DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE?

Art is everywhere around. Artists are everywhere around, too. Maybe it’s something in the air or the light or the water or the spare, but finest-kind, [sic] lifestyle or the eyes of willing beholders, or something else, but art is part of everyday life in Tenants Harbor. Okay, and Greater St. George, too.

Figure #9. Lobster buoys, yes. But also a hooked rug pattern?

At the moment, here in Minnesota, I can think of two books that illustrate the point. The first is Monhegan, the Artists’ Island, edited by Will and Jane Curtis. Greater St. George includes Monhegan because the ferry leaves from Port Clyde. Monhegan is an artists’ island because a lot of artists have and do live there. It is a wonderful place where people sit on the rocks and paint the water then move to the schoolhouse lawn and applaud the sunset. Monhegan, The Artists’ Island is a big, handsome book that tells the story of the Island with local art, usually paintings, used to make whatever points need making.

Figure #10. Marshall Point Rocks and Wildflowers, yes. But also a Shetland gray wool sweater with a spiky gold/green border and sea blue neck ribbing?

The other book with everyday art is publisher David Godine’s edition of The Country of the Pointed Firs, with black and white drawings by Douglas Alvord. I know a Mainer who is sure he knows the people in the drawings. Sometimes — rarely — he is more sure than right, but I like the idea too much to quibble.

Monhegan, the Artists’ Island. Edited by Will and Jane Curtis. Camden, ME: Down East Publications

Jewett, Sarah Orne. The Country of the Pointed Firs Drawings by Douglas Alvord. Jaffrey, NH: David R. Godine, Publisher