ALTERED STATE

Brian Kent has a complaint. In an age of complaining for complaining’s sake, this would hardly be news were it not for the fact that his is valid.

Mr. Kent is the Gardiner artist who created one of the four final designs for the Maine quarter to be produced next year by the U.S. Mint. His is the view of Katahdin with an American Indian in a canoe in the foreground. The complaint is that in the circuitous route his design took – from artist’s studio to state committee to U.S. Mint and back to the state for final selection – something got lost along the way.

One need not be an artist, an art critic or even especially interested in art to see the difference. In Mr. Kent’s rendering, Katahdin towers over the landscape in a way that conveys its real-life majesty. The lake provides a nice bit of open space, a pine branch frames the top, a spit of land the bottom. A pine, cropped to imply towering height, creates a strong border on the left, in contrast to the openness on the right. Those familiar with the language of art might say the design offers an effective balance of horizontal and vertical elements arranged to convey a sense of depth and dynamism. The rest might say it looks good and deserves to be on the Maine quarter.

The altered drawing, the work of U.S. Mint staff, deserves to be nowhere but on the refrigerator of especially indulgent parents. Mr. Kent’s imposing mountain is shrunk to a nondescript hill, his careful framing is replaced by three misshapen dwarf trees absurdly plopped on a couple of rocks. The Indian, originally paddling purposefully toward the open right edge, now is meandering out in the middle of the lake for no apparent reason.

The Mint says all submitted designs are subject to change in order to accommodate the demands of the minting process. We were not aware that the minting process demands replacing a clean and attractive design with something cluttered and unattractive. We are now fully aware, however, that U.S. Mint staff has a bad eye for art and entirely too much time on its hands.