Animal Attraction

There's nothing we love more than an art sale for a good cause. For starters, it's a way to purchase pieces by well-known artists at a price most entry-level collectors can afford. The atmosphere is usually fun and laid-back. And there's something exhilarating about the thrill of the chase and the sense of competition (except fort that one horrifying instance at a fundraising auction in which Jason got into a bidding war one of The Maven's big bosses and wouldn't stop).

So we're looking forward to Friday, when the "Creature Feature III" artists' reception and sale takes place at the Grand Theatre in Ellsworth from 3 to 7 p.m.. Five local artists with national reputations have come together to raise money for the theater: Rebekah Raye, Laura Balombini and Heidi Daub of Blue Hill, Suzan Scribner-Reed of Winterport, and Christina Heiniger of Lamoine (whose work is pictured above). They'll present small works with an animal theme, and will also bring along other items for sale. A preview is going on now, and from what we've seen, the work is perfect for children's rooms, nurseries or grownups with whimsical taste.

Just remember to bring that sense of whimsy to the actual sale — Filene's Basement-style tug-of-wars are better with shoes than with oil paintings.

For more information, visit the Grand Theatre website.

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Can't-Miss Art: "Basquiat/Warhol"

It was the era of Studio 54. The end of disco. The beginning of '80s decadence.

In Manhattan, two rising stars were turning the art world (and in some cases, the corporate world) on its head. Jean-Michel Basquiat was challenging the status quo with his SAMO graffiti — stands for "same old shit" — a public commentary on materialism. Of course, once he became famous, Basquiat was as materialistic (and coked up) as any Wall Street hotshot. Andy Warhol, on the other hand, always embraced materialism. His "Factory" was all about production, and he embraced the glitterati, much as they embraced him.

Inevitably, these two artists became friends. They were close. They were rivals. And for two years, they were collaborators. Both died too young, too soon.

Bowdoin College Museum of Art will bring the two together again — well, their work, anyway — in "Basquiat/Warhol," a show that pairs Warhol's Polaroids with a giant canvas by Basquiat. It promises to be one of the highlights of this season, and one thing's for sure: all the glitterati will be there. You should be, too.

"Basquiat/Warhol" opens Jan. 15 and runs through April 4 in Bowdoin's Becker Gallery. For more information, click here.

Above image, Andy Warhol, "Sylvester Stallone," 1980, Polaroid. Courtesy of Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

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Insect Aside: The Art of Mike Libby

There are things you expect to see in the Nieman Marcus Christmas book: A $200,000 "round-table experience"(a k a private dinner party) with eight to 10 of today's top authors. His and hers sport planes for a mere $250,000. A $12,000 custom-made acoustic guitar.

But this catalog wouldn't be famous without a few surprises. This year, a piece of insect art by Maine's own Mike Libby is one of them. In his Portland studio, Libby creates tiny sculptures combining real insects with gears and other mechanical parts, often from antique watches.

According to his artist's statement, RISD alum Libby found a completely intact, dead beetle one day and began thinking about how the insect "looked like a little mechanical device." He found an antique watch, took it apart and got to work.

Imagine a butterfly's wings with a body made of tiny gears and springs. Or a praying mantis propped up with watch hands and other metal gadgets. The result is mesmerizing. So much so, that Libby's work has been featured in The New York Times and a variety of regional publications.

For the right person, one of these limited-edition sculptures — which features an African Flower Beetle suspended in a glass dome — is the perfect gift — not to mention, completely unexpected. And at Nieman's prices, the $8,500 price tag is a relative bargain.

To view Libby's work, visit the Insect Lab Web site. To view the Nieman Marcus Christmas Book, click here.

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Outside In

Nobody likes to be on the outside looking in, but sometimes, that perspective is clearer, more objective, different, better.

The same could be said of "The Great Outside," an exhibit and sale of outsider art that opens tomorrow and runs through Aug. 12 at 62 Bay View St. in Camden.

All of the artists hail from Maine and many of them have participated in workshops by Living In the Community (LINC) Social Club and Waterville Social Club, peer support programs for those with severe mental illness. For the last 27 years, these clubs have an art component to promote the role of creativity in recovery. Much of this work has never been exhibited before, and it runs the gamut from playful to jarring, simple to sophisticated. What ties it all together is "a directness and sincerity that reflects the artists’ lack of concern for art history or trends of the art world," according to Maine See Food, the group that organized the show.

Nearly 350 works will be on view, and proceeds from the sale will benefit the artists, Motivational Services Inc., which runs the social clubs, and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockport. For more information or to preview images, visit Maine See Food.

