Artist Manon Whittlesey, left, and Alex Matkins of Bowdoinham talk Sunday near Whittlesey’s watercolor paintings, displayed during Maine Craft Weekend at the Tandem Glass Works gallery and studio in Dresden. Mosaic glasses by Tandem Glass line the shelves in the foreground. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel
DRESDEN — The several artists who gathered Sunday at the spacious studio and gallery of Tandem Glass Works worked in different mediums and were from different parts of the state. But they each had at least two things in common on display Sunday: Their love of creating and sharing their art, and friendships with their Maine Craft Weekend hosts, Charlie Jenkins and Terrill Waldman.
Jenkins and Waldman have been creating handblown glass in a barn studio since 2006, and opened their workspace as a stop on the annual statewide tour of craft artist studios, businesses and events. The artists attending said that rather than hosting open studio events in their own individual studios, they would rather be with their friends at Tandem Glass Works in rural Dresden, where they shared space, customers, and their shared passion for crafting works of art.
“This way we’re with our friends,” said Lisa Cylinder, who makes handmade, highly detailed and unique pieces of jewelry with her husband and fellow artist, Scott, at their of Chickenscratch Jewelry studio inside Fort Andross in Brunswick.
Scott Cylinder, who has collaborated on art with his wife for 36 years, added, “Charlie and Terrill are really good at facilitating these types of things.”
Artist Jon White, who creates textured earthenware clay tiles featuring depictions of nature, as well as pottery through his Cape Elizabeth studio, ODD INQ, said the gathering of artists benefits them all, rather than being competition for potential customers’ patronage.
“We all help each other, (competition) has never been a thing for me,” White said. “I feel my work is unique enough people are here for it or not. I’ve known Charlie and Terrill for quite a while — I like how they put together an event with a number of people.”
White said he’s inspired by the arts and crafts movement based in part on a theory that good design comes from nature.
“That movement made what we’re doing here today possible,” he said. “I love arts and crafts and look to put my own hand to it.”
Anna Morefield, 3, watches Sunday for customers while helping her mother, Rose Normann-Morefield, owner of Dippermouth Sewing and Printing, during Maine Craft Weekend at Tandem Glass Works in Dresden. The store featured clothing made with plant dyes. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel
Manon Whittlesey, of Bowdoinham, invited people looking at her watercolor paintings hanging on the wall to also flip through the several sketchbooks that lined her table, tucked just inside the entryway of the glass studios.
She brings sketchbooks on trips she takes, both personally and as a leader of art-experience workshops, in which she and participants create art while they are traveling. Whittlesey and her companions sketch what they see and feel immediately in the field, as they experience it, instead of waiting until they’re back in a studio. The trips range from Vaughan Woods in Hallowell to France.
A lot of her paintings start in her sketchbooks, then are often redone multiple times as she works out details of a piece.
She works in the field “to capture a mood or element that’s not always there in the studio,” she said. “And when you’re traveling, not waiting until you get to a destination to work.”
Whittlesey’s “day job” is at Spindleworks Art Center in Gardiner. As a mother, she said she doesn’t have large swaths of time to create her own art, so she does it when she can, such as at children’s soccer games, in the sketchbooks she had on display alongside her works of art that were for sale.
Lisa Ferreira Jones, of Falmouth, brought lamps with shades made of her hand-made paper, decorated with botanicals she picks. She makes and sells the lamps for her craft business, Ember Grove,with the lampshades formed around metal frames she solders, mounted on a lamp made of a stick atop a base of small blocks of wood. She also makes jewelry from her handmade paper, coated with a protective layer for weatherproofing.
Jones, too, came to show her work at Tandem Glass over the weekend through her friendship with Jenkins and Waldman, who she met at craft shows. She said there were more than 100 people at the studio Saturday, considerably more than she would attract if she hosted an individual event at her own small studio.
Jenkins, in between tasks running the cash register at Tandem Glass on Sunday, said having a larger variety of works by multiple artists
Artist Lisa Ferreira Jones, right, and customer Angie Giampetruzzi of Gardiner talk Sunday about Ferreira Jones’ handmade lamps during Maine Craft Weekend at Tandem Glass Works in Dresden. The lamps feature shades made from handmade paper that incorporate Maine flowers and plants, covered with an acrylic coating for protection. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel
makes their rural and fairly remote studio in Dresden more attractive to travelers, who will then spend more time there than if only the work of a single artist were featured. He also said many artists don’t have studio space with enough room to host the public, while they have ample space in their barn-based studio and workshop. And each of the artists attending may also attract their own customers, who will have a chance to check out the work of other Maine artists.
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