Mayo Street Arts and the Portland Housing Authority (PHA) are teaming up for an exhibit showcasing numerous talented artists who work and reside with the Housing Authority!

The theme of the exhibit is the connections that bind us as a community and as neighbors. Stop by for to celebrate these fantastic artists and this intergenerational community art show! Art will be for sale.

The opening reception will take place on Friday, May 3 from 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM. There will be hors d'oeuvres and libations provided free of charge!

Local musician Kafari is bringing his ethereal and atmospheric sound, with a live performance during the opening from 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM. 

The exhibit will be on view by appointment through Sunday, June 23.

Participating artists include:

Ahlam Ilyas S.

Ahlam Ilyas S. is a study center student. “I love painting! I made a mistake, but I worked it out!”

Alanys Cruz

My name is Alanys. I'm 8 years old. I was born in Puerto Rico. I came to Maine from Puerto Rico when I was 2 years old. I love to do art!

Amanda Eaton

I'm the Education Specialist at the Kennedy Park Study Center and am lucky to work with the amazingly talented and fun students who live here! My piece includes found rocks with wooden beads, a recycled piece under the sea!

Anna Maria Loboda

I’m Anya from Russia and I’m 17 years old. I’ve been drawing since childhood. I’m a positive and open person I draw with the help of this, I can reveal feelings and myself and put on paper I believe that paintings and artists can do anything with just a pencil. Also this is the first time when I will show my work to people :).

I try to develop in drawing and try to create interesting artworks that convey my feelings invested in the paint. Thanks for this opportunity!

Arcadia G. Oliva Polanco

My name is Arcadia and I am from Guatemala. I have two beautiful children. Nathan 12 years old and Alanys 8 years old. We love art!

Barry Miller (BV’POH)

BFA Textiles RISD. I play saxophone, drums, and percussion. My dual interests in the Visual Arts and Music manifest in musical instrument making and Sound Sculpture. I consider Sound a Medum. I have been developing the work for about 50 years.

Dubl Web with Stones and Chymz was created the year I moved into State Street housing in 2016. More than any other I’ve made, iz symbolic of where I live. My apartment has a view of the courtyard that has, as part of its landscaping, ornamental grass. I harvested some of it for this piece. This type of grass is bamboo-like visually, but not as strong and woody as bamboo. This softer material, when used as chymz, produces a gentler sound than wood or bamboo. It has a beautiful resonance.

This piece uses the same looping process found in Native American Dream Catchers, which initially influenced this design element in my work. I do not make Dream Catchers, I make Webz. The Web begins on the outside, and loops on itself with tension to the inside. THe very first cell is dependent on all the cells that follow. For me, web making iz symbolic of a Creative Life Experience. Chance meetings, intentional meetings. Observations, and experiences with all living things, and places and things in our environment. A series of moments lakes a Life. Some say, it’s one long day. We Make Connections.

Bluration Creations (Kenneth Sylvia)

I am a photography artist. I use my phone to create images and print them.

Dawn Misner

I am a self proclaimed professional beach comber who has started to create art with her authentic seaglass, shells, driftwood and much more. Unique, never duplicated, handcrafted mosaics.

Gale Fisher

I am a Mom of 3 grown children and a meme of one grandson. I live in Portland. I don't draw I only paint. I would also like to learn French. Beautiful Bubbles is a 2 piece set, sealed acrylic on a cotton canvas.

Hadi A.

Hadi A. is a Kennedy Park student. Bio: “Good Looking. Very nice, funny! I am painting!”

Idman A.

Idman A. attends the study center.

Isabel Yim

I'm a local artist that just loves to have fun when making things! I think we all love our dogs like they are our lieges

Jack Lynch

Jack Lynch is a Housing Officer at Baxter Boulevard. His art shows the “consequences of an active mind.”

Kat Alberts

I am 30 years old, and live with my supportive roommate/friend and 10 year old dog. I am disabled with multiple conditions – including a connective tissue disorder called ehlers danlos that causes many problems. I am a new ambulatory wheelchair user and have never been so free or busy. I am neurodivergent–Autistic with ADHD, + complex trauma. I am hard working, dedicated, and resilient.

The painting is at its base, my first time using splatter paint, acrylic on canvas. I painted this first back in 2015 after I fled a hostile relationship of which I lived with when I first painted this. I added the yellow paint to feel more at peace with the artwork.

Kathleen Murphy

Kathleen Murphy is a Portland Housing Authority employee. This is a technique called Swedish weaving or Huck embroidery on material called Monk’s Cloth. It is woven completely by hand.

Korana Doroslovacki (KD Handmade)

I am an amateur artist from Bosnia & Herzogovinia. I do traditional crochet work, oil and acrylic paint. These are the most common art forms in my country.

I learned to craft, crochet, and do tapestry from my mother and grandmother. Sometimes they taught me specific skills, but mostly I just watched. It is a good hobby for me, after I get home from my 9-5 job.

Kristina Vellani

Painting for me is self-care - a relaxing sensory experience filled with color. Began creating in 2023 at the age of 40. Rather than tell you about my artwork, I’d like YOU to tell me what you see.

Leonid

Lenoid loves to create just for the sake of it! Play, experimentation, and joy are his driving motivations most of the time. He finds inspiration from exploring on his bike and being in his community. He is a teacher at the Kennedy Park Study Center.

