Artists
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HOURS:
Feb. 5- May,
Thurs-Sun 12-6pm
June-December
Open Daily 10am-6pm
also open by appointment
and during Friday Night Art Openings
June 30-July 19
Reception Friday July 3, 5-8pm
What strikes me is the fact that in our society, art has become something which is only related to objects, and not to individuals, or to life.
-Michel Foucault
Any work dealing with possibilities must lead to new work... What education finally serves us, if at all. There is a pause, a rose, something on paper. The small green shadows make the red jump out. That is not a telescope, nor do I have stars in my belly. Such displacements alter illusions, which is all-to-the-good.
-Lyn Hejinian, My Life
My work is an attempt to create or explore imagery that wound up in attics, old trunks or garbage heaps. Lost images, found images, silent images which somehow find voice. Stories find themselves through images & re-presenting of images found, saved and collected... that evoke through a proximity (or overlap or opposition or connection or repetition) tellings of our own stories.
The beauty and simplicity of utilitarian objects such as canning jars is that they themselves come loaded with story. The story of the glass they are made of and bale wire that holds the cap. The story of the hands that held them, cleaned them filled them, stowed them. The history of a culture of sweat and labor. The passing on of knowledge of sustenance, sustainability and process. The story of the growing, harvesting and preservation of foods. The story of the hunger that the contents of this object satisfied. The story of seasons and years gone by, rains, suns, good years, poor years.
The story of the woman in a kitchen full of heat and steam.
Photographs are, of course, vastly different objects from canning jars, but in many ways the intent is similar. Snapshots are taken by everyday people to preserve a moment or a loved one. These humble proletarian photos inevitably wind up in suitcases or trunks or flea market stalls. Their importance is now only what we can imagine from the fading images. People are nameless. The moments are lost. But at some point in time, on some sunny day when the shadows fell just so, somebody took a picture. Somebody in love with their new camera or the moment or the angle of light clicked a shutter, preserving time and space, light and shadow and that mysterious intangible, feeling.
The wonder to me is that the jars and the photos come together and through glass and shadow, light and refraction, the captured past and the observable present, combine to create a tangible pause. And I find myself waiting for the red to jump out. Will one of the people move or speak? It seems almost possible. The photo-in-jar is a displacement that alters illusions. And that, I am hoping, is all to the good.
A spool of thread, a humble form of utilitarian simplicity holds a current of meaning that crosses all borders. Exploring this iconic image in oils has connected Sochor to family but also to the thread, which sews an endless seam around the world. From one generation to the next 'thread' metaphorically as well as physically has linked her to the past and continues its weave into the present. An accomplished artist and teacher, Sochor was born in Philadelphia where she received her BFA from the Philadelphia College of Art. She moved to Brooks Maine in 1979 where she has lived and painted for 30 years. Her watercolors and oils have been widely exhibited throughout the state in galleries, universities, and museums including Mathias Fine Art, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Caldbeck Gallery, USM, the Farnsworth and Gilley Museums as well as the State House in Augusta. Sochor's artistic career includes curatorial work in Woodstock, N.Y., the Ellsworth Public Library, and the Marsh River Theatre in Brooks, involvement with the Ukrainian Art Ass. in N.Y.C., Co-founding the first gallery in Belfast, Me., and proliferating the ancient art form of the Ukrainian decorated egg throughout the state of Maine. Sochor has also taught privately and publically for twenty years.She is currently teaching the art program at the Toddy Pond School as well as chidren, teen and adult workshops in Brooks, Camden, Morrill and Belfast.