UMVA

Robert Shetterly will present the Union of Maine Visual Artists at Pecha Kucha Night at 6:30 p.m. April 5 at the Strand Theatre in Rockland. He is one of nine creative artists and organizations each presenting 20 images and narratives each in 20 seconds within Pecha Kucha’s unique storytelling format. A reception will follow. 

The entry fee is $5 at the door, plus $2.50 for advance tickets from the Strand Theatre at 594-0070. Last year’s event sold out quickly.

UMVA

“Lois Dodd: Maine Master,” a UMVA project, will be screened free via Zoom at 6:30 p.m. April 11, followed by a discussion with painter Lois Dodd, curator Suzette McAvoy, art critic Karen Wilkin and filmmaker Richard Kane. Email kanelewisproductions@gmail.com to request a Zoom link. 

Shetterly is creator of a series of paintings, books and lectures nationwide on “Americans Who Tell the Truth” to educate Americans about their rights and responsibilities as citizens. He is a former UMVA president and the subject of Richard Kane’s UMVA Maine Masters film “Truth Tellers,” which was shown and discussed by the producers and subjects in over 100 forums at schools and other institutions around the country. PBS is distributing it to all their affiliates through 2025. At Pecha Kucha, Shetterly will present UMVA’s colorful activist history, current advocacy programs, like Artists’ Rapid Response Team! (ARRT!), LumenARRT!, Maine Arts Journal and Maine Masters projects, as well as the new emphasis on Artists Helping Artists and the benefits of UMVA membership.   

Dodd was born in Montclair, New Jersey, and will celebrate her 97th birthday in April. She graduated from New York’s Cooper Union and helped found the legendary Tanager Gallery, where Willem de Kooning, Philip Guston and others got started. She later taught art at Brooklyn College for over 20 years. 

She visited Maine in 1951 with Alex Katz and others at the Skowhegan School and moved to Cushing in 1961. Later she was involved with the Artfellows Cooperative Gallery that played a major role in the “Belfast Renaissance.” Dodd’s paintings blend abstraction and representation of everyday subjects and create “a sense of grandeur and simplicity that is the essence of the Maine experience,” according to Curator Susan Larson. 

“Lois Dodd: Maine Master” includes a rich and varied sampling of these paintings, accompanied by the artist’s personal take on art and life.