Allen and Benner Islands

2024 - current

Mapping: an exercise in constructing memory—a collection of sensory references about the physical world around us and the meanings it holds.

In 2024 I was invited by the Colby College Museum of Art to participate in a residency with three other artists (Claire Pentecost, Linda Nguyen Lopez, and Mandy Lamb) and curator Kendall DeBoer on Allen and Benner Islands, two islands off the coast of Maine whose landscapes were shaped extensively by Betsy James Wyeth. We spent two weeks exploring the terrain, gathering stories, and immersing ourselves in the ethos of the islands.

In the time since, I’ve gotten to know the islands from the air and the ground, and by listening to stories from those intimately familiar with the land, its ecology, and recent history. Walking the shorelines and interior trails, I’ve gathered shapes, colors, sounds, and textures, recombining them as the place began to make sense to me.

These first responses will be shown at the Colby Museum alongside those of the other residency artists as part of a multi-sited exhibition with the Brandywine Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania and the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, in association with the Wyeth Foundation of American Art, the Farnsworth Museum.

By Design: The Worlds of Betsy James Wyeth
June 12 - November 2, 2026
Colby College Museum of Art
Downtown location: 93 Main Street, Waterville, ME

Lichen Rope, 2024, created from fallen Usnea sp. lichen, Allen Island

Detail image of Here Be Sheep, 2026

Rock Portrait: Triangle Rock, 2026
inkjet print on bond paper
36 × 48”

Rock Portrait: Lichen Rock, 2026
inkjet print on bond paper
36 × 48”

Detail image of Here Be Sheep, 2026

Here Be Sheep, 2026, Cotton, eri silk, and Allen Island wool, all dyed with plant materials gathered on Allen and Benner Islands (bayberry, hay-scented fern, rowan, goldenrod, alder, birch, juniper), hand sewn. Photo: Mark Juliana.