Since the pandemic is raging more here in Maine, we asked artists to create postcard-sized mail art
and photograph them for this on-line show, But you will get an opportunity to see it physically in December of 2021 (cross your fingers). Not only that, but you can help raise funds for UMVA as with each piece of mail
art being sold for $5 each. You won't have an opportunity for this until December of 2021.
We'll have more details once this year shakes out a bit more. But at this point in time, we envision a fundraising sale with these postcards happening in the gallery this coming December. Of course this all hinges on the pandemic and if it's safe to gather. That's why we're being rather vague with any details.
It was decided to go
with a mail art show since the January 2021 show couldn't go forward at the
last moment and because one of the founders of the Union of Maine Visual Artists was also a
renowned Mail Artist - Carlo Pittore. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Pittore)
In February, another on-line show on Abstract
Photography is being planned. The show
will feature work by Mark Barnett, Greg Mason Burns, Jim Kelly, Lesley MacVane,
CE Morse, John Ripton, Ann Tracy and Jan Pieter van Voorst van
Beest. You'll be able to see a teaser of it in the next few weeks when the posters go up in the window of the Portland Media Center at 516 Congress St. in Portland.
But in the meantime, enjoy these artists' take on what the new year might hold for us. The prize for who is mailing a card the furthest goes to Berna from Brazil!
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| Amy Bellezza - Cloistered |
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| Amy Bellezza - Dream Tea Recipe |
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| Amy Bellezza - Pandemic Stress Relief Recipe |
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Amy Bellezza - Pandemic Stress Relief Remedy
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| Amy Bellezza - Transformation and Ascendence |
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| Amy Bellezza - Unbinding Spell |
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| Amy Bellezza - Remedy for Pandemic Tincture Recipe |
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| Amy Bellezza - Unbinding Spell |
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Amy Bellezza - Wanderlust
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The pandemic has led to a lot of deeper conversations in
regards to sickness and death and much more respect for the vulnerable. I have fallen in on myself and my
introversion from isolating has led to a lot of introspection; I think now that there is no place like home. Maybe in
this new year I can come out of isolation and enjoy an externally stimulated life.
In terms of the systemic racism issues, I just wish that it was like The
Christmas Truce of 1914 during World War I between the Germans and the
British. Where both sides ceased fire, exchanged presents, played a friendly game of soccer and retrieved
bodies from No Man's Land. But I would like this all for the new year and forever more. I will wish for this new year, the
unimaginable.
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| Andre Pace - Untitled |
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| Andre Pace - Untitled |
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| Andre Pace - Untitled |
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| Andre Pace - Untitled |
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| Andre Pace - Untitled |
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Andre Pace - Untitled
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The artist task A retrospective
reinforce by the verbal remains of the image indentifying these elements they
are seen afresh with expanded expression of color and patterns it's not gender
nor.. identity the complicated issues still matters leaving visible traces of
Contemporary Art/ Mix Media designers works ...
Www.Artsy.net/Andrepace
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| Chris Allen |
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| Chris Allen |
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| Chris Allen |
In 2021 I am hoping that we can bust through the toxic
behavior that is ingrained in our culture.
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| Dave Wade - Butterfly Card |
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| Dave Wade - Interconnected |
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| Dave Wade - Norman West Receipt |
Looking back at 2020, and the political and medical and
social wringer we’ve been put through, my wish for 2021 is to restore a little civility and regard for
others… a return to fact based decisions and accountability.. And a restoration of the great and
storied American Postal System, founded by Ben Franklin, that served everyone urban or rural
equally, that made geographic expansion possible (Sears home kits and mail order brides included) that
offered a progressive and labor friendly work force with a pride.. and a motto that’s one of the all time
greatest, The Mail Must Go Through…
The Postal Service that brought out new stamps to celebrate
history and people and invention and art, that taught kids history and value. If we all
used the mail more for communicating and sharing, it will help sustain the Postal System for the future, and
still be there for us when the digital mail system flickers and burns out…
Dave Wade has always been fascinated by the post card
medium. it was a traveling art show for the masses and it was always a nice portable medium, one that could be
shared over vast distances for very little expense. When I moved to Japan in 80’s, the first couple of years I
made a lot of cards to keep in touch with my friends back home... They were kind of a lifeline of communication,
were handmade and personal, and could use bits and pieces of another cultures effluvia, wrappers, receipts,
magazines, whatever, to create an intercultural dialogue. I got into postcard collecting big time because my living
quarters were so small, I could find Japanese postcards at the flea markets, store them in a shoe box and have a
min- history and travelogue and graphic style all right at my fingertips. The postcard is the people's medium and I am
excited to help keep it alive
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| Janis Moore |
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| Janice L. Moore |
As an artist with a compromised immune system, I have been in complete isolation since March save for medical appointments and outside, masked, socially distant visits even with my own son. What I hope for in 2021 is a vaccine so all of the people putting themselves in harm's way to protect and care for us will be safe, and so that it's possible for people like me to participate in the world again; to move freely, in close proximity and without cover.
