Art in the Library

Reference Room and Glass Case Displays

Japanese Wood Block and Etching Prints

May-June 2023

Art by various Japanese artists from the collection of Brian and Sherri Otterson.

Previous Displays

A New England Spring in Days of Yore by Polly Glavine

March and April 2023

Born and educated in rural Somerset county, Polly’s life has been filled with travel, living from the East Coast to the West Coast and back. She has been fascinated with art, literature, gardening, and nature. She has embraced numerous personal artistic pursuits with great passion and dedication. At 91, Polly plays a significant role in her community at Schooner Estates in Auburn, Maine. Her friends are continually amazed at her seemingly unending energy and vibrancy daily.

Polly’s art seems to have evolved as a tribute to early Americana. She taught herself how to make intricate, beaded bouquets. She has also hand-painted dozens and dozens of Easter eggs. She paints free-form on wooden eggs, and their designs emerge and take form with originality. An expert seamstress and embroiderer, she has made beautiful christening gowns for her babies. She has sewn beautiful tablecloths, place mats, and napkins for her home. She has gifted most of her art and crafts to many friends, family, and neighbors.

A Walk Through Norway – Photography by Morgan Richardson

March and April 2023

Morgan was born and raised in Oxford Hills, Maine. As a child, Morgan would steal her mother’s camera and take pictures of anything and everything around her. After high school, Morgan studied at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore where she majored in Graphic Design. This was also her first introduction to ceramics where she began taking classes. Morgan found the medium to be a welcome break from being behind the lens or a computer screen; it allowed her to tap into a different side of her artistic process and create things wildly different than her typical style.

Morgan double majored in Photo & Digital Art and Ceramics at the University of Southern Maine. After graduation Morgan has managed to balance the life of a working artist, creating graphic design promotions for businesses, assisting well-known wedding photographers, and has begun taking on her own clients for weddings and other life events.

Landscapes – Far and Near by Carolyn B. Reedy

January 13-March 13, 2023

Born in Boston on December 11, 1931, and raised in Massachusetts, Maine, and New York, Carolyn graduated from Melrose High School in 1949. She earned an Associate in Applied Arts degree from Boston University. She grew up surrounded and influenced by many family artists. Her great-uncle, Franklin Peleg Brownell, was a well-respected Canadian artist whose works are in the National Gallery in Ottawa. Carolyn married Richard Reedy in 1952, and they raised their family in Melrose. After moving to Gloucester in 1977, she became immersed in the Cape Ann artist community, taking classes and workshops to improve her pastels, watercolors, and oil painting skills.

Carolyn was an artist member of the Rockport Art Association, Newburyport Art Association, North Shore Art Association, Hudson Valley Art Association, and Academic Artist Association. Awards include the Medal of Honor (Academic Artists), the Guild of Boston Artists Award (North Shore Art Association), and the Claude Parsons Memorial Award at the American Artists Professional League Grand National Exhibition in New York City.

Common Work and Common Places: Works in Watercolor and Encaustic by Betsey Foster

Betsey Foster began painting after a career in science and journalism. Her two main art subjects are the outdoors and people working at “honest labor.” Foster has painted in watercolors for ten to fifteen years. Her encaustic pieces have an abstract flavor and focus on the natural world.

Encaustic is an ancient medium to create art. Encaustic paintings have been found that are dated between 500-1000 BCE. It is a wax-based “paint” that is made with beeswax, dammar resin (a tree sap), and pigment. The wax is melted on a heated palette, then applied to a rigid surface such as wood. After the wax has cooled, a torch flame is used to lightly fuse the wax to layers beneath it. Encaustic paintings can have many layers of pigment to create various effects. There are numerous styles of painting with encaustic – everything from smooth to transparent to textured and opaque. I enjoy the textured and opaque and particularly like adding other things to the encaustic, such as rocks, sticks, and copper.

Foster says her art reflects her love of the outdoors and her deep respect and love for the people of this area. She enjoys roaming around and enjoying the mountains, woods, and rivers. When not outdoors, she works with water or fire to create art.

Quiet Please by Peter Herley

Peter has enjoyed being part of the arts scene, both as an observer and a participant, as far back as he can remember. He was introduced to art in preschool when he learned how to draw and finger paint. His father took him to museum exhibits often in New York City. He was enthralled by Jackson Pollack’s work and wanted to be as good as him.

Once he went to college at Rutgers University, he met other artists. They had several shows in galleries and multiple shows at low-key venues like living rooms, bars, abandoned buildings, and in storefront windows. Once he graduated from Rutgers with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a minor in Education, he began submitting his work and getting shows in galleries and libraries in New Jersey and New York City.

After high school and through the early eighties, he traveled to Europe several times, California and the southwest, up and down the eastern seaboard, and for a short while lived in both New Hampshire and Massachusetts. His travels influenced his art.

His wife and him decided to move back to the east coast to be closer to aging parents in 2014. They moved to Norway Maine, his wife’s hometown, where he continues to prolifically produce art and show in libraries and other public spaces.

The Phenomenal Intricacy of Such Tiny Creatures by Alice Tweedie

Alice has been an artist all of her life. She began drawing and painting insects a few years ago, but she’s always been a professional artist. Her passion is for connecting with nature – taking care of animals, growing things, and being outdoors. She says, “I love to make things, create things, whether it be in the garden or at the easel.”

Alice was one of the first regulars on “Saturday Night Live,” playing “Peuta” with Jim Henson and the Muppets in “The Land of Gorch” for two seasons. She went on to perform on “Captain Kangaroo” and on “The Adventures of Slim Goodbody in NutriCity,”playing a host of different characters as a puppeteer, actress and singer. She designed and built Muppet-style puppets for television out of her studio in New York City, which was featured on the “Today” show and in New York magazine.

In Los Angeles Alice performed as a puppeteer with Shari Lewis and Lambchop, sang and performed on a Johnny Carson television pilot called “Wizzle Falls,” starring William Conrad, and on a kids’ weekly TV series called “The Kid-a-Littles.”

Alice holds bachelor’s degrees from Antioch College in Ohio with a major in Theater Arts and from The University of Southern Maine with a major in Communications. She studies art at Maine College of Art (MECA) and at The University of Southern Maine.

Swarm! by Morgan Richardson

Artist Statement

For most people, the imagery I use is seen as off putting and ugly, often inducing feelings of revulsion and horror when seen. This has made their place in art somewhat hidden or even used as a visual villain and as a contrast for more beautiful things. Portraying these vilified objects in a different light and highlighting their beauty and intricacy has become the focus point of my work in a lot of ways. The interest isn’t limited solely to bugs but also to changing the way we look at traditional imagines and creating something different from the wreckage of stagnant ideas. Teetering on the line of surrealism, my work is meant to use natural objects from life commonly deemed unfavorable or grotesque in a way that organizes their chaos.

Contemporary art has formed as a way of turning these grotesque imagines on their head. The work is emblematic of subjected forces rebelling against traditional structure and ideas but is deeply personal to me as a female artist. The work is a reflection of my own ideas about femininity and to contrast the structures of the world and how it decides what kind of art women should produce. The art I create is representative of how beauty is not limited in construction but a multifaceted approach to seeing the world.