wait a minute…Mr. Postman!
A holiday card writing workshop featuring MCA printmakers, illustrators and designers at Maine Craft Portland.
On view December 1-31, 2023
Join us this December to celebrate the season by sending a personalized piece of artwork through the mail to a loved one. Our talented members have designed a variety of beautiful seasonal cards to choose from and enjoy. You choose the artwork, decorate and fill the card with the message of your choosing and we will take care of the rest with our magical mailbox…and our neighborhood Mr.Postman!
Artist Spotlight:
Bowerbird Studio by Betsy Leighton —-
Betsy Leighton has always been a maker. Her early passion for craftsmanship was inspired by sitting in her grandfather’s woodshop, fascinated as his lathe spun and his deft hands pressed a chisel to the wood, transforming roughhewn maple into a smooth and sinuous table leg. Her early musings in color and shape became more focused as she received her MFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) where her paintings were inspired by Fauvism’s saturated color palette and the playful shapes of Henri Matisse’s cut-outs. Her time at MICA and her formal training as a painter began a lifelong obsession with color, shape, and pattern.
Blue Butterfield—-
Blue grew up on Mount Desert Island and spent her high school weekends hiking and sketching her way through the park. She won an Artist’s Residency abroad from the Educational Foundation and spent her junior year in high school studying and painting Germany’s wine valleys and castles. While studying at Bowdoin College, she had the good fortune of crossing paths with a visiting history professor and nationally acclaimed woodblock artist, Tom Killion. He taught her the basics of woodblock carving and printmaking, which she has continued to this day. Blue has works in permanent collections around New England, including Maine Medical Center, Maine General, and the New England Cancer Center. She lives in Portland, Maine. When she’s not carving or writing, you can find her mountain biking with her husband and dog Hopper and sending care packages to her sons in college.
Pretty Flours by Molly Thompson—
Molly’s work is inspired by a life-long interest in the natural world and by her verve for color, pattern and form. Considered a researcher of nature, studying closely, then rendering what is seen; Playful experiments using a variety of media including paint, paper cutting, bookmaking and block printing, help her explore and capture plants and landscape in various stages of growth, from bud to decay. In recent years, she is pleased to have found a way to share my work in the craft market by block printing on functional home textiles and paper goods. Living and creating in Portland, Maine, she is grateful to be the mother of three creative children who grew up to be kind and resourceful adults and to be sharing my life with a husband who supports me in all my pursuits. After enjoying a long career in early childhood education, publishing parenting magazines in New York, Connecticut and Maine; and working as a marketing director and graphic designer, Molly is very happy to be working full-time from my attic studio with its beautiful view of the treetops.
These makers, and many more, will have cards available for this holiday card writing station. We hope you join us in spreading the holiday spirit with the magic of art and all the joy it brings.