forward to hearing from you. To see more of my work please visit me at www.MaryBrooking.com . ~Mary Brooking
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BEGINNING, continued from page 2 Anita Clearfield will contribute a video column, art/ poetry/ personal essay in images and sounds. Would you like to be in charge of a rant corner or do monthly interviews, write a column, serve on the editorial board, or something else?
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It’s time to grow the UMVA to continue to be an important voice, resource and support system for Maine artists. We hope you will join us.
Sincerely, Rob Shetterly, Natasha Mayers, Nora Tryon, Anita Clearfield, Richard Kane, Abby Shahn, Kenny Cole, Stephen Petroff, Alan Crichton
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Rememberings
Random Thoughts by Abby Shahn
I remember going to those first
UMVA meetings with Carlo as the “secretary general”… I remember thinking that the best part was going out for a beer after the meetings. What I valued more than anything, and what I still value the most, was the friendships. Artists need each other…we need the kindred spirits…we need to see other art… we need to see people who are engaged in the same outlandish activity… …making marks on the wall…staring at them and then adding to them… I’m remembering a time when I lived in NYC when I was actually making a living selling art. There was a small gallery in Greenwich Village that handled my work. What I remember was how terribly sad it sometimes seemed. There was a disjuncture between what I felt as I was making the art and it’s final destiny as “mere” merchandise. Versions of that feeling have continued to crop up in many forms. I would visit friends in their studios and look at
and love their work. Then I would see the same work shown in some fancy gallery or even in the Whitney Annual and find that I cared less about it. It was almost as if the venue in which it was shown had sucked the lifeblood from it. The pure white walls, the blond wood floors, the space between the works, the perfect lighting; all began to seem like clichés of art installation to me. Sometimes, even now, I go into a museum and have trouble seeing beyond the “row of rectangles”. I assume that this feeling motivated many artists to move beyond painting into installations and performances and to say that, “painting is dead”. But I still love painting. It is such an ancient and deeply human activity that it seems shallow and short sighted to dismiss it. So, instead, I would pose a problem for us to think about. How can the excitement and energy of the studio be made public? I think murals. I think graffiti. I’m looking for feedback here.
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... This App Is So Cool!
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by Robert Shetterly from his Americans Who Tell the Truth blog, 25 September 2013
A few days ago
I was standing in line waiting for a teller at my community bank and a friend came in. He is a regular at my weekly drawing group. Getting in line behind me he said, “I’m embarrassed to show you this, but you may be amused.” He pulled out a new, large screened, cell phone and said, “This app is so amazing. I can take a picture of anything and it can instantly turn it into a pencil drawing, a pen & ink, a pastel, a watercolor, an oil, a picture on any kind of paper (even wrinkled!), a negative… on and on.” I’m not sure I remember now how many “artistic” variations on a theme his phone app could play, but he was right to be embarrassed to show it to me. I was, however, polite and suitably awed at the technology. As my sweet grandmother used to say, “What will they think of next!” Later, I tried to understand why I was so disturbed by this amazing app. The technology is impressive, but that’s the not the point. It’s the intention of the technology and its result that are bothersome. Here’s a device whose “artistic” application subverts the function of art. The entire function of art -- at whatever level of ability -- is to enable a person to discover a personal voice, an idiosyncratic way of seeing, thinking, feeling, reacting, being that could only come from you. Now, with this app, I can make art by choosing from ten (wow!) predetermined responses. Professional looking responses! How cool! I don’t need to struggle to learn how to draw anymore. So what if my artistic personality is reduced to ten choices derived from the software of some IT whiz kid, I made the choice didn’t I? And I
chose what to photograph. So what if the difference between you and me is now the fact that you chose the pen & ink and I chose the pastel on wrinkled paper. Those are differences, aren’t they? It’s interesting that as teachers of social justice, celebrating diversity and civil rights, we constantly rail about the pernicious effect of stereotyping, reducing a person to a short list of negative characteristics that remove the essential subtlety of the other’s humanity. And yet we buy seductive products and are suitably amazed when they reduce our own humanity. By stereotyping we seek to limit the unpredictable in others; with many such products we guarantee that we aren’t unpredictable either. The process of art, of any real learning, is profound because it is unpredictable. One never knows what nuances of idea and feeling will be discovered, how you will come to know yourself differently. The technology of the art app robs one of the personal engagement with seeing, with experience, with the struggle to coordinate hand and eye, with learning, with achievement, with self-discovery. It’s about arriving at a pre-determined destination without taking the journey. Why not an app that writes a poem for you? You give it a couple of theme words -- say, sad and lonely -- and it writes the poem so you don’t have to work out for yourself exactly why you are feeling that way, or discover the metaphors that describe how you feel. Instead of feeling sad and lonely in your unique way, you feel sad and lonely continued on page 5
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SO COOL, continued in the way a programmer at Microsoft thinks you might -- and millions of other people, too. What’s really scary is the acceptance of those mass produced feelings as our own. Every art work is a kind of autobiography. It captures the combination of skill and perception available to you at that time. And the journey from beginning to end is never predictable. It’s an honest mirror. I have never begun and ended a drawing or painting as the same person. The point of this little jeremiad about a new technology app is this: Education must embrace a host of interrelated goals. One is the teaching of skills -- everything from reading to computer technology. Another is citizenship -- the political health of our society depends on good citizens and knowing their obligation to be involved. A third is an understanding of our reality as one species amongst many on this planet and that our health depends on the health of all the others. We call this the teaching of reality. A fourth is teaching true history so we know
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who we are as a community and a society. Another is teaching culture, the study of our best ideas and feelings and beliefs. There’s another educational goal however that the true success of the other goals depends on. And that is helping young people discover who they are as individuals. And perhaps the best way to do this is through the arts -- poetry, music, visual art, drama, fiction. The reason is simple. To succeed with an art at whatever level one has to discover an authentic voice, a way of expression that is one’s own. An identity. The reason why this is so important is that people who don’t know themselves don’t make good citizens. They are easily manipulated by slogans and propaganda and cool apps to live lives that serve other people’s interests & for other people’s profits. People who don’t know themselves do not understand how their unique gifts can be used to shape a history of sustainability and peace. People who don’t know themselves cut the arts funding in our schools because they think the arts inconsequential for competing in the global economy. People who don’t know themselves think art is an app on a cell phone.
