Linda Crane would like to change the way that too many people think about art.

“There’s an attitude in Western culture that artists should do art for free, because it’s a hobby,” said the Caribou artist. “But art isn’t a hobby [for working artists]. Art is essential to life. When you look around, everything in life has been designed.”

Crane puts some of the blame for such attitudes on artists themselves, many of whom are content to live solitary existences.

“We do this because we love this,” she said. “Most of us would do it for free. But it doesn’t have to be [economically] painful.”

That’s why Crane and fellow Caribou artist Sandra Huck founded the Aroostook Visual Artists Coalition last November.

The coalition, which has a core membership of about 30, meets the first Monday of every month at the Caribou Public Library. In addition, a group show is planned June 10 to July 11 at the Reed Gallery at the University of Maine at Presque Isle.

Crane, who moved from Chicago to Caribou last February, wanted to meet other artists working in The County.

“Like a lot of visual artists, I felt isolated,” she recalled. “Everyone is working in their own little cubbyhole, isolated and lonely, with very little synergy going on.”

The coalition serves several purposes: providing education, information, exposure, camaraderie and a creative spark.

“It serves partly to provide community,” Crane said. “It’s helpful to have other people to bounce things off of, and to have around. Also, it’s to exchange information … where to show and where not to show, how to copyright. We’re trying to shorten the learning curve on some things.”

Crane is a botanical and nature artist who does illustrative and design work, instructional graphics and book designs for national textbook publishers through her Linda Crane Productions company.

She was involved with the regional Chicago Artists Coalition and the Chicago Southland Visual Arts Coalition and a member of national groups including the Nature Artists Guild and the Colored Pencil Society of America. So she knew what was necessary for a successful group.

“We picked all the best parts of those groups, and coalesced them into what AVAC is developing into,” she said.

Crane realizes that every artist at an AVAC meeting is going to have a different agenda.

“I tend to be very entrepreneurial, while others want more hands-on activity,” she said. “We’re loosely affiliated, and there’s something for everybody.”

The organization doesn’t have paid members per se.

“If you’re a visual artist in Aroostook County, you can declare yourself a member,” Crane said. “We’re operating strictly on voluntary contributions right now. We’re working at becoming a nonprofit organization, so we can get some corporate support.”

On the third Saturday of every month, the group holds Art Saturday, workshops on various arts for its working artists.

AVAC will be running the Caribou Art Fair during the Caribou Fest & Agricultural Celebration July 12-14, with cash prizes being offered for the first time this year.

In addition, the organization is working on an open studio event for next year, at which people could visit artists in places where they work.

Crane said that similar events in rural central Wisconsin and southwestern Michigan have become big tourism draws, and she’d like for art to become a boost for the economically depressed county.

The native Chicagoan and her husband, freelance writer Norman Davis, decided to leave the Windy City because “it had gotten so busy, so fast, and the crime rate was so high. I could do my business anyplace. We looked on the Internet for the kind of place we liked to go camping in. With Maine, the climate was right, and we could take our resources and translate it into more property.”

The rural farmhouse was a natural choice for the artist, especially for one current project.

“We’re losing delicate wildlife at a high rate of speed, and I want to document that vanishing flora,” Crane said.

Crane was pleasantly surprised at the number of artists in the area around her new home.

“I didn’t expect there to be so many of them, and I didn’t expect them to be so far underground,” she said. “They’re really good, and [the artists] need to have that encouraged.”

That’s why the coalition is working on exposure for visual artists in the area.

“Everyone knows about the art colonies on the coast, but artists are a huge resource up here,” Crane said. “It’s about getting art in front of the rest of the world, to show there are artists up here that are really good.”

Based on her experience, Crane said, it takes three to five years to become a viable organization.

“I’m gratified with how fast it’s taken off,” she said. “It’s obvious there was a need for it.”

Crane is hopeful that AVAC can help more County artists to make a living at their craft.

“Artists go where living is cheap, and there’s lots of stuff to paint or sculpt,” she said. “The tradeoff is the isolation. We’re trying to make this the best of both worlds.”

For information, call Linda Crane at 496-3650.