COA THE COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Volume 10. Number 2 . Fall 2014 CREATIVITY: THE ARTS 152472 coverine 2 COA The College of the Atlantic Magazine Creativity: The Arts Letter from the President 3 News from Campus 4 Donor Profile Cody van Heerden, MPhil '15 9 CREATIVITY: THE ARTS Introduction Catherine Clinger 10 Leaping into the Feature Strange Eyes of Dr. Myes 12 Trouble Dolls . Jennifer Prediger '00 17 Creativity in Motion Tawanda Chabikwa '07 18 Evolution, Creativity, and Art A Dialogue 22 Seeking Form Miles Chapin '10 24 Creativity The Paths 28 Creative Activism The Restaurant 30 The Future We Bought 32 Reclaiming Land, Connecting Communities 33 You: Unplugged 34 Poetry Gregory Bernard '16 and Molly Caldwell '14 35 "Leta" Grace Goschen '17 36 Alumni & Community Notes 40 On the Doorstep of Europe Heath Cabot 47 Elmer Beal Retires 48 2014 Commencement Address Excerpt Mary Harney '96 49 "I want to dance until / disappear, because at some point everything is shed, you're finally as you truly are meant to be - creativity, vitality, life." Tawanda Chabikwa '07 (photo by Craig Bortmas) 152472_text.indd 1 11/3/14 11:44 PM COA The stories in this issue reflect The College of the Atlantic Magazine quests. They are personal Volume 10 Number 2 Fall 2014 accounts of alumni, faculty, and students striving to reach out, Editorial Editor Donna Gold to connect, to change. Through Editorial Guidance Heather Albert-Knopp'99 them we see how we all seek Lynn Boulger Catherine Clinger to understand ourselves, our Dru Colbert mortality, and our relation to our Darron Collins '92 Jennifer Hughes chosen worlds - from humanity's Katharine Macko ancient heritage to the emotional Bob Mentzinger Suzanne Morse and physical currents of daily Steve Ressel life. Miles Chapin '10 carves a Eliza Ruel '13 Lauren Rupp '05 four-ton granite block in hopes Josh Winer '91 of connecting two nations - Editorial Consultant Bill Carpenter Alumni Consultants Jill Barlow-Kelley and a smaller block to speak of Dianne Clendaniel love. Alexis Gancayco '17 draws a heart eighty-four times in a piece stretching twenty-eight feet as a response to the death of a friend. Tawanda Chabikwa '07 Design Art Director Rebecca Hope Woods dances, chants, paints, and writes to instill some of the tremors of the primordial balance between humanity and nature into our twenty-first century world. COA Administration President Darron Collins '92 With her distinctive humor, faculty member Nancy Andrews explores human Academic Dean Kenneth Hill consciousness. Others expand art into public activism to connect a community, Associate Academic Deans Catherine Clinger Stephen Ressel confront bureaucracy, or simply remind people of the joyful satisfactions of Sean Todd sustenance. Karen Waldron Administrative Dean Andrew Griffiths Dean of Admission Heather Albert-Knopp'9 Such efforts galvanize our full selves. As Ashley Bryan, artist, sculptor, children's Dean of Institutional Lynn Boulger Advancement book writer, and COA friend says, "The desire to create is what identifies us as Dean of Student Life Sarah Luke being human." (An exhibit reflecting Ashley's life, produced with the help of a COA Board of Trustees host of COA people, is in the Blum Gallery through February - so visit!) Becky Ann Baker Linda McGillicuddy Dylan Baker Jay McNally '84 As I write this, the full October moon is rising. I wake to the aroma of wood Timothy R. Bass Stephen G. Milliken Ronald E. Beard Philip S.J. Moriarty smoke in the glow of golden birch trees, and fall asleep to the glimmer of Leslie C. Brewer Phyllis Anina Moriarty Alyne Cistone Lili Pew moonlight on Penobscot Bay. In the news, emerging from miseries of war, Nikhit D'Sa '06 Hamilton Robinson, Jr. disease, and politics, is the revelation that cave paintings on the island of Beth Gardiner Nadia Rosenthal Marthann Lauver Samek Sulawesi, Indonesia were created some 40,000 years ago. These paintings are Amy Yeager Geier Elizabeth D. Hodder Henry L.P. Schmelzer as old, or older, than those on European cave walls. With this evidence that Philip B. Kunhardt III '77 Stephen Sullens Anthony Mazlish William N. Thorndike, Jr. early creativity spanned the globe, scientists are saying that humans were likely Suzanne Folds McCullagh Cody van Heerden, MPhil '15 making art even before the rafts of Homo sapiens left Africa - possibly even Sarah A. McDaniel'93 before we became human. Art, these scientists suggest, accompanied a huge Life Trustees Trustee Emeriti growth spurt in human intelligence - something faculty members Helen Hess William G. Foulke, David Hackett Fischer Samuel M. Hamill, Jr. George B.E. Hambleton and Bill Carpenter speculate about here. John N. Kelly Sherry F. Huber Susan Storey Lyman Helen Porter William V.P. Newlin Cathy L. Ramsdell '78 When I look at the blue-gray nightscape cast by the radiant moon, | have to John Reeves John Wilmerding wonder, did this surge in creativity evolve so as to comprehend the beauty of our Henry D. Sharpe, Jr. world? The faculty, students, trustees, staff, and alumni of College of the Atlantic envision a world where people value creativity, intellectual achievement, and diversity of nature and human cultures. With respect and Damn gold compassion, individuals construct meaningful lives for themselves, gain appreciation of the relationships Donna Gold, COA editor among all forms of life, and safeguard the heritage of future generations. COA is published biannually for the College of the Cover: Tawanda Chabikwa '07, photographed by Craig Bortmas (see page 18). Atlantic community. Please send ideas, letters, and submissions (short stories, poetry, and revisits to Back Cover: Beech Hill Farm by Ezra Hallett '17. As part of Dru Colbert's Activating human ecology essays) to: Spaces: Installation Artwork class, Ezra turned one of the outbuildings of Beech Hill COA Magazine, College of the Atlantic Farm into a camera obscura. The building became a large-scale pinhole camera. 105 Eden Street, Bar Harbor, ME 04609 Should you have entered it during the installation, you would have seen this image dgold@coa.edu projected on 10 by 6 feet of sheets hanging on the back wall. The back cover is a WWW.COA.EDU digital photograph of the actual projection. MIX PRINTED WITH CERTIFIED COA indicates non-degree alumni by a parenthesis around their year. Paper from responsible sources FSC WIND www.fsc.org FSC® C021556 POWER® 152472_text.indd 11/3/14 11:44 PM