LEWISTON — Kate Cargile’s Monhegan Island Series is currently on display at Wicked Illustrations Studio and Gallery.

in 2018, Cargile and Melanie Therrien, the owner of Wicked, took a trip together to the popular artists island and both enjoyed the beautiful views for plein air painting. In 2019, Cargile was accepted into an artist’s residency on the island and added to her series of paintings. The paintings, mostly done on site in oil, capture the beautiful landscapes, homes, trails and other treats of the island such as the trail of fairy houses.

Cargile is a middle school art teacher interested in literature, history and visual culture studies. These aspects of her life shape and inspire her artwork. She works in a variety of media, including painting, drawing, printmaking, appliqué quilting and paper mache sculpture. Her subject matter ranges from the beauty of the people, objects and places that make up her everyday life to fanciful ideas from myths, legends, tales and her own wild imagination.

She approaches painting like the act of quilting. She mixes patterns and textures with diverse visual elements from life — antique advertisements, knick knacks and mementos, old family photos, obsessions from her past, emblems of her childhood — and stitches them together in a nonspecific space saturated with color. While the resulting paintings have clear narratives for her, she wanted viewers to be able to put their own stories into these paintings. The artistic process is like trying to tune an old radio. There are many different stations and frequent static. When you get a clear station its always best to listen intently to what is playing.

Cargile’s work will be on display through December. Wicked Illustrations is at 140 Canal St. For more information, contact k8cargileart@gmail.com or visit www.wickedillustrations.com/kate-cargile.html.

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