“Scorpio Full Moon” by Centreville photographer Emily Zoe received the First Prize Leon Andrus Award in Adkins Arboretum’s 25th annual Juried Art Show. The show, titled Discovering the Native Landscapes of Maryland’s Eastern Shore, is on view through April 25.There are many voices and many stories in Discovering the Native Landscapes of Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Adkins Arboretum’s 25th annual Juried Art Show. From serene waterscapes and fiery sunsets to works that touch on environmental issues and the legacy of slavery, they form a fascinating portrait of the Eastern Shore. On view through April 25 at the Visitor’s Center, the show was juried by Jason Patterson, who will speak about his choices at a reception on Saturday, March 29 from 2 to 4 p.m.
An accomplished portrait artist and woodworker whose work focuses on African American history, especially here on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Patterson serves as Washington College’s Arts & Exhibition Fellow at the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. From the 174 entries that were submitted from artists in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey and Washington, DC, he chose 19 works, including paintings, photographs, collages, textiles and sculpture.
“Basically, what I was going for was artwork that felt like the Eastern Shore,” Patterson explained. “I’ve been here for about seven years, and I feel like I’ve gotten to understand the uniqueness of this part of the state in a lot of ways.”
Patterson chose Centreville photographer Emily Zoe’s “Scorpio Full Moon” to receive the First Prize Leon Andrus Award. Photographed with traditional 35 mm film in subtle shades of slate blue and deep gray, it captures the sensation of coming around a curve of a dark country road to see the moon shining above a distant farm.
“It’s done in such a nondramatic way, it really gives you the feeling of driving on the roads out here,” Patterson said, “and I think it’s a lot harder to do that than it is to do something that’s dramatic and vibrant.”
Second Prize went to Annapolis artist Sally Comport’s “Harriet Tubman: Survival,” a collage painting made with acrylic paint, colored pencil and digital media showing Tubman in a corn field. An illustrator as well as a fine artist, Comport skillfully captured the isolated privacy offered by the tall cornstalks and the warm golden light falling across Tubman’s pensive face as she holds out an ear of corn as if offering a gift.
“When I moved out here from central Illinois, I knew Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass were from Maryland, but I didn’t know they were specifically from the Eastern Shore and what that meant,” Patterson commented. “This composition is wonderful and has art history references in it. It’s obviously an imagined version of her, and its composition really reminds me a lot of Renaissance or Baroque paintings.”
Patterson also awarded five Honorable Mentions. They include three paintings—“Night Stream,” a strange, dreamy waterscape by Jono Tew of Chestertown, “Five Friends,” a genial group of Assateague ponies by Annapolis artist Lynn Yockelson and “Fall Cove #2,” with its inviting indigo shadows and orange light by David Leonard of Trappe. The other awards went to two very different photographs. Poking fun at the mundane nature of so much of our environment, “Electromagnetic Interference” by Joseph Minarick of Easton is an expertly simple shot of powerlines running across the blue sky above a farm field, while “Lonely Island” by Denton photographer Mickey Pullen is a hallucinatory image of a brilliantly lit island hovering in the darkness just before dawn.
Rather than choose art that celebrates only the beauty of the Eastern Shore, Patterson has brought together a wide range of works that speak of this familiar place in many different ways. Whether it’s a lone waterman in a small yellow boat, a lighthouse collaged from fabric, shells and beads, or a group of leather fish (one of them stuffed with plastic detritus that might be found on a beach), all of these artworks trigger very personal feelings and emotions about the Eastern Shore.
This show is part of Adkins Arboretum’s ongoing exhibition series of work on natural themes by regional artists. It is on view through April 25 at the Arboretum Visitor’s Center located at 12610 Eveland Road near Tuckahoe State Park in Ridgely. Contact the Arboretum at 410-634-2847, ext. 100 or info@adkinsarboretum.org for gallery hours.
For gallery hours or more information, contact Adkins Arboretum at 410-634-2847, ext. 100, or visit adkinsarboretum.org.
A 400-acre native garden and preserve, Adkins Arboretum provides exceptional experiences in nature to promote environmental stewardship.
