Gallery, studios,
music, ice cream, a beautiful lake—and it’s all free!
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| Clif Travers works on his great tree for long hours every day. I help him along by constantly asking, "Are you finished?" |
Our resident gardener, Rachel Alexandrou, will
offer hourly tours of the Center’s garden. Rachel has odd ideas about what a Maine
garden can support. She grew red cotton, cardoon, artichokes, amaranth, and tiny
black grape tomatoes in a small riot of color. When Rachel isn’t gardening,
drawing, or taking photographs, she’s entertaining us with mournful songs on
her ukulele. However, she’s a bubbly person, so they’re frequently interrupted
with peals of laughter.
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| Rachel Alexandrou is outstanding in her field. (Courtesy Maine Farmland Trust) |
Clif
Travers has made himself an enormous tree of recycled tree products. He’s
now painting it in oils, a highly-detailed process. On first read, it’s
stained-glass, reminiscent of hours spent in church as a child. But his tree is
oddly anthropomorphic, standing protectively over creation. In a nod to Renaissance
painter Giuseppe
Arcimboldo, many of its parts are made of vegetables. Certain viewers,
however, have insisted they’ve seen a hot dog, lamb chop, and other meat
products. It is, as far as I can see, totally gluten-free.
Each morning, I’ve met Heather
Lyon creeping out of the house at dawn, heading down through the fields to
the lake. There, she’s shot beautiful footage of herself in various interactions
with water. Wearing a $6 reflective survival poncho she bought at Renys, she was transformed into a beautiful,
otherworldly creature. Heather also chilled herself and a collaborator in the very
cold waters off Pemaquid Point for the sake of swift-moving footage with
seaweed and a crab or two.
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| Heather Lyon in her studio. (Courtesy Maine Farmland Trust) |
I
came here with a high-minded idea of painting the confluence between man, water
and the land. In reality, I ended up thrashing around between watercolor on Yupo
and oil painting. I alternated media every day, painting each subject first in
oils, then in watercolor. After a month of this, I can say with certainty only
that my brain hurts.
The Gallery here is showing Nature
Observed: The Landscapes of Joseph Fiore, with oil and pastel paintings
by the late artist and environmentalist. These paintings have influenced my
thinking all month. If you practice or love plein
air painting, you should come by just to study them.
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| Damariscotta Lake, by Carol L. Douglas, watercolor on Yupo. |
There will be live music on the lawn by jazz trio The
Extension Chords, with Myles Kelley on piano, Katherine Bowen on bass and Owen
Markowitz on drums. Coffee, tea and local ice cream will be served.
The Joseph A. Fiore Art Center at Rolling Acres Farm is a
program of Maine Farmland Trust.
Its mission is to actively connect the creative worlds of farming and art
making. The Center’s purpose is to continue and evolve the dialogue between
human and environment within the context of our current culture and time.
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| My own studio is more of a repository than a workspace. As usual, I'm working out of my Prius. |
It’s located on Damariscotta Lake at 152
Punk Point Road in Jefferson. Bring a picnic and enjoy the
Center’s grounds for the day.
MFT also runs MFT
Gallery, at 97 Main Street, Belfast. It is open Monday through Friday from
9 to 4. On Fourth Friday Art Walks, it is open until 8pm.
Maine Farmland Trust is a statewide, member-powered
nonprofit working to protect farmland, support farmers, and advance farming.
Maine Farmland Trust created its gallery to celebrate agriculture through art,
and to inspire and inform the public about farming in Maine.
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