Annually, the Maine Arts Commission partners with Maine College of Art & Design and Maine’s two Congressional offices to highlight exemplary high school student artists. Almost one thousand Maine student works of art were submitted this year to a national youth competition, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, organized locally by Maine College of Art & Design. Coming from all over the state, 177 students received regional awards through the Scholastic competition.

The 43 works on display were selected from those Scholastic winners by a separate jury and represent the breadth of creativity of high school students from around the state. Two works, one from each Congressional district, were also selected to be displayed at the U.S. Capitol for a year through the Congressional Art Competition. Runners-up are included in this exhibition.

These student artists thrive through careful and dedicated mentoring from their art teachers, along with the encouragement of their friends and families. The Maine Arts Commission is honored to share this inspiring work with visitors to the Capitol Complex.

Camden native multidisciplinary artist Julie Crane utilizes printmaking as a primary visual map. Although schooled in ceramic arts and sculpture, she began printmaking while in Santa Fe, New Mexico in the mid-1980s after graduating from Maine College of Art & Design. Access to two printmaking establishments over the course of 10 years provided a rich supply of techniques and opportunity to explore. Ongoing migrations to the Southwest have continued to avail time and studio access for working on the intaglio prints. This selection of works exemplifies the various techniques that have developed over the span of 38 years.

The scale of the woodcuts requires scheduling access to a large-scale press offsite from Crane’s home studio in Cushing. Hibernating Home was printed at the University of Maine at Orono; Air Above Portland was printed at Pickwick Press in Portland; and Rockport Harbor was printed at Zea Mays in Florence, Massachusetts, as were the four monoprints.

Recent collaborations with scientists from Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have influenced visual information. The intaglio prints depict microscopic organisms, collectively called plankton, along with some of the visible and known creatures that inhabit Maine waters. The interconnection of the least to the greatest is a theme in these works.

In early 2025, Crane began working with Herring Gut Coastal Science Center in Port Clyde to explore the anadromous Atlantic sturgeon. The monoprint Sturgeon Bride and the intaglio print Toddlers were part of that investigation. A grant from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute enabled a joint project with an eighth-grade science class from St. George to produce a 12-foot sturgeon sculpture, currently on display at the Herring Gut Center.

The Maine Arts Commission presented the 2025 Maine Veterans Art Exhibition, a heartfelt tribute to the artistic talents and personal experiences of Maine’s Veterans. The exhibition featured 63 works by 36 individual artists, offering a reflection of creativity, service, and resilience.

This exhibition played a significant role in raising visibility, understanding, and support of arts and health services for Veterans. Given the special hardships and challenges members of the military face, the arts play an integral role in advancing health and wellbeing.

This exhibition was made possible through the collaboration of the Maine Arts Commission, Maine Bureau of Veterans’ Services, Togus VA Medical Center, the Bangor and Lewiston Vet Centers, and the Quilts of Valor Foundation.

Image: Soaking in the Celebration, 2025, photograph, Nicole Rezentes, Army

In his ongoing photographic series, artist Hector Nevarez Magaña traces a deeply personal connection to place through the landscapes of woods and waters. The project began while visiting a friend’s grandparents’ home in Norway, Maine, a modest house on a dead-end street surrounded by birch trees, a weathered airstream, an untended graveyard, and fields cut for hay each year. Since then, he has expanded his lens outward, exploring the region’s towns and back roads with a sensitivity to both its stillness and vitality.

His photographs capture a quiet yet alert atmosphere: empty stretches of road punctuated by the blur of a passing truck, church steeples standing in solemn silhouette against the setting sun, and the intricate weaving of tangled treelines and bramble. Through this work, Magaña reflects on the environmental and cultural landscape of Maine, offering viewers fragments of beauty, solitude, and memory that speak beyond words.

Hector Nevarez Magaña is a Mexican-American photographer living and working in Maine. Originally from East Palo Alto, California, he attended Bowdoin College, where he received his BA in Visual Arts in 2016. After moving to Portland, he co-founded New System Exhibitions, now 82Parris, an artist-run exhibition space in the Bayside neighborhood, where he maintains and operates his own darkroom. The majority of his work is shot on roll film and printed on gelatin silver paper. Heavily inspired by his Mexican Catholic upbringing and by 20th-century Mexican photographers such as Lola and Manuel Álvarez Bravo, his work focuses on themes of romance, remembrance, death, and faith.

