Artist Brent Bachelder returned to his Maine roots in 2017, after spending 30-plus years teaching and selling his artwork in Rhode Island.

He currently teaches art at Meroby Elementary School in Mexico and runs his businesses, Art with Mr. Brent and Club Neopolsi Creations Design Studio, from his home studio in Rumford.

A native of Newry, Bachelder graduated from Telstar High School in Bethel in 1985 and received a bachelor of fine arts degree in sculpture from Rhode Island School of Design in 1989. Ten years later he received a BFA degree in graphic design from Rhode Island College.

Bachelder says that although he enjoys teaching art, his heart lies in creating artwork of his unique aliens, whether they be in the form of robots 8 to 12 inches tall and made from junk, or painting his colorful drawings of cartoon animals.

What brought you back to Maine after living in Rhode Island for over 30 years? I grew up in Newry, Maine, and was schooled in the Bethel school system (yay Telstar Class of 1985!). I was accepted at the Rhode Island School of Design for college and I ended up moving to Providence in the fall of that year. I started my art and design business, Club Neopolsi Creations Design Studio in 1989, two days after graduating with a bachelor of fine arts degree in sculpture. Ten years later I would receive a BFA in graphic design.

Fast forward to 2017 and I made the move back to Maine, after 32 years of being away. It was great living in the city, and I did like and do miss the amenities that an urban center offers (tons of restaurants, every store you could imagine and more work than I could possibly do), but the 4- to 5-hour commute from R.I. to Maine to visit family was becoming more and more arduous. Plus the city was starting to grate on me, what with the noise, litter and neverending traffic. It was simply time to return to my roots.

I sold my restored historic district house in Providence and was lucky to find a nice big old fixer-upper farmhouse in Rumford. I have worked feverishly to renovate it, and though a lot has been done, there is always more to do. If you drive on Route 2 in Rumford and see the house with a three-story pencil painted on a chimney, you know where it is located!

Why is it important to you to teach art to children and adults and how does it benefit people to create artwork? While I was living in Rhode Island, I created custom artwork for clients, primarily mural and sign creation, and taught adults and youth part-time. When I moved back to Maine, I found that being in a more rural environment did not offer the same level and number of paying clients. I realized I might have to shift my expectations, so when I was offered the job as art teacher at Meroby Elementary School, I jumped at the opportunity.

I realized that my over 30 years of freelance teaching and creative problem solving as a working artist gave me a lot of valuable knowledge that I could share. I also started ART with Mr. Brent in the summer of 2017. I have regular Saturday morning art classes for kids, and I also do paint nights for adults, and my art birthday parties have become very popular. After my move, everything flipped; I became a full-time teacher and was now creating art part-time.

Doing art is such an important part of child development; they develop their fine motor skills, they work on creative problem solving and they get a sense of accomplishment by creating something unique from almost nothing. I love being able to help them find their way along their life path. Maybe they won’t all become artists, and that is OK. The creative experiences will help them in the future, no matter what they decide to do.

I like teaching adults as well, and encourage them to be creative. You are never too old to start, nor do you have to be the best artist to be creative. Sometimes it is just about the healing and joyful process of creation, and it’s not always about the production of something.

Many of your drawings look like alien or deep-sea creatures. What is it about these types of drawings that appeal to you? Another favorite form of art creation of is building models and miniature robots from junk. Describe the material that you use to create a robot and other details about your robots. Many of my illustrations are of cartoon animals, but my heart truly lies in the creation of artwork of my own unique aliens. I am a self-professed science fiction geek (and toy collector) and those are my favorite things to draw!

I also really enjoy building miniatures and models and have since a very young age. Just ask any of my old teachers or classmates who witnessed me bringing in giant “extra-credit” projects into school year after year . . . having built a medieval castle, colonial Boston, the Roman Forum and many, many others.

I have recently begun to explore model building more, as my own artwork for me, not for a client or for a sample for an art class. Will I ever sell them? Maybe, but I am just setting out on a new path and I look forward to where this exploration will take me.

Last fall I finished renovating and stocking artwork on the porch at the front of my teaching space, which is attached to my home. I affectionately call it “The Brent Store” and it is my own little gift shop/gallery where a number of my various artworks are on display and for sale. I plan on opening it during the summer, but with no real set hours and it will be available for viewing by appointment. I have always liked the idea of making art accessible and affordable, so some of my original art pieces start at just five dollars.

Describe some of the artwork you’ve created that some of our readers may have seen and where we can see it if we haven’t seen it yet. I have not done a whole lot of projects since I moved back to Maine, but I literally had dozens and dozens of murals all over Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts. I created the mural in front of Meroby Elementary School (in Mexico), recreated the cutout Santa and reindeer for Naples Packing (in Mexico) and a few smaller projects here and there.

I am still holding out for the space and funding to do a huge signature mural somewhere here in the River Valley. I also created the winning logo design for the Moxie Festival in 2019.

What are some of your other hobbies and interests besides drawing, painting and building robots? My No. 1 favorite thing besides teaching and making art, is working on my house and garden. I spent 20 years restoring my previous historic house in Providence, including doing part of the renovation on TV, on “Home Again” with Bob Vila, the show Mr. Vila did after he left “This Old House.”

I do not have the luxury of having a TV budget (the budget given to him for the “Home Again” show) for this house, but I have done quite a few projects in the “new” house. But a couple of big ones still remain; mainly the kitchen and an upstairs bathroom. I will get to them as time, budget and contractor availability allows.

In the meantime, another guilty pleasure I have is scouring thrift stores and yard sales for amazing treasures to furnish and decorate my home. The more unusual, the better! The decorating of the rooms is nearly complete, and yet I still love to collect. The overflow has begun creeping into my attached barn that is filled with such uniqueness that I call it “The Barn of Wonders.”

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