Prose Chunks
Reacquaintance by Stephen Petroff
When I was first told that Painting is
the chunks will be informational, uninformed, inspirational, and disappointing. I picture myself Dead, I thought, “Saying that to a person like me is standing on a high place, seeing far, understanding as effective as telling it to a two year old child.” nothing of what I see. This approach could contain If the child has just been given a large box of crayaccuracies. Or, with luck, something better, if readons, the news about painting’s death will truly fall on ers will allow its development. deaf ears. The great hope, as always in the UMVA, is that If a second childhood is possible, I feel that I have newer, younger people will be attracted, and old regained a great many of the character flaws of my members will be refreshed and inspired to reengage. younger days. I’m revisiting certain periods of my We have had a number of reunions, renewals and “career” (my “Red” period , my “Blue” period.) rebirths, and another of those seasons is beginning. I would like to write a monthly series of articles for It’s probably more than 20 years since I wrote for the the revivified UMVA newsletter. For the moment, UMVA. I’d like to reintroduce myself this month, I’m calling it “Prose Chunks” because I’ve always with short “chunks” that may indicate my approach included such prose sections in my poetry and I continued on page 6 want to write heart to heart, as in my poetry. I hope
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REACQUAINTANCE, continued and subject matter. “Prose Chunks” may be paragraphs from notebooks, lines from poems, or independent sentences. I expect that future writing will be more of a piece, than this month’s. When our Glorious Founder first asked me to take part in his Artists Union, it was to be restricted to my home area: Bowdoinham, Brunswick, and Topsham. Within three days, his dreams had grown to include the entire State. A Statewide Union made no sense to me. I was 23 years old and had had all the experience a person should need. And life drawing sessions, informal landscape- painting sessions, drinking sessions. :”Don’t you want to meet new people?” our future Secretary –General asked. I thought, “I don’t need any new friends,” I said. All the same, we went forward with it. Nearly forty years later, the bulk of my most beloved friends, with brightest eyes, widest smiles, and richest conversation, are the people introduced to me through the Union of Maine Visual Artists.
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They are my never- failing friends, and I weep now just to think of the pleasure I always feel when I see them. Unfortunately, my son (now aged thirty-one), who’s known these friends of mine, since his birth, tells me that he grew up disliking artists and poets. “They were always fighting and arguing,” he remembers. That didn’t sound right to me, so I asked some of the old-timers who are still in the area. “We never had fights…” they puzzled…”it just wasn’t our style.” Suddenly, I realized that there were a few of us who always grew excited at gatherings, who cried out, shouted, shouted, speechified, gestured wildly, while explaining their everyday lives. Carlo, Wally … (maybe even me?). And I realized, Yes, a three year-old boy might well think that we were angry, about to kill each other…in his teenage years, he knew them better---but the memories of his toddler period remained strong! Those friends who are still alive have not changed a bit and my children don’t fear them at all. Some members always felt that UMVA should help us all to “Make it.” It was the subject of many conversations, but no advice more detailed than “Play the game” comes to mind. Is it possible to get one’s work reviewed? Is it worth cultivating reviewers? The most interesting statement concerning reviewers, I heard from our Founder, who had his own problems with reviewers. “The least interesting reviewer is the one whose writing requires the reader to agree with it.” The founder said this about failing to “Make It”, while living in New York City during a great epidemic: “If I had Made It, when I WANTED to make it, when I thought I SHOULD be making it, I would be dead now. If I had become the hottest artist in New York, I would have taken every SINGLE opportunity to have sex---AIDS was just striking the City and I would UNDOUBTEDLY have been infected.” A pre-UMVA memory, from 1968: I was trying to convince a friend to write poetry for the rest of his life, when he finally said, “But you would write poetry if you were the last person on earth.”
Sour Owl For Janane
Alan Crichton
continued on page 7
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REACQUAINTANCE, continued He spoke as if giving me a prison sentence, but I accepted it as a ticket to Olympus in China. “Art Land.” This year I’ve reached the age at which my mother and Carlo Pittore died. I look forward to an Eternity of painting and poetry. (untitled poem) (I think of the magic of the Arts.) And I want to write a poem that Makes use of the most sacred lines from Songs by poets I love most. You’ll recognize them By their beauty, mixed amongst the lines
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That I have written. I’ll build a secret tower On those sacred lines, using my own words for Tile and Stone. When the spire is finished, we’ll climb the rungs to the open air at the top, Where we will see farther than art of mine Has ever let us see. Only with help, has my best work been done. One other night, upon a time, I followed you out to the doorway of my own home, From the farthest room, where you had found me. I waved to you and you went home, while A poem full of sacred borrowings might have Kept you in my house a moment more. Stephen Petroff
... Parabellum by Kenny Cole and Chris Crittenden
Statement by Kenny Cole...