The Employee Art Show is a celebration of creativity, community, and public service coming together in a powerful and uplifting way. It offers a unique glimpse into the creative lives of Maine’s public servants, from seasoned artists to first-time exhibitors.

Showcasing original artwork by State of Maine employees and their families, representing a wide range of artistic mediums from painting and photography to sculpture and craft, this exhibition was designed to give artists at all skill levels an opportunity to exhibit their creative work.

This show is more than an art exhibition. It is a platform that values the full identities of those who serve Maine through public work. By offering a space for expression and visibility, the exhibition affirms that creativity is an essential part of community and civic life.

This exhibition was made possible through continued partnership with the National Arts Program®, which helps make participation free and accessible and awards cash prizes across skill and age categories. It is an important reminder that when we invest in creativity, we build a more connected, inspired, and human-centered government.

Women of Integrity is an expansive and deeply personal portrait series that honors the lives and labor of women working across Maine’s institutional and community settings. The collection pairs gestural figure studies and portraits with oral interviews recorded by each subject, raising the central question: “How do we acknowledge women’s seen, unseen, and often undercompensated labor in the workplace, communities, and families?”

Libby’s drawings seek to make that labor visible, amplifying the voices, contributions, and creative resilience of women who strengthen Maine’s communities every day.

In recent years, Libby has shifted to drawing with her non-dominant left hand to relieve arthritic pain and embrace a freer, more expressive style. Based in Maine, Maggie Libby is known for blending artistic practice with social history and community storytelling. Her work invites viewers to engage more deeply with questions of presence, power, and cultural memory.

An artist talk and public reception for Women of Integrity was held on Friday, June 13, 2025, at the State House Gallery.

Our Town: A Community Self Portrait is a community-driven documentary project designed by Meetinghouse Arts in Freeport and funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Horizon Foundation, and the Margaret E. Burnham Charitable Trust. The project documented Freeport’s people, places, and traditions through photography, creative writing workshops, and community conversations.

Throughout the summer of 2024, Freeport residents, businesses, and organizations were invited to capture and describe the town’s essence through photography and words. Residents contributed more than 1,400 images and writings, of which 300 were selected for this exhibition.

Partners with Meetinghouse Arts on Our Town: A Community Self Portrait included the Town of Freeport, Freeport Historical Society, Freeport Economic Development Corporation, Freeport Chamber of Commerce, Freeport Community Services, Freeport Community Library, Visit Freeport, Freeport Conservation Trust, Tri-Town Equity and Inclusion Coalition, RSU #5, and the Desert of Maine Center for Arts & Ecology.

Annually, the Maine Arts Commission partners with Maine College of Art & Design and Maine’s two Congressional offices to highlight exemplary high school student artists. Almost one thousand Maine works of art were submitted this year to a national youth competition, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, organized locally by Maine College of Art & Design.

Coming from all over the state, 230 students received awards through the Scholastic competition. The 44 works on display in the Maine Excellence in Arts Education exhibition were selected from those Scholastic winners by a separate jury and represent the breadth of creativity of high school students from around the state.

Two works, one from each Congressional district, were also selected to be displayed at the U.S. Capitol for a year through the Congressional Art Competition. Runners-up are included in the Maine Excellence exhibition.

All these student artists thrive through the careful and dedicated mentoring of their art teachers, along with the encouragement of their friends and families. The Maine Arts Commission is honored to share this inspiring work with Capitol Complex visitors.

Artist Statement

I make art because I have to. I do not always enjoy the process, but those moments when I am able to work through the struggles of trying to transform my own internal essence into visual form are incredibly rewarding and worth whatever effort is necessary. Each of us sees the world through our own set of subjective eyes, tempered by our unique personality and history. Although the inspiration for most of my work comes from landscape motifs, each of my paintings is really a self-portrait. Painting and drawing allow me the opportunity to manifest the intangible and to show you the world that I see through my eyes via the use of visual language.

