Archive
Independence
ESSAY - SEPTEMBER 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
“How could I explain to him except right now, here, that being absent made no difference to being present.”
from “The Shepard Didn’t Want to Be Buried Now” by David Mason Heminway.
Late in the afternoon on the Fourth of July—when the air was still heavy and many hours before firework flowers blossomed in the darkened night sky—my great uncle drew in his last strained breath. His tired lungs could not keep pace with his keen mind. He closed his intense blue eyes. He had fought long enough.
Leap of Faith
FEAST - SEPTEMBER 2008
By Candace Karu
Photography François Gagné
Sophistication, simplicity, and success find a home in Kittery’s Anneke Jans.
On Valentine’s Day in 2005, retired entrepreneur Andy Livingston and his self-described soul mate and business partner, Donna Ryan, took a giant leap of faith when they opened Anneke Jans, an intimate bistro on Wallingford Square in Kittery. With cork walls stained to a rich cordovan patina, black lacquered trim, and a floor-to-ceiling wall of windows that folds away on warm days, the decor is New York hip meets relaxed Maine intimacy. With no previous restaurant experience, Livingston and Ryan started the fledgling venture armed with little more than a love of food, an appreciation for wine, and a dream.
Everything Old is New Again
FEAST - AUGUST 2008
By Candace Karu
Photography Darren Setlow
A restaurant steeped in the classical tradition keeps an eye on the future.
On a Monday night in early summer, the mellow sounds of jazz and murmuring voices fill the air at the Back Bay Grill. For three years, many patrons—music lovers and gastronomes alike—have booked selected Monday nights at the popular Portland eatery to enjoy the restaurant’s jazz series. Chef Larry Matthews began the series during Maine’s shoulder seasons, hoping to lure new customers with not only great food but the area’s best jazz musicians as well. The combination proved irresistible to regulars and a happy surprise to the uninitiated.
Form & Figure
THE CANVAS - SEPTEMBER 2008
By Carl Littl
The allure of figurative painting in Maine
While Maine is acclaimed for its landscape art, the figure has always been present. Women in wide summer hats seated on rocky ledge in Childe Hassam’s Appledore canvases, fishermen hauling the “big dory” in a George Bellows Monhegan painting, a nude with wheelbarrow in one of Lois Dodd’s Women at Work pieces [MH+D, April 2008]—it is a remarkable and wonderfully varied tradition.
The three painters showcased this issue are committed to the figure. The lobsterman in Robert Shillady’s portrait quietly paints his buoys, while a very different hauler of traps defends his territory in Bo Bartlett’s bold image. Jessica Gandolf’s ball players of the past evoke legendary feats on the diamond.
There couldn’t be three more divergent approaches to the figure, or three more compelling artists to engage us in tribute
Work of the Hand
CRAFT OF MAINE - SEPTEMBER 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Trent Bell
Ponds, paths, and native plantings on the Blue Hill peninsula
This October, at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockland Village, over forty craft artists who have been selected will show their work in a prestigious exhibition and sale. For nineteen years the Work of the Hand show has presented the work of New England’s finest artists and artisans at CMCA’s historic firehouse gallery. Here we showcase six representatives from this remarkable group.
The Futurist Obsessed with the Past
PROFILE - AUGUST 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Irvin Serrano
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A furniture maker focused on recycling and the cycle of life
Though we all are floating down life’s river, each of us must choose which shores to explore and how far upstream we dare venture. Some of us, however, might as well put the maps and compasses away—our journey has already been plotted. Take furniture artisan Eric Ritter, a young designer and craftsman who is every bit as old-fashioned as he is modern.
Sawdust in Rockport
PROFILE - AUGUST 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Irvin Serrano
A midcoast boatyard owner with a reverence for wood
Like so many seaside villages on the midcoast, Rockport is cut into a hillside. Off Central Street, a narrow lane plunges down to the harbor and a sprawling complex of red buildings that house Rockport Marine.