I first met poet Chris Crittenden through the inaugural Lubec Arts Alive! Residency. Chris and his wife Shanna Wheelock, an artist who was the contact person/organizer for the 2009 event, live together in Lubec. This residency was a unique social event, organized by UMVA member Natasha Mayers, in which artists and public interacted over a week long period with the goal of increasing awareness of the cultural capital of the Lubec area in the
hopes of bringing some form of economic revival to this economically depressed area. Though I was unable to finance the whole weeklong residency, I was able to enjoy three or so days, which became for me a spectacular encounter. The opportunity to
create and socialize with artists all day, for several days was a transformative and an all too rare experience, giving me an invaluable moral and creative boost. Chris impressed me as a person who had deep moral convictions with regard to the ongoing state of militarization around the world and despite living in the eastern most town of the United States, far away from the large urban centers; he was an active protestor in his small community. For my current project: “Parabellum” (Prepare for War), which will be installed in the Zillman Gallery at the University of Maine Museum of art through March 22, 2014, I decided to reconnect with Chris and asked him to cull out any of his poems that address militarism, war and conflict for me to incorporate into a layer of this project. “Parabellum” is a collection of canvases that I have created, imagining myself to be an aging Civil continued on page 8
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PARABELLUM, continued War veteran/outsider artist at the turn of the century. I have further concocted this scenario to include the idea that my fictional persona had grown up and was friends with, the actual historical person of Hiram Maxim, the real life inventor of the automatic machine gun, who hailed from Sangerville, Maine. Thus the main thrust for this piece was to imagine how my fictional persona might react, as an artist, to his past war experiences while simultaneously considering a future world with ever evolving weapons technology. For me Chris’s poems and his deep moral convictions have added a depth to this project, which suffuse it with an intense undertone. I read each poem that I used with, on the one hand, an ear for its ability to match the turn of the century historically and its ability to express what my fictional persona might have been capable of feeling. I took much liberty
Statement by Chris Crittenden...
I first met Kenny as part of a UMVA-Lubec Arts Alive collaboration, which was jumpstarted by my wife Shanna Wheelock and Natasha Mayers. I was quickly intrigued and wrote about Kenny on my blog, Owl Who Laughs, speculating that he could be well considered a talented and unique poet as much as a utterly original artist (11/12/09). Kenny is a humble soul, and certainly didn’t need me to be part of Parabellum. I’m honored that he would think of me as a companion in protest, using art as an indictment of the Empire’ behavior. I hope what I said about him, in my reflection on Parabellum, applies somewhat to me as well: Kenny has already established himself as a ferocious and prolific voice. It is impossible not to feel the passion exude off his grotesque and subversive pieces. And you will be further stung because his theme is a continuous assault on the idiocy of war, greed
in allowing these translations to occur (One poem is titled “Hiroshima Shadow” for example) and in doing so felt that I created an important link or flow between current thought, the historical past and the open ended future. In all of this I have attempted to create many local connections to larger historical, social and political issues, conditions and state of affairs. and atrocity. If his work did not invoke the great specter of justice denied, it would still be indelible and momentous: but it does so invoke. Kenny overwhelms viewers’ resistance and thrusts them into emotional and philosophical turmoil. His canvases teem, riot, roil and foam. The pulse of his anger and outrage shrieks. To be in a room of Cole art is to be surrounded by an ethico-psychical typhoon. (OWL, 9/12/13) I go on in this blog entry to express that Parabellum, from my vantage, is Kenny’s most “prodigious and multifaceted work.” And that, though I have only a nebulous grasp of its ultimate nature, such amorphous understanding is wonderfully appropriate. It would be absurd to reduce and delineate Kenny’s work, just as it would be to offer a singular definition of some great idea like justice or love. The human mind leapfrogs back and forth in continued on page 9
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PARABELLUM, continued time, among many layers of (sub)consciousness. So does Parabellum. The fictional protagonist threading the art, Bans Revere, experiences the Civil war, goes insane from the horror, paints vigorous expressions of anguish, and then covers them up behind the walls of his home; and when those walls dilapidate, the trove of darkly ethical creativity reaches the
public. Kenny gives us worlds with worlds, achieving a phantasmagoric, jack-in-box effect, while exploring the mind of someone driven far out of sheepdom, into a madness of virtuosity. The culprit seems nothing more than an honest and sensitive look at the absurdity of war.
... Maine Masters News A series of documentaries of exceptional yet often less recognized Maine artists by Richard Kane and Rob Shetterly
2014 promises to be a most productive year for the Maine Masters series of documentaries on Maine artists with three films being released.
Two currently in production are about Jon Imber, the Stonington, ME and Somerville, MA painter and Ashley Bryan, the Islesford author/artist/illustrator. The third to be released in 2014 is about sculptor Cabot Lyford directed in collaboration with the Maine Masters series by Dale Schierholt and executive produced by gallerist June LaCombe. We also have expectations that we can raise $15,000+/to move our project on Yvonne Jacquette, the
Searsmont and NYC painter, closer to completion. A similar amount of funds are needed for the completion of our film on the jeweler and metal sculptor J. Fred Woell. We expect the Jon Imber film to premiere this Spring at a prominent film festival in Portland, ME and then shortly thereafter in Boston. It will be announced in this column as soon as we hear official word. The Imber film began in August 2012 when we learned of his diagnosis of ALS, a motor neuron degenerative condition also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. It started as a story about the life and art of one of the important artists of our time. But as it progressed it expanded to include how Jon brought a community together to celebrate life in the midst of his dying. It is a story about each one of us and the humor and courage upon which we can draw -- or newly discover -- to deal with our own mortality. It is a deeply moving story. Over the summer of 2012 Jon’s right arm began weakening. The diagnosis of ALS was shocking and tragic. In the film, we first encounter Jon and his partner Jill Hoy, also a highly-regarded painter, in their Somerville, MA studio while he is switching from painting with his right hand to painting with his left. Check our website for a video clip documenting this first attempt at left-handed painting. http://mainemasters. com/imber_film-in-progress.html Over continued on page 10
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MAINE MASTERS, continued the next few months, Imber loses strength in his only good arm, his left, but still persists and finds joy in painting, now holding the brush braced at his waist between his left and his right hands, moving the brush with his shoulders and hips. As the community rallies to support him, he supports them, painting over 100 portraits of people who drop by in the summer of 2013 to give him a back rub or to drop off a dish. The portraits opened at Haystack’s Center for Community Programs on November 17, 2013 and were exhibited through December 10, 2013. This is a story of two very different kinds of art -- one determined to find its place in art history, another determined to find love in community.
