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The long-awaited arrival of April carries with it a unique energy, a sense of possibility that is felt in the air, in the studio, and in the streets of our city. As a northerner, the transition into spring is never a simple, graceful shift but a dramatic and sometimes chaotic unfolding. One day, the world is cast in freezing sleet, and the next, warm sunshine unveils the layers of gooey mud and the long-buried remnants of winter beneath shrinking snowbanks.

"What if this darkness is not the darkness of the tomb but the darkness of the womb?" asked Valerie Kaur at an interfaith service in 2016. I have to believe there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and we need to keep walking, crawling, kicking, screaming, listening, singing, dancing, laughing, and fighting our way forward through it. Together.

Dear Community,

This month's letter has been impossible to write. I don’t even know what to say about the world right now. I just hope you all are ok.

I worry about you. I worry about our trans and BIPOC family and neighbors. I worry about new Mainers, non-profits, our small businesses, and their employees. I worry about the education of our youth, our healthcare system, and the sanctity of our democracy. I worry that it is too much for us and that we will turn away from ourselves and on each other.

I am filled with gratitude and pride for all we have accomplished together this year. It has been a year of creativity, connection, and growth. It has been a year marked by incredible milestones illustrating the power of art and community. We celebrated another successful Steamy Summer Print Jam, showcasing the vibrant spirit of printmaking and collaboration that defines our work. We welcomed four extraordinary Emerging Artists, providing them the space and support to experiment, grow, and share their unique voices with the world.

The gardening tools are hung up for the season and day-to-day household detritus is stashed away in shoe boxes, cabinets and under beds to make room for evergreens, holiday guests, wood piles, cookie tins, and blanket boxes. The season is full and festive and often dancing on the edge of frantic. In my better moments, I am working to slow down and take time to reflect and connect with others. This December, I invite you to slow down with us and join the crawl, the Portland Print Crawl, that is, happening in conjunction with our 3-day Holiday Sale.

When you create and care for a space with intention it becomes a place where intuition and craft meet. Whether it's in the garden or in the studio, it's amazing how the smallest changes to our environment can bring about transformation within ourselves. Sometimes those changes are invisible and sometimes they are made on a tactile object like a piece of paper. We all have the collective power to make change by getting out to vote this Election Day, Tuesday, November 5th. What world will we create?

As the light softens and the air turns crisp, we find ourselves drawn together - connecting with friends, both old and new, finding community, and building relationships to bring us through the long Maine winter. Fall also brings with it a sense of change and reflection inviting us to seek out new experiences, embrace cycles of growth, and engage in the continuous process of learning and teaching.

As we welcome September, I reflect on the profound impact that communication has on our lives. Communication is more than just words; it's an art form. Whether conveyed through spoken language, written text, music, dance, or other visual mediums, communication shapes our understanding of the world and each other. Just as art comes in many forms, so too does communication.
Design is one of the most powerful ways to communicate. It's an artful expression that transcends words, capturing ideas and emotions in a way that can resonate deeply with those who experience it. Every line, color, and shape is a deliberate choice, a part of a broader narrative that speaks to the viewer without the need for explanation.

With the first super moon of the year happening this month, we are taking August to appreciate the fullness of art, community, and nature. We are so grateful to everyone who braved the heat for this year's Steamy Summer Print Jam and the East Bayside Block Party! Thank you to all of the artists, vendors, friends, family, and neighbors who made the day a great success. The feeling of pulling a print that size never gets old and it's so fun to be able to share it with all of you.

Happy summer! Maine has been showing off all its best features giving us more beach day weather than we had all last summer combined. While we are ready to soak up all the outdoor beauty and activities Maine has to offer, July also promises to be a month filled with artistic inspiration, community engagement, and unforgettable experiences. So, get out your calendars and sharpen your pencils because this newsletter is packed with exciting makers' markets, festivals, new exhibition spaces, grants, residency programs, and shows.

As the warmth of summer embraces us, the RWS Studios are heating up with creativity and excitement. We are all kicking it into hyperdrive, and filling our calendars with events and to-do lists, but let’s not forget the importance of taking a moment to breathe, be present, and enjoy the journey of creation and the exploration of all our community has to offer. This season is not just about productivity; it’s about cherishing each stroke of the brush, every molding of clay, and the joy that comes from letting our creativity flow. It is about getting out into the world, seeing new places, discovering new artists, and enjoying the abundance of life around us.

