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In Elizabeth Ostrander’s sculpture garden, mermaids frolic among the rose hips while angels with floral halos spread their wings.
Step inside her Eastport home and the raspy sound of sandpaper on clay will lead you directly to her studio, where a goddess figure takes shape.
For Ostrander, sculpting is a magical, transformative experience – one she hopes to share with international visitors during this weekend’s Two Countries: One Bay Art Studio Tour. More than 60 artists in Maine and New Brunswick will participate in the free, two-day event.
“I think this will show the diversity of art being created, tucked away in various places,” Ostrander said on a recent afternoon. “We have a really thriving art community here.”
In this case, “here” means Passamaquoddy Bay, from St. Stephen to Campobello Island on the Canadian side and Calais to Lubec on the American side. The tour, underwritten by the Tides Institute in Eastport, grew out of a cross-border cultural network called Culture Pass.
“Our mission, in part, is to elevate and bring awareness to the cultural exchange we share as neighbors within a very small geographic region, which just happens to have two countries in it,” said Jude Valentine, one of the tour’s organizers.
The artist Michael Chesley Johnson approached Valentine with the idea after Culture Pass launched its online directory and calendar. Johnson recently moved to Canada from New Mexico and thought a studio tour similar to those in the Southwest would be a logical next step.
“This area has seen its economic woes, and I am of the strong belief that arts and tourism can go a long way to helping with this,” he said. “It’s happened in New Mexico, and it’s happened in the more westerly parts of coastal Maine. I think it can happen here, in Down East Maine and coastal New Brunswick, as well.”
In St. Andrews by the Sea, a picturesque village reminiscent of Bar Harbor, cultural tourism has already taken root. During a recent visit to Tom Smith’s sculpture studio, a summer resident – and one of Smith’s regular customers – oohed and aahed over his recent raku vessels.
When he moved there in 1983, Smith was the only full-time artist in town. Since then, St. Andrews has become an artists’ colony, with glassblowers and fiber artists, painters and potters.
“We have quite a few full-time artists in town and a lot of very serious part-time artists,” Smith said.
Among them is the young German innkeeper Simone Ritter, whose lively watercolors decorate the walls of Europa, the bed-and-breakfast she runs with her chef husband, Markus. Nearby, fiber artist Bertha Day exhibits her “drawings” – but instead of pen and pencil, she creates intricate designs with needle and thread. The former accountant started embroidering nearly 20 years ago as a way to relieve stress. Thirteen years ago, she opened her gallery and never looked back. As the Canadian organizer of the Two Countries: One Bay tour, she hopes to shine a light on others in the region who are pursuing their passion.
“I just think there is such an abundance of fine artisans and artists in this area and I don’t think it’s recognized on either side of the border,” Day said.
One of those artisans is potter Chantel Vincent, who opened Nan’s Land Gallery to showcase fine craft from local artisans. She moved to the area from Montreal, where high rents made it impossible for her to set up shop. She hopes the tour will expose her gallery to new audiences.
“I think it’s good for small towns like this, for people to discover them, discover what’s in them,” Vincent said.
On St. Andrews’ main drag, Brian Adams celebrates his roots with a twist on traditional native art.
“The influence is Canadiana – I bring in a lot of native and Canadian folklore,” he said, gesturing to a painting that depicts the historic Grenfell mission in Labrador. “I’m trying to really explore the spirit of the land.”
Across the border, in her Robbinston studio, Joan Burger Siem explores the spirit of her native land as well. After living in Norway, Denmark and Japan for years, she felt a void in her work. When she returned to the United States, she began creating massive, quiltlike paintings.
“At first, the patterns don’t seem to go together, but in the United States, we have so many traditions and cultures and they really go together to make a pattern,” Siem explained. In addition, she and Ostrander have teamed up to produce companion paintings and sculptures, and she hopes the tour fosters similar collaborations – or at least starts a conversation among artists.
In Eastport, the conversation has started. When Arthur Cadieux moved to the area from North Carolina, he found a community of artists with whom he could share ideas. The smell of oil paint and linseed oil fills the air of his living room, which doubles as his studio, and hulking canvases are propped up on every wall. Though some depict traditional Maine scenes, such as clam-digging, they do so in an entirely visceral way – thickly painted, gorgeously colored, thoroughly real.
“A lot of people portray Maine as idyllic, but I think it’s a rough, tough place,” Cadieux, a Belfast native, said. “Especially along the coast. It’s tough to make a living. It’s beautiful, but it’s fierce.”
The same could be said of Donald Sutherland’s large-scale stoneware sculptures. His work pushes the limits of the medium – and gravity – and his Eastport studio is one of the highlights on the tour.
So, too is the St. Stephen, New Brunswick, studio of James Thornton. His work combines pop-culture graphics with classical painting in an innovative way. Valentine calls him “a painter’s painter,” and Thornton said the tour has already sparked discussion about the nature of art and artists. He’d like to see that continue in a public, cross-border forum, because like music, the visual arts defy boundaries.
“The more accessible context is one of music,” Thornton explained. “There’s so much crossover … the borders are silly – if not silly, certainly artificial.”
Two Countries: One Bay Art Studio Tour
Where: Calais, Eastport and Lubec area, Maine; St. Stephen, Campobello Island, Deer Island, St. Andrews, St. George and Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick.
When: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 15-16
Admission: Free
Information: Maps, programs, studio directions and tourist links are available at www.twocountriesart.com.
Border notes: Valid photo ID is required to cross the border, but a passport is optional at this time. If you purchase artwork, be sure to obtain a receipt. To contact U.S. Customs in Calais, call 207- 454-3621. To contact Canadian Customs in St. Stephen call 506-465-2100.
U.S. contact: Jude Valentine, 853-4047, jvalentine@tidesinstitute.org;
Canadian contact: Bertha Day, 506-529-8837, bertha@berthaday.com
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