We've got a bouquet of refreshing alternatives to the usual Valentine's Day offerings. Plus we tell you all about Creative Portland's Hear, Here local talent extravaganza happening this weekend at Merrill Auditorium. Arts writer Bob Keyes previews two new exhibits, Aimsel Ponti previews five upcoming shows in Face the Music and as always we hit you with plenty of fantastic weekend ideas.
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Bob Keyes
Bob Keyes has written about the arts in Maine since 2002. He’s never been much an artist himself, other than singing in junior high school chorus and acting in a few musicals. But he’s attended museums, theaters, clubs and concert halls all his life, and cites Bob Dylan as most influential artist of any kind since Picasso. He lives in Berwick.
Community art studios host holiday sales
Painting by Adria Moynihan Rusk. Courtesy of Running with Scissors
Forget about the mall. Stop ordering online. Three Portland community art studios are urging shoppers to buy local this holiday season with open-studio shows and sales of work by artists from the area.
“As one of our artists reminded me, ‘The opposite of destruction is creation,’ and so we continue to create, to put something positive into the world,” said Kate Anker, owner and director of the member-studio Running With Scissors, 250 Anderson St. in East Bayside (831-5682 or rwsartstudios.com).
It hosts its annual Pop Up & Open Studios Sale from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. More than 40 jewelers, potters, printers, painters, photographers and wood workers open their studios so visitors can learn more about the processes of artists and view a range of finished work. The sale includes silver and beach-stone necklaces, mugs, bowls and plates, T-shirts, photographs, ornaments and cards, paintings and prints.
Local food and beer vendors will be on hand, as well.
Jeff Woodbury, “Cell I.” Image courtesy of Peregrine Press
Susan Amons, a printmaker and member of the Peregrine Press in Portland, appreciates these holiday gatherings because of the community that evolves. “I enjoy participating because it provides a festive occasion for us to visit with each other and with the public,” she said.
Peregrine’s annual Open House & Holiday Sale is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Bakery Studios, 61 Pleasant St., Portland; peregrinepress.com
The sale offers small, affordable versions of prints, Amons said. Peregrine, Maine’s oldest nonprofit printmaking cooperative, has about 30 members.
In downtown Portland, Pickwick Press also hosts its open house at its SPACE Studios home, 536 Congress St., from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday; pickwickindependentpress.com
Pickwick has two dozen members, and its sale consists of cards, posters, T-shirts, fine art prints and editions. All are hand-printed and made on site, said press director Pilar Nadal.
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