"Guardians" opens June 5th

Please join me for this amazing art opening on June 4th. The subject matter close enough to my heart, I am further elated that a number of Kelly Desrosier's elementary school students' works are to be part of the show. Any one who knows me is aware of the extensive advocating I do for arts in schools...Kelly is one of the amazing examples of how a good arts program, and moreover an involved art teacher, is such an importaint part of educating and enriching the lives of youth.

Excerpted from the Belfast Area Chamber of Commerce News:

Friday evening June 4th (5-8pm), Maine Farmland Trust Gallery is welcoming the public to join the celebratory opening of a new group exhibit titled Guardians, featuring paintings, sculptures, photographs, collagraph prints and multimedia books. Seven Maine artists from Portland to Eastport are participating in this show, as well as 13 students and their art teacher from the Mount View Elementary school in Thorndike.

The dictionary defines "guardian" as a keeper - a person who guards, protects or preserves.

"Guardians aims to create a visual statement about the real and imagined keepers of our land," says Anna Abaldo, Gallery Coordinator for Maine Farmland Trust. "It's been very exciting reigning in the different artists for this show, and picking the particular artworks to create a poetic suggestion about "guardians" of the land - the art in this exhibit represents both mythical, archetypal figures from folklore and our collective imagination, and every day farmers as being those incarnated "guardians" in this lifetime. Guardians is really an attempt to honor our farmers, the immensely important work they do which often goes unseen or gets taken for granted, and the intimate way they are connected to their land and the animals they care for."

Learning to be guardians are the students from Mount View Elementary. Under the wing of their art teacher Kelly Desrosiers, the students researched the interplay of sun, soil, water, air, plants and animals and created multimedia Earthbooks reflecting what they learned. Thirteen of these books will be on display as part of the exhibit at Maine Farmland Trust Gallery, as well as a digital video documenting this inspiring interdisciplinary project. Desrosiers firmly believes in teaching the joyful process of creation as a way of observing and understanding the magnificent natural world. She sees an analogy between the generative process of art and that of nature itself. She comments: "We are growing a new crop of stewards in our children, who will create our future, hopefully with deep appreciation for nature and their own role as co-creators."

Maine Farmland Trust Gallery is open weekdays from 9-4, and during July and August for Belfast Art Walks, Friday evenings from 5-8pm. The gallery is located in the front office of Maine Farmland Trust, 97 Main Street, Belfast.

Maine Farmland Trust is a statewide non-profit organization working to permanently preserve and protect Maine's agricultural lands, and to keep Maine's farms farming. Maine Farmland Trust created its gallery to celebrate agriculture through art, and to inspire and inform visitors regarding the vibrancy of farming in Maine.

For more information about Maine Farmland Trust and current events and programs, please visit www.mainefarmlandtrust.org, or call 338.6575.