192 Main Street
in the Maine Grind Building
Ellsworth, ME 04605
207.667.1968
Open Tues - Sat, 10-5

SevenArts Announces 2009 Visiting Artist Program
After a strong first year and lots of wonderful community support, SevenArts is heading into spring with lots of plans and enthusiasm.  According to gallery founder, Dede Schmitt, "After our winter slow down, we're getting back in the swing of things with an exciting lineup of Visiting Artists at SevenArts. One of the goals of SevenArts is to support artists and foster the arts community in Ellsworth.  This was a great success last year and we really enjoyed introducing new artists and artisans to our customer base. We had good attendance at our wine and cheese opening parties and will continue this in the coming year."

For May, 2009 our Visiting Artist will be Chandler Ellis, age 20, an emerging young glass artist from Bar Harbor.   Linda and Ken Perrin of Atlantic Art Glass, at the corner of Hancock and Pine Streets, in the old part of downtown Ellsworth, have been mentoring Ellis for the past year and are currently renting him studio space.  After learning lamp working in high school, Ellis says he became immediately "addicted," and started taking lessons from noted Maine glass artist, Nicholas Repenning.    He studied for a year at the California College of Art in Oakland, did a stint in Portland, and in 2008 Ellis landed a niche as an intern at Atlantic Art Glass.

About his work, Ellis says, "I am a lamp worker because I love watching glass transcend states of matter until it has reached its final form. I enjoy working the glass into a desired shape, but I also try to understand the way that the material flows naturally. Somewhere along the way a compromise must be made. I like to create simple, elegant forms mostly of clear glass, reserving color for subtle decoration. Recently I have been creating sculptural goblets and vessels. The goblets that I make are heavily inspired by traditional Italian stemware.  Since the glass and tools that I use differ from those of traditional “off hand” glassblowing, I have had to rethink the process entirely. The way that I work the glass allows me to be very precise in forming the components of the piece; because of this I have been able to create lightweight forms that couldn’t have been made using traditional glass working techniques."

Ellis's opening event will be held at SevenArts on Friday, May 8th, from 5:00 -7:00.  Are are welcome to come and meet the artist.

Mia Kanazawa

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Each of my puppets has a simplicy and elegance of line as well as an unique sense of character.and has been enjoyed by children, adults, teachers, therapists, and performers all over the world.
Handpuppets: Heron, Clownfish, elephant, Cardinal, Fox, Raven, Parrot, Kangaroo & roo, Dove
Fingerpuppets: Puffin, Puppy, Nesting bird, Kitty, Whale, Turtle, Snail, Fox, Penguin, assorted birds and cranes.

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Obadiah Buell, Bourne Designs

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Fusions of Stone & Glass
“Buell's work invokes natural elements and energies - the forces of earth, wind, water, and glaciers . . . a sense of connection to nature and the rugged splendor of Maine."

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John and Virginia Hackney have been making glass beads since 2003, when Ginny returned home from a week at the Montville, ME, Art Center at Kingdom Falls caught up in “bead fever.” This husband/wife team has studied at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts on Deer Isle, ME, with nationally known Maine bead artist Stephanie Sersich, and Ginny has studied silver smithing at Haystack with Tim McCreight and Ken Bova. The Hackneys’ work employs brilliantly colored soda lime glass imported from Italy – the same glass used for hundreds of years by glass workers on the island of Murano.  In the Middle Ages, the technique of working soft glass was called  “lamp working” because the glass was melted over a common oil lamp super-heated by blowing air over it.  To make a bead, modern artists heat rods of colored glass over a live flame from a gas/oxygen-fueled torch until the glass has the consistency of honey. This almost liquid hot glass is then wound on a stainless steel mandrel, and touched with other rods of soft glass near the open flame to form dots, stripes, twists and other decorative patterns. A complex bead might take an hour to make.