FARMINGTON — What does art mean to you?
That was the question asked of viewers at the May 13 Mt. Blue Art Show. The students were full of thoughts about what art means to them. Art is “piercing,” “perseverance,” “growing,” “buzzing.” Art is “a filter.”
“I call her Mother Nature,” Julia Ramsey explained. “I knew I wanted to use natural materials. This is papier-mâché with some twigs and leaves. It’s all about life coming from the earth.”
A sophomore at Mt. Blue, Ramsey hopes to take more art classes next year. “The hardest part is getting started. I have a lot of ideas but taking the next step is a challenge.” Whatever challenges Ramsey faced, “Mother Nature” does not exude them. To Ramsey, art is life.
Becky Close had no idea she was good at art. “It’s supposed to be an impressionism piece. Turns out you’re not supposed to use black…so it’s not really impressionism…” she said hesitantly. The piece, a large fox that catches your eye immediately upon walking into the room, seems to perfectly capture the disposition of a fox, impressionism or not.
“I took intro to art and my teacher kept telling me I had a lot of potential. I don’t really know what happened, something just clicked,” Close explained. “This was a spirit animal assignment. I guess I think of the fox as my spirit animal.”
Close, inspired by Georgia O’Keefe, is drawn to doing extra-large work, “I like working big. I can’t really do small stuff.” To Becky Close, art is vast.
“I wrote this poem after I had been swimming. It was late at night and there was still the taste of salt in my mouth. I just needed to capture it somehow.” Katherine Gunther is a senior at Mt. Blue. She chose to mix her poetry with her art “because the two are so entwined.”
Gunther is dressed in green with dangling, sparkling jewelry, a human representation of the plaster mermaid she is standing next to. “I love art but I am actually going to major in architecture. It was when I got interested in architecture that I knew I wanted to take an art class.” To Katherine Gunther art is an avenue.
Darin Douin’s favorite media is watercolor. “But it’s a love/hate relationship. It’s really hard. You have to get everything just right or it’s hard to fix. I’ve learned how to get around things and how to make mistakes work.”
Douin is a senior at Mt. Blue planning on studying engineering at UMO. “I think working with clay will be really helpful for the design part of engineering. Understanding 3-D will be really helpful.”
Douin points to an ink drawing of a heron, “That’s for my mom for mother’s day. She doesn’t know yet. I’m not going to tell her which one is for her so it will be a surprise.” For Douin art is connection.
The show has been held at the Emery Art Center for four years now. “The Emery Center is the perfect place for the public to view the show and the added bonus is that it hangs until the first of June,” Roger Bisaillon, an art teacher at Mt. Blue, stated. “The students are already looking forward to next year and have started planning,” Bisaillon says. To Bisaillon art is the future.
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