Joan Benoit Samuelson's Gold Mettle
PROFILE - AUGUST 2008
By Candace Karu
Photography Darren Setlow
Changing gears, giving back, and getting dirty
Joan Benoit Samuelson has the mien of a seasoned competitor. Her muscles, lean and sinewy, are tanned and covered with not a little dirt from a day spent working in the garden. There is a rhythm and grace to the way she moves from one plant to the next in her cutting beds. On this day, Samuelson, 51, is frustrated. Because she stayed too long volunteering at the Freeport Community Plant-a-Row Garden, a project that provides fresh produce for local food banks and soup kitchens, she will be late for her next several appointments. Briefly ignoring her schedule on an early summer day, Samuelson takes a minute to remove a scattering of recalcitrant weeds sprouting among the brilliant blooms.
The New Pioneers
PROFILE - SEPTEMBER 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Irvin Serrano
Breaking ground and growing grapes in Lincolnville
Along the Maine coast, the summer offerings within view of the ocean are plentiful. But sometimes, the most satisfying adventures in life require us to step off the beaten path.
Just six miles from Camden’s Main Street, down a rolling road that edges Megunticook Lake, is a surprising swath of land that is both classic Maine and decidedly foreign: a sixty-eight-acre farm, the last completely intact land grant in Waldo County, that has been given over to the operations of Cellardoor Winery & Vineyard and the enterprise of grape growing.
It's Good to Be King
PROFILE - SEPTEMBER 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Irvin Serrano
Maine author Lily King navigates the streams of family and fiction
Family lore says that 6-year-old Lily King once marched into the dressmaking shop of her mother’s friend and proclaimed, writing tablet in one hand and pencil in the other, “I am going to be a writer!”
“The funny thing is, I don’t even remember it,” says the 45-year-old novelist with a laugh. “Memory is so strange,” King admits, her smile turning to an expression of fascination—she smiles often and laughs with conviction.
The Value of Values
PROFILE - SEPTEMBER 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Irvin Serrano
A Portland building leader shares the importance of connection and craftsmanship
Shaped like a child’s crudely scrawled “H,” Cliff Island lies at the outer edge of Casco Bay. Ten miles out to sea, with less than one hundred year-round residents, the island is an outpost—a place where community is prized and where friendships often last a lifetime.
For John Ryan, Cliff Island played a larger role in shaping the trajectory of his life than any other spot on the globe. The relationships and values that Ryan formed on the island allowed him to cast off his lines and set sail on a journey that has led him to, among other things, ownership of Portland’s acclaimed Wright-Ryan Construction firm.
The Personality of Portland
PROFILE - OCTOBER 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography François Gagné
An architect who is an artist with urban renewal
The elevator growls like a wounded beast as it rises toward architect James Sterling’s Portland office. The August day is sweltering and the elevator is packed. A pudgy bald man wrestles with a guitar case on his shoulder. The man beside him, who has a steel hook for a hand, is dressed in clothes too heavy for a summer day. A photographer with a bulging bag of equipment at his feet pokes furiously at his iPhone.
The Inspiration of Place
FEATURE - SEPTEMBER 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Maine hosts the AIA New England Conference and Design Awards
Sustainability in a Historic Village
THE DRAWING BOARD - SEPTEMBER 2008
Located on a town green with a mountain view, this addition to an 1840s farmhouse combines seasonal living quarters with studios for art and architecture. Situated in a National Historic Preservation District, the home combines the simplicity of New England design with a high level of sustainability.
Embracing the proportions of a barn, the new structure is framed with heavily insulated double walls and triple-glazed windows. The hot water heating system combines a wood pellet stove and a highly efficient gas boiler. The south-facing roof has been designed for a solar domestic hot water panel system and the future installation of photovoltaic panels. Rainwater from all the roofs is captured in two underground cisterns and used for irrigation. Landscaping makes use of low-impact, native plantings such as the garden of blueberries, vegetables, and flowers that backs up to the south wall just outside the barn door to the architect’s studio.
