Artist Talk: Americans Who Tell the Truth

Blue Hill, Maine - On Friday March 17th at 7:00 PM, local artist Robert Shetterly will give a talk at the Blue Hill Public Library about his new portraits on display in the library's Britton Gallery and Howard Room, which are part of the “Americans Who Tell the Truth” project. Rob will discuss who these new portraits are, why he painted them, whom he will be painting next and the educational work he and others are doing with the portrait series. He will also talk about the effort to “re-story” America about how to engage current issues.

Shetterly's portraits will be on exhibit through the month of March. The portraits have all been done in the last year or so and include civil rights activist Bayard Rustin; the woman who climbed the flagpole at the state capitol in South Carolina to take down the Confederate flag, Bree Newsome; Indigenous rights activist Sherri Mitchell; and founder of the Bread and Puppet Theater, Peter Schumann.

According to Shetterly, the Americans Who Tell the Truth project sprang out of his reactions to 9/11 and the “manipulative use of the attack as a basis for the Iraq war.” “I began painting this series of portraits --- finding great Americans who spoke the truth and combining their images with their words --- as a way to channel my anger and grief. In the process my respect and love for these people and their courage helped to transform that anger into hope and pride and allowed me to draw strength from this community of truth tellers, finding in them the courage, honesty, tolerance, generosity, wisdom and compassion that have made our country strong."

The event is sponsored by the library and is free and open to everyone. For more information call the library at 374-5515.

Caption Info:  Robert Shetterly, artist
Portrait of Bree Newsome