Artist Bio

Frank Sullivan moved to Aroostook County in 2006 to make art full-time, leaving a successful career in Boston as a graphic designer, illustrator, and art director. He converted the old potato house on his Littleton property into a studio and gallery. Now on the faculty at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, he also directs the Reed Art Gallery there. He has a BA in Studio Art from the College of the Holy Cross, studied printmaking on a graduate fellowship at American University, and received a Graphic Design Certificate from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Frank’s works hang in private collections throughout the United States and elsewhere. To purchase a painting or his recent book, Frank Sullivan: Images and Words, email ten.worrabniar@knarf.

This exhibition featured the work of 38 Veteran artists, with more than 70 unique pieces on display. The exhibit provided the public with an opportunity to experience the artistry, resilience, stories, and perspectives of Maine’s Veterans at the Burton M. Cross Building in Augusta.

The Veteran celebration and exhibit was a collaborative effort between Togus VA, the Maine Bureau of Veterans’ Services, the Maine Arts Commission, and the Quilts of Valor Foundation. This inclusive project honored Veterans of all backgrounds and spotlighted their unique contributions to Maine’s cultural landscape.

Summer J. Hart’s Out in May Back by October explores the balance between extractive and sustainable approaches to nature. Made primarily from abandoned newsprint sourced from the ruins of the East Millinocket paper mill, Hart’s drawings and beadwork variously combine recycled, reclaimed, remade, and commercially made paper, ink, and water.

Out in May Back by October is an 8-foot by 12-foot loom-beaded portrait of Hart’s paternal grandparents, Robert Fraser and Mary Metallic, who met on the Listuguj Mi’gmaq First Nation reserve during a Great Northern Paper Company recruitment drive in 1941. Each bead in this monumental portrait was handmade by the artist by systematically tearing, weighing, soaking, repulping, dyeing, drilling, and beading reclaimed mill paper.

The rhythm of extraction and recycling underlies the other pieces in the show, Hart’s series 109 Dyewater Ink Drop Drawings. Forty of these works were displayed in the exhibition. Combining waste dye from the bead-dyeing process and drops of India ink, each drawing represents one mile of the Penobscot River.

Artist Bio

Summer J. Hart is an interdisciplinary artist and writer from Maine living in the Hudson Valley, New York. Her mixed-media installations have been featured in shows and galleries across the country. She has a BFA from the Hartford Art School and an MFA from the University of the Arts. Summer is also the author of Boomhouse, winner of the 2024 Nassar Poetry Prize. Her creative work has been supported by NYSCA/NYFA and MacDowell fellowships. Summer is an enrolled member of the Listuguj Mi’gmaq First Nation.

Historias de Esperanza y Resiliencia showcases the immigration experiences of Spanish Heritage students from Colby College. In the fall of 2020, the Spanish Department at Colby established the Hispanic Heritage Track to accommodate the needs of a growing and diverse student population.

As part of this initiative, students explored their bilingual and bicultural backgrounds by interviewing family members about their immigration experiences. Using the Pixton platform, they transformed these memories into text and images, taking on the role of historians to synthesize past knowledge expressed orally and represent it in comics.

Comics can be a powerful tool to reflect on and convey emotions, memories, and trauma. By depicting migration experiences through this medium, these stories move from the private sphere into public view, an important step toward visibility and healing.

Illustration Institute is an arts organization focused on the art and business of illustration. Its mission is to increase appreciation and awareness of the art of illustration and to provide people of all ages the opportunity to learn directly from master artists and working professionals through exhibitions and workshops.

Every summer, Illustration Institute invites distinguished illustrators and narrative artists from around the world to recharge, be inspired, and create at the Faison Residency on Peaks Island. Each artist presents a lecture or workshop at public venues that are open to all. This State House Gallery exhibition was curated from the Institute’s collection.

Visitors were provided with a view into the world of illustration and the wide range of creative expression within the art form. Maine’s best-known artists have included illustrators such as N.C. Wyeth, Dahlov Ipcar, Ashley Bryan, Barbara Cooney, and Winslow Homer, making illustration an art form with a strong ancestral home in Maine.

