Home is where the art is Artist returns to grandfather’s homestead in Wallagrass to work and teach

One summer day, a young Therese Provenzano set up a makeshift studio in the potato house on her grandfather’s farm in Wallagrass. Each time he walked by, he looked at her canvas and smiled as a painting of three tall trees took form.

“Those were his three favorite trees,” Provenzano said during a recent interview in her Fort Kent studio, Artist at Work. “I didn’t know that.”

That evening, she presented him with the painting, and he hung it in the living room. It’s been there ever since. When Provenzano moved to the farm full-time in 2002, she left it right where it was.

From the time she was a girl in Long Island, Provenzano knew two things for sure: she wanted to be an artist, and she wanted to return to the farm that her great-grandparents built in the St. John Valley. Though many things changed, those two stayed constant.

“Even though I was raised in New York and lived in Philadelphia, it’s always been my dream to come here because the farm always felt like home,” she said.

Growing up, Provenzano would often return to the homestead to visit. She came up in the winter of 1998 during a particularly tumultuous time that preceded her divorce, and set up her easel in the potato house once again. As she worked, her vision of moving to Wallagrass became clear.

“Every time I walked in and out of the potato house, I’d have flashbacks of life – turning points. Some were with regret,” Provenzano said. “My life was becoming full-circle, because I saw myself here. That’s when I realized I had to take that really seriously, right then and there. I saw it crystallize and I knew it would happen.”

It was a gutsy move. The Valley is about as far from the center of the art world as you can get and still be in the United States, but Provenzano knew she could make a go of it.

“I do miss the galleries. I miss the Met. That really feeds you, there’s no question about that,” she said. “You’re in a community of artists, but you’re also around a lot of concrete, and concrete doesn’t do much for me. This is God’s country and it speaks to me.”

If she couldn’t be among a community of artists, Provenzano figured the least she could do was bring arts to her community. Shortly after she arrived, she started teaching art classes at the University of Maine at Fort Kent. Then she got to work setting up her own studio, Artist at Work, where local people could take classes.

When it opened in April 2003, the East Main Street space piqued the locals’ curiosity. Some were excited. Others didn’t know quite what to make of it. But on her open-studio day last May, more than 100 people showed up.

“This is a real opportunity in a sports-driven community,” said Provenzano, who dresses the part of the artist in a black sweater and black velvet pants, her hair tied back loosely. “We’re all athletic to a degree, but there are some creative beings up here and it’d be nice to be able to encourage and inspire that, too.”

Christine Roy, a 21-year-old St. Agatha native, never really considered visual art until Provenzano opened her studio. As a home-schooler, she learned fiber arts such as knitting and rug braiding, but drawing, sketching and painting were never part of her life. Roy always figured she would be a professional musician, but when she started taking art classes, she knew she had found her calling.

“I was always interested in artistic things, and I thought I’d be really interested in drawing, but I didn’t know if I had any talent in that area,” Roy said.

Though adult-ed programs offered the occasional painting class, Roy never found an outlet for her creativity. There was no one teaching “to this level,” she said. Provenzano is a demanding teacher, both at UMFK and at her studio, and she stresses the importance of hard work and a willingness to learn.

“Christine is disciplined,” Provenzano said. “She has great manners. She respects your time and respects your knowledge. She’s a sponge. She comes as a sponge and she’s not fully wet. She takes in a lot and that’s why she’s grown so much.”

Through her work with Provenzano, both at Artist at Work and UMFK, Roy has decided to pursue art as a career. During a recent visit, she was compiling a portfolio in the hopes of entering the bachelor of fine arts program at the University of Maine at Presque Isle in the fall.

“I’m not interested in her becoming me,” Provenzano said. “I’m interested in her becoming who she is, but I want to give her the right equipment … tools, color theory, perspective.”

“I really feel that’s what she’s done,” Roy added. “I definitely wouldn’t have studied art if it wasn’t for the studio.”

For Provenzano, those words are the highest praise. Mentoring has been an important part of her life since her days as a student at the National Academy of Design in New York and the Philadelphia College of Art, and it’s a tradition she continues today, both with her own work and with her students. She recently completed her work as a resident artist at Vermont Studio Center, where she studied with painter Candida Alvarez.

“You can only be a good mentor if you’re practicing yourself,” Provenzano said. “It keeps you fresh. You don’t become stale.”

Provenzano’s work – bold, abstract swaths of blue on one wall, an installation in paper and mixed media in a corner, and a watercolor portrait on an easel – adorns the studio. Charcoal still-lifes, from the popular “Drawings of Acadian Culture: The Artists’ Eye” exhibit that recently ended at UMFK, show the range of her students’ work, as well.

For the show, students drew from the rich objects that Provenzano has collected – rusted scythes, saws, calipers, a washboard, a farmhouse table covered with a red and white checked tablecloth – that reflect the material culture of the region.

“Everything makes reference to the farm,” she said. “I use as inspiration things that make reference to my grandparents’ history.”

In turn, they make reference to Provenzano’s history, and the life she has made in the Valley. She recently was accepted to the master of fine art program at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, but rather than live in Philadelphia full-time, she has worked out a deal that lets her spend six months a year there and six months in Maine. That way, she can continue to teach at her studio and, perhaps more important, draw inspiration from her family homestead.

“A lot of artists pull from this,” Provenzano said. “I find a common thread when I read about an artist – where they live influences the sense of their work. That sense of home, your childhood pulls you back to work.”

Artist At Work is located at 78 East Main St. in Fort Kent. For information, call 834-4278. Kristen Andresen can be reached at 990-8287 or kandresen@bangordailynews.net.