Overlooking the breakwater and created by Lubec artist and author Charles Kniffen, Shorty is ready to welcome all to Eastport Gallery’s Annual Community Show.
This latest assemblage of “sea junk” was collected and composed by Kniffen, a Marine veteran of the Vietnam war and a twenty-five year solo all-season kayaker of the Maine coast from Spring Point to the Bay of Fundy. He has been collecting lost buoys, fishing line, driftwood, beach bones, and such to recycle as works of art throughout his time on the Bold Coast of Maine. Kniffen’s enthusiasm for the creative reuse of sea trash has brightened children’s experiences at the Lubec Summer Outreach program, the Bangor Children’s Museum, and the Addison Point Children’s program.
Kniffen has written a memoir of his war experience, published by Sunbury Press, and continues his literary storytelling with a biweekly writers group at Cobscook Institute. He is currently co-owner/operator with his wife Rhonda Welcome of Turtle Dance Co-op, an artist cooperative and gallery at 72 Water Street, Lubec, in the Peacock Building, site of the town’s last sardine factory.
Inside the Eastport Gallery, the Community Show is on display through June 19 and will continue online with 75 works through July 17. In addition, the gallery showcases the 20 member artists with the first Member Show of the season bringing delight with a range of styles and mediums. June hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm. Visit Shorty anytime and visit the complete Community Show online at: www.eastportgallery.com.
The work of Eastport Arts Center is funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.