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Farm Fresh Photos

Back when The Maven was a cub reporter (and by "cub reporter," we mean "copy editor who managed to throw a few stories together on her days off"), she had the pleasure of working with the photojournalist Bridget Besaw.

Back then, a few things struck her: Bridget was a few years older and very cool — someone to look up to. She had excellent style, and in a newsroom, that counts for something. And, most important, she could shoot the hell out of pretty much anything, from bean suppers to accident scenes.

Some things never change. Though we haven't seen Bridget in years, we've followed her magazine and book work. She always approaches Maine — a state much beloved by photographers — with a fresh eye, and her 2008 documentary project "Maine Farms at Work" is no exception. An exhibit of those photographs, commissioned by Maine Farmland Trust, is on view through Aug. 8 at Frontier Cafe, Cinema and Gallery in Brunswick.

This body of work takes the viewer beyond farm stands and flowers to show the faces and determination that sustain agriculture in Maine. Yes, these images are pretty, but they're also gritty. Real.

Besaw grew up on a small farm, and, she writes, "as I spend more time on conservation issues, I am often reminded of our lost connection to the soil that sustains us." In this body of work, it is clear that she has found that connection.

For more information about the exhibit, click here. For a preview of Besaw's work, visit her Web site. Above image by Bridget Besaw.

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Que Sera, Serra?

You're an art fanatic, and you've been known to drive great distances to view a Rauschenberg print or a Rembrandt etching. Of course, in Maine, the "great distances" thing isn't exactly hard to do.

But Colby College Museum of Art has made things a little easier for people like you. The museum — one of the best in Maine, and, truth be told, New England — recently introduced its Web Kiosk, a searchable, online database of more than 6,000 objects in its collection. Images are available for about 2,500 pieces, including one of our favorites, "Clara Clara I" by Richard Serra.

Not only does the move make the collection more accessible for schoolchildren in Maine, it opens up this resource to an international audience. And while viewing art online will never replace the experience of getting inches away from the surface of a richly textured painting, a zoom tool allows you to see each piece in exquisite detail.

Perfect for an art freak like you.

To view highlights from collection, visit the Colby College Museum of Art Web site and click on "Exhibits/Collections."

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There's No Place Like Maine

Some things are worth the wait: Your first kiss. A delicious meal that it took all day to prepare. And now, a solo show by the artist David Allen.

In the interest of full disclosure, David is a friend of the mavens. But that doesn't have any bearing on just how good his recent work is. A sense of place has always infused David's paintings — back when he lived in Bangor, he would render the city's skyline in black, white and sepia tones, often on discarded pieces of the very buildings he was painting.

Today, he and his family live in Appleton, where the old farmhouses and rolling fields and hills have proved a similar muse. The paintings we've seen from "The Gravity of Place," which opens Friday at Asymmetrik Arts in Rockland, are infused with a certain reverence for the land and sea. Allen bathes his subjects in warm, slanted autumn light. Yes, they're lovely in the way Maine landscape paintings often are, but there's something deeper here, something a little melancholy, a little faded, a little nostalgic.

This is Allen's first solo show in years, and take it from us: any place where David Allen paints is the place to be.

"The Gravity of Place" opens Friday at Asymmetrik Arts, 499 Main St., Rockland. It will be on view through July 17. For more information, click here.

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Crate Expectations

The last time we checked in with Aaron Stephan, the Portland-based artist and MECA grad was making sculptures out of giant stacks of paper. Later, he created "Lift," a permanent installation of a two-story-high table and chairs that is a show-stopper at USM. And while the scale of "Vessels Absent," a site-specific installation at the University of Maine Museum of Art in Bangor, is a bit smaller, the visual impact is larger than life.

When you enter the gallery at UMMA, walk past the mesmerising silverpoint etchings by Carol Prusa, and pass the divider that separates the two main exhibition spaces, Stephan's work catches you off guard. In the center of the room, a group of 8-foot-tall, human-shaped crates is arranged so they're contemplating the blank walls that surround them. Posed with chin in hand, or tilted back to take it all in, the wooden sentinels stand like coffins, lids open and tossed aside, piles of shredded paper at their feet. In smart, tongue-in-cheek style, Stephan has not only turned packing material into art, he has turned viewer into viewee. It's genius, and it is so worth the trip to Bangor.

While you're there, don't miss Stephan's intricate, tiny pen-and-ink drawings, which are tucked away in a small gallery near the entrance. We like his riffs on the work of the Dutch masters, but our favorite is his map of "Ulysses." Since we can't make it past page 14 of the James Joyce classic, it's nice to know what the rest looks like.

