Description
About this piece:
I moved to Blue Hill, Maine in November 2002 from NYC after 911. This marks 23 years living in Maine. That is the longest place I have ever lived. That first winter in a new place was magical after the trauma of being in New York City during the attacks of 911. Blue Hill left a deep impression on me; I now live across the Penobscot Bay in Camden. This piece explores Maine’s industrial past and one of the largest copper mines (the Black Hawk mine), an underground mine in Blue Hill that produced an estimated 1,000,000 tons of zinc-copper-lead ore between 1972 and 1977. That and many other industries are gone now.
Made of pulp-painted paper handmade from cotton rag (another Maine industry – cotton milling which has declined as well). The sheets are accordion bound and encased in mull webbing to diffuse the imagery into a dream-like memory of days gone by. The copper cord or vein runs throw the pages like the ore through granite bedrock upon which my adopted home is built. The imagery is low-res graphics and photo-processed to silkscreen material that is laid upon freshly couched paper. Pigmented pulp is sprayed through the screen to reveal the image that when dry is embedded into the paper fibers. The imagery evokes the industries and landscape of Maine’s past: granite quarries, mining, fishing and so on. The Maine paper industry was also once a major driver of the economy, but has declined since the digital age.
Materials:
paper, mull, pva, copper
About the artist:
Lives and works in Camden, Maine
Richard Reitz Smith is an artist and designer creating work within the fine arts as a painter, printmaker, and book artist. He teaches workshops in the same disciplines and holds a BFA in fine art (painting and illustration) from Carnegie Mellon University and MFA in graphic design from Tyler School of Art. He has worked as a package designer, brand developer, illustrator, teacher/professor and more. His work is included in private and public collections including University of Oxford Bodleian Library, Yale University Beinecke Special Collections, Colby College, Bowdoin College, and more.