Award-winning high school student art was displayed at the Capitol Complex in the annual Maine Excellence in Arts Education exhibition.

The exhibition featured student artwork that reflected what young people were thinking about, what they cared about, and how they depicted those ideas creatively. The exhibition was installed in the Burton M. Cross Office Building and the Maine Arts Commission office.

Every spring, the Congressional Institute sponsors the Congressional Art Competition, a nationwide high school visual art competition to recognize and encourage artistic talent in each congressional district. In Maine, the Maine Arts Commission organizes the competition in collaboration with the Scholastic Awards, Maine College of Art & Design, and the staff of Maine’s Congressional delegation. The first-place artwork from each district is displayed in the Cannon Tunnel of the U.S. Capitol for one year.

This exhibition at the State House Gallery featured a collection of vibrant, color photographic portraits of Black Mainers of all ages. Erin Moore, named Maine’s 2018 Portrait Photographer of the Year by the Maine Professional Photographers Association, was inspired by what she observed as an absence of Black representation in museum collections and exhibitions.

Each portrait shares the name and description of the subject. Moore holds a master’s degree in human resources and founded Mercy Street Studio, the largest portrait photography studio in Southern Maine.

The Portland Museum of Art has made a commitment to diversify its collections, exhibitions, and accessibility. Learn more at portlandmuseum.org/art-for-all.

This exhibition provided a platform for Maine Veterans to showcase their artistic talents and share their experiences with the broader community. The art was accessible to all during regular business hours.

Maine Veterans were invited through an open call to submit up to two pieces of two-dimensional artwork. This resulted in 39 individual artists contributing 45 unique works displayed at the State Capitol Complex, including the Burton M. Cross Office Building and the Maine Arts Commission office at 193 State Street.

In commemoration of National Veterans and Military Families Month, a celebratory ceremony was held at the State House Hall of Flags on November 9, 2023. The event included speeches and a presentation of custom-made Quilts of Valor to 18 new Veteran artists participating in the exhibition.

Cole Caswell is the 2023 Maine Arts Commission Visual Arts Fellow.

Rise is a photographic investigation of the coastal landscape in Maine that will be lost to sea level rise. Made using the wet-plate collodion process, the images depict places that will be underwater or rendered unrecognizable by the turn of the century.

Caswell’s sense of home is tethered to an island off the coast of Maine. His use of the wet-plate collodion process allows him to hand make each image while on location. The resulting glass-plate negatives are a tribute to a landscape that will be consumed by water and the rising ocean.

Artist Statement

My sense of home is tethered to an island off the coast of Maine. A landscape often battered by wind, drenched in waves, and enveloped in fog. The coastline of Maine has always felt like a mystical place for me, dotted by marshes, lagoons, and islands. Romantic and full of history this place where sea meets land is going to change in dramatic ways as our planet’s climate continues to warm.

Artist Bio

Cole Caswell researches the remnants and patterns in our landscape that reflect contemporary strategies of survival. Through strata of observation, technology, subjectivity, and his surroundings, Caswell investigates geography and its impact on our perceived ability to survive. He uses traditional, historic, and digital photographic media to investigate our present condition. His studio is located on Peaks Island off the coast of Maine.

Title: Salt Marsh Looking West. Plate P011.
Medium: Pigment print from glass plate negative
Dimensions: 24"x30"
Price: $1,800

Title: Fore River. Plate SC039.
Medium: Pigment print from glass plate negative
Dimensions: 24"x30"
Price: $1,800

Title: Diamonds Passing. Plate PI215.
Medium: Pigment print from glass plate negative
Dimensions: 20"x25"
Price: $1,300

Title: Celestial Navigation. Plate RI001.
Medium: Pigment print from tintype
Dimensions: 20"x25"
Price: $1,300

Title: Spurwink River East. Plate SC037.
Medium: Pigment print from glass plate negative
Dimensions: 20"x25"
Price: $1,300

Title: Southern Horizon Casco Bay. Plate SP020.
Medium: Pigment print from glass plate negative
Dimensions: 16"x20"
Price: $800

Title: Montauk Horizon. Plate H01.
Medium: Pigment print from glass plate negative
Dimensions: 16"x20"
Price: $800

