“Lost and Found,” the current online show at the Maine Art Gallery, features three Maine artists who create mixed media narratives with all manner of materials from traditional art supplies to textiles, papers, and found objects.
Buzz Masters: “Her Body Became a Door and She Walked Right Through” mixed media. Photo courtesy of Maine Art Gallery
The show, which can be viewed at maineartgallerywiscasset.org through Friday, Sept. 4, is a preview of an in-person show to be held at the gallery next summer when it is hoped that the coronavirus will be under control, according to a news release from the Wiscasset gallery.
Katy Helman, Buzz Masters and Jennifer Lee Morrow tell their stories in a rather unorthodox way that reflects the human spirit through symbolism and patterns and a synthesis of styles. The work is so powerful that Elaine Pew, curator of the show, was inspired to bring it to the gallery when she first saw the work of Buzz Masters. “The way Buzz combines fresco with collage, telling stories that involved the viewer, really struck me. I knew then that I had to show her work at the Maine Art Gallery,” Pew said, according to the release.
Katy Helman: “Under the Influence: H.D.” oil on canvas. Photo courtesy of Maine Art Gallery
Masters describes her own work as an investigation of malleable nature of memory — what we hold onto and what we leave out in order to make our story. She uses wooden panels covered with her recipe of materials reflecting the genius of Italian plasterers. More recently she has been working on paper, using mixed media collage.
Pew found Helman’s work to be joyful and humorous. As Helman says of her paintings, “I mix stripes and paisleys, synthesize genres and styles. Whether obvious or not, my work is autobiographical, describing my state of mind and the current events of my life.”
Morrow describes herself as a magpie, collecting bits of paper and cloth and other objects that come into her life. “I collect the stories I hear and the ones I imagine. then through alchemy, tinkering, and stitching, I combine and alter these substance until the stories deepen and become my own.”
Jennifer Lee Morrow: “Concealed Ambitions” mixed media. Photo by Ken Woisard
The gallery is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement and preservation of painting, sculpture and graphic arts through exhibitions, lectures, demonstrations, and educational programs for children and adults. More information can be found at www.maineartgallerywiscasset.org and on Facebook at Maine Art Gallery Wiscasset. The gallery is at 15 Warren St., Wiscasset. The gallery is closed for the 2020 season.
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