{"id":10031,"date":"2014-08-29T09:49:37","date_gmt":"2014-08-29T13:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=10031"},"modified":"2017-03-02T09:45:56","modified_gmt":"2017-03-02T14:45:56","slug":"taking-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/taking-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

September 2014 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Artist Meghan Howland stalks wildness in nature, human and otherwise.<\/h3>\n

Interview by Claire Z. Cramer<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Taking-Flight-Sept14\"<\/a>Making a living as a full-time fine-art painter in Portland is a trick Meghan Howland pulls off with quiet grace.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Portland, I think it\u2019s a great place for artists. I wish there were more of us,\u201d says Howland, 28. Her work\u2013oil paintings\u2013took off in a group show this summer at the Nancy Margolis Gallery in New York\u2019s Chelsea district. She\u2019s been represented for three years by the Bowersock Gallery in Provincetown, Mass., where a show of her work runs through September 15.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be that young, and show that much depth already!\u201d says Lisa Bernstein of the Bowersock Gallery, \u201cWho knows how far she\u2019ll go?\u201d<\/p>\n

Pretty far already, it seems. \u201cGeorgina Chapman and Harvey Weinstein have just commissioned their second painting from Meghan,\u201d says gallery owner Steve Bowersock. \u201cShe\u2019s an artist who already has a clear voice. Most artists don\u2019t develop this until they\u2019re 40 or so.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did you end up in Portland?<\/p>\n

I was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and I grew up in Kingston, New Hampshire. But my family\u2019s from Maine; I have ties here. After art school, I headed straight here, about five years ago. It\u2019s my home now.<\/p>\n

You have family here?<\/p>\n

I have an ancestor who founded Howland, Maine. It\u2019s kind of a funny story. He came over on the Mayflower<\/em>\u2013he\u2019s the one who fell overboard. Howlands are traditionally klutzy.<\/p>\n

Do you mean you descend from John Howland (1592-1672), who was sent by Governor William Bradford to found a hunting and trapping outpost in the Maine woods on the Penobscot River? [See \u201cMaine\u2019s Patron Stranger,\u201d November 2013.]<\/p>\n

Yup. But the only artist in the family before I came along was my great-great-grandfather, Russell Langley. He served in World War I. Instead of fighting, his job was to take pen and ink to the front, draw battle scenes, and send them to Washington. And he survived!<\/p>\n

Which brings us to you.<\/p>\n

I wanted to be an artist from the time I was eight. I was going to work for Disney, I wanted to be an animator. I painted a short cartoon\u2013they still drew everything back then\u2013my mother filmed each still, and we packed it all up and mailed it to Disney with a letter. They actually responded and said that I would need some art instruction first. So my mother said, \u2018OK, it looks like we\u2019ll be finding you an art school.\u2019 My family\u2019s always been very supportive. That\u2019s counted a lot. I have a BFA from the New Hampshire Institute of Art.<\/p>\n

How have you evolved?<\/p>\n

I used to paint from life. I started with landscapes\u2013I\u2019d get right out there and paint a view from start to finish. If it rained, I\u2019d set up a tarp. I\u2019m drawn to nature, so my paints usually have birds or plants in them. Now I usually work from photographs.<\/p>\n

You sometimes put birds over people\u2019s faces\u2013is this intended as malevolent symbolism, or a little Carlos Castaneda?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not meant to be malevolent at all, but some people take it that way. I combine the chaos of nature with people\u2019s stories.<\/p>\n

Nightmarishly, beautifully. Take us closer.<\/p>\n

Well, my paintings sell in galleries for prices from about $1,000 to $15,000. I also get commissions to paint portraits. I have three commissions to do this winter. I have a small studio at the Mayo Street Arts Center. I\u2019ve collaborated on fabric design with the Marchesa fashion house in New York, and I\u2019m also starting to hand-paint commmercial signs. I just like them\u2013painting a sign brings a newness to an old thing but it respects the past. That\u2019s why I like oil paint. Some people say oil painting\u2019s dead, but it\u2019s not. Sacrificing aesthetics for convenience is a problem. A lot of people fall into that trap.<\/p>\n

I was lucky. Nancy Margolis\u2019s assistant found me on the internet. She arranged for Nancy to meet me when she was here at her Maine home. She came, looked at my work,\u00a0 and offered me a spot in her group show.<\/p>\n

Did you sell anything?<\/p>\n

I did!<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t get me wrong. I\u2019m still very much a starving artist. It helps that I\u2019ve gotten a lot <\/em>better at budgeting. Up until recently I was slinging lattes as a barista at Coffee By Design\u2013I still pick up shifts now and then. I also did some landscaping, waited tables, and managed a small art store before I moved here. Being creatively frugal is, for me, part of living as a painter. Being creative is who you are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

September 2014
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