 Hello, welcome to CTN member highlight. I'm Leslie McVane and today my guest is Bruce Brown. Hello, Bruce Good afternoon. Well, you're the former curator of the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. I am I was there for 20 years and went back for one more so all together 21 years And you curated over 200 shows while you were there. I did indeed and as Bob Kees has said you're one of the most enthusiastic curators of photography and collectors and appreciators of The medium and here you are at the Union of Maine Visual Artists Gallery curating the show I am and it came up rather suddenly and I was only too pleased to respond and And say yes, I'd love to do this so someone comes to you with this you're gonna do this show and you're like Yeah, sure. And then what happens in your head you go. What is it going to be about? Well, I For some years I've been thinking about The name of the show by the way is branching out that's is significant in several ways One it's has to do with the geographical distribution of the artists There are 39 artists in this show and they Come from all the way from Kierry Point to Sorrento Maine then from Bangor over to Blanchard And so that it really is nearly statewide. So that's one way of branching out a Second way has to do with processes There are historical processes back into the 1840s and 50s in this show through tin types and And then later some Palladium prints right up to digital work Which is very common throughout this thing, but most of all For me personally the idea of branching out has to do with the idea that I haven't done all that much work with with landscapes and to do something as specific as trees is Quite novel for me. So I'm branching out as well I know this was a submission and it's sort of a juried show How did you make the decision? What which pieces would be? included in the show I I Made a list. I've been keeping a list for maybe a year and a half or two years about Artists whose work about trees Has has been of interest to me. So I had that to go by. I did not send out a general call throughout the state because a There there wasn't neither time nor I would have been so bombarded But what I did do and this was important And it goes back to branching out again Because this is the UM VA's gallery here in Portland it was important that I contact all of those artists and Ask them to submit work and a number of artists are new to me Which is always a pleasure. I always like to find out who else is out there You never can keep up. Well, we're we're we're blessed with so many wonderful artists in this state And and I can't imagine being able to keep up with all of them. You can't do it So was hanging the show a problem because the the work is so varied and I I can't imagine how you decided to group everything Oh, no, well Hanging shows are my greatest pleasure and I think of myself as an amateur I love what other people can do and I like supporting Artists in in their endeavors so of that that that that's step one, but if I do have a talent I do think that And the greatest fun for me is is arranging shows on the wall, but I always a lot also like to have a second second opinion as well and so Our hanging crew really Helped out with three or four wonderful suggestions Well, you had some good people on that crew and I know it was a small group But it was a very very effective well-chosen good eyes absolutely and all were UMDA members so well the show is beautiful and maybe we should talk about a few pieces here Well, here we are in front of a Really striking Photograph that I've been drawn to since from the beginning could you tell us a little bit about the artist and about the piece? I'll be happy to do that. The artist is knee-wrong and She is from China, but she and her husband Dorsey Gardner Have a home just around the corner from the previous Center for Main Contemporary Art now that CMCA has just moved to Rockland They have purchased the building the former building and are doing a wonderful job to renovate it And its ultimate purpose is yet to be decided But in any event they live so close by and it's great that it it it's in their hands This comes from a body of work in which knee has done Quite a number of self portraits They are all by most of them are really very close to the water because she is thinking about her her live Divided into two parts China and the United States in this particular instance she Set set the camera up and it took about three days before she got what she really was looking for and It all comes down to this little moment when all this a breeze came along and finally just sort of blew the dress a little bit But it's stunning stunning work and Another thing that I like about it is that this seems almost more like Less like a photograph than than a print or you know print quality of an etching for example At first I thought that's what it was and I thought what's that doing in the show? This is a photography show, but it just it just brings you right right through and you start here with that Brilliant red, but then it's it's just the most spectacular Piece of work. I love it. Yes, so let's maybe move to another one and talk about well We could go to something that's totally different. Okay. It's a very historical Well these next two are tin types by shishona white They are and instead of going to the digital route with the knee wrong We're going back in history when tin types in the 1860s and 1870s were Where everywhere and was so very very popular We have here in Maine with shishona and white and and cold casual two of the best artists working with tin types There's a really beautiful images and actually they're not made out of tin They're made up really more out of lead and they're instantly They can be made and just hand it over to whoever it is that That may be buying the work and what have you what I want to say about Cole is That he is following in the tradition where tin types were on the street kinds of Work that photographers did people could go to carnivals and Things of that sort and have their pictures taken Immediately he does the same thing by going to the common ground fair. He's been doing this for several years You can go and for a very minimal amount of money He will take a picture of you and in an hour's time You it's yours So here we have another Photograph that's been kind of a magnet for people. It just draws you in you want to talk a little bit about this one Yes, indeed this large Beautiful photograph is done by Gifford Ewing who spends a good part of his life in Sorrento, Maine way up in Washington County. I believe it is And also out in Colorado Here he has used three different processes It started it started with a regular a regular photograph Which he then turned into a digital print and now it's been transformed again into a carbon print And the image itself is was taken out west as half of his work is and a top of 13,000 foot kind of mountaintop out west and he's found this fantastic sculptural image that Looks well, it looks exactly like a sculpture and he's saying that it could be five thousand years old already And it might last for another five thousand years Just an amazing piece. It is an amazing piece. And then the technique too sounds a little more complicated Exactly. Well, he knows what he's doing. He certainly does and it's been very effective Yeah Well, here we are at another photograph in a whole different process That's correct. This photograph was done by Jeremy Barnard who has Had a summer beautiful summer home in friendship for quite a number of years Essentially, he's from northern Massachusetts and goes back and forth a great deal Most of his work is in black and white and he really really loves infrared The process in which the images seem very very white and in comparison to A more natural color let us say but in this instance this photograph really really does work. It's alive Thanks to the I think the Way that the branches move this wonderful opening up to the sky It's it's it's it's quite quite Quite spectacular. Well, we talked a little bit about it. It is it's magical It is and I I'm sorry for our viewing audience that they can't really appreciate it as much as we can Standing right here, but they need to come in and see the show. That's the answer. Yes, indeed Fortunately, we have the show up until August 27th We do and with the first Friday and August should be really popular with people But the very last day will be special because it's the Portland Arts Festival as well In which there will be dozens and dozens and dozens of of tents with artists So with all their work up and down Congress Street, all one has to do is come by 516 Congress And the doors will be open very open. Thank you so much Bruce. It's a pleasure