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Wilder Oakes at Assymetrik Arts in Rockland, Maine
Hi all…just a quick note for any of you who are lucky enough to find yourselves in the Midcoast part of Maine. In our online newspaper, Village Soup, I read an article about a local guy who is an artist: Wilder Oakes (alas, the article requires one to either pay to view or have a subscription). His work sounded intriguing, and the photo included intrigued me enough that I asked my Frayed Edges friend Kathy if she wanted to meet me and go to the show. BOY am I glad I did! You can’t read the article, but you can get a glimpse of the image here. The show runs through July 27.
Wilder Oakes at work on The Lovers; click to see larger.
Oakes’ oil paintings, some with mixed media, are at Assymetrick Arts in downtown Rockland at 405 Main Street (about a block away from the Farnsworth Museum). The centrepiece of the exhibit was The Lovers Over Port Clyde, which was the painting in the article. On the bench beneath the painting were a couple aerial photos of the area where Oakes lives, so you could see how he has portrayed his home town, the buildings and inlets…. Some of the houses (just to the left of the man’s outstretched hand) were small bits of painted wood affixed to the large canvas (apparently he had to take a window out of his home to get this big piece out!), giving a great bit of literal dimension to the work. As a textile artist and quilter, I loved the colors on the quilt on the bed, but also the colors worked into the paintings of the houses…an amazing blending of small brushstrokes of pink, blue, goldenrod, mauve, green… just fabulous.
On the gallery website (here) you can see some of the artwork as well as a shot of what one sees as you walk in the door. One piece is A Portrait of the Artist a Neil Diamond. Oakes is only a bit younger than Diamond, and the two looked amazingly alike in photos of them from when they were younger (tho no resemblance today). As we were preparing to leave, Kathy and I were chatting with the gallery owner when ever-alert Kathy noticed that Oakes himself had come in. She went over to introduce herself, and as the owner went to greet a new person, I joined them. What a treat….
Oakes chatted with us, telling us about his work, answering our questions (yes, things like: how did you make those shapes in the frame? answer: carved them, then dipped them in several layers of gesso). He then showed us the *back* of the self-portrait, which has an album by Diamond (yes, the entire disc!) plus more of the story of this painting. Oakes told us that he included a note written to him by his first love (which he still had in his high school yearbook) because she was as much a part of the story as he was. And –goosebumps– she still lives in the area and came to play music at the show opening! On the front, where you see part of an album (painted) in the lower left corner, he has written in paint part of the story of who he (Oakes) was then, the songs, about his life then. I noticed that the house behind the figure looked like a house in the Lovers, one where an angel is in the street, so I asked, and indeed it is the same house, where he grew up.
It was a totally cool visit—I left wanting to dash home and make art! Instead, sigh, I stopped at Home Depot, came home, cooked, etc. But just had to share with you all. DO drop in to the show if you are in the are. You can also see a bit of Oakes on his Facebook page.
May all of you have a moment like this, that inspires you and gets your creative juices flowing…. it was just wonderful!
July 12th, 2012 at 7:46 am
What a delightful serendipitous adventure you and Kathy had! Another ‘I love living in Maine’ experience for you.