River Arts in Damariscotta is pleased to announce Joanne Tarlin’s dynamic solo show, “Below and Beyond,” in the River Room from Oct. 30 through Nov. 19. Tarlin’s large and expressive body of work invites the viewer to contemplate more than meets the eye. Meet the artist on Saturday, Nov. 8, from 10:30 a.m. to noon.

Tarlin paints semi-abstract symbolic landscapes. She received an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Tufts University in Boston, MA, and a BFA from the Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design. Tarlin paints in a studio along the coast of Maine, where she moved to in 2019 from Massachusetts. Tarlin is the President of the Union of Maine Visual Artists and works within the community to fulfill UMVA’s mission to help artists help each other. Tarlin is a former adjunct professor at Framingham State University. She exhibits her work regionally and has works in collections internationally. Most recently, Tarlin exhibited at the Maine Jewish Museum, Portland, in her solo show, Turbulence, Fragility, Resilience. 

Tarlin describes Below and Beyond, “Below... the surface and expectations. Beyond... the horizon and our insular worlds. The unknown, politics, and the constantly changing environment that surrounds my home on a peninsula in Harpswell, Maine, influence my art. Like Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), an American painter of symbolic landscapes and seascapes who captured the feelings of the nation in his paintings, I too aim to express the tone of our nation. Church painted The Icebergs, presenting a frozen impasse during the first year of the Civil War. When non-elected individuals infiltrated our government, I painted On Edge, a view from standing on the edge of a precipice looking down on churning water. Church painted fire red, soft skies representing smoke and death in war. I have been painting both murky and turbulent waters, and foggy horizons where we can neither see below or beyond.”  

River Arts is located at 36 Elm Street Plaza in Damariscotta, Maine. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  For more information, call the gallery at 563-6868 or visit the website: riverartsme.org