Maine Wilderness Photographic, Paintings Exhibits Opening at UMaine Hudson Museum May 31
Contact: Hudson Museum, 581-1901
ORONO — Two new exhibits on the Maine north woods wilderness and Mount Katahdin open May 31 at the University of Maine’s Hudson Museum.
“Wildness within, wildness without,” features a photographic exploration of Maine’s Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail with images by prize-winning photographer Bridget Besaw, a former Bangor Daily News photographer. A collection of rich, bold paintings, titled “My Katahdin Lake Story,” by artist and art teacher Michael E. Vermette of Indian Island, is a continuation of Vermette’s deep reverence for Mount Katahdin.
The exhibits and opening reception May 31, from 5-7 p.m., are free and open to the public through June. The Hudson Museum is located in the Maine Center for the Arts on the Orono campus.
Museum Director Gretchen Faulkner says the museum is pleased to offer the exhibits as part of its mission and programming.
“We celebrate the traditional art forms of the native people here, and the forests are integral to their art forms,” Faulkner says. “Katahdin is a sacred mountain to the native peoples of Maine.”
“Wildness within, wildness without” celebrates the wilderness spirit and recreational heritage of the north woods by depicting some of the ways people recreate and enjoy the route that Henry David Thoreau traveled 150 years ago. Besaw’s photographs are part of a larger project begun two years ago to promote and draw attention to the ancient Wabanaki canoe routes and trails that Thoreau explored in 1846, 1853 and 1857 with Penobscot Nation guides Joe Attean and Joe Polis.
The project was commissioned by the group Maine Woods Forever, whose members share an interest in the historic, cultural and recreational value of the north Maine woods. The trail begins in Bangor and extends north through Greenville Eagle Lake before returning south via Chamberlain Lake, past Mount Katahdin and along the East Branch of the Penobscot River through Medway, Lincoln and Indian Island to Bangor.
An award-winning newspaper photographer, New Hampshire native Bridget Besaw is an environmental photojournalist who has worked in the United States and abroad for magazines such as U.S. News and World Report, National Geographic Adventure and Newsweek, in addition to three books, including broadcast journalist Peter Jennings’ book America. Her coverage of the World Trade Center attacks in September of 2001 earned cover placement in Life magazine’s 9/11 issue.
Besaw’s current focus is on creating imagery for use as an advocacy tool for environmental protection. She views environmental photojournalism as a combination of nature and story, “to tell the story of the human experience in nature,” she says in her artist’s statement.
“In each image I hope to tell both the physical tale of how one can experience the North Woods (canoeing, swimming, hiking) as well as the emotional tale of how one can connect with the spirit of the north woods,” her statement says. “As a story-teller, my quest is to illustrate the many human powered ways one can enjoy the region. As an artist, I chose to interpret each scene in a way that might evoke mood and memory of something common to all human experience in nature. I hope this collection becomes not only a document of these activities, but a powerful testament for the value of the region