Tracing the Midcoast

Luke Rector

Betsy’s Landscape

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The perception of landscape as a medium for culture connects well to the creation and interpretation of maps. While maps often depict more explicitly scientifically driven motives, the influence of cultural and political powers is evident. Landscape is framed by the perception of place within a cultural context, and a map tells of a certain cultural phenomenon in time.

Similarly, maps tell the story of what the cartographer wants you to see, and landscapes tell the story of what the artist wants you to see. “Landscape is ideal, not real estate” (Mitchell 6). Even Betsy Wyeth’s creation of Allen is an idealist landscape. She recreated an island and its cultural definition based upon what landscape she had envisioned–clearings, ponds, building the blockhouse, recreating the sail loft. All of this allowed her to transform landscape in terms of her perception of the place, of what she thought Allen once was, and what she wanted it to represent–forming landscape. Betsy is an artist in this regard, she uses Allen as an artist would a painting, or a cartographer would a map. It is still recognizable, but the physical form of place is always changing. Clearly landscape for her is not stagnant, but instead is malleable to her own desires–putting ponds in because it seemed like the island needed them. In this sense, her imperialism on Allen is a tremendous example of Mitchell’s historical proposition. Culture and landscape is defined by the interpretation of those who have influence, and Betsy has been the sole influence of Allen, interpreting previous cultures in ways that make the island her own.

Symbolism and Images

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Betsy Wyeth’s recreation of the sail loft on Allen gives an anecdotal example of the misconception of culture and place we see in other art forms today. Daniels and Cosgrove describe this redefinition of place: “Our ability to invert signs and symbols, to recycle them in a different context and thus transform their reference. Earlier and less commercial cultures may sustain more stable symbolic codes but every culture weaves its world out of image and symbol” (Daniels 8). The sail loft’s purpose and re-purpose by Betsy and David Morey provides an example of this; a place once defined by retail & manufacturing, and then by a deeply rooted fishing culture could not be erased from place. Betsy’s cultural interpretation of the place attempts to go back to the past using artifacts from the store, or that the lobstermen who lived there once used. Instead, Betsy creates a new sense of place–a clean museum and gallery with organized artifacts. The identity of place from the past is not vivid, instead we see her place today. Betsy creates a learning center crafted with the artist in mind, not a functioning boating store or blue-collar hangout. She looks for objects that define the past, but has created a clean perception of a more rugged industry. Daniels and Cosgrove  identify these intentions, “instead of providing a transparent window to the world, images are now regarded as the sort of sign that presents a deceptive appearance of naturalness and transparence concealing an opaque, distorting, arbitrary mechanism of representation, a process of ideological mystification” (Daniels 7). This same interpretation of the lobstering industry is seen in countless paintings and other pieces of art that represent the local culture. They capture the beauty of lobster boats floating in the water, but the symbolism and the true culture of the lobstering industry have a disconnect. Although tangiential, the disconnect between the local lobstermen and tourists that we’ve discussed is likely due to this symbolic perception. A lobsterman sees the industry and the local area in a much different light than the tourist from out of state would. The tourist has a view of Maine that they have seen portrayed in photos, or in museums like Betsy’s, while the lobsterman views the industry as rugged, working on their engines in the co-ops, or picking up fishing supplies for the days work. By creating a museum, Betsy has attempted to maintain the culture of the local fishing community, but has fell into this deceptive naturalness that so much art does.

Rhetoric of Neutrality

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Harley’s ability to distinguish cultural interpretations of cartographers is a remarkable insight into not only understanding maps, but also reading between the lines in other forms of art. Very elemental paintings and photographs can be interpreted through the concept of neutrality. With abstract art, images are intended to evoke certain feelings or thoughts in the viewer, but with less explicit rhetoric, reading between the lines can be much more challenging.

With the map of the coastline, the land is muted with its plainness. Contrastingly, the water and the shoreline is precise and detailed. The inlets, the rivers, and the islands are all labeled and comprehensive. The map of Camden is political in its variable font sizes and descriptions. It details a town bustling with commerce. Contrary to the coastal map, it makes the coastline and harbor appear plain and unimportant. These differentiations can be interpreted as local identities, the mid coast map is functional–it provides critical knowledge for the working man. It brings out this hidden blue collar identity. The Camden map evokes leisure and retail success. The function is essential for Camden’s municipal workers, but implies the space’s identity of small business and wealth.