The long-awaited spring colors our surroundings with renewed vitality reminding me of how the changing season mirrors the ever-evolving landscape of our lives and the world around us. The changing complexities of the political climate and the horrors of conflicts around the world move us to work to understand and find grace in our differences and to create positive change. We strive to encourage creativity, deeper connection, and understanding in ourselves and each other. In the face of uncertainty, art has the power to inspire, unite, and uplift.

I wrote this note with pen and paper by solar-powered “candlelight”. This newsletter has been mired in the mud of April’s tricks. Spring is showing us the full force of its intemperance this year; it has wreaked havoc on our homes, businesses, studios, and communities and it has brought us to awe in droves. It’s the season of the sticks - or rather massive tree branches - and the world feels slightly apocalyptic, if not a little through-the-looking-glass bizarre. We hope you read this with the lights on and heat and your body safe from harm.

"You will love again the stranger who was your self. / Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you all your life, whom you ignored for another,” (Love After Love, Derek Walcott)

January flew by and as we step into February I am filled with a sense of anticipation and excitement for the creative journey that lies ahead. As storytellers and creators, we have the power to weave narratives that resonate deeply with our audience. This month, let's channel a spirit of collaboration and innovation.

2023 was monumental. Celebrating 20years of working with and serving local artists, welcoming our 3rd session of EMERGE Artists in Residence, finding space for large steamrolled prints, small quiet studio moments and large life ones with studio mates, and making great memories and art. We are so thankful and grateful to each and everyone of you who was involved in some way, as an artist, a supporter, an event attendee, a newsletter reader, an alumni member, a community advocate. We are all better for your part in our comunity.

“We started imagining a studio space that was modeled on the diversity in both art mediums and artists that you have in art school,” Scott said. “We didn’t want to leave the variety behind us when we left school.”

2023 has been a wonderful year celebrating our studios’ 20th anniversary. We are incredibly grateful for everyone who has touched our lives, worked in our studios, supported us and helped us get to this moment.

Now is the season of expressing thanks and we have so much to be thankful for, even in the midst of great tragedy. More than ever, I am thankful for our incredible, resilient Maine community. We stand in solidarity with the community in Lewiston and all who are affected by this violence in our state. We all have different ways of grieving, healing and processing and we often work through our emotions, thoughts and beliefs by creating in our chosen mediums, in both private and public expressions of our humanity. We hope for extra tenderness toward each other while we heal and work to stop this kind of violence from happening again.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about vulnerability and the incredible strength that is needed to share it, move through and forward from it. Putting yourself out there, applying for grants, publications, shows, opportunities, residencies, jobs, can all be a daunting prospect, but it is also the essence of what makes an artist's work so profound and relatable. Rejections, disappointments, and self-doubt are all part of the artist's path. Collectively, however, we also don’t like to think or talk about rejection and failures. It is much easier to share the good news, the awards, the successes. In a world that often values perfection and pretense, artists remind us of the beauty in imperfection, the strength in vulnerability, and the richness of authenticity. Artists provide a mirror to our own experiences, helping us explore the depths of our emotions and the complexity of our humanity. It takes courage to share our struggles.

Summer showed up to the party hand in hand with fall, and we are open arms to both. We are reveling in the sunshine and moved by insect trill in the afternoon haze. We record the collor change in sketchbooks; warm hues of ochre, burnt sienna and carnelian red. It is not a long season, although if you are like me you wish it would last for months on end, and we try to balance the moment with the deadlines. This is Maine and the opportunities for beauty and discovery are all around us. I hope that this season you take in some of those moments with local artists at exhibitions, art fairs, state wide studio tours and more. Look below for opportunites our members are involved with and ways you can see and enjoy them.

In 2003, the trio founded Running With Scissors Art Studios in Portland, a shared workspace for artists across disciplines. Twenty years later, the studios have moved and grown, but the mission is the same. The 16,000-square-foot building is now home to more than 80 woodworkers, painters, ceramicists, printmakers, jewelry makers and other creatives.

Maine in the summer is an incredible place to be; even in a months-long rainstorm. These dark, damp days have offered me a moment to enjoy some indoor summer reading snuggled up with slippers and a snoring puppy, to experience how the rooms of the PMA create a restorative space for quiet observation while the rain lays upon it like a weighted blanket and how lost you can get in the innumerable deep and varied hues of green emerging everywhere. The rain and dampness are definitely not slowing down the artists' work here however and we are excited to bring you the latest updates and opportunities from our studios. July promises to be a month filled with artistic inspiration, community engagement, and unforgettable experiences.

To celebrate this anniversary, Running With Scissors organized the first juried show in its history and curated pieces from current and former members at nearby Cove Street Arts.