Gardens
Welcome Words – Véronique Plesch, Professor, Colby College
The L.C. Bates Museum is an extraordinary encyclopedic museum with a focus on the natural world. Nestled among the trails, fields, and grounds of Good Will-Hinckley, it was conceived as an integral part of the educational vision of its founder. Since 2010, I have had the pleasure of supervising two Colby students in a curatorial practicum in which they curate the L.C. Bates Museum’s annual summer exhibition. As is the tradition and in keeping with the Museum’s collections, this year’s theme engages with the natural world gathers artists from Maine or with ties to the state and who work in a range of media and styles. For our student curators, this represents a unique opportunity to experience all the aspects of the organization of an exhibition. It is an honor to be able to contribute to the true gem that is the L.C. Bates Museum and to showcase Maine’s vibrant art community. I would like to seize the opportunity to thank the Museum and its director, Lyndell Bade, for offering Colby students this transformative experience and to Colby College’s Center for the Arts and Humanities for their support of the opening reception’s catering.
Viewing the Exhibition
To view each artist’s submission alongside their statement, click on the names of the artists listed below. To return to the gallery, click the “return to gallery” button at the bottom of the page. To view all of the works in the exhibition, scroll down below the list of artists.
To navigate the gallery, click on the images to view a larger image. Navigate between works in the gallery by clicking the arrow buttons on the right and left sides of the images. To close the gallery and return to this page, click the small X button in the upper right corner of the screen.
Gardens
Gardens, orchards, and backyards exist at the intersection of the natural and the human world. In them, we cultivate vegetables and fruit to provide sustenance, herbs to enhance cooking and improve health, and flowers to bring colorful bouquets inside homes. Both work and leisure, gardening is in sync with the cycles of the planet and teaches values such as patience. A successful garden is grounded in a profound understanding of a place’s climate, of the chemistry of the soil, and of complex interactions between flora and fauna. Since times immemorial, gardens have inspired artists, who have painted still lives and bouquets and who have exploited the symbolism of plants. But gardens are not only the domain of humans, for they receive the visit of wildlife—whether they are welcomed or not. And that’s the beauty of art: artists may be inspired by a destructive pest! We invited artists to contribute artwork that captures gardens, their symbolism, design, and contents, the people who care for them, and the fauna that visits it.
List of Artists
Exhibition Curators
From left to right: Véronique Plesch, Hannah Soria, Sara Minuesa Sicilia.
Sara Minuesa Sicilia is a junior at Colby College, majoring in Psychology with a double minor in Art History and French. At Colby, she’s interested in investigating the intersections of her studies, learning about the connections between perception, expression, and cultural context across disciplines. She recently returned from a semester abroad in Paris, where she studied 19th-century French painting and deepened her interest in visual culture. Curating Gardens has been an opportunity to explore curatorial work and engage with contemporary Maine artists.
Hannah Soria is a senior at Colby College, where she is majoring in Studio Art and Computer Science. Hannah’s interest in curatorial work began after spending a summer in Rockland Maine, interning at Blue Raven Gallery. At Colby, she is an avid printmaker and works as a studio monitor and teaching assistant. She recently printed a commissioned seventy-five print edition for Colby donors. She has shown and sold her work at pop-up exhibitions and festivals. Curating this exhibition has expanded her passion for the arts and public art events.
Professor Véronique Plesch is Professor of Art History and Chair of the Art Department at Colby College. Her scholarship deals with late medieval and Renaissance visual arts and theater, early modern graffiti, and contemporary art, with a steady focus on word and image studies. She is one of the editors of the Maine Arts Journal: UMVA Quarterly, to which she regularly contributes articles. She has been supervising student curators for the L.C. Bates Museum’s summer exhibition since 2009.