Baie Sainte-Marie Artist Residency
I am fresh back from a divine two weeks, thanks to Maine College of Art’s Baie Ste Marie Residency. As an adjunct professor at MECA since 2003, I was unaware of the deep renewal a residency can offer until I lucked into three nights at the Pace House a few years ago. Since then, I’ve had my eye on this opportunity in Nova Scotia, a beloved place of family ties and epic light. Thanks to the Jenny family, the house overlooking St. Mary’s Bay in New Edinburgh has provided inspiration for MECA alumni, faculty, and staff since 2009. Our journey began by driving from Portland,...
Read MoreLibrary Love
Happy National Library Week! I’m still floating from last week’s Maine Library Association’s 27th Annual Reading Round-Up of Children’s and Young Adult Literature. No better place to be than in a fine flock of kidlit advocates. Winning a Lupine Award with Eva Murray for our book Island Birthday is a spectacular honor. Inspired by Maine artist, Barbara Cooney’s Miss Rumphius, the Lupine is presented to a living author or illustrator who is a resident of Maine, or who has created a work whose focus is on Maine, shown through the characteristics, plot, or setting....
Read MoreEyes open wide
When my Illustration MECA cohort Mary Anne Lloyd asked me to drive senior students on a field trip, I didn’t even blink. Tony DiTerlizzi?!!! Mary Blair?!! Beep beep beep beep YEAH! The closer you get to Amherst, MA, the more you feel in the middle of the woods. It’s a serene feeling, honest. Meeting House roads are all over New England, as my passengers noticed. We arrived at the home of Tony and his partner, Angie, right on time, and were in for a major treat. This pretty much captures the wonder we all felt. Angie made us completely welcome as our jaws dropped at the sight of...
Read MoreIllustration Research Symposium
The 6th Annual Illustration Research Symposium hosted by the Illustration Research Network and Rhode Island School of Design was a total blast of ideas and great presentations. Thanks to Maine College of Art for sending Illustration Department Chair Mary Anne Lloyd and me to this international gathering of illustration academics. I filled my MECA sketchbook and more. Thursday evening upon arrival at the RISD ISB Gallery, we were warmly greeted by Susan Doyle, Department Head of RISD Illustration at the opening of the conference exhibition, Little Pieces, Big Ideas. It was a delicious entry...
Read MoreCharm City Circles
No matter which route you take, Portland to Baltimore is a solid 10 hour roadtrip. But how warm the welcome! We arrived at the home of Donna and Peter, just in time for some local craft beer and chicken roasted on their deck, with the Natty Bo sign winking a few blocks away. They have a wide collection of art, but this oil painting of Peter as a young man is my favorite. We headed in the morning over to MICA’s Parents Weekend, eager to see our new freshman. Let the hugs begin! We stopped at MICA’s Print Lab. Nice to have such resources so handy on campus. We hung out for awhile...
Read MoreMoto: Fundy!
This post wraps up our motorcycle adventures in Canada, I promise! We returned to Nova Scotia via Tidnish, and rode along the Northumberland Shore in late afternoon sun, at one point parallel to a herd plodding towards their barn. We stopped in Pugwash to buy a bottle of zin for later, and found out there were lodgings in Tatamagouche. Man, we lucked out with the Train Station Inn! The rail cars offer accommodations but were already booked. We instead enjoyed a Victorian room in the main Inn, and a delicious dinner later in a dining car that ran on the Intercontinental Railway until 1972....
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