Maine artist Daryne Rockett will present “Restoring Liberty,” an exhibition of monotypes and mixed-media work, from Oct. 2 to Nov. 24 at the McDade Gallery at Bangor Public Library.
The exhibition brings together two interconnected bodies of work examining freedom, democracy, justice and hope. In a series of layered monotypes, the Statue of Liberty appears fractured, transformed, repaired and reassembled against backgrounds incorporating texts that have shaped American conversations about liberty and responsibility.
The texts include Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, the First Amendment, excerpts from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fireside chats and Rachel Carson’s prepared remarks before Congress.
Several works draw on the Japanese tradition of kintsugi, using gold to make fractures visible rather than disguising them. The repaired cracks serve as a metaphor for acknowledging and repairing fractures in American democracy. Other works use imagery inspired by stained glass, assembling separate and fragmented elements into a new whole.
The second half of “Restoring Liberty” consists of mixed-media collages on 18-inch cradled panels. These works began with responses to a deceptively simple question: What gives you hope?
The resulting pieces explore qualities that sustain hope and democratic engagement, including truth, solidarity, resilience and generosity. Many individual collage elements were also created on a gelatin printing plate, providing a visual and material connection between the exhibition’s two bodies of work.
Together, the works consider democracy not simply as something inherited and possessed but as something continually created, protected and repaired.
Rockett, who creates under the name Doodle Rex, is an Orono-based mixed-media artist, U.S. Air Force veteran and clinical social worker. Her work frequently explores resilience, justice, connection and repair.
A self-taught artist, Rockett came to visual art while recovering from a brain injury in 2014, when making art became both a creative practice and a way of rebuilding capacity.
The public can meet the artist from 6 to 7 p.m. Oct. 8. Artwork in the exhibition will be available for purchase through the library’s reference desk.
The McDade Gallery is at Bangor Public Library, 145 Harlow St., Bangor. Call 207-947-8336, visit bangorpubliclibrary.org/daryne-rockett or learn more about the artist at doodlerex.com.
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