“Traces: Vanishing Landscapes” highlights the visions of three Maine artists who examine what is left behind as the state’s economy “modernizes” and shifts. The exhibit offers an engaging and contemporary dialogue on changing Maine life that is relevant throughout the state. At the same time, the deep personal connections that Sarah Brayman, Lisa Tyson Ennis and Shanna Wheelock bring to their subject matter ensures a heartfelt meditation on change, threading together sense of place and small-town life. Permeating these three artists’ visions is a respect for common objects, and the people who made, used or sold them. National and global trends, such as the international migration of industry, fisheries depletion, chain-store domination of retail, and reorganization and consolidation of education will be grounded in the concrete realities of the areas the artists call home: Lubec and Brunswick areas of Maine, as well as the Canadian isle of Newfoundland.
The public is invited to meet the artists at an opening reception set for 5-8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28, at Harlow Gallery, 160 Water St.
Gallery hours are noon-6 p.m. Wednesday–Saturday. Exhibitions are always free and open to the public.
About the artists
Sarah Brayman has an art studio and home in Brunswick. She holds degrees in studio art and appropriate technology, and has completed the coursework for a PhD in urban planning. She is currently chair of the Brunswick Town Council and has worked in local municipal Maine politics for many years. Primarily a fine art photographer, she has expanded her technical range to include a beeswax-and-damar-varnish medium, encaustic, into her visual discipline.
Lisa Tyson Ennis lives on the remote, rocky, “bold coast” area of Lubec. Her most recent work has focused on the decline of the traditional fishery, with haunting images of herring weirs, smokehouses and abandoned outport villages in Newfoundland. She works solely with historical processes — large and medium format cameras, black and white film, and handmade toners —always searching for a fleeting unison of light and landscape that is both representational and symbolic. Each image is hand printed and painted with light in the darkroom. Ennis’s work is in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Tides Institute, Delaware Art Museum, and Portland Museum of Art, and has been included in more than 75 solo and group exhibitions since 2002.
Shanna Wheelock lives and works in a remote fishing village on the border of Canada. Her current body of work relays sense of place: an honoring and connecting to the energies, environment, culture, and history of the people who have lived in Lubec for generations. Columns, drawings and paintings are inspired by walks and explorations in and around local sites. Photo documentation and writing are critical in the creative process which is both methodical and meditative. On an inner level, her work serves as a metaphor for her own soul’s journey. As a co-founder of Lubec Arts Alive, Wheelock has been instrumental in community arts-building. She integrates art and fine craft into all aspects of her life while operating a pottery shop out of her barn, is a regular vendor in the local farmers market, and exhibits both her pottery and sculpture statewide. Her work has been featured in American Craft magazine.
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