Caren-Marie Michel, artist news

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I'm kind of capturing things that are changing.--Painter Caren-Marie Michel

The tall Hawkes serviceman swinging a rusty toolbox and holding onto a timeless smile. The mammoth screen of Prides Corner Drive-in. The towering stacks of the Sappi paper mill. The hundred brick-bound windows of the Dana Warp Mill.

We've all seen these images many times before, but probably at 40-plus mph. In an exhibit of 28 paintings at Little Sebago Gallery & Frame, Westbrook artist Caren-Marie Michel is asking viewers to take a second look at her city. In the bold colors, dynamic lighting and wordless character of her paintings, Michel said she wants you to see Westbrook as she does--a place that can move successfully into the future without abandoning the physical reminders of its past.

Born in Portland, Michel has lived with her husband, Fred, on Mechanic Street in Westbrook for over 20 years. After graduating from the Portland School of Art (now the Maine College of Art), Michel gave up a career as a painter to raise and help support her two daughters, Roberta and Becky. She took a job as a teller at Fleet Bank on Main Street, eventually becoming the branch's manager.

Between family, work and a handful of community boards and organizations, Michel said there was absolutely no time for painting. That is until her youngest daughter graduated from high school in 2000. "She graduated in June and I left the bank in April. It was time for mom," she said.

Though she hadn't picked up a brush in years, Michel set out to make painting her profession. "I don't want to be thought of as a hobbyist, but a professional painter. That's what's important to me," she said. It was difficult at first and some of the works that she can now do in a day once took her a month.

Michel sent slides of her work to galleries in other states, hoping to get picked for shows. "For every acceptance, there were 10 rejections," she said. But over time, success came more often. Now she said she gets into three out of five shows. Her works of Maine seashores, marshes and other sites have been displayed in seven states so far. Michel is shooting for all 50 in the next five years.

The artist said one of her goals when she started was to paint a series on Westbrook. The city does not have an art gallery, but Michel said since Windham and Westbrook are so closely tied, it made sense to have the exhibit at Little Sebago Gallery & Frame.

Michel said Westbrook is at a critical point. One by one since the 1970s, the factories of the mill town have closed--the Dana Warp Mill, the Sebago Shoe factory, Saunders' Brothers. After years of economic stagnation, Michel said the city is on the brink of revitalization. But she warned it has to be careful which direction it takes.

Instead of tearing down the old buildings to move on, Michel said the city should use what it has to fill a niche in what she called "the creative economy." The term comes from a book called "Rise of the Creative Class," by Richard Florida. He argues that cities will find new life by catering to creative people who can make cities flourish with a technology-based economy. The old buildings and community of Westbrook can be a great environment for creative people, Michel said, artists included.

With this eye to the future, Michel set about putting the classic sites of Westbrook on canvas to give an audience pause before those landmarks disappear. "I'm kind of capturing things that are changing," she said. "Even as I'm painting them they're changing."

Michel described her artistic style as a cross between realist and impressionist. Her paintings are close to photographs, especially in the accuracy of capturing the different effects of light. In "Frozen Presumpscot" the watery blues are so convincing that it looks like you can dive right into the icy river.

But in paint the images take on personalities, stories and pasts that a photo couldn't capture. "Sappi Fine Paper 1" shows the old mill in the prime of production. There's an epic sense to the scene. The towers are overbearing, billowing smoke that clouds the air. The colors are in your face and the edges are bold. It captures how domineering and important that paper mill was for many years, as so many people in the area worked there. The commonness of Michel's scenes could be their most powerful attribute. They're all places you've driven past a hundred times. "Dana Warp 5" is a reminder to that, showing a car driving down Bridge Street in the cold morning shadow of the brick building. Between the contrasting tones of sun and shadow, wisps of steam rising from the Presumpscot and the wise presence of the mill, it's a beautiful scene. But you might have been in that car and never realized.

"I want them to see it as I see it. A lot of people pass by and don't even look," said Michel of her Westbrook views. She hopes her painting can change that fact, along with the city's reputation as a stinky old mill town.

George Bernard Shaw said, "Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were are say why not." Change a word here and gender there and one has the vision of Westbrook artist Caren-Marie Michel.

"I see the world as a painting," says Michel, and on her daily four mile walks through Westbrook, she sees so much more than the harried commuters racing to and from jobs observe. "I want people see how beautiful Westbrook and its buildings are."

And that is why she has painted dozens of Westbrook's structures and landscapes, and is displaying that artwork at Windham's Little Sebago Gallery and Frame from August 8 through 27.

Now, if the name of the artist isn't quite familiar to you yet, it's largely because Michel has only recently begun to show her work. But she is not a new artist. The Westbrook resident graduated from the Portland School of Art in 1978, but did not pursue a career in art, opting instead to raise her family as she worked her way up from bank teller to bank manager in Westbrook.

But in 2000, when the younger of her two daughters left home, Michel decided that it was time to return to the canvas full time. She quickly produced a number of paintings, both acrylics and pastels, and began showing her work in art shows from Wiscasset, Maine to the state of Washington, south to Alexandria, Virginia, west to Fort Collins, Colorado, and back east to New York City.

