Archive
Anticipation
ESSAY - MARCH 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Darren Setlow "Cig Harvey in Rockport
Winter is waiting. Winter is beds piled high with thick comforters and quiet nights under rooftops bowed by blankets of snow. It is reading a book by the fading light of a Sunday afternoon. It is staring out the window at unbroken plains of whiteness, before turning to the calendar on the refrigerator and checking off each day of February with a heavy black X.
“Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night”
from A Prayer in Spring by Robert Frost
Keepers of the Flame
ELEMENTS - JAN/FEB 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Stacey Cramp
Fireplaces that warm with both crackling fires and blazing design
We have all heard the old cliché that “the fireplace is the heart of a home.” So it seems only appropriate to discover that when you Google “fireplace + heart” the very first listing that pops up is for a business right here in Maine: The Maine Wood Heat Company in Norridgewock.
One man who has been putting his heart into the construction of fireplaces since he arrived in Maine over 20 years ago is Oxford, England-born mason, Steve Dyer. Dyer and his brother and business partner, Paul, come from a long line of masons. Both men apprenticed for years as “hod carriers” (the English equivalent of a mason tender) before attending a masonry school to earn their certifications. Today, the Brothers Dyer work in brick and stone to build walls, chimneys, and veneer, but their “spe-shee-al-i-tee,” as Dyer says in his English accent, is custom fireplaces. “Fireplaces are really coming back now, with the gas prices being what they are,” he adds. One specific style of fireplace Dyer admires is known as the Rumford
Singular Vision, Duality of Spirit
PROFILE - JAN/FEB 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Darren Setlow
One Artist's Compulsion for Both Art and History
In
One Life & Many Homes
PROFILE Dyke Messler - JAN/FEB 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Darren Setlow
A contagious devotion to all things "home"
There are numerous individuals who passionately pursue their interests alone, rarely involving others people in their ventures. And then there are people like Rockport’s Dyke Messler, a man who constantly draws other into the gravitational orbit of his passions. Like the ever-widening ripples of a pebble thrown into a still lake, Messler’s personal obsessions have had a discernable influence on
Chasing the Spark
PROFILE Tom Veilleux - JAN/FEB 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Darren Setlow
A lifetime spent pursuing artistic excellence
Tom Veilleux enjoys the chase.
Veilleux is an art dealer who has spent 35 years chasing something elusive and ethereal. He has devoted more than half his life to answering an unanswerable question: What elevates some art to the level of great art? And then, when he believes he has discovered something great, he buys it with his own money and hopes he will be able to resell it later.
Snowbound in Bethel
REMARKABLE - JAN/FEB 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Darren Setlow
A Ski Getaway in the Heart of Maine
The Weekend House. The Getaway. The Camp. The Ski Lodge. Call it what you will, a second home is a place to peel away everyday responsibilities and allow yourself to play. The ideal second home is both cozy enough to encourage serious relaxation, yet refined enough to be easily maintained and quickly transformed to entertain family and friends.
A Winter's Tale
REMARKABLE - JAN/FEB 2008
By Candace Karu
Photography Francois Gagne
A Sugarloaf home to be thoroughly used and enjoyed
The aptly and poetically named Amos Winter of Kingfield is credited with discovering the abundant charms of Sugarloaf Mountain in 1950. The story, like many that eventually end happily, began with a series of unexpected complications. Winter, an avid outdoorsman and skier, was ever on the hunt for good skiing close to home. His first choice was Bigelow Mountain, located just north of Sugarloaf, but his plans were thwarted when Central Maine Power built Long Falls Dam on the Dead River, a move that created Flagstaff Lake and blocked easy access to Bigelow’s slopes. Winter and his friends—known locally as the Bigelow Boys—turned to Sugarloaf as their second choice. In 1953, the group installed a towrope, and in 1955 the Sugarloaf Mountain Corporation was officially formed.
Tactile Textures
CRAFT OF MAINE - JAN/FEB 2008
Photography Scott Dorrance
Gayle Fraas and Duncan Slade On Collaboration: “We both draw and paint, and our works are executed by either one of us or as a team—each work continues our visual conversation. We first worked together screen-printing and assembling fabric at the University of Southern Connecticut."
The Many Layered Courses of Five Fifty-Five
FEAST - JAN/FEB 2008
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Benedetta Spinelli
Something Will Be Revealed
GALLERY JAN/FEB 2008
By Josh Bodwell
Photos Courtesy of the Portland Museum of Art
Sculpting in Contradictions: The organic industrial art of John Bisbee
John Bisbee is late.
The windows of Brunswick’s brick-faced Fort Andross Mill sparkle under weak nine-a.m. November sun. The frigid morning air fills with little puffs of breath. In the near distance, the Androscoggin River slips silently by. Somewhere behind the mill’s hulking locked doors, Bisbee’s spike-filled studio sleeps.
Conception to Construction
THE DRAWING BOARD - JAN/FEB 2008
Drawings by Andy Hyland, Port City Architecture
Honoring the roots of architecture, Andy Hyland of Port City Architecture still creates gorgeously detailed hand-drawn home renderings. Once Hyland’s meticulous illustrations are complete, he scans them onto the computer, transforming his traditional drawings into digital files, giving them cutting-edge versatility.
The Sawdust of Happiness
ESSAY - JAN/FEB 2008
By Joshua Bodwel
"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." Joseph Campbell
In the winters of my youth, my brother and I would scurry through the cold, dark barn in a rush to reach my grandfather’s glowing workshop.