life that rarely have been discussed including his time during WWII as a Black soldier in an all-Black Army unit and the influence that the great cellist Pablo Casals had on him.
The Ashley Bryan project will also be one of the most compelling projects we will have created in large part because of Ashley’s prodigious artistic output, his popularity having written nearly 50 children’s books, and because of his loving and embracing personality. With the collaboration of Rob Shetterly, we are delving into areas about Ashley’s
-- Pablo Neruda
... Scramblings
... Social Net TV
Video essays by Anita Clearfield and Geoffrey Leighton I am nothing but the empty net which has gone on ahead of human eyes… In this video column, we explore the intersection of images and language. Visuals are worth a thousand words. Through language we hear the spaces. And together we can envision change. This month’s video: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=z2tQQ3Mz-Ik&feature=youtu.be
by Harold Garde
I don’t seem to be able to have one thought at
a time. Although I have too often scheduled things as if I could, I also don’t have the ability to be in two places at the same time. As much as I may wish it weren’t so, some part of me while I paint gets concerned with what I may do with the painting once it is finished. And ‘finished’ raises a whole series of other thoughts. What will I do with the painting? Where might I show it and what might I gain? First there is a sense of what the art scene is now and what may be ahead. Should we makers of art share our recent experiences with galleries and museums? We may also get into valid discussions about alternative exhibition spaces: where are they now, where may they be found, and do we wish to use them for exhibiting, marketing, or exhibiting and marketing. All of
that raises problems not only of location but also problems of art selection, presentation, personnel, pricing and costs. Then there is the internet. How can that serve our art community? It’s not my game, but that doesn’t negate its probable future usefulness for those who are already or those rapidly becoming savvy. And it may be time to imagine what will happen as art fairs proliferate. For Maine, I can imagine cArtCalais. All work delivered and displayed in a circle of carts. Or, very forthright, mArtPortland, negotiating and dealing with the art fair developers and what that may be like. It doesn’t end there. But back to the painting, and how do we (and we do!) find the time and the place and the dedication needed to make the stuff?
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... Artists’ Rapid Response Team (ARRT!) by Natasha Mayers
Note to readers: Half of the article was cut by mistake in the November UMVA newsletter, so this is an edited version of the original with some up-to-date information added.
The Artists’ Rapid Response Team
(ARRT!), a project of the Union of Maine Visual Artists, has been awarded a $10,000 grant from the Broad Reach Fund to continue creating positive social change in Maine through the arts. ARRT! has been working for more than a year to create issueoriented banners to promote the work of progressive non-profits throughout the state, to help them gain media attention, hold our public officials accountable, and shape public opinion. The grant allows ARRT! to continue its work and pay participating artists a stipend for their work. ARRT! meets monthly, usually in Brunswick, where Marji Greenhut has shared her magnificent space in the Fort Andross Mill. Often a dozen artists collaborate during a full day session, sharing their images, text ideas and concepts;
critiquing and distilling graphic design, and working together. At the end of the day, after sharing ideas, food, skills and passion, their completed banners provide a sense of wonder and the great satisfaction of knowing that their work will be immediately put to good use and shared by groups doing important work in the state of Maine. ARRT! has painted about 55 banners for demonstrations, rallies, press conferences, and town meetings, and has constructed puppets and art objects to enhance parades and marches.
“A visual message is vital for communicating a group’s message,” states Anita Clearfield. “The press appreciates this interesting focus, and the public gets involved with the emotion or sense of humor in the imagery we create. As artists we have ways to capture and captivate people’s attention that are creative and non-threatening. We can make ideas visible.” “I am feeling elated about how ARRT! has expanded the voices of Maine’s communities,” states member Nora Tryon. “We have provided a visual megaphone for so many important issues and the people who care about those issues.” ARRT! has worked with many groups, including Thanks but No Tanks, MaineAllCare, Alliance for
the Common Good, Maine 350, Maine People’s Alliance, Natural Resources Council of Maine, Stop the Corridor/ Friends of the Piscataquis Valley, Move to Amend, Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, Global Network, States United Against Gun Violence, March against Monsanto, National Alliance on Mental Illness, Southern Maine Workers’ Center, Defending Water for Life, and Community Water Justice. The most recent banners are about open pit metal mining, divesting from fossil fuels investments, continued on page 12
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ARRT!, continued the Medicaid expansion cuts, Preble Street’s Maine Hunger Initiative, and the Maine State Nurses’ Association’s Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street/ Health Care is a Human Right campaign.
