Exhibition | Reverie

Abstracted Memory

“Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne

Claire Seidl uses her camera to capture what the eye doesn't see. Her long exposures reveal a visible record of time passing, our memory at once enhanced and abstracted. "At times, the images feel like a flash of memory, a moment held. I am very interested in how we see (or don’t see) what is right in front of us." - Claire Seidl

J.T. Gibson's bronze cast beaver chews give new life to gnawed markings on cut wood bundles found in nature. With J.T.'s casting, he gives the form its third iteration, from tree, to fragment, to sculpture. Transforming again the beaver's handiwork on the tree, he stills and admires this moment.

Surreal Dreamscape

"Give me two hours a day of activity, and I’ll take the other twenty-two in dreams." - Salvador Dali

Christopher Mir uses midcoast Maine as the stage set to explore his relationship with his hometown. He positions archetypes within a four tiered striation of sky, ocean, middle ground and foreground of the Camden Hills landscape. Arranging simple elements on a plane, he leans into symbols and emblems to generate ideas and emotions. Christopher Mir’s paintings are both dreamlike and grounded in place.

This is both a self-portrait and a portrait of Buckminster Fuller, the futurist architect of the geodesic dome, as a child. Here we see young Bucky holding a bird’s nest in front of his face on the summit of Mount Battie. Behind him in the bay are the invisible islands of his childhood. The nest and its inherently stable geometry is an origin story for Bucky’s geodesic dome and an emblem of nature and the future. The impossible flowers in the snow and the appearance of the crow, add to the sensation that we are witnessing a miracle. 

Playful Reimagining

"We are the music makers. We are the dreamers of dreams." -Roald Dahl

Michael Stasiuk is an animator of objects, turning forgotten items into fantastical figures. Stasiuk uses found and vintage objects - old bowling pins, golf tees, spools - imbued with their own nostalgia to bring life to a theater of characters. Tether Ball Players are joyfully animated out of tether ball paddles, Marco the Magician presides over us, invoking old time magic in a crumber pan cape.