Outdoor Fireplaces
ELEMENTS - JUNE 2007
Photography Brian Vanden Brink
Since the allure of an indoor fireplace has become so commonplace, homeowners have sought other ways to enjoy some time beside an open flame. Long popular in more temperate areas such as the Midwest, outdoor fireplaces have begun to spring up in Maine.
Portland-based architect Scott Simons says he has designed an outdoor fireplace for nearly every house he’s planned in the past four years. The outdoor fireplace he designed for his own home, Simons admits, has been the inspiration for many of his clients to build one themselves.
Shades of Blue
PALETTES - JUNE 2007
By M. L. Norton
Photography Darren Setlow
For interior designer M.L. Norton, there is nothing sad about blue. Instead, the color makes Norton think of sapphires, cornflowers, lapis lazuli, the sky, and the sea. “I even love the subtle rebellion of blue jeans, or a denim jacket,” she laughs.
Norton, the owner of Windemere Studios, has used blue so extensively in her interior design work that a woman once quipped, “I thought you only designed in blue!” While Norton actually works with the entire spectrum of colors, she says she returns regularly to blue because it blends so effortlessly with almost every other color. Norton even has an affinity for the lyrical names used to describe the family of blues, from warm cerulean and milky cobalt, to strong Prussian and dark indigo.
Damariscotta
MAINE STREETS - JUNE 2007
By Nancy English
The oysters pulled out of Damariscotta River fed generations of Native Americans, who left heaps of discarded shells many feet deep beside the river. These middens, as they are called, are still visible today at the Whaleback Shell Midden off Route One in Damariscotta.
Can't Decide on Siding?
CONVERSATIONS - JUNE 2007
By Joshua Bodwell
A handful of Maine experts weigh in on the options
Americans spend countless hours obsessing over their bodies. We try to take care of our insides by eating well and exercising, and we splurge on skin products to make our outsides look good: sunscreen to protect against harmful UV rays, anti-wrinkle lotions to slow the aging process, and skin-firming creams to hide what’s already happened.
When it comes to our homes, most of us keep the inside fresh by renovating bathrooms, remodeling kitchens, and repainting rooms. But all too often, less attention is given to the exterior of a home—and, specifically, the siding.Treading Lightly Above Terra Firma
DESIGNERS ON DESIGN - JUNE 2007
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Todd Caverly
Architects on what makes a deck dynamic
Eric Chase
atop the steep Brooksville Shore above Penobscot Bay
Oceanside Eclectic
REMARKABLE - JUNE 2007
By Regina Cole
Photography Benedetta Spinelli
A diverse collection of art, furnishings, and architecture leads to an unpretentious, energy-filled home
The vivacious nature of this beachfront house near Portland is exemplified in its bathtub. Made from a strikingly bright yellow polymer, the tub resembles a giant rubber duck. It rests flat on the bathroom’s turquoise, glass-tile floor and sits centered before a vast floor-to-ceiling window. When the tub’s built-in light is turned on in the evening, it glows like a yellow orb.
At the Heart of Home's Design
REMARKABLE - JUNE 2007
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography James R. Salomon
Inside an interior designer's renovated 1800s South Freeport cape
An interior designer’s job is complex. Part artist, part mind reader, a designer must interpret a homeowner’s wants and needs, then use his or her own experience and stylistic sensibilities to create a cohesive, attractive aesthetic—and execute the entire project while trying to stay on deadline and on budget. But what happens when interior designers tackle their own home?
The Call of the Land
PROFILE Point East - JUNE 2007
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Darren Setlow
The Restless Pursuit of Inspiration
PROFILE Andre LaPorte - JUNE 2007
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Darren Setlow
Those first two years were hell,” says 74-year-old painter Andre LaPorte, his eyes shining with the intensity of a man half his age. LaPorte is thinking back to the tumultuous days when he decided to end his decades-long career in high-end commercial illustration and focus his energy on creating fine art. “The freedom was terrifying,” LaPorte remembers. “I couldn’t kill the illustrator in me!”
A Portrait of the Artist as an Innkeeper
PROFILE Jack Nahil - JUNE 2007
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Darren Setlow
Many artists are perpetually torn between the necessity of their day job and the revitalizing charge they feel when creating art. But the respected southern Maine innkeeper, restaurateur, and painter Jack Nahil is one of the rare few who have managed to combine their artistic passion with their business.
Dapper Drapery
PROFILE Fogler & Ketchum - JUNE 2007
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Darren Setlow
In a home on a quiet street in Brunswick, there is a drapery workroom with a high and seemingly endless worktable; it is flanked by sewing machines and bundles of luxurious fabrics. This tucked-away shop of the Fogler & Ketchum Drapery Workroom may be one of the best-kept secrets in Maine’s world of interior design.
A Room Beyond the Walls
SPACES - JUNE 2007
Photography Brian Vanden Brink
Exceptional porches that extend the home
Before the distraction of radio and television arrived, the porch was once the center of a New England family’s social life during the summer months. While the front porch kept the family connected to their neighbors and the comings-and-goings on their street, the back porch offered a more private extension of the home’s interior.
Illuminating Art
CRAFT OF MAINE - JUNE 2007
Photography Warren Roos
Four craftsmen create radiant lighting that truly shines
Richard Dunham The warm radiance emanating from Richard Dunham’s wooden lamps is the culmination of a life preoccupied with the infinite possibilities of light.
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