Working Waterfront

Carving her way from surgery to art

Carving from green wood is a whole different beast from dry-wood carving, says Danielle Rose Byrd, a Bar Harbor-based wood carver and sculptor. “It’s wet wood. It behaves differently when it dries. It wants to crack and people are super scared of that. And so I’m like … Why is that bad?” In Byrd’s new book, the self-taught carver presents step-by-step wood carving instruction, with some soul-carving instruction threaded in. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Connection, as only music can provide it

Island winters are not for the faint of heart. My first winter on Islesboro was no exception. At the beginning of my fellowship, a wise islander gave me some sage advice: the only way to make it through winter on Islesboro is to have a really good hobby. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Telling stories about the birds

Birds, says field biologist Richard MacDonald of Bar Harbor, have been “a unifying theme” in his life. At age ten MacDonald was banding ducks and in college he carried binoculars wherever he went. And for the past several decades he has led birding expeditions, local and way away (Antarctica), while running the Natural History Center on Mount Desert Island. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

On the record with… David Hopkins, chair of Maine Arts Commission

Born in Bangor in 1953, David Hopkins grew up on North Haven Island. When he was 14 and his brother, painter Eric Hopkins, was 16, they asked their parents if they could open an art gallery on the family’s Hopkins Wharf. That was the beginning of a life-long connection for… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Winter in a Tourist Town

In our latest photo essay from The Working Waterfront, photographer Michelle Stapleton captures the quiet time in Old Orchard Beach. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Poetry embedded in a fisherman’s diary

Review by Dana Wilde Didn’t Do Much but a Little of Everything: The Eagle Island Diary of Dalton Raynes Ian Ludders, ed.; Lulu.com It’s about 1961, a sunny day somewhere in Scarborough. Spread over what seems, to my 8-year-old eyes, like acres and acres of dry field, are sardine… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Restoring Hindu

What could be better than a vessel that encapsulates the timelessness of a love story, the enchantment of a fairy tale, and the mystical allure of a legend? Well, how about one with the spirit of Maine in its every fiber. [caption id="attachment_24228" align="alignright" width="700"] Josh Rowan and Erin Desmond.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Penobscot Marine Museum digitizes Maynard Bray collection

The Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, known for its extensive and growing collection of vintage maritime and New England photos, has begun a campaign to digitize images made by marine photographer Maynard Bray. Museum archivist Matt Wheeler will speak about Bray and the work at the Camden Public Library at… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A history of Maine, wrapped in a warm quilt

Quilting has been a favorite pastime in Maine for centuries, first to provide warm coverings on cold winter nights, then rapidly evolving into a popular hobby for individuals and community groups. Women (and sometimes men) gathered for quilting bees to work on projects. Quilting bees also provided opportunities for socialization… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

When jobs have deadly consequences

Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains Kerri Arsenault (2020) Review by Tina Cohen Mill Town, with no specific location in its title, could refer to a lot of places. Here it refers to Rumford, where Arsenault grew up in the adjacent town of Mexico, across the Androscoggin River from the… SEE MORE