The Influence of Friendship

Maine Coast Artist Gallery in Friendship is pleased to announce the opening of an art exhibit featuring the works of Marion Wilson and Abby Carter, entitled, The Influence of Friendship, that will open on July 6, from 4-7:00 p.m., with refreshments and live music.

Marion and Abby have been friends since they were art students together at Wesleyan University and would draw in the many Connecticut graveyards at sunrise before class. Abby has been coming to Friendship most of her life in the summers with her family and Marion started coming about a decade ago with her own family.

In Abby's words...

"Marion and I have known each other for almost 31 years. We curated an art show together in college and have been great friends ever since. Through painting and pregnancy our friendship has only grown richer over the years as our hair grows grayer... at least my hair.

Last summer when Marion came running down the hill at Flood's Cove shouting "Abby, I got us a show together in Friendship!" I thought how fitting for us to do a joint show in a place that means so much to both of us."

Marion Wilson and Abby Carter explore the landscapes of plants and the terrain of faces.

Ms. Wilson's paints in oils on recycled pieces of miniature photography glass. She paints images of landscapes that we might normally overlook - ie plants after they bloom or urban landscapes near her home.

Ms. Carter's portraits are traditional in their interest in capturing a likeness, but the brushstrokes are rough and small facial details are exaggerated highlighting the paint more than the subject.

Abby Carter speaks about her art this way...."This group of paintings comes from my love of portraits as well as a desire to capture a small bit of Friendship, Maine. I've summered here, since the age of 8. The work hanging is but a small slice of what Friendship means to me. It lives in me through the long winter months. It is the place I go to in my mind when I am sad, and it never fails to cheer me up."

She describes her artist life...

"I am a children's book illustrator as well as a painter. My studio in Connecticut overlooks a small stream where I watch large birds catch fish. I've illustrated over 60 children's books and am currently working on projects for Hyperion/ Disney and Holiday House."

Marion Wilson is an artist who lives and works in Syracuse, New York and maintains a studio in New York City. She has had exhibits or completed public commissions for New Museum of Contemporary Art, NYC; Kasia Kay Art Projects, New Orleans; Dorsky Gallery, NYC; Shroeder Romero Gallery, Exit Art, Cheryl Pelavin Fine Arts and Sculpture Center, NYC; in addition to Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY; SPACES, Cleveland Ohio; and SCOPE Miami/Art Basel, Miami, Florida.

Wilson has been awarded funded residencies at Millay Colony for the Arts (Nancy Graves Award); International Studio Program (NYSCA and Elizabeth Foundation) and Sculpture Space in Utica, NY. Wilson received her B.A. from Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT; M.A.from Columbia University, NYC; and her M.F.A. from University of Cincinnati, OH.

Wilson is an Associate Professor and Director of Community Initiatives in the Visual Arts at Syracuse University. Wilson institutionalized an interdisciplinary art curriculum as a result of her belief in the revitalization of urban spaces through the arts.– whereby students work with community members to offer spatial solutions to pressing social concerns. In 2007 she created MLAB -a mobile classroom, gallery and digital lab in a renovated RV that brought afterschool programming to 12 urban elementary schools.

In 2009-12 she created 601 Tully artspace – renovating a drug house on the west side of Syracuse – the ninth poorest neighborhood in the  country – to increase educational opportunities, offer jobs and increase cultural access to its neighbors.

Over the years in her public projects Wilson has built collaborative art partnerships –with homeless people, students and neighbors- accessing individual expertise and working non-hierarchically.

Wilson, talks about her work..."In 2009 the University where I work was set to throw away their entire slide collection (all 200,000 slides). I inherited the entire slide collection of paintings and have been using the artifacts of the collection to make new work ever since.

Here I am drawing New York State native plants on drawer dividers on one side of the table, and carving six endangered plants on the other side.

In addition to the drawings of plant I have painted on recycled glass – also artifacts of film photography – a series called Anatomy of a Flower – all abstractions of flowers that grow in the Northeast."

The Maine Coast Artist Gallery is located at 10 Harbor Road in Friendship, in the center of town just across from the Wallace Market. The gallery is open Thursday- Sunday 10-5:00 or by appointment.

For more information, please call Kat Logan at 207/226-7446 or email kat@mainecoastartist.com. You can also visit the website www.mainecoastartist.com.