All three of Mrs. Lynn Derderian’s Language Arts classes on Team 2 at Auburn Middle School had the thrill and excitement of going to the Atrium Art Gallery at the University of Southern Maine in Lewiston. Robert Shetterly, a portrait artist from Brooksville, Maine, painted over 80 portraits of people who did something courageous that helped our country and its citizens like Eleanor Roosevelt, Susan B. Anthony, Samantha Smith and Rosa Parks. We got to see 38 of Shetterly’s paintings in November and to talk to him about his work. The art exhibit was called “Americans Who Tell the Truth.”
Weeks before the students went to the art exhibit we had to read the biographies of the people in the paintings. We wrote summaries about the biographies and we studied quotes by the famous people and tried to explain what the quotes meant and how they related to our lives.
When the students got to the art exhibit, they looked around at the fascinating pieces of artwork done by Shetterly. His paintings were extraordinary; the eyes in the painting were looking at us as if they were watching our every move waiting for us to do something, something important and meaningful. As we looked at the paintings we saw how the colors mixed to make the flesh color, and how the colors blended to make the hair and clothes. Some of the backgrounds were dark while others were bold. A quotation by the person in the painting was either scratched at the top or bottom of the portrait. For example Eleanor Roosevelt’s quote was, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
When we walked into the Atrium Gallery these huge paintings were hanging on the curved walls to our right and left, and on both sides of a narrow hallway. On another hallway were paintings by Rebecca Haley McCall, another Maine artist who painted pictures of Iraqi children.
Robert Shetterly first decided to paint portraits after the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers. Shetterly was very angry when this event happened. Shetterly loved painting and he wanted to use his art to express his feelings because that is what artists do with their work he said. So he painted portraits of people who were important, but not necessarily famous people who really cared about our country and were brave and tried to make a better country for everyone. Like Samantha Smith! She was a brave girl and a peacemaker. She was scared but she went past her fear. She traveled to different countries to remind them how important peace is to everyone but especially children here and in Russia.
On the wall at the art exhibit there was a saying by Robert Shetterly, “One lesson that can be learned from all these Americans is that the greatness of our country frequently depends not on the letter of the law, but the insistence of a single person that we adhere to the spirit of the law.” Next to each painting a plaque tells about that person’s life. If you read these biographies you will learn a lot. Each painting has its own story.
When all the kids from Mrs. Derderian’s class sat down on benches in the gallery with the artist I asked him, “Why do you paint?”
He asked me, “Why do YOU paint?” I told him that I draw because it is fun, and I don’t have to draw what people want me to draw. I draw what I want. He said he draws for the same reason.
I asked him how he learned to paint? Shetterly told us that it came to him naturally and that it helped that he copied other great artistic styles like the Renaissance painter to be able to learn how to get certain textures.
Shetterly has been painting portraits for four years. His first portrait was Walt Whitman. Some of his new portraits are Natasha Mayers, Bruce Gagnon and Lily Yeh. Shetterly has actually met with some of the people he painted like Yeh, Mayers, Ralph Nader, Perry Mann, and probably more.
LA Arts sponsored our trip to the museum and gave us a copy of the book “Americans Who Tell the Truth.” The art show runs from Nov. 10 to Dec. 16. Check out the web site www.americanswhotellthetruth.org to see all of Robert Shetterly’s paintings.
Comments are no longer available on this story