Brenda Free

”Plenty” Materials: Acrylic paint Bio: Imbedded in my sensibility is a decade of deciphering my world while living on a boat. My eyes, my instincts, even my beliefs of where I thought I’d been or was going were often overruled by instruments. This layering of past and present, instinct and reality with its associated unease and possibility is what my work explores. What I do might well be called searchings rather than paintings. Unchecked by instruments, their beginnings hold little idea of their endings, even if when I begin, I think they do. Before we sailed, I was a senior graphic designer and eventually co-owner of a Boston-based advertising agency. Trained at the Corcoran School of Art and the University of Maine, Orono where I received my degree, my work has been primarily shown in Maine and Massachusetts. Unwilling to be far from the sea, midcoast Maine and the Caribbean island of Bonaire are where I now call home. Statement: I often remember a story told by a friend long passed. His parents, as many did in the fifties, tried to coax him to finish his meal with the admonishment “think of the hungry children in the world”. His response was immediate. He stopped eating, lifted his plate and earnestly asked “how do we send this to them?” Close to home with our focus on Maine, AIO has helped answer my friend’s question. Ample resources keep me comfortable, they allow me time and lessen my heartaches. This ease that comes from having plenty is my cushion to the world. With it I’m able to be still and create. The many people involved in this project shared some of what they too believed they had plenty of, be it time or money or something else. I’m grateful to be among them. Together we can ease life for people who find themselves without enough.