Asked why she picked up the brushes again, Michel said simply, "It was time to paint." And painting is something she is doing faster and faster as the years go by. In fact, in the gray bungalow she shares with husband Fred, she has two studios, both busy and full of works in progress.

And on the walls of every room are the paintings that various fellow artists and art reviewers have called, "Steeped in a vivid sense of place;" paintings with "nuclear-charged blues." One artist and art teacher remarked glowingly on the "startling clarity of (Michel's) color choices." Sandra Mizerak, owner of the Little Sebago Gallery and Frame in Windham, where Michel is showing her Westbrook artwork, said that she doesn't know if an artist has ever presented a show featuring a single town. "It's interesting to see her vision" of the city she has lived in for that past 24 years, said Mizerak.

Her paintings of Westbrook reflect a deep understanding and knowledge of the city formerly known mainly as the "Paper City." One of Michel's larger paintings in the Little Sebago show is called, "Always St. Hyacinth," a reference to the now-closed landmark church on the banks of the Presumpscott. Another shows a large dump truck on the opposite bank of the river and is named "Put the Park Back."

But Michel isn't focusing on the distant past of Westbrook. She said that her paintings of the old S.D. Warren mill "document the old; the front low building has been replaced with an office building and there are new buildings as the city undergoes change."

To the admittedly uneducated eye of this writer, there is definitely something vibrant, soothing, exciting and wonderful about the work of Caren-Marie Michel. I can't point out the artistic accomplishments of this gifted artist, but anything that makes an art knucklehead like me want to linger over an art show must be highly worthwhile.

This is my hometown and I've grown jaded about the look and feel of Westbrook; studying Michel's vision of the city opens my eyes to what once was a lovely town and, in the eyes of this very thoughtful painter, is still a place of beauty and wonder.

Caren-Marie Michel is painting a series on historic Westbrook buildings, as the city undergoes a redevelopment boom that is changing its look and character.

For years, Michel stepped from her home on Mechanic Street, turned toward downtown and walked the streets of Westbrook. Friends, neighbors and co-workers zipped past in vehicles, on the way to someplace else.

Michel made mental note of the buildings that caught her eye: the Dana Warp mill, the Saunders Brothers mill, Central Fire Station, Fire Station No. 2, the public library. Gorgeous buildings, all of them. Each had its own special architecture. Each contributed to the city's character.

Michel is a painter who recently retired from a 14-year career in banking. Now she is re-creating those old buildings and other Westbrook landmarks on her canvases. Westbrook is underappreciated, Michel says, even among its own residents. She hopes her paintings portray the city in a favorable way.

"Westbrook is a pass-through town and a bedroom community," Michel said. "People drive in here and out of here every day, and they pass by these beautiful buildings without even really noticing them. I want people to see the beauty."

There's an urgency to Michel's work, given the rate of new development in the Portland suburb, once a thriving paper mill and factory town. Some of the industrial buildings she most admires may be coming down or forever altered.

At the Dana Warp spinning mill, a new office building blocks the view from down the Presumpscot River.

This past summer, the City Council began clearing the way for approval of a Wal-Mart Supercenter to be built on the Saunders Brothers mill site. She wants to paint the Saunders mill before it comes down, so its image and memory will be forever preserved.

Michel has lived in Westbrook since 1981 and has been involved in school and community activities as a founding member and treasurer of the Mission Possible Teen Center, a member of a Downtown Revitalization Committee, the Chamber of Commerce, United Way, Warren Memorial Library, Rotary and other organizations.

Those who know Michel probably know her best for her business career. She began as a part-time teller at Maine Savings Bank at the Maine Mall in 1986 and worked her way up through the ranks, leaving in 2000 as an assistant vice president for Fleet Bank.

But her painting career dates further back.

Michel, 49, received her bachelor's degree in painting from what was then Portland School of Art in 1978. Her plan was to become a painter, but the economic realities of raising a family required her to earn a consistent income.

In 2000, when her youngest daughter went off to college, Michel decided it was time to return to art. "I said to myself, 'The kids are raised. It's time to do something for me.' "

It had been 22 years since she got her art degree, and it took her a while to regain her style. But with daily practice, it came back. Her acrylic-on-canvas landscape paintings are full of color and form, representational renderings of familiar scenes.

She realizes she is a late bloomer in the art world.

"At my age, I should be a mid-career artist. But I am not. I have the vision and experience, but I don't have (exhibitions and resume) behind me," she said.

Her painting career is progressing nicely. Michel will show her work in at least 13 exhibitions this year, ranging from national juried shows, which she enters frequently, to an upcoming two-person show at Little Sebago Gallery in Windham, opening Oct. 16. Also this year, Michel has shown at the Barn Gallery in Ogunquit, the Maine Art Gallery in Wiscasset, College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor and--in keeping with her previous career in banking--at Norway Savings Bank in Scarborough.

When she is not painting Westbrook, Michel likes to paint other popular spots in southern Maine. Scarborough's Pine Point Beach and marsh as well as Morse Mountain and Sewall Beach in Phippsburg are favorites.

Sandie Mizerak, owner of Little Sebago Gallery, said Michel's paintings caught her eye as soon as she saw them for the first time earlier this year.

"We have a lot of landscape painters here, and she's different than all of them. She's not an impressionist, but she's not a realist, either. She's somewhere in between, and I think that's very interesting," Mizerak says.

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