Eastport Arts Center

• 

• 

• 

• 

“Assignments really help me. I get lost in too many options,” writes Sue Riddle of Pembroke, Maine, one of several artists who have participated for a year or more in EAC’s online portrait drawing group, interacting each week with a close-knit community formed despite social and physical distance. The group is one of three online arts offerings hosted via Zoom by Anne Shields Hopkins, who prior to the pandemic served as Eastport Arts Center’s life drawing workshop leader.
“Portrait drawing started as a continuation of Joyce Weber’s figure drawing sessions, which I had just just started hosting that winter,” writes Hopkins, who in addition to the portrait group hosts weekly ‘In the Studio’ visits with creatives of all kinds and a monthly Draw-a-Thon, a prime-time Saturday offering featuring peformer/models of all stripes. “When the pandemic happened I thought— ‘Well, we’ll have fun … so my Zoom room was created. Sue was there from the beginning, then after trying April Draw-a-Thon, Karen and Paula began.”

• 

• 

• 

• 

“Once I joined the Portrait Drawing Group, a whole new world opened up,” writes Kerin Hearn, one of the passionate ‘regulars’ of the offering who Zooms from her home in Delaware. “It has been freeing to get the support of other artists to do anything in any style and I have tried new things inspired by the group.”
“The group has been very empowering for me and I look forward to attending it each week,” adds Paula Ressler, another weekly attendee who Zooms from Illinois.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Ressler, Riddle and Hearn, as well as Hopkins, each submitted a work (above) to Washington Street Gallery’s Covid Creations online exhibition—and each work linked back to the artists’ experiences in the online drawing group. Read on for a Q&A with each of the artists, and be sure to check out the exhibition and artist statements.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

EAC: How did you ‘find’ the online Portrait Drawing Group?
SUE RIDDLE: I’m guessing that it was on Facebook.
EAC: How much have you participated in the Wednesday group? Do you do ‘Friday in the Studio’ and Draw-a-Thon too?
SUE RIDDLE: I have been participating in the Wednesday group probably from its inception. I struggle with self-discipline in my creative practice, and I was desperately missing the arts and crafts programming I usually get through EAC and Peavey Library. I felt like this might be a good weekly meeting to keep the spirit of interactive creativity alive. 
My big fluffy pink bathrobe and I have been known to frequent the Friday in the Studio meetings (and, before that, Still Life). I do attend Draw-a-Thon periodically, but I have a harder time remembering to show up once a month on a Saturday night. 
EAC: Have you always been an artist? How has your artistic practice changed during the pandemic?
SUE RIDDLE: I have always been artistic, although I often feel that I’m too irregular a creator to merit the badge of “artist.” The Wednesday Group has created a nice and safe little community to practice my skills on a regular basis and my art has flourished as a result. I am making an effort to spend more time creating art, and was able to submit two paintings to the Eastport Gallery Hearts for the Arts fundraiser.
EAC: Could you tell me a little more about the piece you submitted for the Covid Creations exhibition?
SUE RIDDLE: I drew this during the Wednesday Portrait Group sessions. I felt it captured a little bit of the solitariness felt as well as the inner strength discovered while living through a pandemic.

