Artwalk: Inside and Outside and All Around Bath

In summertime there's an Artwalk in Bath every third Friday, and on July 26, 2013, on the eve of my 50 something birthday, I strolled along Front Street and Centre Street with Joe. It was our very first Artwalk, but that night we promised each other that we would go on many more because for some mysterious reason art looks fabulous in Bath light. At the Centre Street Arts Gallery, "Softly Focused," a watercolor by local artist Sharon Bouchard, held us captive for quite a while. In fact, the artist was there and noticed our interest. It was so much fun to speak with her and hear her talk about her own pathway to a gallery in Bath. We contemplated buying her Chinese style watercolor, but we knew that at the top of the "to do list" for our Maine house was painting inside and outside.  Furniture, curtains and art would have to wait at least 500 days. Even so, it was wonderful to think about hanging an oil, a pastel or a framed photograph on a newly painted wall. What a grand achievement that would be! In the meantime, on a hot summer night, we just kept strolling by some 20 different locations where amazing people were creating and displaying their works of art. Marking's Gallery was tempting with the art quilts and bead work of Natasha Kempers-Cullen, the charming pressed flowers of Patty Olds and the beautiful, useful ceramic pots of Nan Kilbourn-Tara. It was a feast for the eyes and for the soul as well. Beauty quite simply can be intoxicating. Joe and I smiled and laughed a lot as we sipped sweet tea along the way, and we held hands as lovers often do in Bath.

Fast forward to February. What a snowy whirl! Its too cold to be strolling along Front and Centre, so what do Mainers do? They take the art show inside! In the middle of winter the best place to be on a Sunday morning is Mae's Cafe. At the top of the hill, on the corner of Centre and High, the sunshine fills the main dining room with warmth and light, and the Maine 10 Artists find the perfect place to parade their one of a kind paintings. Apple pancakes, dripping with Maine syrup, melt in your mouth while your eyes take in walls of flowers, trees, rivers, waves, and boats! My eyes always come to focus on a boat: boats of many colors, sizes, and shapes. In Maine's Cool Little City of Ships, love for sea going vessels grows and grows! I actually find myself craving the color blue. And there is a "Blue Haiku" by local artist Susan R. Wood at the exhibit at Mae's Cafe! The haiku is the bright blue rowboat that twinkles from across the room. Great art brings life into ordinary spaces, and you can taste the sweetness of the Sunday morning. The feeling here is so optimistic that I want to bottle it, so I ask our up-beat waitress to snap our picture realizing that if Joe and I were thoroughly modern, we would take a selfie! Life in Bath, like the art that surrounds us, is authentic and real. We enjoy the clarity!

Art in Maine is irresistible. True confession: I purchased a photograph at the Maine Maritime Museum's gift store on my very first visit to Bath. It was a black and white, museum quality photograph, of a 1920 schooner named "Irene & Myrtle." With a name like that, how could I resist! This ship seemed to be calling my name! My maiden name is Murtagh, which means navigator in Gaelic, and when I was little, people used to call me Myrtle The Turtle. As someone who loves to run, I have never liked that nickname, but perhaps the name callers knew how important my home would always be to me and suspected I would like to carry it with me wherever I went. Years ago I made a sampler in counted cross stitch that still hangs in my kitchen today. It reads: "Home - that our feet may leave but never our heart." Maybe my love for home is what drives me to write this blog about our new home in Bath. Even though we are not there all the time, I carry it around with me, but it is not on my back like the turtle would have it; rather, it is in my heart and in the words I say and write about it every day. As for the gift store's photograph, I wanted to bring it home and frame it because there was something so majestic about the waving sails of that brave wooden ship. They reminded me of my dad, who was a sailor and a chief petty officer in the United States Navy. From Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal and beyond, my dad served on cruisers and destroyers. As fate and Bath would have it, most destroyers in operation during WWII were made at Bath Iron Works (BIW). I feel a strong connection with my dad when I visit the Maine Maritime Museum. I'm a sailor's daughter, and the City of Ships is a good home for me. And Bath's maritime museum seems like a great, big, family album, but how many family album's include lighthouse cruises and BIW tours? I cannot think of any! Sometimes the Artwalk around Bath takes you "from away" and brings you home again.


P.S.  John Ater, our comedic painter, has returned! We finally decided on paint colors: Tranquility for the living room and Wildflower for the dining room. Bath seems to bring out our wild side! The Kennebec River is nearby, and its beautiful voice is telling us to kick back!