Last week a fire severely damaged an apartment building on Main Street in Rockland. The fire was notable to me for two things. First, although the ground floor was gutted, the utilities survived so that the upper-floor tenants could reoccupy their homes. Second, those tenants included two artists of my acquaintance: painters Alison Hill and Daniel Corey. That they were able to return to their homes and studios doesn’t mean that Hill’s and Corey’s lives continue uninterrupted. Their apartments and belongings are smoke-damaged and must be cleaned or replaced.
In places where art is purchased rather than made, one might wait for the concierge to call a restoration company. Waiting for such an event would, of course, delay these artists’ return to their studios indefinitely, since an old apartment building in Rockland isn’t that kind of place.
“Here, it’s really about one person helping another in times of trouble,” a mutual friend told me. “The Maine artist community supports each other.”
Corey has responded to this most recent challenge by having a fire-sale of his work, which you can see here. I’m doing my wee bit by exposing it to audiences who may never have seen his wonderful work. I’ve long been a fan of Corey’s painting, which combines bold brushwork with a great color sense and striking composition. This is a chance to acquire a work by a wonderful painter at a minimal cost, and help him out of a jam, too.