Conboy, Ed McCartan, Kenny Cole, Robert Shetterly, Dianne Sinclair, Karen Wainberg, Heidi Brugger, Geoffrey Leighton, Brita Holmquist, and Natasha Mayers.
Anita Clearfield and Geoffrey Leighton have created an animation about Maine Fair Trade Campaign against the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) http://youtube/z2tQQ3Mz-Ik , and a documentary of the erasing of a giant machine gun drawn by Corliss Chastain for Maine Citizens Against Handgun Violence. http://youtube/WPyf-1rekOs
For more information about the Artists’ Rapid Response Network (ARRT!), and to see photos of all of the banners, please visit the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/ ARRT/142581872576727 or view a selection of banners at: http://www.flickr.com/ photos/111398043@N05/
Member ARRT!ists include: Nora Tryon, Anita Clearfield, Suzanna Lasker, Chris Higgins, Robin Brooks, Corliss Chastain, Brown Lethem, Doreen
To join us for the next banner-painting session on Sunday, January 5th, please call Natasha Mayers at 549-7516, or email at mayersnatasha@gmail.com
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UMVA Forum The following exchange among UMVA members kicks off our newsletter “FORUM.” This is a place where ideas and suggestions for the Union can be aired, where members can be surveyed for feedback, and new ideas can grow. This month’s FORUM raises the possibility of a proposed art exhibit that would answer the question “What art should be in the statehouse?” Let us know if you would be interested in submitting a piece for an exhibit sparked by this exchange - “Alternate Statehouse Art.” It could be on-line at the UMVA website, or if enough interest and volunteers, we can find an exhibit space and hang the work.
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Dear UMVA Politicos: As you may know, our dear Governor LePage has called for artists to rally forth to paint his portrait to hang in the State House. And the winning portrait gets $25,000. Pshew! A lot of money -- or nothing for all those others. However, I think we should REFUSE to participate. This governor has been so anti-artist, why should we lend our talents to promote his legacy. continued on page 13
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UMVA Forum, continued So we have come up with a contest for all those artists who REFUSE. It’s called Salon des Refuses, for those artists who Refuse to Participate in the Governor’s portrait painting contest. We will hold our own contest for the funniest, most politically pungent portrait of our famously anti-art, anti-labor, anti-peoples Governor. All ideas how to proceed with this contest are welcome!! Dick Kane
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...Richard -As a LePage hater and general trouble-maker, I like your idea! AND as a member of the union, I think we might want to consider a few things… 1) LePage isn’t commissioning the portrait -- it’s the state who does this for every sitting governor 2) As a union member I want to support artists receiving a living wage for their work (i.e. the person who does it deserves $25,000) 3) I’m uncomfortable making fun of people on a personal level (it also underlines the teaser’s impotence). so -- what about a contest to make alternate statehouse art? portraits or whatever genre about issues that SHOULD APPEAR in the state house? What should be addressed in the statehouse besides the glorification of a man who, as you say, is anti-art, anti-workers, anti-people of Maine? Thanks Anita Clearfield PS Actually, as an artist, what upset me most about the announcement was that the portrait has to be in the “same style” as previous portraits!
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...Yes, what should be up at the state house? Real landscapes of what Maine looks like, the beauty of coast and woods and the horror of oil tanks and pipelines. Photos of Maine’s crumbling infrastructure, portraits of families living in their cars and people living on the streets. Rob’s portraits of Americans Who Tell the Truth. Still-life’s of actual meals people eat from the lobster dinners to the spam and soft drink. OUR ARRT! BANNERS! Installations of shelters people rig up from cardboard boxes and crates to tarp tents... An exhibit that asks artists to respond to “What prevents Maine from being the Way Life Should Be?” Nora Tryon
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...I’d been thinking too about LePage portrait call. Needs an El Greco treatment to reveal his inner pathology. I like the general portrait show idea. How about a mural of LePage’s bullying tactics, gaffes, rudenesses, ruthlessnesses, cruelties and blusters a la Picasso with Franco. Alan Crichton
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UMVA News and Business
Westbrook Studio Possibilities by Mary Brooking
A few months ago, walking along Westbrook’s Main Street, I had an idea which I later shared with the City Development Director, Bill Baker.
CMCA congratulates architect Toshiko Mori on being named to the 2014 AD Top 100 List in Architecture and Interior Design.
Seeing many empty commercial rental spaces downtown, I asked him http://www.architecturaldigest.com/AD100/2014/ if some landlords might be interested toshiko-mori-architect-ad100-profile in entering an agreement with an artist or small startup business to rent space for less than the going rate. DVDs of This experiment might lead to more occupied spaces, and give a hand up to someone whose business might benefit from a visible downtown presence. Rents might be expected to rise along with the growth of the business. Baker liked the idea and floated it to area landlords., some of whom indicated they had downtown commercial space which they would be willing to rent to artists for less than the usual rent.
Maine Masters Update by Richard Kane
The Maine Masters Committee of the Union of Maine Visual Artists makes all decisions regarding the subjects of the series based on merit with no financial considerations. All recommendations should be directed to mainemasters1@gmail.com
The latest completed Maine Masters film is Joseph Fiore: The This is not a program administered Nature of the Artist. The World by anyone; but simply an opening for Premiere of this film was held at a conversation which could probthe Camden International Festival ably take place in many other Maine September 29th. towns and cities as well. Available spaces in Westbrook are all different sizes and shapes; some are large enough to share. You may email the following contacts dirrectly with your interest/questions:
Stephan Bamberger 45stephan@comcast.net James Para parallc@ yahoo.com Greg McKellar gmckellar@boulos.com Eric Higgins eric@lrhiggins.com
In conjunction with the premiere, an Exclusive Art Exhibit of Joseph Fiore’s work was on display at “Somewhere on Winter Street”, Rockland, ME. MaineMasters is moving forward on the production of the films of Ashley Bryan and Jon Imber, yet funds for distribution is currently being sought for both projects.
