Robert Shillady
2007 Biennial Talk
Run Time: 7:04
The Lobsterman is a compilation of a number of images derived from my surroundings here in Brooklin. The red house exists but isn’t red. The road exists but not with those houses on it. The lobsterman exists only as a rough image in the mirror in my studio, and I’m no lobsterman. Yet artists and lobstermen here in Brooklin have some things in common. We participate in local affairs from government to the volunteer fire department. We have to be jacks-of-all-trades in order to make ends meet. And we are imperiled by rising property values and loss of access to the shore and woods. I’m afraid these threats to traditional pastimes and livelihoods someday will diminish Maine’s rural character and work ethic.