The Mid-Coast Salon, a monthly discussion group of about two dozen artists with diverse disciplines and styles present: Art Matters , an exhibit at the UMVA Gallery at 516 Congress Street, Portland, Maine for July 2021. For more than 30,000 years, humankind has used visual imagery to narrate, to translate, and give clear interpretation to the worlds within and around us, with artists often at the forefront of awareness. This exhibit represents what the artists of the Salon interpret to mean as Art Matters . The show will open with the Portland-area First Friday ArtWalk on July 2, 2021 from 5pm to 8pm. Salon members will sit at the gallery thereafter on Fridays and Saturdays from 1-4pm. Guests may also visit when the Portland Media Center is open. Click here for more info on our website . African Zebras by Russell Kahn

Empty Spaces: A New Normal The Union of Maine Visual Artists with the Portland Media Center and I are pleased to host the upcoming exhibition: “Empty Spaces: A New Normal”, with fifteen photographic artworks by myself, Natalie E. Brown, and a collaborative multimedia work section by selected members of the Portland Community. This includes the work of Jasper Gaffney, Josh Heriot, Sam Murphy, and Libby Scutt. This collection addresses the impact of the pandemic on both tourism and everyday life in the world; to illustrate the eerie silence all around us; but, also the beauty of that stillness and an overtake of nature in an otherwise turbulent time. The collection will go live at UMVA Gallery@PMC on March 1st and will be on display through the 27th, 2021. The collection can be visited in person with pre existing appointments and for the duration of the month online from the Portland Media Center , The Union of Maine Visual Artists , and my own website. Call ahead to book in person vi

  Abstract Photograpy A nine-artist exhibit presented by the Union of Maine Visual Artists (UMVA)  featuring: J im Kelly, Ann Tracy, John Ripton, Dave Wade, Mark Barnette, CE Morse, Lesley MacVane, Greg Mason Burns, and  Jan Pieter van Voorst van Beest . Curated by Greg Mason Burns. For this exhibit, abstract photography is defined as digitally or otherwise manipulated such that the subject is obscured enough to not be considered realist or documentary photography, for example. Photography outside the “realist” or “object” world, so to speak. To learn more about the UMVA and to join, please visit out website at TheUMVA.org . If you would like to purchase a piece from this exhibit, please contact the artist first. Alternatively, you can email Greg Mason Burns at gmburns@gregmasonburns.com and he will inform the artist of your interest. Mark Barnette Website Instagram Photography is my preferred method for skirting despair. Beauty without sentimentality is a primary goal of all my work.