Maine artists offer diverse Portland show

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PORTLAND – A brick building on Portland’s Congress Street is the place to see fine oils and lighthearted watercolors, crisp gelatin silver prints and fabric creations, curly maple and Carrera marble, welded nails and wire hangers – and a painting of the “Say Hey” kid.

A portrait including baseball legend Willie Mays is on view at the Portland Museum of Art’s “2001 Biennial,” a juried collection of 88 works created by artists who have lived or worked in Maine during the past two years.

Don’t look for the outfielder in a Giants uniform. That’s Willie with “Minneapolis” across his chest, on the right in the trio of minor leaguers painted by Jessica Gandolf of Portland.

Pitchers get their due, as well, in her individual paintings of Don Newcombe and Lefty Grove – and there’s another showing Johnny Podres getting his Army physical back in the ’40s.

At 42, the Sorbonne-trained Gandolf is too young to have been there in person. She does the paintings after studying poses in photographs from decades ago.

“We bring a different energy to something we don’t experience directly. I can use my imagination,” said the artist, who also counts boxers as a favorite subject.

Nature gets the imaginative treatment from Ralph M. Bourque II, creator of “The Flock,” which has taken over the immense white wall just inside the Portland museum.

“The hangers are chirping,” one young pupil said seriously to her teacher. In fact, background music makes it seem that the 200-plus small birds, resembling small wire hangers, are announcing spring.

It appears that the “birds” are actually stapled to the museum wall, and they are, explained a member of the museum’s curatorial staff, Aprile Gallant.

“After a show, we spackle, paint and patch. We always have to patch nail holes,” she said of PMA’s practice of securely fastening art to the walls.

The wall where the birds have alit, in the museum’s Great Hall, is “big and dramatic. It works quite well with this particular piece,” Gallant said.

This second of the museum’s biennials drew a tremendous response from artists with Maine connections. They submitted slides of 831 pieces of work, with fewer than 10 percent making the cut by three jurors: Cheryl Brutan, a curator at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; David Driskell, retired professor from the University of Maryland; and Nina Nielsen, owner of the Nielsen Gallery in Boston.

The judges viewed the slides without any identifying information, Gallant pointed out. “That’s the only democratic way to jury a show.”

Both adult patrons and school groups enjoyed themselves during a recent morning at the gallery.

“What do you think it’s made of?” one teacher asked a youngster studying a glistening high-heeled shoe made by Sue Arnold of Camden.

“Crystal,” the child answered with wonder in her voice.

In fact, the shoe’s myriad reflections come from pieces of mirror, and the “Narcissism” entry is part of Arnold’s “Woman as Fashion Victim Collection.”

Pupils plunked themselves on the floor in front of the winner of the Jurors’ Prize, John Bisbee’s untitled sculpture made from welded nails of various types.

The Brunswick resident had spread the 16 clusters across an expanse of wall. Nails transformed into pyramids, barbed wire, concertina wire, combs, breasts, dandelion fluff, a DNA helix and the footprint of a “Bigfoot.”

Photography took the Purchase Prize, awarded to Hollis resident Scott Peterman, whose series of three prints depict a boy jumping into a river.

For aficionados of the impressionist style, a two-paneled “Chicago River Diptych 1” by Yvonne Jacquette is an aerial view done in greens and blues with red reflections. The pastel by the summer resident of Searsmont offers varied angles on the bridge and river.

The abstract pieces on exhibit are thought-provoking – Fritz Dietel’s “Cloak,” a vessel-shaped piece in wood and copper; Sherrill Edwards Hunnibell’s “Book of Hours #82,” made from a book and other materials; and Robert de Mar’s “Paradise III,” mixed media with a futuristic touch of nature.

Decorative arts include solid pieces of furniture.

Skowhegan craftsman Randy Holden’s Adirondack buffet, a rustic work in different shades of wood, could have come from an older age.

More modern in style are Gregg Lipton’s sideboard with translucent top, and a sleek chiffonier by Theron Wentworth and Leslie Allen of Kennebunk.

Fabric artist Jo Diggs of Portland hand painted her scenery on plain and printed cloth. “Many Winters” features tall birches bounded by mountains in blues and purples.

Sullivan sculptor Rick Beckjord began work on the marble “Generation Gap” during a trip to Italy a few years ago. The figurative piece shows an older woman leaning on her daughter. Carved into the base is the inscription, “Lean not unto thine own understanding.”

Winslow’s Paul Plante is well known for his oil pastels of birds’ eyes. His work on display features five examples, all in red, formed in the shape of a cross.

Plante, a Roman Catholic priest, titled the piece “Good Friday, 2000: ‘By These Wounds We Are Saved.'”

Despite the show’s title as a biennial, it comes three years after the last one in 1998. Repeat exhibitors are Patricia Campbell, who works in reed and paper; photographer Paul D’Amato; sculptor Fritz Dietel; and oil artist Elizabeth Cashin McMillen.

The future of the biennial series is secure thanks to a recent bequest by late Port Clyde artist Bill Thon through the Helen E. and William E. Thon Endowment Fund.

“In discussions with Mr. Thon, he stated how important juried shows had been to his career,” Gallant explained.

In addition to the bequest of more than $4 million, Thon left 35 of his paintings to the Portland Museum of Art.

A show of Thon’s work will be held in the fall, Gallant said. “That had been planned before he died, and he was pleased about it.”

The “2001 Biennial” will be on display through June 3 at the Portland Museum of Art, 7 Congress Square, Portland. A catalog for the show is available in the museum gift shop for $9.95. For information on the show, call 775-6148, or check www.portlandmuseum.org.