Double the Beats

Peaks Island News                        photo © Jamie Hogan

Hello February! After making it through a chaotic January, last year is looking ever better upon reflection. I had the honor of writing an Arts Beat column for the new Peaks Island News. I’d contributed regularly for almost a dozen years to the former Island Times with an Arts Roaming column, but the last issue was published in 2012.

Leave it to a Rock only a mile long by a mile and a half wide to generate fresh local journalism in these turbulent times. The Peaks Island News is for, by, and about islanders, because our community of folks has much to report. You can pick one up at Casco Bay Lines, Hannigans, the Peaks Island Library, please do.

It’s been a good challenge to write again, and shine light on my fellow island artists, stay tuned.

I am grateful for a bundle of doubles that happened in 2024:

-winning two Lupine Awards from the Maine Librarian Association last April!

-being in two art shows, including the Illustration Institute’s Great State of Illustration in Maine exhibit in the Danforth Gallery at the University of Maine, Augusta and in O Lar, shown at the Lewis Gallery of the Portland Public Library.

-visiting two wonderful elementary schools as a visiting artist/author (Albert S. Hall School in Waterville, and Beals Elementary on Beals, Island)

-doing two school tours with the legendary Island Readers & Writers that brought me to four islands!

-being in two Art Walks sponsored by the Fifth Maine Museum, right in my shaggy yard:)

-doing two book festivals, the Bath Book Bash and the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance’s Maine Lit Fest, coincidentally held on my 66th birthday. It was a cherry on top to spend it among my fellow kidlit folk, but also to engage with curious young readers like this one I sketched:

Pikachu Boy                  sketch by Jamie Hogan

– I illustrated two calendars, the ’25 Lunar Calendar and my own Rabbit! Rabbit! A Year of Good Luck. Both are dear to my heart, lunacy and wild natures deserve celebrating every day.

Lunar Calendar and A Year of Good Luck                                 photo © Jamie Hogan

As an artist I look for inspiration in every corner of my orbit, near and far. Marty and I took two trips that included great art and nature seeking outings. Here’s a few highlights.

We ventured to Austin for the big eclipse in April, did you see it? The cloudy weather partly obscured the view, but we had an unforgettable experience at the University of Texas, seeing The Color Inside, an installation by James Turrell. You sit beneath an oval oracle, watching nothing but the sky as it becomes color theory in motion while a drummer hypnotizes you with sound.

The Color Inside: A Skyspace by James Turrell at the University of Texas, Austin photo © Jamie Hogan

Our October road trip included a visit to the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, one of my all time favorite places. This Cosmic Galaxy Egg by Andrew Logan never fails to renew my spirits. The fractured shimmer of one’s self is no small thing.

American Visionary Arts Museum     photo © Jamie Hogan

On the way back, we spent a day at the New York Botanical Garden, where another epic form captured my attention in the Wonderland: Curious Nature show.

New York Botanical Garden with sculpture by Foldhaus                         photo  ©Jamie Hogan

I saw plenty of art in my back yard of Maine, too. I visited Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences with my daughter, Daisy, when she met with scientists. Her work looks very cool there!

Daisy Braun and her sculptures at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences           photo © Jamie Hogan

Did you get to see the incredible Louise Nevelson exhibit at the Colby Art Museum? That’s another stand out of my 2024 art seeking.

Louise Nevelson sculptures at the Colby Art Museum, Waterville, Maine                            photo © Jamie Hogan

We saw the WAMI exhibit when we were on Monhegan in July.

Women Artists of Monhegan Island exhibit at the Monhegan Museum             photo © Jamie Hogan

Our Monhegan host, Elena Henry, suggested we visit the Langlais Sculpture Preserve which we did a month later. Besides the path of sculptures there are also trails into the woods where you can hear frogs trill and birds banter.

Bernard Langlais sculpture in Cushing, Maine              photo © Jamie Hogan

My kidlit critique partner and fine artist friend, Jen Goldfinger, had a big show of her gorgeous work at Cove Street Arts. Bravo, Jen! As a beachcomber of flotsam and jetsam, I relate to her themes of found images from the past with her fresh eye for juxtapositions, textures, and spontaneous marks.

Jen Goldfinger art at Cove Street Arts, Portland Maine                       photo © Jamie Hogan

I saw the current exhibit at the Portland Museum of Art, As We Are. No surprise this was, hands down, my favorite piece.

Gay Bar by Brian Smith at the Portland Museum of Art                photo by Jamie Hogan

Welcome to 2025. We made it to the last week of the epic Georgia O’Keefe show at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It was absolutely packed but worth every minute. Do I have a thing for shells? Dang right, I do:)

Red Hill and White Shell by Georgia O’Keefe                         photo by Jamie Hogan

The excellent wall text read:

Desert and sea, far and near, are united in O’Keefe’s brilliantly hued composition. The shell is from an Atlantic moon sea snail, the hills are the reddish sandstone cliffs near Ghost Ranch. “I have picked up shells along the coast of Maine,” the artist recalled, “each shell was a beautiful world in itself.” She nestled that world into the embrace of the vibrant red hills, themselves a record of the passage of time.

This is exactly what draws me to see art. It sings to my soul as a record of time. It is like recognizing a heart that beats everywhere. How blessed we are to be surrounded by it!

My recent column featured an island neighbor, Judy Fitch, who herself possesses a finely tuned radar for the most tender aspects of life, loss, and the threads that tie her to wild ones here and gone. She is like Nevelson, making the most of what flotsam lands on our shores. I visited her studio and this bonfire painted on driftwood illuminates so much more than words.

painting by Judy Fitch              photo by Jamie Hogan

With the news cycle giving us anguish on a daily basis, we need art more than ever. In making it, we tap our humanity, using our hands and eyes, to translate our unique point of view. In seeing it, we connect to others, finding either kinship or a new perspective. There are days when all I can do is bear witness to the unfurling of an amaryllis gift that needs nothing but light.

amaryllis sketch by Jamie Hogan

I hope this year you’ll do some art and nature seeking, too. It’s our medicine.