Media report on new Bangor mural by student artist
The Bangor Daily News, News Center Maine, WABI (Channel 5), WVII (Channel 7) and Q1065.fm reported on the completion of a new mural in Bangor painted by artist and University of Maine undergraduate student Liam Reading. Spanning two walls of the Together Place Peer Run Recovery Center at 150 Union St., the mural depicts famous Maine residents and was partially funded by a grant from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, the BDN reports. The figures include Maine athletes, writers, artists and historical figures, including Louis Sockalexis, a 19th century Major League Baseball player from the Penobscot Indian Island Reservation, and Dorothea Dix, a Civil War nurse from Hampden who was an important mental health civil rights advocate. “I get to honor her [Dix]. Because of her the world is an infinitely better place and most people don’t even know about her,” Reading told News Center Maine. The mural is his largest and most time-consuming piece to date, according to WABI. “It’s like an ode to the people of Maine who are influential and inspiring,” said Reading. “Just a little bit of color and inspiration for people walking by.” The center provides support for adults with mental illnesses or substance use disorders, and is based on a peer-run model, according to the BDN. “I believe in sort of cosmic alignment like the world gives you what you put out there, and it’s really just telling me I’m on the right track as an artist because a lot of people don’t believe in themselves as artists, and this is really just the first self-affirming moment in my career,” said Reading.