Artists selected
Congratulations to the three artists recently selected to participate in the 2018 summer residency program on Monhegan: weaver Sarah Haskell from York, printmaker Jude Valentine from East Machias, and educator and painter Raegan Russell from South Berwick. I’m especially excited for all three artists since my paths have crossed with each of them at different times in the past. My warm wishes for wonderful experiences on Monhegan this summer!
Last years educator recipient Cory Bucknam from Brunswick Junior High School presented at a pecha-kucha style event which includes her experience on Monhegan last summer. You can view it at the recorded Vimeo below.
Information on each of this years recipients is below.
Raegan Russell
Uprooted Heart, gouache on canvas, 12”x12″, 2016.
Raegan Russell is the Visual Art Department Chair at the Berwick Academy in South Berwick, Maine and will be participating in the 2-week K-12 art teachers’ residency. She looks forward to being inspired by the beauty of Monhegan and sees her paintings as a way to “hold on to the ephemeral and to explore the changing landscape and its forms.” Russell received a BFA and MFA in painting from Boston University, and is currently on sabbatical in South East Asia.
Jude Valentine
Woods and Water, cliché verre, mixed media monotype, 22”x30”, 2018.
Jude Valentine creates landscape monoprints in a process through which she draws and paints directly on polymer plates while outside in the landscape. She sees her prints as revealing “elements of landscape,” while being “densely layered with an energetic animism of line and limited color.” Valentine holds a BFA from the Maine College of Art and MFA from the Vermont College of Art, and is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maine, Machias. She was a 2017 Artist in Residence at the Joseph A. Fiore Art Center.
Darah Haskell is a textile artist who works with thread in many forms. Prior to her residency time on Monhegan, she intends to weave and “weather” ground cloths, which she will then embellish on island. She will “use the time to stitch, hem, knot, and embroider” and will also “expose additional pieces of hand woven cloth to site specific environmental
Sarah Haskell
Secrets of the Infinite, indigo dyed, woven linen, cotton embroidery thread, 15″x28”, 2017.
elements,” while observing “the forces of nature at work, not only on my handwoven/stitched cloth but … ultimately on me.” Haskell is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and was recently awarded residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and the Hewnoaks Artists’ Colony.
Special thanks to our 2018 jurors:
The jurors this year included Kathryn Jovanelli, museum administrator at the University of Maine Museum of Art in Bangor; Henry Wolyniec, Portland artist and former studio manager at Space Gallery; and painter Nathaniel Meyer, a Monhegan residency recipient in 2015 and art teacher in the Lewiston High School. All three were impressed with the varying concerns for the natural world apparent in this year’s applications and their inventive modes of expression.
The jury viewed a wide range of visual arts and selected work in three particularly experimental media: fiber arts, cliché verre monotypes, and works on paper that combine printmaking and painting techniques. Portland artist and MARC board member, John Knight, who organized this year’s jury process noted: “Jurors had a challenge selecting three artists from many strong candidates, but they found work that resonated with all of them after multiple viewings and lively discussion.”
And, thank you also to the many folks who work to bring this opportunity to Maine artists and educators!
The Monhegan Artists’ Residency supports the creative growth of dedicated Maine artists by providing them time and space in which to work free of interruption and constraint in the inspiring environment of Monhegan Island.
me arts ed 