A glorious new chapter unfolded in 2017 in a house overlooking the Hudson River. Sounds of the train edging the river at regular intervals, of red tail hawks perched high in the backyard, of battalions of geese at dusk flying into Kemey's Cove. The sun streams, unobstructed, from one side of my home to the other; the studio is itself a sunroom surrounded by evergreens. I've taken on a new passion printing pinhole and digital photographs on silk and handsewing the appliqués on a large scale, adding embroidery and quilting.
For 39 years, I lived in Stonington, a small fishing village on Deer Isle, Maine where I had the privilege to balance life as an artist and teacher. The studio grew into a lovely two-story, white-clapboard building attached to my small house: a year-round gallery and teaching facility.
I was, to begin with, a printmak
er. My monoprints were quiet abstractions responding mostly to colors, forms and rhythms in music. I developed a process which allowed me long hours of improvisation at my press and yielded rich textures and tonal variations.
Then in midlife I attended graduate school (University of Alberta: MFA in Printmaking, '93). Photography was encouraged there and I began foraging for material with a macro lens and excerpting fragments of the natural world onto photosensitive copper and aluminum. The prints seemed to have a particular eloquence which would accommodate words. It was at this point and by chance that I began to make books.
My aim was to present poems and prints in a way to invite open, repeated readings... urging the reader to travel beneath the surface of text and image in a parallel metaphorical process.
I kept exploring this relationship, connecting experimental processes in the darkroom and on my presses, working with wood, metal and other materials, mining the sequential and kinetic properties of handmade books. A book artist is at times an artist and other times a craftsman and I especially value these alternating roles.
In 1999, I returned from seven days of walking in the Sahara Desert with pebbles in my pockets and film in pinhole boxes and a plastic toy camera. These primitive, soft-focus cameras caught some of the mystery that held us captive in the desert. They joined in the play of the wind and the sand as the dunes reformed themselves in perpetual motion. The images are spare and imbued with poetry.
I took my cameras to Mongolia, France, Iceland, Switzerland and the Black Sea as well as down the street where the ocean could cast a spell with force and motion, an elusive horizon and a vast sweep of time. Simple little boxes offering an intimate, unexpected, multilayered way of seeing.
Born: Lausanne, Switzerland (1948)
EDUCATION
M.F.A. in Printmaking, University of Alberta, Canada (1993)
Haystack Mtn. School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME: Technical Assistant in Papermaking (1981), Book Arts (1995), Calligraphy (1996)
S.U.N.Y., Purchase, NY: Visual Arts (1973-76)
Institute for Experimental Printmaking, San Francisco, CA (1976-77)
M.S. in Applied Linguistics, Georgetown University (1973)
B.A. Cum Laude with Honors, Allegheny College, PA (1970)
Diploma, University of Madrid, Spain (1968)
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS / MUSEUMS
Context: Language, Media and Meaning from the Surface Design Association (Fiber Arts), Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA '18-19
MIXMASTER (juried exhibition), Awarded Juror's Prize, Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury CT, '17
Photo National 2011 (juried national survey), University of Maine Museum of Art, Bangor ME '11
Prospect of Light (Pinhole and Plastic Camera Images) University of Maine Museum of Art, Bangor ME '04; University of New Hampshire and Baldwin Photographic Gallery, TN: '05
Word and Image in the Contemporary Artist's Book, Colby College Museum of Art, ME '04
20/20 enVision, Colby College Art Museum, ME '03; University of New England, ME '04
Maine Women in the Arts, Colby College Art Museum, ME '01
Artists Books in the Museum's Collection, Portland Museum of Art, ME '01
A Rich Heritage: The Craft Tradition in Maine, York Institute Museum, ME '98
Perspectives: The Art of the Book, Portland Museum of Art, ME '97
Biennial of Maine Crafts (Award), Colby College Art Museum, ME '95
Works on Paper, Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA '93
The Printed Image, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY '88
Maine Printmakers, Farnsworth Art Museum, ME '80
TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS
Freed Formats: the Book Reconsidered, New York & Connecticut, March thru October '19
Artists' Books, Boston Printmakers, '99-01
Mini Print Internacional, Spain and England, Finland '95; Korea '94; Japan, Mexico '90
Art of the Book, Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild, Canada, Japan '93-96
International Print Biennial, John Szoke Gallery, NYC '89-91
INVITATIONAL AND JURIED EXHIBITIONS (Partial List)
The Crow Show, The Studio Door, San Diego, CA '19
Photowork 2019 National Juried Exhibition, Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY '19
