{"id":8617,"date":"2013-08-23T10:50:04","date_gmt":"2013-08-23T14:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=8617"},"modified":"2017-03-02T09:54:24","modified_gmt":"2017-03-02T14:54:24","slug":"the-secret-sharer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/the-secret-sharer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secret Sharer"},"content":{"rendered":"

September 2013 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

A talented artist sets up her studio\u2013in another <\/em>artist\u2019s Old Port gallery!<\/h3>\n

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

\"lawson\"<\/a>When you walk into the George Anderson Gallery in Boothby Square, you\u2019re surrounded by Anderson\u2019s work\u2013vibrant, nearly electric images of waterfront life, fishermen, workboats, gulls, wind, and waves. It\u2019s a one-artist gallery where primary colors climb the brick walls and brighten the entire room.<\/p>\n

Except there\u2019s a second artist here. She\u2019s painting behind the desk at the back of the store. Jennifer Lawson<\/strong>, a creative director at L.L. Bean from 1985 to 2003 and a highly sought creative consultant for years after that, is now trading her services as a humble retail gallerina in exchange for her own studio space in a sunny window at Anderson\u2019s gallery, where she focuses on painting.<\/p>\n

When did you start this arrangement with George Anderson?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Earlier this year. I knew George because I knew the gallery and I own one of his paintings. He\u2019s been here for 10 years; I used to live in this neighborhood. One day I brought friends and I noticed a sign on the door saying he was looking for someone to work here. [Anderson, the former owner of a successful advertising agency, lives and paints in Rockport, Massachusetts, where he also has a gallery.] Everything just started falling into place.<\/p>\n

He said, \u2018You can work here, but you have<\/em> to paint while you\u2019re here.\u2019 So I thought, hey, I can either paint at home, alone, or I can paint here, in the gallery, in a space where I can focus and work. George has been kind of a mentor. He even calls me, a lot, to make sure I\u2019m painting.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s symbiosis? George keeps after you to keep painting?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the deal. For me, it\u2019s a gift.<\/p>\n

When did you leave L.L. Bean?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That was in 2003, but I had free-lance consulting clients of my own, so I continued to consult. I worked with Johnny\u2019s Selected Seeds for a few years. I spent 18 months flying to Baltimore every week for a client\u2013until I realized this was nuts. They asked me to move there and work for them. I said, you know, my friends are in Portland. Do I really want to pack up and start over again?<\/p>\n

You seem pretty good at starting over.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I grew up on the West Coast\u2013San Francisco. My family\u2019s still there. I\u2019ve been in Maine since 1982. Leaving L.L. Bean after nearly 20 years was a big step. But I had to try.<\/p>\n

Did you go to art school?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have a BFA from Utah State (1976). I always drew, even when I was a child, and I studied painting, but I didn\u2019t really pick up the pencil and sketchbook until 2007.<\/p>\n

You seem at home in different media\u2013oils as well as watercolor, and pen and ink.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I like them all, so I keep at them. Sometime in 2008 I started my own blog to converse with other artists. We follow each other\u2019s blogs, so I\u2019m always connected. And Facebook. I was skeptical at first because of all the personal stuff people put out there. But Facebook\u2019s very immediate. You can just post a picture and you can see other people\u2019s work quickly.<\/p>\n

You took the plunge and really started painting. Then what?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, I lived in Bali for two years.<\/p>\n

What did you do there?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I painted!<\/p>\n

And since you returned in 2010?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m just really getting into my creative side, trying to do what fulfills me. It\u2019s been great. I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro by myself last year.<\/p>\n

Personal challenge?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, it was great. Now I take a salsa dancing class at USM once a week. And El Rayo [Taqueria on York St.] has a band\u2013Primo Cubano\u2013once a week, so I go salsa dancing on Wednesdays. I have a friend who taught me to swing dance, so we go swing dancing at the Woodford Club, too. I love having these things in my life.<\/p>\n

How\u2019s the painting going lately?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard and it takes a lot of heart.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s funny. George was just here this week, so we had a meeting. We both come from the corporate world, so we \u2018have a meeting.\u2019 I\u2019d just finished a painting on Monday. George said, \u2018We\u2019re going to put a frame around this and sell it.\u2019 I thought, wow<\/em>, I\u2019m really getting somewhere.<\/p>\n

He said I have to start painting bigger canvases. I\u2019m trying<\/em>. I started painting 6\u201dx 6\u201d and I\u2019ve progressed up to 12\u201dx12\u201d\u2013big is intimidating. I\u2019m fine to draw it out, but it\u2019s the application of the paint. I feel like my brush strokes are more exposed. George doesn\u2019t work this way\u2013he\u2019s very graphic and his colors are mostly solid, but I\u2019ve got a whole sky to solve.<\/p>\n

George says, \u2018You can do this.\u2019 He\u2019s such a great guy, but I think he gets a little impatient with me for not becoming big enough fast enough. But there is<\/em> a world of smaller paintings out there. Not everyone wants poster-sized.<\/p>\n

Maybe turning painting into a career feels too much like another fast track you\u2019ve been trying to get away from? What do you imagine your husband [the late NBC and WCSH-6 news reporter Bob Elliott] might have counseled?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh gosh. Bob was from Maine; he left the big time because he really wanted to come back and live here. But for someone trying to be small-town, he played big<\/em>. I wasn\u2019t even painting back then\u2013I was at L.L. Bean. But I think he would have encouraged me to do what I<\/em> want.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to have a show in October, at Clayton\u2019s Cafe in Yarmouth. All oils. I have a lot of these small canvases; part of this \u2018learning year\u2019 I\u2019m having is using up what I have. [She points to a plastic bin of blank white canvas squares on the floor.]<\/p>\n

White canvas can be terrifying, so I like to start with an undercoat. This green [a dreamy sage square on her easel] is the start of a beach scape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

September 2013
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