Sweet September
STILE DI VITA - SEPTEMBER 2008
By Tyler Karu
Photography Benedetta Spinelli
Celebrating the waning days of summer with style, comfort and flair
Camden Creative
REMARKABLE - AUGUST 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Trent Bell
A marriage of styles on the midcoast
An Organic Design
LANDSCAPE - AUGUST 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Trent Bell
A lake house with landscaping that is woven to the woods
Keeping Faith
ESSAY - AUGUST 2008
By Joshua Bodwel
“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood.” —Daniel Burnham
For a short time after graduating from high school, I languished. During the summers that I turned nineteen and twenty, I waited tables at the Colony Hotel in Kennebunkport. That grand old lodge, built in 1914, teeters atop a rocky promontory overlooking the Kennebunk River flowing into the Atlantic.
Boat by Hand
THE DRAWING BOARD - AUGUST 2008
60' Classic Motor Yacht
Rockport’s Daniel Skira of the eponymous firm, Skira Yacht Design, still works as his nautical forebears did, rendering his marine creations by hand and in ink, in his case on large sheets of heavy Mylar. Skira’s 60-foot motor yacht was inspired by 1913s style, but has been updated with modern conveniences and design touches. The boat is designed for long-range, off-shore cruising and is spacious enough for a family and, with their own aft cabin, a crew of two.
A Continental Experience In Maine
THE INN PLACE - AUGUST 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Irvin Serrano
The midcoast's European escape.
Camden Harbor stretches out toward Penobscot Bay and Mount Battie soars overhead. Boats bob at their moorings, yearning for the open water and the wind in their sails.
Overlooking this bucolic scene, the Camden Harbour Inn seems to float in the treetops. This year marks the second season since the circa-1874 inn was renovated into a posh boutique inn that pulses with a summery and sophisticated European flair. With the addition of Natalie’s, an elegant, Parisian-style restaurant, the inn is nearly unrecognizable from its former self.
The Challenge of the Ever-Changing Sea
THE CANVAS - AUGUST 2008
By Suzette McAvoy
Wissemann-Widrig, Fishman and Irvine
Undoubtedly the richest vein in Maine art has long been paintings of the sea. The gauntlet was laid down in 1844 by Thomas Cole, the leader of the American landscape movement, when he first ventured to Mount Desert Island and described the coastline as “ironbound” with “threatening crags, and dark caverns in which the sea thunders.” From that moment to this day, artists have come to Maine to accept the challenge asserted by the sea.
Seizing the Image
CRAFT OF MAINE - AUGUST 2008
Four Maine photographers capture the moment
Alan Vlach On abstract images and urban landscapes: My work has evolved from a broad view of the landscape to an abstract one utilizing light, space, form, texture, and tone to define the imagery rather than clearly identifiable subjects. I recently began a project of mostly urban landscapes, photographing wall art—graffiti, posters, and abstracts of deteriorating walls. I have also begun printing in alternative processes such as platinum/palladium and salted paper in addition to silver printing.
Land of Leisure
REMARKABLE - AUGUST 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Trent Bell
An austere seaside beauty is restored on Goose Rocks Beach
July, July, Your Tides Tug My Heart
ESSAY - JULY 2008
By Joshua Bodwel
“It was a quiet morning, the town covered over with darkness and at ease in bed. Summer gathered in the weather, the wind had the proper touch, the breathing of the world was long and warm and slow.” —Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine.
We planned our day by the tides.
The Humanity of Detritus
PROFILE - JULY 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Darren Setlo
An artist unearthing the story of Maine through its remnants.
The hummingbird flitting around the crabapple tree outside John Whalley’s studio has caught the artist’s attention. It darts about, pausing here and there to drink from the delicate pink blossoms. Beyond the tree, railroad tracks look quiet and heavy with history, and past the tracks the salt bay edging Damariscotta is swollen with high tide.
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