Recent Artists in Residence

Meredith Brockington. 

Artist, connector, creator.
Meredith is an art director, photographer, and the founder of Amie, an online shop of curated designs by women artists. 'Female, not factory' is the creed, which means women made, sustainable materials, and support of social causes. As a photographer and art director Meredith enjoys working with organizations that want to“push the envelope, create evocative content, and try something fresh.” She worked for years as Photo Art Director for the iconic American heritage brand L.L.Bean. She has collaborated with local businesss to concept seasonal campaigns and shoot brands such as Evangeline Linens, Urban Dwelling, Machete, and Campfire Studio.

meredithbrockington.com

Katy Kelleher.

Writer, Editor
Katy is a writer and editor based in Maine. Her book Handcrafted Maine: Art, Life, Harvest & Home (Princeton Architectural Press, 2017) tells the stories and exhibits the craft of a range of makers who inhabit the Pine Tree State. Her journalism has appeared in Art New England,Bostonmagazine, The Hairpin, Eater, Jezebel, andThe New York Times Magazine. Her writing on visual culture, especially color and beauty, appear in: The Awl and The Paris Review. See also her work on such timeless subjects as poisoned dresses,obsessively-built island houses, art made with human hair, and the world’s first 100% local restaurant. The through line? “I’m obsessed with obsessions”, she confesses.

katykelleher.com

Jennie Hutchins.

Visual Artist, Photographer
Jeannie is a Canadian-American visual artist who uses photography to explore life’s unanswerable questions. Her images often confront metaphysical concepts of time, space, and other universal unknowns. Her hand made gum bichromate prints, silk installations, along with other photographic imagery, have been shown in  numerous juried exhibitions. Recent venues include the Tilt Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ, the Soho Photographic Gallery in New York, PhoPa Gallery, Portland, ME, and Art Intersection, Gilbert, AZ. Her work has been featured in magazines and books including The Hand Magazine, A Step by Step Manual Highlighting Artists and Their Creative Practice and Maine Home+Design.

jeanniehutchins.com

Jeff Thomson.

Poet, Memoirist, Editor, Professor
Jeffrey Thomson is a poet, memoirist, translator, and editor, and is the author of multiple books including his new memoir, fragile, the poetry collections The Belfast Notebooks and Birdwatching in Wartime, The Complete Poems of Catullus: an Annotated Translation, and From the Fishouse. He has been an NEA Fellow, the Fulbright Distinguished Scholar in Creative Writing at the Seamus Heaney Poetry Centre in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and the Hodson Trust-John Carter Brown Fellow at Brown University. He is currently professor of creative writing at the University of Maine Farmington. His Ph.D. in English and Creative Writing is from the University of Missouri.

jeffreythomson.net

Patricia O'Donnell.

Fiction Writer, Memoirist, Professor.
Pat is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, winner of the Martin Dibner Award, and finalist for the University of Iowa and Sarabande prizes in fiction. She has published short stories in The New Yorker, North American Review, Agni Review, Short Story, Prairie Schooner, and other national publications as well as The Eloquent Edge, The Quotable Moose and other anthologies. Her novel Necessary Placeswas published in 2012 and Waiting to Begin: A Memoir was published in 2016. She is Professor of English at the University of Maine in Farmington where she teaches fiction writing and recent fiction. Her MA in English is from University of Northern Iowa; her MFA in Creative Writing is from University of Massachusetts/Amherst.

Rachel Alexandrou

Forager, Artist and Educator. Rachel Alexandrou is an interdisciplinary artist who uses her education in plant science, and collaborative practice, to create experiential work about food, flora, and innovating human relationships to the natural landscape.

rachelalexandrou.com

Alissa and Jacob Hessler.

Photographers and Urban Exodus Creators. A farmhouse on the coast of Maine is their home and launch pad for many creative ventures.  They run a boutique creative agency and a photography studio, and co-teach landscape photography workshops around the US.  Inspired by their own journey from urbanites to rural folk, over the last 4 years Alissa has been finding, connecting with, and photographing creative people who have decided to leave city life behind in favor of the country.  She calls this project (and the website) Urban Exodus.  Her recent book is Ditch The City and Go Country (MacMillan).  Jacob's recent fine-press book, Boundaries (2017), is a collaboration with the inaugural poet Richard Blanco.  Its been said that he loves chocolate.  

hesslercreative.com  jacobhessler.com alissahessler.com urbanexodus.com