A new exhibition by artists Jude Kempe and Elizabeth Ostrander, “Women Seeing Women as Women,” will be on view beginning July 1 at the Washington Street Gallery, located on the first floor of Eastport Arts Center. The show will feature mixed media works with women as creator and muse.
The gallery is open 1-3 pm, Wednesdays and Thursdays, during EAC events, or by chance or appointment. An opening reception will be offered from 4-6 pm on Friday, July 15; a closing reception and discussion will be held Saturday, July 30, 4-6 pm. The final event will take as its theme women in the arts, “How we have seen ourselves and each other in the past,” notes Kempe, “how we see ourselves now and how we envision ourselves in the future.”


Ostrander’s creative output includes sculpture, mixed media works and digital prints. “Creating for me is a meditation on my world,” notes Ostrander. “My art has a look to it that’s easy to spot. My love of faces and my early love of ballet and its fantasy, along with Eastport’s own evocative alive spirits, create the beings found in both my sculptures and paintings.” Her formal training began in the 1960s with Jose De Creeft at the Art Students League in New York, and continued with study at the Cooper Union School of Art. After moving to Maine more than 40 years ago, she earned her BFA from the University of Maine. “After living in rural Maine for many years, I moved to Eastport and quickly meet Joyce Weber, who also had  just moved to Eastport,” recalls Ostrander. “She wanted to open the Eastport Gallery (1985). What an expanding and exciting art time. Art felt important and necessary. I’m glad I have held on to that feeling.” More of Ostrander’s work can be found at Maine Art Hill in Kennebunk, ME.


“I always knew I was an artist,” recalls Kempe. “There was never a question of what I wanted to do in the world.” She began her study of painting at California Institute for the Arts, and continued at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, adding photography. Next came photographic work for Rosenthal Art Slides, then graduate school for film and video at Columbia College in Chicago. Kempe worked in the film and video business for many years as editor, cinematographer, videographer, director, producer and with sound, lighting and graphics, as well as teaching at the Center for New Television and at the School of the Art Institute. “Now mostly I paint and do some photography, video, graphics and music,” notes Kempe. “At this stage of the game being an artist for me is being open to inspiration and the ideas and feelings that come to me and my real job as an artist is to figure out what form they want to take and to do my best to birth them in that form.”

Washington Street Gallery is located on the first floor of Eastport Arts Center, 36 Washington Street, Eastport and eastportartscenter.org, and is handicapped-accessible. EAC abides by State of Maine CDC COVID guidelines. Additionally, at this time, patrons are required to wear masks when in the EAC building.