How long have you been in Maine?
Since the early 1970’s. I moved here immediately after graduating (undergrad) and was part of the back-to-the-land movement, and built a little place out in the woods.
A place in the woods?
That was a time when people were disillusioned with the Vietnam War, and there were a lot of young people throughout the country moving to rural areas. What I did was not exactly off the grid, but it was an alternative kind of lifestyle. I was living within a system that I didn’t agree with and I was trying to do something positive within that.
How long did you live there?
About seven years. It was an owner-built home that was designed based on the size of lumber that I could scavenge.
Wow, what did you do there?
I had electricity but not running water, and did gardening, baking and all of those kinds of things, which started to eclipse my studio time, and I realized that the studio time was important. There are lots of different outlets for creative and even intellectual activity, but I do have a commitment to making visual art, so I went back to graduate school. But I learned something really important during that time that’s really still a part of who I am.
What kinds of art do you do now?
I’ve been working on setting up an interplay between visual art and geographic information systems, and so in some ways what I do is a form of digital mapping — a broader way of defining that would be cultural cartography.
It could be mapping some very personal feelings or perceptions about a place, and sometimes I map opinions.
Have you mapped any opinions lately?
Lately I have not. But I did a project with students where we went out and looked at the neighborhood where I live, and used principles of design and rated different locations in the neighborhood according to those design principles — so that’s where I took the point data and made these very colorful contour maps that you can read and see how they reflect those opinions.
The end result just stands for the multiplicity of viewpoints, how people can think about things differently – so that we can’t really nail everything down.
Does anyone in particular stand out as being an inspiration to you for pursuing art?
Buckminster Fuller. He was an honorary professor at Southern Illinois University when I was an undergrad — at that point in time he was talking a lot about building geodesic domes. He gave a talk in a class that I was in, and he was brilliant. He talked for hours without notes, just off the top of his head. His ability to think as a designer but also as a humanist — that was very inspiring.
So you see art as more than just self-expression?
I do, I see creativity and innovation as being basic impulses that are at the essence of any discipline, and somebody like Fuller is drawing off a lot of different disciplines, and contributing in a way that brings these different sets of knowledge together.
Do you feel it’s important to have a balance between the rural and the technological sides of things?
Absolutely, I like those extremes. I don’t have a bias towards high-tech or low-tech, and I believe that you have to find a balance. Let’s face it, if there’s an ice storm like we had, and the lights go out, you’re not going to be using your computer but you can still pick up a stick and dip it in mud and draw.
Which of the two campuses (Portland and Gorham) do you like better in terms of the general atmosphere?
I can’t choose. That sounds like a cop-out and maybe it is. They’re different in the way each functions and in the feel, so I’m back and forth, and can appreciate what each has to offer.