“Maine Masters” Available Kane-Lewis Productions www.mainemasters.com , mainemasters1@gmail.com 207-359 2320 The cost of each DVD is $20 for personal/home use; $60 for schools and libraries and $100 for large lnstitutions (colleges, universities, museums, State Library) with license for public performance, classroom use and loaning (tax and shipping additional). DVDs are available for purchase via PayPal and check. The series includes portraits of: Robert Hamilton, William Thon, Dahlov Ipcar, Alan Magee, Harold Garde, Olive Pierce, Clark Fitz-Gerald, and Lois Dodd, Stephen Pace, David Larson and now Beverly Hallam and David Driskell. Joe Fiore is soon to be released, expected in May 2013.
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UMVA News and Business, continued Art Supply Store Discounts
To receive discounts from art supply stores and framers, contact member Matt Stacey (matthew_ stacey@ymail.com) for a hidden link on www. umvaonline.org, where you can download a UMVA Membership Card to present at times of purchase. Reminder to Members Having a link on the website is a benefit of paid membership. To set up your FREE member Web page or to “upgrade” to multi-image pages, please visit: http://www.umvaonline.org/umvasubmit.html
New Membership Offer! For new and renewing members, we now offer a level of membership which includes your choice of one of Maine Masters excellent DVDs, for $45. For a list of the series, please visit www. mainemasters. com. Facebook Please visit us to check on postings and offer comments if you’d like. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Union-ofMaine-Visual-Artists/205101376185642
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Workshops and Classes Diane Bowie Zaitlin Workshops
The Sky is Not Blue acrylic painting course
High School January 13, 2014 University of Maine, Farmington January 5 : Encaustic Instructor - Mary Brooking. March 7, 2014 University of Re-invention Workshops are Mondays, January 27-March 3 Southern Maine, Portland from 10 am to 3 pm. in my studio (No class February 17). $120 for April 11, 2014 University of in Saco, Maine. Cost is $ 220 for 6-week course with all necessary a two-day session and includes supplies provided. Sessions 10am - Maine, Orono mainearts. most materials. Pre-registration noon; 1:30 - 3:30pm; and 7- 9pm: maine.gov/Pages/Education/ and deposit are required. choose one session and register at MAAI-Mega-Regionals# info@marybrooking.com. Adult Studio Classes For more information, UMA Drawing and at Gamble Education www.marybrooking.com Painting Classes at Center: the University College Intuitive Painting workshop with Center in Ellsworth 2013-14 Mega-Regional Elisa Hurley, Saturday, Jan. 18, Workshops Instructor - June Kellogg. 10am - 5pm Three college credits. Supportive All-day professional development Gelatin Plate Printmaking with teacher. Classes begin Jan 16. Call opportunities in arts education. Lois Anne, Saturday and Sunday, 800-696-2540 for registration and $20 per person. Five and a half Jan. 25 & 26, 9am - noon information. contact hours. All participants learn.maine.edu/ellsworth/ must pre-register. November 26, 2013 Ellsworth
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Calls for Art UMVA does not support or approve of requiring artists to pay juried fees. However, we will present those shows, along with others not requiring fees, in our Call for Art section. Stadler Gallery seeks work for 2014 & 2015 The Stadler Gallery, located on Maine St in Kingfield, Maine, is seeking contemporary artists to exhibit during the summer months of June through September, 2014. Larger works (2 & 3D works) in particular are well suited to this beautiful, open exhibition space. The gallery occupies the main floor of an old New England barn, therefore offers plenty of + as well as floor space. Please send slides, photos or disks to Stadler Gallery, P. O. Box 228, Kingfield, ME 04947; E-mail: stadlergallery@gmail.com. Website: www.stadlergallery.com; telephone: 265.5025. Still Point Art Gallery Still Point Art Gallery invites submissions for its upcoming online exhibition: LANDSCAPES BY DAY LANDSCAPES BY NIGHT. Please note: Artists may submit EITHER landscapes by day OR landscapes by night. It is not necessary to submit both day and night landscapes.
January 2, 2014 - Submissions Close (Deadline) January 25, 2014 - Notification of Artists March 1, 2014 - Still Point Arts Quarterly Spring Issue Released February 1 to April 30, 2014 - Featured Exhibition (Online)
Open to artists around the world 18 years of age or older who submit artwork in any medium except video and wearable art. Submissions must be the creation of the artist. Reproductions of original artwork are not permitted. There is an Entry Fee. For more information: http://www.stillpointartgallery.com/index. php?action=prospects UNE School of Social Work Arts Showcase The School of Social Work at UNE is curating an art showcase two times a year to reflect on the intersection of arts and social work. We are excited to build on the dialogue and practice of applied arts & social justice at UNE, and also continue developing connections with community organizations already doing this work. We are currently seeking submissions that can be hung on a wall and are related to the themes of immigration and sex trafficking. This may include, but is not limited to: • art that has come with immigrants new to the US • art that is being used for income generating • art being created for healing, post traumatic stress, etc. • art being done with groups and organizations in Maine to further their mission and presence • art taking the form of mission communication (info graphics, photos, etc) There is no monetary compensation for this, but the artists/organizations will be invited to: 1. Be recorded talking about your work, either alongside it or at an informal ‘brown bag lunch-and-learn’ during the semester. 2. Help write or inform the content that will be written and posted on the wall new to the work. 3. Include contact information for those who are interested in knowing more about your work, buying it, or volunteering for your organization. continued on page 17
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Calls for Art, continued Skidompha library exhibition opportunity Skidompha Library in Damariscotta encourages use of its Hall Gallery for exhibitions of art, photography, and crafts. The Library expects that exhibitions will respect the community’s values and therefore retains the right to refuse one or more pieces, and to request removal of pieces that the community finds objectionable. Area artists and craftsmen are invited to apply for a scheduled exhibition in the Library’s rear Hall Gallery. Three pieces representing the body of the exhibitor’s work must be brought in and shown to the Director at the time of application.
