Growing up in a rural area of Central Massachusetts riding horses by reservoirs, rolling in the hayfields, and tending to sheep and vegetables, I came to be intimate with the natural world.  I started drawing early on to gather my impressions.

After wandering a bit as an adult, I found myself perched on the edge of the sea in Sunshine, Maine.  Working many summers in the early 70’s at Haystack Mountain School on Deer Isle gave me the push I needed to leave the rocks and islands of Maine’s coast behind to venture to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  Facing some criticism from my teachers about my reluctance to move beyond drawing (“Drawing is a preparation for other mediums: paint, printmaking: you can’t just draw!”), I continued to draw, mostly with sharp pencils, often color pencils.  I also found I loved teaching art, and sharing the wonder of art-making with both children and adults.

After 24 years working in the Department of Education at the MFA, Boston, I moved back to Maine in 2001 with my two sons, to regain something I had lost when I moved to the city so many years before.  I have found it again in the mid-coast and in Grand Manan New Brunswick.

Now  working in a studio on Front Street Bath, I also have a space hung with originals and displays of Giclee reproductions and greeting cards.  I am pleased to be a member of the “art as business” community in Bath, and welcome visitors “by chance or appointment”, in addition to scheduled ArtWalks and Arts Downtown Open Studio events.

Feeling the wonder of our human capacity for creativity in its many forms continues to nourish me in profound ways.

Added to the Gallery wall at the June Bath ArtWalk 2010:

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

No, there is no NEW drawing WORK.

Diagnosed with Salivary Gland Cancer in December 2009, I spent the Winter and Spring fighting: radiation, no chemo.   I am now recovering.

I apparently am not the sort of artist who “has to create” through that sort of experience.  I did not draw or write much.

I did however become enamored with knotted bracelets.  There are some here to illustrate the technique and result.  Fun.  Therapeutic hand work.

NEW Drawing WORK soon.

Onward …

“THANKS”  to my talented son Avery Shaw Duncan for his work on the early direction of this website.

Contact me at mcc@mcchesneyart.com