Marsha Donahue

Homage to Frida size: 14" poplar materials: oil on wood Statement: I was inspired by this subject because after starting with painting around the edges in a mandala shape with bright foliage, the center asked for a person. Frida Kahlo came to mind because of the vivid color, always present in her paintings. She was such a cultural icon and revolutionary that most artists can identify with the energy and spirit in her paintings. A poem by the great Chiliean poet, Pablo Neruda inspired me and spoke to your cause: Eating alone is a disappointment, but not eating matters more, is hollow and green, has thorns like a chain of fish hooks trailing from the heart, clawing at your insides. Hunger feels like pincers, like the bite of crabs, it burns, burns and has no fire Hunger is a cold fire. Let us sit down soon to eat with all those who haven’t eaten; let us spread great tablecloths, put salt in the lakes of the world, set up planetary bakeries, tables with strawberries in snow, and a plate like the moon itself from which we can all eat. For now I ask no more than the justice of eating. BIO: Born in Waterville, Maine in 1950, I grew up in central Maine. I attended Portland School of Art and received a BFA from American University, immediately going to work in the downtown art galleries in Washington, DC. I returned to Maine in 1985 to bring up my child here and managed Bayiew Gallery in Portland and was Assistant Director of Greenhut Galleries. From 2004-2020 I ran North Light Gallery in Millinocket and then in 2022 opened it again in Belfast, ME. I have been mostly influenced by Cezanne and John Singer Sargent’s watercolors. I presently have work represented there and at Bayview Gallery in Brunswick, Caldbeck Gallery in Rockland and Boston Art, Inc. in Boston.