Working Waterfront

Kozak’s Acadia

[caption id="attachment_38924" align="alignnone" width="650"] One of the many boat trip tours led by ANP ranger-naturalist Maurice Sullivan in the 1930s. Some of them featured singalongs. PHOTO: COURTESY ACADIA NATIONAL PARK[/caption] Images of America: Acadia National Park By Anne Kozak with Josh Winer and Sam Putnam, Arcadia Publishing (2023) The story… SEE MORE

Linda Norton’s “Belfast Harbor Tug” (1999), watercolor on paper 21 by 29 inches (now in a private collection).

Working Waterfront

Linda Norton’s red tugboat

When Linda Norton (1943-2018) moved to Camden in the late 1990s, she was returning to childhood haunts. She had spent summers there with her grandparents and had a deep attachment to the town. Born and brought up in Portland, Conn., after graduating from high school Norton spent time in England… SEE MORE

Four images by renowned photographer Kosti Ruohomaa, shooting for the Maine Sardine Council. PHOTOS: PENOBSCOT MARINE MUSEUM

Working Waterfront

From weir to can

In 1951, the Maine Sardine Council hired Finnish American Kosti Ruohomaa to document the sardine industry. The Maine Legislature created the council that year to promote high standards for the sardine industry and made it responsible for grading and inspections as well. The sardine industry was complex; one photo could… SEE MORE

“Island Girl (Sofie Lilian Nathan Dowling),” by Janet Badger; linocut, 2009.

Working Waterfront

A ‘Great’ island portrait project

While artists-in-residence at the Heliker-LaHotan Foundation on Great Cranberry Island in 2009, photojournalist Rebecca Buyers and artist Janet Best Badger teamed up to chronicle the lives and visages of a group of islanders. While Badger drew their portraits, Buyers interviewed them. Their project gained attention and admirers through exhibitions at… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Creativity thrives in salty, island environments

The sun is sinking and fills the kitchen with an orange glow, signaling the end of a long week. Lobster traps hauled and stacked, gear shifted from one spot in the ocean to another. Lunches made in the dark and fishing boots brought in to dry. Nights of nodding off… SEE MORE

Diana Young’s "Boom Island," (2023) tempera, 16 by 20 inches. PHOTO: MICHAEL HALLAHAN

Working Waterfront

Diana Young’s Penobscot River view

In the half century Diana Young has lived in Bangor—she and husband Jim moved there in 1973—she has painted all over the Queen City, so many different scenes she should be declared painter laureate. Her views are always animated, full of a kind of motion that often compels one to… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

An island musical legacy

On a Tuesday evening earlier this summer, representatives of the Jeff Tolman Music Award, a 501(c)3, presented themselves at a select board meeting to make an unreasonable request: that they might close and be given free rein of the only—and very busy—town parking lot, from noon and through the evening,… SEE MORE

Artist David Hurley poses near his sturgeon mural on the Bayview Events Center, near Belfast’s harbor walk. PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Mural honors Belfast’s sturgeon story

Let’s get the pronunciation lesson out of the way first. The river that flows into Penobscot Bay in Belfast is called the Passagassawakeag, which in the native Wabanaki language means, “Place where sturgeon may be speared by torch light.” It’s pronounced: puh-SAG-uh-sa-WAW-keg. There don’t seem to be many sturgeon in… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The fate of frogs on Oxbow Island

Oxbow Island Gang: Leap Frog By Rae Chalmers, Maine Author Publishing (2023) It’s April break from school and Berend Houtman—known to his family and friends as Bear—can’t wait to visit his grandmother, Sally Parker, on Peaks Island. He has to jump onto the ferry at the last minute—the first of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Tragedy and hope in debut novel

The Road to Dalton By Shannon Bowring (Europa Editions, 2023) Shannon Bowring’s debut novel, The Road to Dalton, has earned high praise from some Maine all-star authors. Richard Russo has a rave on the front, as does Morgan Talty; Susan Conley’s is on the book’s back cover. But apart from… SEE MORE