Oh, happy spring!

We’ve done it, we have a new space!

Annie Lebowitz, *Steve Martin*, 1982, Rolling Stone cover, 920 x 1108 in.

WE HAVE A NEW SATELLITE LOCATIOn, The MMPA Gallery is on 15 Middle street in Portland. WE WILL BE UNDER CONSTRUCTION FOR A WHILE BUT WE’RE BURSTING WITH EXCITEMENT OVER OUR NEW TURF. WE PROMISE TO SHARE MORE PARTICULARS AS THINGS PROGRESS. – Dir. Denise Froehlich

PLease see our submission guidlines.

Spring
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 -1950)

To what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of little leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know.
The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of the crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify?
Not only under ground are the brains of men
Eaten by maggots.
Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.
It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.

Chelsea Ellis

The process of making art can be such a personal thing. As I write this, I’m thinking about the basics of communication as it relates to art. It involves a sender — the artist — encoding a message through a channel (art), and a receiver — the art viewer — decoding the message from the channel or artwork. The process, medium, and message of the artist are often personal. The receiver’s interpretation of the message is different depending on who the viewer is, because the receiver/viewer’s method of decoding is just as personal as the artist’s process of making. The beautiful and mysterious experience of witnessing art is that the message received will never be exactly the message sent.

At the heart of my work is embodied human emotionality, especially relating to mental health and gender-based experiences. I move through this work intuitively, listening for how to build photographs that have the commanding presence of sculpture. What draws me most to photography is how unlimited it is, and its unique power to imply objective reality. — CE

“There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are.” – Ernst Haas

Barbara Peacock

MMPA revisits the on going American Bedroom Project

“Barbara’s project American Bedroom offers a composite portrait of the United States through unguarded portraits of Americans in the their bedrooms. The images, paired with pithy poetic quotes from each subject are full of subtle details that invite us to contemplate the idiosyncrasies of each enigmatic life. She reminds us that, in an era fife with hot-take, reductionist analyses of the American body politic, her fellow citizens really do contain multitudes.”
— Jay Davis - Getty Images

Barbara Peacock, Cai and Claire, ages 28 and 29, Bliss, Idaho, 2021

‘Dismantle and rebuild (the urge to destroy is a creative urge, a natural reset) build a home in

you, a home in me. Together home is always growing, always being redefined-dismantled,

and rebuilt. We see each other, we make space for each other. And here, we are always safe

inside”

American Bedroom is a cultural and anthropological study of Americans in their private dwelling: the bedroom. The nature of the project is unguarded portraits of individuals, couples and families that reveal the depth of their character, truth and spirit. The images are paired with poetic and pithy quotes from each subject and are full of subtle details that invite us to contemplate the idiosyncrasies of each enigmatic life. The scope of the project is the entire country.

— BP

Candace DiCarlo

Infinity Series

The images from the Infinity series were influenced by my readings of Carl Jung. Some of the images are portraits — which I liken to spiritual x-rays — of people I’ve known, while others are an attempt to describe in a broader sense some psychological state or common denominator of human experience. Many seem to have been created at that place in the mind where the reality of life fails the psychological ideal. Probably “fails” is not the just word to use — Jung would say that it’s all an aspect of the individuation process — but that is the way it feels. What emerges from this psychological dialectic is of great interest to me. It often seems like there is only a thin veil of reality that separates us from dreamed potential. Obviously ideals and utopia are necessary as a standpoint, but as evidence shows, life here on earth involves distortions which are dreadful.

The method of my art practice has always been experimental. The nature of the shoots — based on a feel I derive from conversations with the model and whatever might be weighing on my mind at the time — are free form. Of great interest to me are intuitive states — the making of connections based on nuances traveling from so far back in time or memory that they arrive in the present with the faintest whisper. I am not quite sure what happens between the model and me during these sessions, but it does feel like something extraordinary takes place. At some point many elements seem to merge together and I am witness to a unique part of their person, rather like colors emerging from a prism held at the correct angle. These experiences have a beautiful and soulful remanence for me.