• 

• 

• 

EAC: How did you ‘find’ the online Portrait Drawing Group?
KERIN HEARN: First, I found the Draw-a-Thon through my stepson in Brooklyn, a close friend of Anne’s. He was a model and performer and thought I might enjoy it.  After two Draw-a-Thons where the Portrait Drawing Group was discussed, I decided to join. I Zoom in from Delaware but spent several painting vacations in the Lubec and Campobello Island areas before I knew my stepson or Anne.  I love this area and look forward to returning to meet my new art friends in person.  
EAC: How much have you participated in the Wednesday group? Do you do ‘Friday in the Studio’ and Draw-a-Thon too?
I am a faithful participant in the Wednesday group, practically since its beginnings, and have been there nearly every week.  I do most Draw-a-Thons, as well.  I am now a participant in Anne’s Making in Place group at Cobscook Institute and Zoom in three times week. I feel like I have moved to Maine! I hope to try Friday in the Studio soon.
EAC: Have you always been an artist? How has your artistic practice changed during the pandemic?
I have painted for nearly 60 years.  Early in the pandemic I finished 17 new paintings, in isolation, for a summer-long one-person show in Delaware. Once I joined the Portrait Drawing Group, a whole new world opened up. I experienced for the first time ever the exhilarating experience of seeing how other artists see me! Through drawing the same people over and over, I have learned to look for the nuances that create individual character and minimalize those lines into a portrait.  It has been freeing to get the support of other artists to do anything in any style and I have tried new things inspired by the group. Also, most of my art associates are my age and it has been a bonus to learn what the younger generation is doing. 
EAC: Could you tell me a little more about the piece you submitted for the Covid Creations exhibition?
Boobs with Chicken is an amusing “graphic novel” approach to portrait drawing, one I never would have taken or even thought of before being part of this group.  Who but Anne would think of holding up an old calculator with a window for a message that goes nowhere! And, type “boobs” into it.   Plus, the relaxed ambiance of the group allows for a child to be walking in and out of the picture with a chicken in their arms, irrelevant to the picture, but fun to include.  Kind of surreal, really.  

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

EAC: How did you ‘find’ the online Portrait Drawing Group?
PAULA RESSLER: I learned about it through my personal relationship with Anne Hopkins, who is a member of my family. The group has been very empowering for me and I look forward to attending it each week. I’m enjoying the community we have formed, and benefit from seeing the beautiful work that everyone creates. I enjoy drawing the portrait of each group member, and I like to see how others in the group portray me. In addition to giving me more confidence in my own visual creations,  I am learning to see the beauty in every face, including my own.

EAC: How much have you participated in the Wednesday group? Do you do ‘Friday in the Studio’ and Draw-a-Thon too?
PAULA RESSLER: I participate in all of them and have done so almost every session since last March or April. It is so wonderful to be sharing our creative lives in community, particularly at a time when we are all so isolated because of the pandemic. Each event that Anne facilitates has a different character: from the intimate small group portrait sessions, to the way we visit an artist’s studio and have a chance to talk with artists about what they do, to the wild draw-a-thons in which anything can happen and in which people create surprising and exciting works of art.

EAC: Have you always been an artist? How has your artistic practice changed during the pandemic?
PAULA RESSLER: I have never considered myself a visual artist. I have been involved in the theater arts as a teacher, actor, and playwright. I have written non-fiction books about teaching and continue to do a considerable amount of life-writing. The first book I published, Dramatic Changes: Talking about Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity with High School Students through Drama, was published in 2002 by Heinemann. The second book, which I co-wrote with my spouse, Becca Chase, Meaningful Encounters: Preparing Educators to Teach Holocaust Literature, was published in 2019 by Rowman & Littlefield.
But since I have been involved in the art groups that Anne facilitates, something is changing for me. I am getting so much pleasure out of drawing and learning how to use the tools of visual artists during our sessions, such as watercolor crayons and watercolor paints and drawing pens. For now, I have to be satisfied with enhancing some of the skills I’m learning with YouTube tutorials. As I gain more skill and confidence, I am also beginning to illustrate some of my own writing projects. One, in particular, in which I am collaborating with Rafi Hopkins, whom I call my ‘son of another mother,’ is about memories of my Jewish immigrant family, what I can learn about their experiences in antisemitic Europe and the aftereffects of the Holocaust, and what their lives were like in the U.S. In addition to helping me think about what I want to say in the text, Rafi is working with me to design a web site into which I can incorporate photos, maps, drawings, and background material.
EAC: Could you tell me a little more about the piece you submitted for the Covid Creations exhibition?
PAULA RESSLER: The piece I selected for the Covid Creations exhibition is a portrait of Sue Riddle, an amazing artist who participates in the portrait sessions, whose work has inspired me to learn about watercolor painting. I find it very satisfying to draw her portrait and usually enjoy the way each turns out.