It's a humorous play on scale — and the art we consider precious — and we wouldn't expect anything less from Aaron Stephan.

The University of Maine Museum of Art is located at 40 Harlow St. In Bangor. For directions or hours, click here.

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Studio Audience

The Bangor arts community has been talking about this for years, but finally, Queen City art walks are a reality — and they keep getting better.

The Maven covered the arts in Bangor for more than a decade, and she watched as the momentum  slowly but steadily grew among the city's artists and musicians. Last fall, things hit the tipping point, and interdisciplinary collaborations started springing up everywhere. The first art walk was one of them.


That first night, around Thanksgiving, a handful of artists on Central Street decided to open their studios to the public. Tonight's tour, which is scheduled from 5 to 9, will include more than 60 artists, museums and galleries, as well as live jazz at Giacomo's and a children's concert by The Flannery Brothers at 32 Central St. (second floor).

There are many highlights, but we're particularly excited to see the work of Liz Grandmaison, who won a Good Idea Grant from the Maine Arts Commission for a photography project capturing the work of Maine's stringed intstrument makers. Images from that project will be on display in the studio of luthier Nathan Slobodkin (31 Central St.). For a preview, click here.

If you go, be sure to check out Aaron Stephan's installation, Vessels Absent, at the University of Maine Museum of Art, and Michael Shyka's handpainted silks. And plan to make a night of it — don't just talk the talk, walk the walk.

Maps are available at the University of Maine Museum of Art, Metropolitan Soul, The Bangor Opera House, BookMarcs's, or The Hammond Street Senior Center.

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Bee Mine

What's the buzz on the Maine art scene? Well, unless you're feel like coming to Belfast, that's none of your beeswax.

The Maine Farmland Trust Gallery will hold an opening tonight for "The Smallest Workers on the Farm," an exhibit dedicated to bees and their role in local agriculture. The threat of colony collapse disorder has caused tremendous concern among farmers nationwide, including Maine's blueberry growers. These little workers have a serious job to do, and this two-artist show highlights their importance.

Belfast-area sculptor Beth Henderson works in encaustic (pictured), an ancient technique that suspends pigment in — surprise! — beeswax, creating a thick, luminous finish. Nature photographer Michelle Olson of Caribou documents the role bees play in crop pollination. Educational outreach by an artist and beekeeper will complement the exhibit. On June 23, the Belfast Free Library will screen the documentary "Sister Bee" by Laura Tyler; UMaine professor Frank Drummond, an expert in bees who is taking part in a national study of colony collapse disorder, also will give a lecture.

The opening is scheduled from 5 to 7 tonight, but the work will be on view until July 15, so there's still plenty of time to visit. And trust us — even if you're not agriculture geeks like we are, you'll think it's the bee's knees.

For more information about the exhibit and related events, click here.

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Fair and Square (or Rectangle)

There's something a little creepy and a little good about state fairs and festivals. Blame it on the ferris wheel. Blame it on the footlong sausages. Blame it on the fried dough. But for some reason, these sorts of things attract quite a cross-section of humanity.

For germ freaks, dieters and people who hate crowds, there's nothing worse. But for people-watchers — especially those who look at the world through a camera's lens — nothing could be better. Case in point: On and Off the Midway, an exhibit of photographs on view through June 13 at Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockport.

This collection was assembled by one of our favorite Maine curators, Bruce Brown, and as usual, he has pulled together old favorites and people we've never heard of. The Maven's former colleagues Bridget Brown and Kate Collins of the Bangor Daily News are on the list (woo hoo!), and we're especially fond of Hope artist Dee Peppe's black and white midway images. They're classic and nostalgic and tinged with the slightest hint of sadness. They have a certain Miss Havisham quality about them — once glorious, now eccentric and faded.

In other words, they embody everything we love about fairs and festivals. Now, off to find some cotton candy.

Center for Maine Contemporary Art is located at 162 Russell Ave. in Rockport. For information, click here or call 207.236.2875.

Above image, detail from "Old Orchard Beach, 1995/2003," Dee Peppe.

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This Takes The Cake

No offense to the bride, but what is up with that cardboard pedestal wrapped in tin foil? Seriously.

She spent days choosing the perfect bouquet. Months — if not years — searching for the perfect dress. Hours agonizing over the fondant-wrapped red velvet/chocolate/carrot cake extravaganza that sits before you today. It's gorgeous. But the thing it's sitting on looks like something out of a grade-schooler's science fair project.