There is intrigue in the unknown, these photographs are my tribute to the mystery that surrounds the unknowable. Thank you for spending time with them. — C dC

Sara Stites

My enchantment with color came from observing and, then growing, flowers in Maine. Their form and hue, delicate yet ferocious, engage my personal iconography which explores issues of vulnerability and the uncanny. I photograph setups using my drawings and paintings as backgrounds with real objects in front of them. Often, the objects are similar in hue and form to the artwork and take the viewer time to discover what is drawing/painting and what is object, adding mystery to the work. -SS

“Photography gives you the opportunity to use your sensibility and everything you are to say something about and be part of the world around you. In this way, you might discover who you are, and with a little luck, you might discover something much larger than yourself.” – Peter Lindbergh

Darin Back

The Perfect Wave

Darin Back Photographs the Character of Surf Culture

Think of surfing as a form of meditation where it’s just you and this magnificent force of the ocean in a dance with one another to find that brief, yet perfect flow state riding a wave in unison. Darin Back found this flow state in the art form of photography while doing a little soul searching on a break in Minnesota in 1990. Photography seemed to come easily to him, so he then immersed himself in learning every nuance of lighting and technique to find that perfect balance between photographer, subject and light. His quest took him to New York to work with Annie Leibovitz, then Redux Pictures by 2010, working for major clients around the world. This fast-paced environment could probably just barely keep up with Darin’s drive to learn and thrive as a photographer. Finding success and receiving many awards for his portrait work primarily of surfers and musicians, Darin continues to push himself and the medium.

I grew up on the east coast, surfing has always been apart of my life. After moving back to the east coast in 2014, I began building a new brand of black and white portraits which consisted of east coast surfers from the 1960’s–2000’s eras. I shot most of these images in parking lots, parking garages, after surf sessions; so I used natural light to create images that looked iconic or lost. I think that I found a lot of myself in each and every subject, something I will always remember.
— Darin Back

We were lucky to have caught up with Darin for a few brief moments before embarking on his next round of assignments that would make this photographer’s head spin. For Darin, it’s just the next perfect wave. — DD

Darin Back, *Shane Konrad,* 2020, Archival pigment print 11 x 8.25 inches

“A thing that you see in my pictures is that I was not afraid to fall in love with these people.” – Annie Leibovitz

Ruth Sylmor

From Paris with Love

“I am sending these 8 Paris “LOVE” street art images to you should you care to use them to spread love, cheer, and humor to your illuminated readers.” - Ruth Sylmor

"Imagine"
(John Lennon 1940 -1980)

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today... Aha-ah...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace... You...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world... You...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

denise froehlichMarch 30, 2022

Winter Light

If you haven’t donated yet to MMPA for the 2022 season, It’s not too late!

2022 Donation

Featured Artist:

William Baker Rand

We were so fortunate to catch up with William Baker Rand as he was just finishing the final edits on his latest book, Rene | William Rand | New York Diaries. Through the whirlwind of New York’s art scene in the 1980s and 90s, William wrote notes and inspiration on scraps of paper documenting life and times with poet critic, René Ricard. These collected notes, sketches and photographs document a pivotal time in the artists’ lives as they navigated, survived and thrived during an unprecedented time in art history. Our feature touches on the many facets of William’s life and art-making around the world. Dive in and hang on. Read here.

Penumbrae

by John Updike (1932 - 2009)

The shadows have their seasons, too.
The feathery web the budding maples
cast down upon the sullen lawn

bears but a faint relation to
high summer's umbrageous weight
and tunnellike continuum—

black leached from green, deep pools
wherein a globe of gnats revolves
as airy as an astrolabe.

The thinning shade of autumn is
an inherited Oriental,
red worn to pink, nap worn to thread.

Shadows on snow look blue. The skier,
exultant at the summit, sees his poles
elongate toward the valley: thus

each blade of grass projects another
opposite the sun, and in marshes
the mesh is infinite,

as the winged eclipse an eagle in flight
drags across the desert floor
is infinitesimal.

And shadows on water!—
the beech bough bent to the speckled lake
where silt motes flicker gold,

or the steel dock underslung
with a submarine that trembles,
its ladder stiffened by air.

And loveliest, because least looked-for,
gray on gray, the stripes
the pearl-white winter sun

hung low beneath the leafless wood
draws out from trunk to trunk across the road
like a stairway that does not rise.

