Greetings from Archipelago. I’m excited to personally invite you to join me in a virtual event celebrating Maine as we share our stories, personal vision, and our favorite images inspired by our beautiful state. I’m honored to join in a visual conversation featuring the work of Olga Merrill, Jim Nickelson, Terry Hire, and Joise Iselin and would love to have you be a part of it. I’m looking forward to seeing you then!

Lisa Mossel Vietze

ABOUT THE EVENT
Join us for a special online visual journey and conversation with the artists as we explore perspectives on Maine through the lenses of five photographers. Through visual and conversational language, five fine art photographers will share how Maine serves as an inspiration for their bodies of work, their creative process in making images, and their personal experiences that serve as the foundation of their creative lives.

The show, “Our Maine,” featuring all five artists is on exhibit at our Archipelago Gallery in Rockland through August 3, 2020. Learn more here.

Note: We recommend joining this session by computer to enjoy the visual aspects of this presentation

Olga Merrill

Olga Merrill is a Maine based self-taught visual artist primarily using the medium of photography. She was born in the Far East of Russia where she lived and worked until March of 2013, when she came to Maine and her life changed. At the end of 2015, her life changed even more when she got a camera and her view of the world became different through its lenses. Her works have been shown at many galleries around the United States and in Europe, and she’s been featured in L’Oeil de la Photographie, Dodho, and Your Daily Photograph, among others. Olga’s limited and open edition prints are available at galleries and held by private collectors throughout the world.

 

Jim Nickelson 
Jim Nickelson is a fine art photographer, custom digital printer (as Nickelson Editions), and teacher, and is also the author of Fine Art Inkjet Printing, published by Rocky Nook in 2017. Before committing himself to the photographic life, he pursued the classic artistic career path of NASA engineer and corporate attorney (with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and a J.D. from Harvard Law School). Jim makes his home in Camden, and his work resides in museum, public, corporate, and private collections across the United States and Canada.
Josie Iselin
Josie Iselin is photographer, author and designer who lives in San Francisco but spends large chunks of her summers on Vinalhaven, where she shares a home with her brothers, her children, and their cousins. Josie’s mission is to produce enticing, well-researched and well-designed books that combine art and science, leaving the reader with new information about, and an appreciation for, the world around them. Her writing and art focusing on seaweed, kelp, and sea otter puts her on the forefront of ocean activism, presenting and working with scientists and environmental groups working to preserve the kelp forests of our Pacific Coast. Josie holds a BA in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard and an MFA from San Francisco State University. As a fine artist, she exhibits large-scale prints at select galleries, museums, hospital and other public spaces.
Lisa Mossel Vietze
Lisa has been making images since 1995, when she first picked up a Canon AE-1 manual camera. While Ansel Adams’ grand vistas brought her to photography, her images are primarily botanical macro photographs drawing the viewer into an intimate world of form and color. She has learned from many photographers who have taught through Maine Media Workshops over the past 20 years. Her images have appeared in many galleries and juried shows throughout Maine, including the Jonathan Frost Gallery, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, North Light Gallery, Maine Coast Artists Gallery, and the Blum Gallery at College of the Atlantic, as well as numerous books and magazines. Vietze’s prints are held in collections throughout the country.
Terry Hire
Terry Hire received his BFA in Art History and BA in history from the University of Tennessee.  Prior to moving to Maine in 1981, he lived in Nashville, where he was an interior designer, working on hospital design, store planning, and private home design. During that time, he fell in love with photography and took courses at Maine Photographic Workshops (now Maine Media Workshops) in Rockport. His longtime interest in photography was put on hold during his work as an interior designer at WBRDC Architecture in Bangor, until he opened his own firm, Design Alternatives, in Belfast. For the last 15 years he seriously pursued photography, and his colorful images are in the hands of many private collectors. Terry Hire died unexpectedly on January 31, 2020.