Title: Catnip Island Approach. Plate PI130.
Medium: Pigment print from glass plate negative
Dimensions: 16"x20"
Price: $800

Title: Daisy Twilight. Plate SPF723.
Medium: Pigment print from glass plate negative
Dimensions: 16"x20"
Price: $800

Title: Swamp Portal. Plate SC008.
Medium: Pigment print from glass plate negative
Dimensions: 16"x20"
Price: $800

Maine Employee Art Exhibition

The Maine Arts Commission presented an exhibition of paintings by Jorge Peña, showcasing his exploration of two distinct worlds. One world represents his ancestral roots in Africa, Spain, and Indigenous cultures, while the other reflects his experiences of living in Maine.

Peña’s art draws inspiration from personal memories, images, and the shapes and colors of both his past and present surroundings. Originally from Colombia, Peña has resided in Wiscasset, Maine since 2015.

Artist Statement

My art is personal; it comes from my heart. My art tells my story, including my background and ancestry in Colombia, South America and how this has affected my points of view. My art reflects my interests and my worlds.

In some of these paintings I pay homage to the new Chiribiquete National Park, deep in the Amazon Forest of Colombia. Its recent discovery has made such an impact on me that I dream of its rocks, vegetation, water, fauna, and its inhabitants.

Artist Bio

Colombian born, Jorge E. Peña has resided in Wiscasset, Maine since 2015. Since childhood, he has expressed himself through drawings and paintings, evolving as a figurative and abstract painter. His art is guided by personal memories, images, and the shapes and colors of his past and current surroundings. He is also a retired entomologist.

Title: Chiribiquete 1
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 38"x30"

Title: A Silent Sun
Medium: Acrylic on canvas board
Dimensions: 18"x24"

Title: Chiribiquete 3
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 30"x30"

Title: Our Garden Where We Will Rest
Medium: Acrylic on paper board
Dimensions: 22"x29"

The Pastel Society of Maine began in 1999, with a mission to promote the pastel medium, educate the public in the history and use of pastel, and support the work of its members. PSME is open to soft pastellists in Maine and beyond, scheduling art exhibits, hosting workshops and art classes, and awarding scholarships for higher education in the arts.

This show represented about a quarter of members’ work. Sales of artwork could be arranged by contacting the artist or the Pastel Society of Maine.

Works by the Pastel Society of Maine were displayed at the Burton M. Cross Building and the Maine Arts Commission office during regular business hours.

Award-winning high school student art was displayed at the Capitol Complex in the annual Maine Excellence in Arts Education exhibition.

The exhibition featured student artwork that reflected what young people were thinking about, what they cared about, and how they depicted those ideas creatively. The exhibition was installed in the Burton M. Cross Office Building and the Maine Arts Commission office.

School: Bangor High
Title: Self Portrait with Tanagrams

School: Berwick Academy
Title: Childhood Haunt

School: Berwick Academy
Title: Sensory

School: Brunswick High
Title: Samrat

A jury selected 35 pieces from hundreds submitted from Maine for the annual Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Maine College of Art & Design is Maine’s Scholastic partner and runs the state’s competition. Every spring, the Congressional Institute sponsors the Congressional Art Competition, a nationwide high school visual art competition to recognize and encourage artistic talent in each congressional district.

Opening Minds Through Art Program | The Cedars

Maine Veteran Artists

Norma “Randi” Smith is an Indigenous artist from Down East Maine. She is a member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe and is a child of the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes of North Dakota. With lineage from both tribal regions, her work is grounded in cultural history, family stories, dreams, ideas, impressions, and the natural beauty of Maine.

Smith’s work reflects her heritage, life experiences, outdoor adventures, and the freedom to live as an artist while managing a homestead with her husband and animals.

Artist: Norma Randi Smith
Title: The Protectors and Guides

Artist: Norma Randi Smith
Title: Poor Wolf

 

Sarah Haskell is an award-winning artist and educator who has been weaving and teaching for more than fifty years. She has a BFA in Textiles from Rhode Island School of Design and an MA in Arts/Healing from Wisdom University. Haskell has exhibited at museums and galleries, has been published in FiberArt Now magazine, and is a member of the American Craft Council and the Surface Design Association.