Felice Boucher

Light is photography. I went to visit a young photographer at her studio and she said that “old timers wait for the right light. They should just take the damn photograph and fix it in PhotoShop.” That broke my heart. It took me many years to understand light and to really see it. -FB

I read the most fascinating stories/statements about the work of other artists. But beyond a love of light, graphic design, color and photography, I don’t have a lot to say about my own work. Between full time work and Covid I had not created much in the past two years. The absence of creating was leaving a deep sadness in my soul. So in the past couple of months I invited my neighbor Kaelyn, to pose for me and we ended up with one of her photographs gracing the cover of a book. Then I invited Henry back, whom I’d photographed when he was 13, that photograph hung several years ago at the Museum of Photographic Arts. It was fun to see how he had grown and changed. And I found a new model/muse, Margo, when I walked into the consignment shop of a friend—and there my new muse was sitting behind the counter. Much of myself is placed into each of my photographs. The models I choose to work with are those with soulful eyes and the confidence to look directly into my lens. I feel that connection of myself in them, looking back into the lens. — Felice Boucher

Felice Boucher, *Clayton,* 2019, Inkjet print, 17 x 11 inches

March 3rd Reception Thursday evening 5-7.00 PM

Addison Woolley Associated Artists have been exhibiting work together in Portland for over a decade in various venues.
Their work is far reaching and includes artwork and photography using various methods of digital and darkroom printing, painting and printmaking.

Karen Bushold, Dan Dow, Diane Hudson, Jim Kelly, Ruth Sylmor, Fran Vita-Taylor, Andrea van Voorst van Beest , Jan Pieter van Voorst van Beest and Dave Wade

For more information please visit www.zerostation.com

Jan Pieter van Voorst van Beest, *Desire and Decadence*, 2022, Inkjet print, 18 x 12 inches

Bernard C. Meyers

Bernard C. Meyers is an abstract contemporary artist inspired by the urban environment. His imagery explores the intersections of photographic realism and abstract expressionism. Mark Rothko’s and Richard Diebenkorn have both had a profound influence on his artwork.

Forty-five years on I can divide my life as an artist into two parts, before digital and after. The tools change but my inquiry has not. How can I see the world with fresh eyes, how do I challenge and surprise myself? My process is cumulative, one move begets the next, lithograph, watercolor, mono-print, photograph, digital assemblage, these all feed the same insatiable beast. More often than not, I find myself within the veil, wandering the space between worlds. — Bernard C. Meyers

“IF YOU ARE ONLY MOVED BY COLOR RELATIONSHIPS, YOU ARE MISSING THE POINT. I AM INTERESTED IN EXPRESSING THE BIG EMOTIONS - TRAGEDY, ECSTASY, DOOM.” — MARK ROTHKO

Recent Acquisitions to the MMPA Collection: From Michael Kolster’s Paris Park Portfolio

This generous gift was made possible by Jeanne and Bill Press, Jennifer Press, Bobbi Frioli and Jane Wong.

Paris Park Photographs

Michael Kolster

The MMPA collection will expand again with six prints from Michael Kolster’s Paris Park Photographs series. This generous gift has been arranged by Jeanne and Richard Press and is being made by Bill Press, Jennifer Press and Bobbi Frioli, and Jane Wong. While working though the selection process we checked in with Michael about his upcoming book, Paris Park Photographs and discovered that a selection of these photographs is on view at Cove Street Arts as part of the Faculty Photography II show, curated by Bruce Brown. An opening reception will be held Saturday, February 26, 1:00 - 3:00 pm. On view February 24th through April 16th, this show will also include works by Elke Morris, Gary Green, Luc Demers, Dee Peppe, Peter Precourt, Ann Bartges and Dawn Nye.

For the Paris Park Photographs Michael explored several parks and gardens in and around Paris allowing himself the time to wander from formal sculpted gardens out to the unkempt edges. As Michael followed in the footsteps of Eugene Atget though modern-day Paris, he was reminded of Atget’s documentation of the city before its great transformation around the turn of the century. At that time, Atget eschewed the convenience of the small format film cameras of the day to continue making photographs using a slow, thoughtful approach while encumbered with a large format view camera and glass plates. Michael also chose to leave the latest digital technology behind to make his images on medium format black and white film. This conscious choice liberated him from the impulse to review digital images immediately in the field. With this intent, Michael could devote his full attention to the environment and find that meditative quality of being entirely present in the moment. What better way to explore the most beautiful city. With this heightened awareness, Michael’s attentive eye brings the viewer to see the choreography of the sculpted gardens as they transition from formal design to natural landscape. It is an intimate view that can only be witnessed by slowing down to observe carefully, with thoughtful intent.

