"Artist Maureen Egan & Poet Dave Morrison~ Coping with Adversity Through Art and the Creative Process" on May 31 at 6:30 PM

Rockland, Maine - On Thursday, May 31 at 6:30 PM at the Rockland Public Library, local artist Maureen Egan and poet Dave Morrison will present a talk about how the creative process, through their respective art forms, has helped them cope with adversity.

Rockport resident Maureen Egan, author of The Light From Here: A Breast Cancer Story, will share how making art—both writing and painting— supported her through a series of challenges, culminating in a breast cancer diagnosis in 2012. With the backdrop of her colorful art, her presentation unfolds as a journey of the heart, a portrayal of marriage, self-reflection, and adversity.

"When facing difficulties, I turn to beauty, imagery, and color, which comfort me and lead me to my strength," Egan says. Each chapter of the book, which writer Susan Conley describes as “a clear-eyed, honest love story of recovery and understanding” is accompanied by a painting that portrays the symbolic, nonverbal aspects of the experiences she faced.

A 35-year resident of the Midcoast, Egan painted still lifes and illustrated a column for Downeast Magazine in the 1980’s when she first moved to Maine. After a 12-years in the administration at Ashwood Waldorf School, in 2006 she returned to painting and has since has shown her work annually at various venues in the Midcoast. Egan’s art was on  display this past winter at the new Ann Hooper Women’s Imaging Center at Waldo County General Hospital in Belfast, where Egan is a patient.

When poet Dave Morrison was diagnosed with tonsillar cancer he reacted the only way he knew how, by writing poems which were published in the collection, Cancer Poems, in 2015. 

Of this collection,  Ellen Taylor, author of Floating, states: "In these honest and courageous poems (Cancer Poems), Morrison shares his turbulent journey through the landscape of cancer, its painful paths and nearly unclimbable hills, its tremendous skies with bright stars of gratitude. These poems encompass a geography of emotion, from self-deprecation and moments of despair, to humor, love, and resilience. Morrison describes the beginning of illness, the long days “where each breath is a/ noticeable event,” the measurement and exhaustion of pain, the beautiful allure of morphine. This collection reminds us that life’s brutal blows are meant to help us learn “important lessons about what/ is real and good and valuable,” and to sing “a song of thanks/ as loud as a/ saxophone.”

Born near Boston, Dave Morrison is a writer of novels, short stories, poetry, and many notes on scraps of paper.  After years of playing guitar in rock & roll bars in Boston (the Trademarks and True Blue) and NYC (the Juke Savages), he currently resides in coastal Maine.

The evening will conclude with book signings and a card sale. This event  is free and  open to the public.  Rockland Public Library is located at 80 Union St. in Rockland. FMI: 594-0310.