DISPLACEMENT  - Immigrant Portraits , watercolors by Jean Kigel

Jackson Memorial Library, 71 Main St., Tenants Harbor presents DISPLACEMENT a poignant series of immigrant portraits by Jean Kigel, from May 1 through early June.  The public is invited to a reception with the artist on Friday, May 16, from 5:00-7:00pm.  These portraits illuminate the human condition, Kigel’s political sensibility, and her advocacy for human rights and justice.  “We all come from away,” Kigel states.  The faces of these men, women, and children reflect the suffering, terror, and often the hope that pushes a person to leave one’s country for a better life.  Millions of immigrants have been uprooted by war, persecution, national disaster, climate change, corrupt regimes, and economic collapse.      These immigrants make up a valuable part of our country’s labor force, as well as its intellectual leadership.

Kigel grew up in a second-generation Latvian family on a poultry farm in Warren, with Germans and Finnish people as friends and neighbors.  After a career teaching international literature in Maryland high schools, Kigel has become a full-time artist. Her travels to Europe, the Middle East, Japan, and China have inspired the watercolors and Asian brush paintings she is known for.  Her work has been shown locally, in SoHo, NY, and in the Embassies in Amman, Jordan and Paris, France.  Kigel maintains a studio and gallery in Waldoboro, on Muscongus Bay.     FMI call JML at 207 372-8961. Library Hours:  Mon. 3-6; Tues., Wed., Thurs. 1—6; Fri. 1-5; Sat. 9:30-12:30; Sun. closed.