Each map appears scientific or purposeful on the surface, but cartographers have created these underlying appeals to their own map design. In this sense, they form this “hidden aspect of their discourse” that can be seen across forms of art (Harley 4). The distortions they create provide a framework for culture within space.

Bridging the Reach

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The Reach evolved as Stella’s roots on Goat Island grew. It began as a wide, concrete visualization of the gap between herself and local life. Stella valued the island and the people who had come and gone, so much so that she saw no reason to experience neither Portland, nor Shaw’s supermarket. Her familial ties were strong, and she had a palpable understanding of the lifecycle of an island community. All of this grounded Stella to the land; she rather die on Goat Island than seek care on the mainland. This slow death that both her and her family had experienced was part of the cycle that she came to understand. The Reach began to narrow, for her as it had for many. This new conception of the Reach brought Stella towards spacetime, where memories and dreams meshed into her coming to terms with death. Spacetime was her community, as she saw it, it was the people she had lost on the island. For all of the others lost throughout her life, the Reach and spacetime also became intertwined. The visualization of her husband, of the hat, of the others who she’d seen pass in the community, allowed her to accept life and bridge the Reach. This cycle was not immediate, but rather a development where her dreams and reality became meshed into spacetime throughout the story. Her visualization of ghosts of those she knew both on the Reach and prior to her trip to death, made spacetime real and death calm.

Utilitiarian and Aesthetic Monhegan

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Eric Hudson’s work with the New England coast and Monhegan give a fresh perspective on the progression of defining place through art. He immersed himself in the local culture and built up a rapport with otherwise standoffish fishermen and lobstermen because of his seamanship. This connectivity allowed himself to not only portray art with landscape, but also with cultural and historical context. Coffin’s quote on photography differentiates and combines the meaning of Hudson’s art, and gives insight on why his photography is so powerful. He creates a historical representation of Monhegan by documenting the power of the sea, by taking photos from lobster boats, by capturing the culture of the island at a point in time. His image of three men dressing ground fish on the coastline is one that undoubtedly evokes the utilitarian representation that was so unique; it tells a story of the tradition, it is almost busy with stories, but not accidental or harsh. He also captures the aesthetic by creating landscapes and rocky coastal images. The parallel of classic sailing images and glass negatives of the local culture make his art much more poignant. His success seems to lie in his connection of utilitarian and aesthetic features in his photography. I think this is largely due to the fact that many photographs that he took were for future paintings, and he needed to capture the cultural importance while still creating an aesthetically pleasing piece. The boat with two lobstermen washed ashore is both precise and captures the historical significance, but captures the features of what the quintessential coastal painting of Maine often does. I think Hudson’s best work is when he fuses landscapes with Monhegan locals, capturing many different types of landscapes that Meinig describes–nature, system, artifact, history, place.

Lobstering as a Place

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The evolution of lobstering is a testament to the familial culture it creates in mid coast Maine. The family ties make community so important, while the micro-industry is slow to change because of deep tradition. New mapping and hauling technology is absent on the skiffs of young soon to be captains; parents and grandparents want their children lobster fishing the same way they did 20 or 50 years ago. The cyclical nature of lobstering families mirror the cycles of seasons; with the summer comes new fishing weather, just as it does new lineages in a lobstering family. In the same sense, older generations move on while passing their skills to younger ones, and the cycle begins again.

The harsh Maine fishing weather wears off on lobstering communities that face serious challenges with drug and alcohol abuse. On the contrary, there is a prestige and admiration held in lobstering that creates a culture and environment–a place–that is very unique and separated from outsiders. This is likely because of their own identity or understanding of place, that they embody working class “skill, courage, and tenacity” that Acheson observed. This is arguably the largest challenge that tourists face; people who come from cities with 21st century identities and cultures enter a place where ruggedness and sacrifice embody the lobsterman’s community and upbringing.

As a local who doesn’t come from a fishing family, I’ve felt removed from that timeless world on the islands and on the peninsula. Acheson describes the sea as “alien”, and I think the foreignness of the sea promulgates this separation between lobsterman and the outsider; the placelessness of the islands pushes them further from the outside. From lingo to traps to clothing to boats, the culture remains uniform over generations, while Rockland and other places undergo a search for a new identity of place. The concept that lobstering is almost paused in time, while the rest of the world evolves, is a really incredible representation of the midcoast and the identity crisis that culture creates when defining place.