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Opportunities and Events Haystack Haystack is pleased to announce the summer 2014 lineup. In addition to our workshop programs, we will be offering the new two-week open studio residency, and a summer conference that will focus on ideas on making, materials, and the creative process. Opportunities in the Arts The Maine Arts Commission houses a wide range of opportunities for artists and people working for organizations in the cultural sector. Visit www.mainearts.com today
Interested artists should contact Pam Gormley pgormley@msln.net.
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Gallery Guide Art House Picture Frames
Bowdoin College Museum of Art
61 Pleasant Street, Portland, ME.Contact: Graham Wood: (207) 221-3443
9400 College Station, Brunswick, ME. Tues-Sat 10-5; Thurs til 8:30; Sun 1 - 5pm. 207-725-3275.
Atrium Art Gallery 51 Westminster St, Lewiston, ME. Mon-Fri 8-4:30
CMCA
Aucocisco Galleries
P.O. Box 147,162 Russell Ave, Rockport, ME. 207) 236-2875
89 Exchange Street, Portland, ME. 207.775.2222 Thurs – Sat, 9-5. Dec 3rd – 21 January 3rd - 18th Gallery 1: Lucinda Bliss Gallery 2: Lauren Fensterstock FFAW Artist Reception Friday, January 3rd January 21st – Febuary 1st Gallery 1: Harolde Garde & Rachael Eastman Gallery 2: Kathi Smith Artist Reception Friday, January 24th
Bates Museum of Art
Courthouse Gallery 6 Court Street, Ellsworth, Maine. 207.667.6611 Mon-Sat: 10-5:30, Sun: 12-4 (July and August)
Elizabeth Moss Gallery Falmouth Shopping Center, 251 US Route One, Falmouth, ME Hours: Tues. – Sat. 10-5 Just What You’ve Always Wanted Dec. 6 – Jan. 12
75 Russell St, Lewiston, ME. Mon-Sat: 10-5.
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Gallery Guide, continued Farnsworth Art Museum
Lyceum Gallery
16 Museum St, Rockland ME. Fall Hours: Tues-Sun, 10 am - 5 pm.
49 Lisbon Street, Lewiston, Me. Thur, Fri & Sat 11am - 2pm; Fri evening 5 - 8pm Pecha Kucha Night January 10, 6:20pm
Andrew Wyeth: Temperas and Watercolors Through Spring 2014 Andrew Wyeth: Her Room Through January 2014
Maine Fiberarts 13 Main Street, Topsham, ME. 207-721-0678
A Wondrous Journey: Jonathan Fisher and the Making of Scripture Animals Through January 5, 2014 First Friday Film: The Human Scale, Jan. 3, 8pm at the Strand Theater
MECA Porteous Building, 522 Congress St, Portland ME. Through February 20, 2014 FROM THE GROUND: ARCHITECTURE OF A FAMILY features paintings by Deborah A. Bates ‘83 (1938-2013). The exhibition will be on view in the Charles C. Thomas Gallery on the second floor of the Porteous building.
Maine Museum of Photographic Arts USM Glickman Library, 314 Forest Ave, Portland, ME, 5th Floor.
North Light Gallery 256 Penobscot Ave, Millinocket, ME; (207) 723-4414
Pearson Legacy gallery 13 Dow Rd., Deer Isle, 348-2535.
Perimeter Gallery Chase’s Daily, 96 Main Street in Belfast. 7-5, Tues- Sat, 8-2 on Sun. 338-0555. D.BowieZaitlin
Heart to Heart
Elizabeth Moss Gallery
Gleason Fine Art 545 Congress Street, Portland, ME 207-699-5599
Greenhut Galleries 146 Middle St, Portland ME. 772-2693. Mon-Fri 10-5:30, Sat 10-5.
Philippe Guillerm Gallery 882 Main St, Waldoboro, ME. Tues - Fri 11- 4. 207-701-9085. www.guillermsculptures.com Bold and playful work of the French-born artist, Philippe Guillerm. From melting violins to clarinets that charm, Guillerm knows how to bring out the playful attitudes of musical instruments.
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Gallery Guide, continued Portland Museum of Art
UMaine Museum of Art
Seven Congress Square, Portland. 775-6148. Tues, Wed, Sat & Sun,10-5; Thurs & Fri, 10-9.
40 Harlow St. Bangor, ME; Mon-Sat 10-5.
Biennial: Piece Work Amy Stacey Curtis: 9 walks Through January 5
Sachiko Akiyama: ON FINDING HOME Sachiko Akiyama creates figures that are carved primarily from wood and finished with beautifully painted surfaces.
RiverArts
Susan Burnstine & Lynn Saville: FROM THE SHADOWS Features works by Los Angeles-based Susan Burnstine and Manhattan-based Lynn Saville. In these black and white images, both photographers capture mostly urban landscapes heightened with a sense of mystery and drama.