In Michael Kolster’s photographs, we behold the magnificence of a knotted old oak, its creaturely, otherworldly presence. Our eyes follow an allée of pruned trees in Parc de Sceaux, their arrogant geometry on display. A brick rampart. Daffodils poking out of tall grasses. Dark, shapely boughs curving this way and that, meandering and twisting. These photographs reward extended looking.
— Michelle Kuo

The afterward, written by Michelle Kuo in 2021 provides the perspective of an American living in Paris, while experiencing the city and its parks during the unprecedented time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through her familial experience of emerging from months of lockdown, drawn to open spaces such as Paris’ parks with an acute awareness of the value and importance of our connection to the land, Michelle reflects upon our collective experience of this time in history. Through Michelle’s perspective we are also given a glimpse of the parallels between the transformative experience of today’s world to that of Walker Evans’ documentation of the Eastern United States, which was also at a time of profound transformation in the 1930’s.

Paris Park Photographs is Michael’s third book made with George F. Thompson Publishing and is sure to be another handsome edition. Due to be released March 7th, it be pre-ordered through Amazon.

“My father didn't think being an artist was a respectable or worthy goal for a man. He hoped I would see my way to more serious work and would find myself turning towards medicine, law, or business.” — Richard Diebenkorn

Robert Diamante

I was already an exhibiting photographer (see Apples, Deer Head, Fisher Cat), when I began studying at the Bangor Theological Seminary. Invested to marry my art practice with this new era of theological study, in 2003 I began exploring still life photography from another angle. The work of Juan Sánchez Cotán, as well as other Spanish Baroque artists, were my inspiration. I marveled how their paintings appeared to be mystical meditations using ordinary objects as vehicles. Using items found on the way into my studio (and rotting in my refrigerator), I began a series of large format photographs. My goal was to investigate the possibilities of transcendence within the ordinary; objects going beyond their “objectivity.” To varying degrees the exploration was a success. In 2006 a series of these still life photographs were exhibited at a gallery in Portland. An acquaintance that I had not seen in several years came to the opening. He looked around, smiled at me, then left without a word. The next day he called me to ask if I would photograph him in the same manner as my still lives. Within a week Chan was in front of my camera, and the series of photographs shown here was created. Chan had been a dancer. During the shoot we talked about the transformation that our bodies undergo as we move from one phase in life to another. We talked about his body changing, his transfiguration, as a celebration—as something beautiful occurring. Two weeks later he died. I consider his photographs to be the apotheosis of my still life exploration. — Robert Diamante

All of these images were made between 2003-2006. The are printed as inkjet prints and are 24 x 20 inches

A Color of the Sky

by Tony Hoagland (1953 - 2018)

Windy today and I feel less than brilliant,
driving over the hills from work.
There are the dark parts on the road
when you pass through clumps of wood
and the bright spots where you have a view of the ocean,
but that doesn’t make the road an allegory.

I should call Marie and apologize
for being so boring at dinner last night,
but can I really promise not to be that way again?
And anyway, I’d rather watch the trees, tossing
in what certainly looks like sexual arousal.

Otherwise it’s spring, and everything looks frail;
the sky is baby blue, and the just-unfurling leaves
are full of infant chlorophyll,
the very tint of inexperience.

Last summer’s song is making a comeback on the radio,
and on the highway overpass,
the only metaphysical vandal in America has written
MEMORY LOVES TIME
in big black spray paint letters,

which makes us wonder if Time loves Memory back.

Last night I dreamed of X again.
She’s like a stain on my subconscious sheets.
Years ago she penetrated me
but though I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed,
I never got her out,
but now I’m glad.

What I thought was an end turned out to be a middle.
What I thought was a brick wall turned out to be a tunnel.
What I thought was an injustice
turned out to be a color of the sky.

Outside the youth center, between the liquor store
and the police station,
a little dogwood tree is losing its mind;
overflowing with blossom foam,
like a sudsy mug of beer;
like a bride ripping off her clothes,

dropping snow white petals to the ground in clouds,

so Nature’s wastefulness seems quietly obscene.
It’s been doing that all week:
making beauty,
and throwing it away,
and making more.

denise froehlichFebruary 25, 2022Maine Museum of Photographic Arts

The Antidote