about
mimi
- born in waterville,
maine june 29, 1947
|
mom emilia
born in belgium
dad henry born in saskatchewan
(an only child) |
- graduated from mount
mercy academy in 1965
- and usm gorham in 1969
- married to james carpenter
in 1968
- art teacher until 1975.
- daughter fontessa romania
gregoire carpenter born in 1975 - an artist, who married jonathan
schwartz - a film maker - on goose rocks beach in 2001.
- toured with the maine
arts commission's artist in residency program until 2011
- grandson henry levi
schwartz born in 2009
- full time painter &
problem solver - forever
what do you need to be
an artist?
a passion - for mimi it is painting
a muse - love of the sea and marine
and a work ethic
mimi gregoire carpenter
is a maine artist and a treasure
hunter who combs the shoreline of goose rocks (cape porpoise)
and fortune rocks (biddeford pool) every season of the year,
looking for "seashore treasures".
Her muse is the ordinary scarred,
stoic, maine seashell - food for the gulls.
Imagine a moment on the beach, a
childhood experience, a recent walk, and respond to this rugged
yet vulnerable environment, appreciating how magnificent the
most humble shell can be.
Nothing is too lowly for her to
notice, not the knobby seaweed, not the humble razor clam, not
the ubiquitous barnacle .....she singles them out, and through
her eyes they reveal their poetry.
mimi's passion is her surroundings
and her desire to make us pay attention.
Her detailed opaque watercolor paintings
offer delicate portraits of marine seashells, as well as seals,
mermaids and other various creatures, gathered from the beach,
brought to her nearby home, studied and given center stage in
her studio.
|