Maureen May, seen here at Studio &, puts some finishing touches on drawings for her upcoming show. Entitled “Arbor: The Pose and Poetry of Trees,” it includes all new photos and drawings from May, as well as collaborative poetry from other local artists. The show opens Friday night at Studio & and runs through May 24./Photo by Jennaye Derge
Deeply rooted
Respected local artist Maureen May branches out at Studio &
by Ted Holteen
JusttheFactsWhat: “Arbor: The Pose and Poetry of Trees,” new works by Maureen May |
It’s a rare occasion, and usually the result of a glaring error, when my Telegraph capo di tutti capi allows me to submit more than one story in a given week. Even the subject of my companion piece, Blake Crouch, bristled when I told him we might have to move his feature up a week – and he’s a Hollywood mogul.
“Who (sic) am I getting bumped for?” he asked. (I’m a stickler for who/whom, but this was drunken rage and should not reflect negatively on Blake’s abilities as a writer.)
“Maureen May,” I replied.
“Oh, then that’s OK. I love Maureen – I don’t mind getting bumped for her,” he said.
Anyone who has met Maureen May over the last 29 years likely shares the esteem in which Crouch, so many others and myself hold her. She is an artist in many mediums, an actress and, lest you think her a hopeless Bohemian, a paralegal. It so happens that Crouch and May have collaborated on several projects, including a few Furniture as Art pieces for the KDUR fundraiser. So perhaps it’s kismet that both were slated to be featured this week.
(Editors’ note: Sorry, Blake, at the risk of getting scooped, your story will appear in next week’s issue. Just the nature of this fickle weekly beast.)
The timing for a long-overdue profile of “Mo,” as she’s known in close circles, comes with the opening of her first solo show at Studio &, the Main Avenue arts collaborative she joined in January. “Arbor: The Pose & Poetry of Trees” opens Friday at the gallery and runs through May 24. It’s a departure from the painting and printmaking she’s been known for in recent years, as May returns to her roots (no pun intended, she assures me) of drawing and photography to pay homage to one of our most precious resources.
“I wanted to do a series of burnt trees at Mesa Verde using actual charcoal from them, but after thinking about it, I changed to drawings of living trees – people relate better to living things,” May said during one of her regular Thursday shifts at &. “I find the dead ones fascinating and beautiful but they’re not very exciting to look at as drawings, because they end up just looking like a bunch of straight lines.”
Those in the know have come to expect more than just an art show for these events at Studio &, and the only thing likely to be predictable about “Trees” is its unpredictability. May has invited a handful of local scribes to submit and read poems to accompany her drawings and photographs. Invited contributors include Kevin Johnson, Haz Said, Michael Rendon, Dan Groth, Greg Moore, Kelsey Dignum Wochele, Peggy Cloy, Bryce Masse and May’s studio mate at &, Shay Lopez. Anyone, however, is invited to add his or her own musings to those readings.
 Known more for her painting and print-making, Maureen May branches out into photography and drawings with her latest show, “Arbor: The Pose & Poetry of Trees.” The show opens Friday at Studio &./Photo courtesy Maureen May |
May arrived in Durango in 1986 after stocking up on professional training in the Midwest (she’s from Waukegan, Ill.) Her education began at the American Academy of Art in Chicago where she learned drawing and painting under Eugene Hall, whom she calls “a fabulous misfit like no other teacher.” Next in her arsenal was printmaking, which she picked up at the now-defunct Barat College in Illinois. A final stop at Lake County College was followed by a visit to Durango where her sister Ginny (now Dignum) was living, and it wasn’t long before Maureen was living here, too.
“I loved Durango, but I fell in love with it later, I guess,” she said of the experience shared by so many of us. She immediately became immersed in the local theater community, which at the time was dominated by Durango Lively Arts, or The Company. Her first role was the lead in a DLA production of “The Haunting of Hill House” at the Diamond Circle Theater, now the Henry Strater Theatre.
“I had never done theater before but starting a new life in a new town I figured why not?” she said.
While theater provided an amusing distraction, May was always a visual artist first and has long been a cornerstone artist in this community. “Arbor” is just the latest chance to see May’s work, and her resume of exhibition in Durango is like a lesson in local history. Her work has been sold in many galleries over the years and has in fact outlasted many of them such as the Piedra Gallery, which is now Schlotzky’s, and Carriage Works, which is the current home of the Lost Dog. May was represented by two different galleries, The Art Room and Red Canyon Gallery, which were housed where Mark Jaramillo now has The World According to Mark. Gallery Ultima used to be where you’ll now find Dancing Willow Herbs, and Termar Gallery moved out to make way for Gardenswartz Outdoors.
While May still maintains her private studio at the Durango Arts Center as her primary workspace, she’s so far very happy about her decision to join Studio &. Working with and for other artists who also support her has been inspiring for her creatively, and it’s had a more tangible benefit as well.
“I love it, but it’s been a lot more work than I expected,” she said. “What it’s really allowed me to do is focus a lot more on the business end of my art, which I’ve been ignoring for years. We have a lot of shows, and we typically put things up and take them down almost every week, but it’s good work and it’s for our art. Nothing is ever stale around here, it’s a great atmosphere, and I didn’t even realize how much I need that kind of activity.”
May’s affiliation with Studio & also led to her participation in this year’s CSArt program, which mimics community supported agriculture but substitutes works of art for cucumbers and other produce. Each shareholder will attend two pickup parties at which they’ll receive works by the participating artists. May’s contribution is yet another step outside of her expected comfort zone; her pieces will be small assemblage sculptures incorporating all kinds of found objects like recycled wood, pieces of toys, beads, wire and even a few scraps of her own monoprints. Hers will be included in the October distribution. The other artists participating in CSArt this year are Darcy Alden, Jonah Amadeus, Dan Garner, Leesa Zarinelli Gawlik, Mary Ellen Long, Susan Reed, and photographer Paul Pennington, who happens to be Maureen’s husband of almost 19 years.
“We met in 1990 when he was picking up a date at a house I was visiting,” May said. “We started dating right after that.”
Durango’s a small town in more ways than one, and it’s hard to maintain the kind of positive reputation that May’s enjoyed all these years without truly being one of the good guys. See for yourself – she’s certainly not hard to find.