Looks like it's time to make a stand. A cake stand, that is. Fortunately, Westbrook artist Kari Radasch can take care of that (and if you need a few mugs, decorative bowls and plates, she can help you with those, too). Radasch earned her BFA at MECA and her MFA from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. And her sculptural Radasch Redware is completely unlike the ubiquitous earthenware we're used to seeing at Maine shops.

Redware uses terra cotta as a base, and the warm hue peeks through Radasch's "sweet and syrupy" glazes. She adorns her vessels with mod flowers and polka dots, and the resulting pieces look like candy — good enough to eat.

Which is more than we can say for that cardboard box wrapped in foil. So next time you're invited to a wedding, do the bride a favor: Buy her one of Kari Radasch's cake stands — and give it to her a week beforehand.

To learn more about Radasch Redware, click here.

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Everything Is Illuminated

When they say, "You light up my life," Marcie Jan Bronstein and Alan Fishman really mean it.

The husband-and-wife duo — he a painter of bold, sometimes Picasso-esque acrylics, she a photographer who hand-paints her images — have embarked on an artistic collaboration that is truly delightful. Their medium? Lamps.

In "Duetto," Fishman and Bronstein combine vintage bases with hand-painted shades. The result is a revelation. When illuminated, the whole mood of the piece changes as the shade's colors and patterns take on a new depth.

The couple met in Italy in 1991 and now call Belfast home. Fishman is professor emeritus at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and his work has a clarity of color and line reminiscent of the European Modernists. Bronstein, who recently published "Best Seat in the House," infuses her photographs with color in a way that is both surreal and transcendent. In "Duetto," they've found a way to let their individual strengths — and their love light — shine.

Select lamps from the "Duetto" collection, along with Bronstein's photographs, are on display at Carver Hill Gallery (one of our favorite destinations), at 246 Meadow St. in Rockport. For information on the gallery, click here. For more information about "Duetto," visit Marcie Jan Bronstein's site here. Image copyright Marcie Jan Bronstein and Alan Fishman, used with permission.

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In the Cards

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away (OK, we're exaggerating, South Portland is close to pretty much everything) there lived an artist named Susan Delsandro Hellier

Susan was a whimsical gal — one look at her Zaz and Moe children's clothing designs could tell you that. And she took a playful approach to color and line. Like any fairy tale princess, Susan was happy — or at least her artwork was.

Sure, she'd tell you that her children inspired her work, but we're going to guess that the real source of her happiness was her handsome prints. We're pretty happy about them, too. In bold hues and simple lines, Hellier creates sweet, sophisticated graphic art that is equally at home in a child's room or the living room. We're especially fond of her spring-inspired greeting cards, which are available on Etsy and suitable for framing.

Trust us: if you order these, you'll live happily ever after. Or, at the very least, someday, your prints will come.

For more information on Susan Delsandro Hellier's work, click here.

Both images at right copyright Susan Delsandro Hellier.

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Strip Tease

Mac obsession aside, the Mavens could not be less geeky. It's not something we're particularly proud of, it's just how we roll. We never got into Dungeons and Dragons, Star Trek or anything involving dice that did not also involve a craps table. And we have never attended an event whose name ended in -Con.

But lately, even the Mavens are starting to get into comics. Blame it on Mark Ricketts, a guy "from away" who moved to Bangor and learned the lay of the land pretty quickly. His Moose Mountain Comics strip is a ridiculous but lovable forest farce. This week's storyline features the Squirrellis (a k a the squirrel Mafia). With regular characters like Mitzi the moose, who has gone through four husbands, and Orson the beaver, who loves the high life, there are plenty of laughs to be had.

There's more to Ricketts than anthropomorphic fun, however. His credits include the graphic novel Night Trippers, and he has written for both the Hellboy series and Marvel Comics' Iron Man.

And if that isn't a geek's dream come true, we don't know what is. Then again, we wouldn't.

For more information about Mark Ricketts' work, visit Handbuzzer Studio.

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Rock on

Karma karma karma karma karma chameleon. You come and go. You come and go.

And if you come and go to southern Maine, do check out the Portland Museum of Art's upcoming exhibition Backstage Pass, a selection of rock 'n roll photographs from a private collection. The images — some formal portraits, some candids — show a side of celebrity that we seldom see.

A party shot of The Beatles with Maharishi is like a time capsule. A portrait of Boy George has the power to transport you to 1980s London. And a candid of a young Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in the studio will make you think twice about all that hard livin' you've been up to.

As for the photo of Joan Jett with her cat — don't be surprised if you can't get the tune to "I love Rock 'n Roll" out of your head when you leave.

The show opens Jan. 22 and is up through March 22. For more information, click here.

Image copyright Laura Levine, courtesy of the Portland Museum of Art.

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