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| Joanne Tarlin |
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| Joanne Tarlin |
I hope 2021 will bring reflection and positive change in a collective effort to heal. Oil on recycled postcards.
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| John Ripton - Barcelona again |
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John Ripton - Together again
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John Ripton - Dominoes again
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John Ripton - New York City again
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| John Ripton - !2021! |
In these postcard images there are hopeful signs. Swinging in a downtown New York City park, youth crossing a busy street in Barcelona, a 3rd Avenue intersection in the East Village, a game of dominoes in a downtown New York park - each image celebrates our common humanity. It is this shared humanity that I hope will lead us to a spiritual reawakening of our fundamental organic relationship to the Earth.
These everyday activities illustrate our social nature and, in a world of devastating contagion and ongoing natural disasters driven by human behavior, human contact and affection will, hopefully, rise quickly to the surface of our consciousness and our lives. The pressure to address wealth concentration and the commercialization of the ecosystem itself will dramatically escalate and, at that moment, we must embrace sustainable social, economic and environmental ways of life.
The last image !2021! celebrates the moment we really awaken to our common humanity, to our connection to the Earth and to the need to radically change our future.
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| Joyce Ellen Weinstein - Blind Leading the Blind Yellow |
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Joyce Ellen Weinstein - Blind Leading the Blind Red
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My hope for 2021 is for relief from
Covid 19 and a return to an active social existence for all.
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| Kris Onuf - Lifestage |
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Kris Onuf - Lighted
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Kris Onuf - Risky
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Kris Onuf - Rugosa in Granite
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Kris Onuf - Life Spice
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Kris Onuf - StreetLife
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As light brightens and extends in 2021, the vibrant beauty of life will reappear and flower.
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| Lesley MacVane |
As Nick Lowe said, "What's so funny 'bout peace, love
and understanding?".
I have been participating in protests and contacting
my representatives, in Maine and in Washington, since I was a teenager in the 1960s. The issues may change but the basic
tenet has remained the same: Peace, Love and Understanding. My hope for the new year is that we continue
to fight for the decencies that benefit humankind and our planet. My amazement is that something so
simple has taken so long to become the mantra of all.
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| RF Cote - Riding the Covid-19 Wave after Wave |
Originally from North Dakota, Robert Matejcek obtained his BA in Art, Magna Cum Laude, from Fontbonne University in St. Louis, Missouri. Robert's work, a combination of traditional and new media, has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. Robert and his wife, Anna, currently reside with their dogs, Willow and Indy, and their guinea pigs, Ivy, Honeysuckle, Poppy, and Zinnia in La Junta, Colorado. Robert's work can be viewed at: robertmatejcek.com.
I hope it brings much happiness and health to its new home in 2021!
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| Roland Salazar |
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| Roland Salazar |
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| Roland Salazar |
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| Roland Salazar |
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| Roland Salazar |
2020: Not a year without
consequences, artistically and emotionally for myself. It's over; now we have
to clean up the mess. Not an easy task, but American's are up to it. My art
will just continue to challenge me along with life's ups and downs...the way it
goes!
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Susan Gold Smith - Cocoon
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Hopes for beautiful 2021 permutations coming from our
journey through the 2020 cocoon.
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| Victor Femenias von Willigmann |
Be sure to check out our website - https://www.theumva.org/ - and join today if you appreciate the arts in Maine. You can be a supporter and we will love you for it! Also check out the
wonderous Maine Arts Journal which features interesting articles and interviews as well as new work by Maine Artists. Or you can copy and paste this url for the latest edition - http://maineartsjournal.com/
Late Entries
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| Susan L. Smith |
Susan L Smith, artist, activist and director of the MFA program at the University of Maine. A week before the March quarantine, I was in the Sonoran Desert tracking the gps locations bodies of migrant seeking asylum had been found, and creating biodegradable memorials. Then the pandemic hit, and these images of birds in flight took on multiple meanings for me. I began to produce them in quantity, as I researched and read the stories of those lost to the covid virus. My work took a turn of making those statistics, that data, a visual record. The memories of the families and friends who have suffered loss are hard to read, but, like the struggles of the migrants at our southern border, my job as an artist is to lean in, and not turn away.
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Fred - Untitled
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