Route 1, Damariscotta, ME. 563-1507. Tue – Sat, 10-4; Sun 12-4.
RiverTree Arts www.rivertreearts.org. Irvine Gallery and Artisan Market Open House Jan. 14-Feb. 2 Jazz Caffeine Cafe, Jan. 5, 11am.
Salt Exchange Restaurant and Art Gallery 245 Commercial St., Portland, ME. FMI: Janet Glatz 207 317 7952
Schoodic Arts For All Hammond Hall, Winter Harbor, ME. 207-963-2569 info@schoodicartsforall.org;
Stadler Gallery 225 Main Street, Kingfield, ME. 207-265-5025. Daily 12 - 4 pm and by appointment. www.stadlergallery.com. Showing work by: Joel LeVasseur and Clif Travers; also works by gallery artists Klaif, Pellerin and Westerlund; as well as Ulrike Stadler.
Tidemark Gallery 902 Main St, Waldoboro, ME. Wed-Sat 10-5
Disgracers 1 (After Goltzius) Phaethon: Saudi Women Drive Anita Clearfield
Gregory Kalliche: GPOY GPOY, which stands for Gratuitous Picture of Yourself, is Gregory Kalliche’s series exploring the idea of visual effects. Kalliche states “representations are ways we collectively depict and ultimately embody an anthropocentric nature.” Through January 4, 2014
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Classifieds Studio Rentals Studio for rent: approximately 700 sq. feet, can be shared or divided. 24 hour access includes all utilities, wi-fi, parking, trash removal, lots of light Please email info@waterfallarts.org to inquire about available studios.
Artists’ Studios 23 Harbor Road, Winter Harbor, Maine Space to work, to teach, to sell. Rent starting at $150 a month Schoodic Arts for All has rental space with public access for artists and creatives to work, teach, sell. The studios are conveniently situated at ground level with ample parking in downtown Winter Harbor, Maine.
UMVA COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Employment Opportunities at Maine Arts Commission The Maine Arts Commission has two employment opportunities you might be interested in. We have an opening for a Director of Operations and for a Director of Communication. The deadlines for applications are approaching fast. Full details are to be found on MaineArts.com.
Jay York 20 years of providing artists affordable professional photographic services.
Richard Kane, Maine Master’s Project Director 207.359.2320 mainemasters1@gmail.com Dorie Klein, Vice President dorieklein1@gmail.com Natasha Mayers, Lifetime Member 207.549.7516 Robert Shetterly, President 207.326.8459 robert.shetterly@gmail.com
Call 207/774.9600 and visit jayyork.biz
Matthew Stacey, Webmaster matthew_stacey@ymail.com
Contact Mary Laury, Executive Director, Schoodic Arts for All; marylaury@schoodicartsforall. org
207-963-2569 info@schoodicartsforall.org
Please contact Christa Cornell: christa.cornell@gmail.com
Mary Brooking, Editor mary.brooking@gmail.com
Dana Strout, Legal 207.236.0200 dfspcc@gmail.com
Studio Space
36” square and 15” off the ground; very solid, wheels easily, and is painted a muted green (although it has paint here and there on it). Asking $25. Located in Brunswick.
Jacqueline Bennett, Treasurer 207.644.8758 jskippy@roadr unner.com
Digital reproductions as low as $7 per piece.
Several different studio sizes and configurations are available. Large windows, high ceilings, plenty of light. Utilities included. Square footage ranges from 177 to 1000.
Model Stand for Sale
january
UMVA NEWSLETTER
FOR ARTISTS, INSTRUCTORS, AND GROUPS
Schoodic Arts for All has rental space with public access for artists to work and teach. The Combs Studio is conveniently situated at ground level in Prospect Harbor, Maine. THIS STUDIO IS EQUIPPED WITH TOOLS FOR YOUR USE. FOR POTTERY FIBER, PAINTING, DRAWING, JEWELRY AND MORE. FULLY EQUIPPED ARTIST STUDIO
Mary Brooking, Editor 75 Arlington Ave. Westbrook Maine 04092 207.854.5855 mary.brooking@gmail.com $25-40 annual subscription rate (sliding fee) Published monthly by: the Union of Maine Visual Artists, Inc EDITORIAL BOARD Nora Tryon, Anita Clearfield, and Natasha Mayers are the editorial board for the first issue. We expect to have a rotating editorial board for the different issues, as people volunteer.
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Time to Renew Your UMVA Membership for 2014 UNION OF MAINE VISUAL ARTISTS Join the Union today. Please send your contribution and completed membership form to: UMVA MEMBERSHIP Jacqueline Bennett, Treasurer PO Box 51 Walpole, ME 04573 207-644-8758 jskippy@roadrunner.com Memberships are renewable annually and are due each January.
*MaineMasters Special DVD $ 45 *Artist/Associate (sliding fee) $ 25 - 40 *Household $ 40 *Business or Patron $ 50 *Benefactor $100 *Corporate Founder $500
NAME ________________________________________ ADDRESS ____________________________________ CITY_________________________________________ STATE and ZIP_________________________________ PHONE _______________________________________ EMAIL ________________________________________ MEDIA________________________________________
PASS THIS NEWSLETTER ALONG TO A FRIEND CONTRIBUTIONS FOR PUBLICATION Please send articles and artwork by the 15th of the month preceding publication to: UMVA NEWSLETTER Mary Brooking, Editor 75 Arlington Ave Westbrook, ME 04092 207-854 5855 mary.brooking@gmail.com Published monthly by: the Union of Maine Visual Artists, Inc.
***** Contributions and memberships are tax deductible as allowed by law, under Section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code.