In 2021, Haskell was named the Maine Arts Commission Visual Arts Fellow. The works in this Art in the Capitol exhibition were located on the ground floor of the State House and were available to purchase.

Maine Excellence in Arts Education Exhibition

Maine Veteran Artists

Photo courtesy: M.J. Benson

International artist M.J. Benson described the paintings featured at the Maine State House as part of a recent series of large-scale landscapes created in response to the tumultuous months of life preceding the exhibition. Benson’s style is painterly, with thick layers and broad movement made with brushes, knives, and other tools used to apply or remove paint.

Originally from Massachusetts, Benson has been living and working in Maine since 2006. After earning a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/Tufts University, and an Ed.M. from Harvard University, Benson moved to Maine to raise a family in South Portland.

Photo credit: Maine on Glass: The Early Twentieth Century in Glass Plate Photography

This photographic exhibition was presented by the Maine Arts Commission in collaboration with the Penobscot Marine Museum. The show ran from January through June 2020 on the ground floor of the Maine State House.

Maine at its Mid-Point provided historical and artistic context for Maine’s bicentennial anniversary, drawing upon the research and writing conducted for the book Maine on Glass: The Early Twentieth Century in Glass Plate Photography.

The exhibit was presented in part by the Maine Arts Commission and sponsored by Tilbury House Publishers. The photographs were printed on fine art paper provided by Innova Art Ltd.

The Ashley Bryan virtual exhibition was organized by the Maine Arts Commission with the cooperation of The Ashley Bryan Center.

Born in 1923, Ashley Bryan grew up in the Bronx during the Depression. His parents emigrated from Antigua in the Caribbean and settled in New York after the First World War. Bryan began making books at the age of six and never stopped. Trips to the public library fueled his passion for storytelling, including folktales, fairy tales, novels, biographies, and poetry.

Artist: Ashley Bryan
Title: Head of Woman

Artist: Ashley Bryan
Title: Figure with "door"

 

Maine Excellence in Arts Education Exhibition

Maine Veteran Artists

This exhibition presented the color-attentive work of Maine painter Michel Droge as part of the Art in the Capitol program. The abstract body of work was displayed on the ground floor of the Maine State House.

Droge is a painter, printmaker, and educator based in Portland. Her works layer scientific research with literary and poetic sources, resulting in colorful atmospheric landscapes.

 

The Laws of Nature exhibition featured a selection of 18 watercolors inspired by Cartwright’s life as both artist and scientist. Cartwright is an internationally recognized artist whose paintings are included in more than one hundred private and corporate collections.

The series earned international acclaim, with paintings touring in China for two years and appearing in notable arts venues and publications.

 

This exhibition featured the work of international painter Christopher O’Connor as part of a selection of 22 paintings from his series Coastal Waters. O’Connor explored Maine’s rugged coastline through vibrant color and rigorously constructed compositions.

 

Maine Excellence in Arts Education Exhibition

Artwork by Maine veterans was displayed in a free, public exhibition throughout the State Capitol Complex. Approximately 40 artworks by 39 artists were presented by the Maine Arts Commission in partnership with VA Maine Healthcare System at Togus.

A special celebration for veterans was held on November 30, 2018, in the Hall of Flags at the Maine State House.

Maine photographer Lynn Karlin exhibited a selection of 19 images from The Pedestal Series. The series illuminates food in still-life compositions that use striking design elements, natural light, and a painterly photographic approach inspired by 17th-century Dutch master painters.

This exhibition featured four Maine artists who embarked on a year-long collaborative project exploring the four elements: air, fire, water, and earth. The artists worked together to support, stimulate, and challenge their individual creative practices through the lens of the Maine environment.

Artists included: Holly Berry, Marguerite Lawler, Molly Mains, and Wendy Newcomb.

Earlier Art in the Capitol Exhibits

These exhibitions reflect the long-running scope of the Art in the Capitol program, including individual artists, community-based projects, traditional arts, landscape painting, photography, public history, and work connected to Maine’s natural and cultural heritage.