CMCA Biennial, Rockport, ME '14
San Diego Book Arts National Juried Exhibition, University of California, San Diego, CA '14
Beneath the Surface: Avy Claire, Anne-Claude Cotty, Nancy Manter, PhoPa Gallery, Portland, ME '14
Materials Hard and Soft, Greater Denton Arts Council, Denton, TX '14
Elemental Metals, Pearson Gallery, Deer Isle, ME '13
Archipelago, Isalos Fine Art, Stonington, ME '13
Flowers by the Sea, Maine Coast Artist Gallery, Friendship, ME '13
Fashionable Books and Paper Fashion, University of Southern Maine, Portland, ME '13
The Inspired Hand V: Maine Crafts Biennial, University of Southern Maine, Lewiston, ME '12
Reading, Writing and Defining: USM Book Arts at Stone House Faculty Exhibition, University of Southern Maine, Lewiston, ME '12
Photographing Maine: Ten Years Later, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME '10
San Diego Book Arts, National Juried Show, University of California, San Diego, CA '10
Paper and Poetry: Collaborative Works from Maine Artists and Authors, University of Southern Maine, Portland, ME '10
Obscura: Alternative Photographic Processes, Aarhus Gallery, Belfast, ME '09
Spineless Wonders, University of Southern Maine, Lewiston, ME '09
Opera House Arts 10th Anniversary (Juror's Award), Isalos Gallery, Stonington, ME '09
Dross, Dregs, Leftovers and Junk, Aarhus Gallery. Belfast, ME '09
Long-time Members, Center for Maine Craft, Gardiner, ME '09
Creative Process, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME '08
Artist Books, Aarhus Gallery, Belfast, ME '08
Maine Printmakers: 1980-2005 (The Maine Print Project), Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME '06
Artist Made Books, Shaw Gallery, Northeast Harbor, ME '06, '04
Books Transformed, Flinn Gallery, Greenwich Library, CT '06
Deer Isle Six, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA '00
Inspired Hand, University of Southern Maine, Lewiston, ME '00
Different Approaches: 4 Artists Who Combine Visual Art and Poetry, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME '00
The Art of Craft, Elements Gallery, Rockland, ME '00; Portland, ME '01
Photographing Maine: 150 Years, Maine Coast Artists, Rockport, ME '00
Sahara: A Language of Sand and Silence, Unity College, ME (Solo) '99
Arrowmont National , TN '99
Book Arts Invitational, U of West Virginia '99
Beyond the Fold: Artist's Books, Gallery of South Orange, NJ '99
Biennial of World Art Bookbinding, Cambo les Bains '99; St. Jean-de-Luz '97 (France)
International Printmaking Symposium, University of Alberta, Edmonton '97 (Canada)
Forum des Quatre As, Festival du Livre, Belfort '97 (France)
Turning the Page, Honolulu Academy of Arts, HI '96
Maine Crafts, Aitken Bicentennial Exhibition Center, Saint John, NB '96 (Canada)
National Library of Canada, Ottawa '95 (Canada)
Artist's Books and Book Illustrators, Barn Gallery, ME '94
Papertrail Gallery, Ottawa '94 (Canada)
Agnes Scott College, Decatur, GA '94
Parkside National Small Print Exhibition, University of Wisconsin, WI '93
Institute for the Book Arts, University of Alabama, AL '93
14th Annual International Festival of Authors, Toronto '93 (Canada)
Giving Voice to the Silent World: Visual Metaphor in Photobased Prints, MFA Exhibition, University of Alberta, Edmonton '93 (Canada)
Art Evo Gallery, Edmonton, AB '93 (Canada)
Gallery Sixty-Eight, Belfast, ME '89
Works on Paper, Neill Gallery, New York, NY '78
FEATURED IN:
Paper in Three Dimensions by Diane Maurer-Mathison, Watson-Guptil, NY: '06 (128 pp.)
The Art of Making Paste Papers by Diane Maurer-Mathison, Watson-Guptil, NY: '02 (112 pp.)
Photographing Maine: 1840-2000, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME: 2000 (70 pp.)
Directory of Community Artists, Artists & Communities: America Creates for the Millennium, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation '99
AC3=Infinity: Fifty Arts in Community Programs, handbook and web site, Corporation for National Service '99
Sightlines: Printmaking and Image Culture (A Collection of Essays and Images), edited by Walter Jule, University of Alberta Press, Edmonton: '97 (328 pp.)
Paper Art: The Complete Guide to Papercraft Techniques by Diane Maurer and Jennifer Philippoff, Watson-Guptil, NY: '97 (144 pp.)
Pages: Innovative Bookmaking Techniques by Linda Fry Kenzle, Krause Publications, Iola, WI: '97 (125 pp.)
AWARDS
Surface Design Association "Innovation Prize", Fall Issue 2018
Baxter Society, ME: Stephen Harvard Prize, Award '02
Deer Isle: A Whole Island Celebration, 1998 Arts and Healing Community Grant, Institute of Noetic Sciences & Fetzer Institute: '98-99
Maine Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship '97
COLLECTIONS (Partial List)
Seidman & Seidman, SBO
Arthur Jaffe Collection (Florida)
Portland Museum of Art
Dartmouth College
Boston Public Library
University of Alberta
University of Alberta Special Collections Library
Bowdoin College
Baylor University
Yale University
Purdue University
Carleton College
St. Benedict's College/St. John's University
Boston Athenaeum
Maine Women Writers Collection, Univ. of New England
University of Southern Maine
University of Connecticut