This was an experiment where Lenoid cut up a bunch of paintings he didn’t agree with and made them into something he did. He found this proactive to be fun and calming, and recommends you give it a try!

Lil Wolf Balan

I met my Twin Flame, The Wolf and The Raven, and the Raven and the wolf. I fell in love, and she got in a car accident and lost her young son (my “spirit son”, the flow of our existence was interrupted by a spirit unline anything I have ever encountered). I am here waiting for her recovery. Sending up smoke, I share these moments in my sacred journey with her. Reminding her.

In the bustle and hustle of daily life at Franklin Towers and the surrounding areas, slow down, stop and breathe, so your heart can see what your eyes do not.

Mariam

Mariam attends a PHA study center.

Michael Stuckmeyer

I can draw, paint, sketch photos shots (phone) create, visualize, conceptualize. Michael’s piece is a play on public housing required waitlist.

Ms. Sharon Chamberland

I am an artist who has been working with jewelry design, making ornaments, and various mediums of painting my whole life. I am becoming more professionally involved in my craft so I can make a living with my art will no longer have to do a day job. I do jewelry design, to sewing, to watercolor, to mixed media, and oil paintings.

Mustaf A.

Mustaf A. is a PHA Study Center attendee.

Nathan C.

My name is Nathan. I am 12 years old. I like art. I love the Northern Lights.

Rachkanya R.

I am a kid that wants to make money and I enjoy art. I think art is cool different and cool.

Riyan A.

Riyan A. is a PHA Study Center attendee.

Robert Minard

I am a writer with schizophrenia. I have written and published (self) 2 books “Schizo” and “Love and Work” since moving to Franklin Towers 6 yrs ago. I am trying to publish “Love and Work” commercially. I sometimes illustrate my writings with drawings.

Ronald A. Crabbe

My first piece was a carved pine flower with a cherry wood base.

Ruthie Harrison

Ruthie Harrison is local to Saco, ME and is a 2021 graduate of Maine College of Art with a major in Animation and Game Design. These days she expresses herself mostly through mixed media collage and digital illustration, but hopes to put her degree to work some day while still remaining in New England. Her work most often showcases feelings of nostalgia and a fondness for childhood experiences.

(1) Made primarily from the pages of vintage Little Golden Books and Life Magazines, Let’s Go to Your House is meant to capture the feelings of summer as a child. Sharing melty popsicles on the hot pavement of your friend’s house, catching frogs and digging for worms, all until you’re sweaty and hungry enough to go inside for cookies and milk. It honors how quickly and innocently we make connections with each other as children, and asks you to recall summer memories of your own. (2) Date Night was created from the pages of vintage Life Magazines, and was inspired by the romanticized feeling of first date excitement you may feel during your first ventures into the world of romance as a teenager. @beebeerooth

Saa Rosenblatt

My love for art started when I was a kid. It kept me in the realm of pure imagination. Barbies, unicorn and rainbows. I took my passion to college, and graduated with a BA. Design, magic and color has become my new wellness tool. The unicorn is my symbol for endless possibilities.

My work is color therapy in action. It is the world of unicorns who lives on this planet long ago. It is through unicorn dreams that my work comes to life. My guardian unicorn named Fin Finley inspires my work, dreams, and my human life adventures.

Saad Z.

Saad Z. is a PHA Study Center attendee.

Sabrie Z.

Sabrie Z. is a PHA Study Center attendee.

Sandrine Chabert

Sandrine Chabert is a French artist from cosmopolitan Marseille, France. She lived in Tunisia for two years and came to Portland in 1999 and shortly after, started working as an interpreter for the French speaking African immigrant community. Always making, creating and thinking, it is only very recently she decided to put her work out for viewing. Her art and Interest in the Mixing of cultures is informed by her life in ter hometown, her travels, and her work as an interpreter. The piece presented in this exhibit is the first she could identify as ar and not craft, and the first she’s worked on with the intent of being viewed.

I have been a crafter with the soul of an artist; I love experimenting and mixing concepts and media. I have a deep interest in colors, and although my favorite medium is fibers and textiles, I also work with paper and printing, primarily cyanotype. I also have a deep interest in exploring letters, words, and calligraphies, and I sometimes enjoy combining aesthetics with social messaging My approach to art is often spontaneous and guided by my inner life and the world around me. I would definite myself as an eclectic as I cannot embrace only one theme or one medium. This is just the beginning of my journey as an artist; I am excited to see where it takes me.

This piece “AND … it connects us all” is a representation of the connectedness that exists between the state of maine and the immigrant communities who live within its borders. On one hand, the symbolic is expressed by the ampersand character that represents the conjunction “and” which originated as a ligature of the letters from the latin word “et”. And on the other hand, expressed by the fabrics I used to aesthetically exemplify that connection: an African wax-inspired fabric and a state of Maine print.

Sharon Pratt

I am a two-time cancer survivor. I do collage to heal and for the joy of life. I am excited about this opportunity. I am a retired social worker. For many years I played guitar and bass. - 90’s rock grunge - which focuses on living.

My work expresses the joy of living, by using color. Through my work, I choose to be a beacon of light for God’s passion and humanity. Cancer is lonely and made me look deeper inside myself. Now possibilities are unlimited.

Stanley Clarke

70 year old SWM. Dtr. Jasmine. Retired social worker

Tammy Ung-Brown (Jubiemoon)

I'm a first-generation Vietnamese-American born and raised in Kentucky. I've always been into art, but my passion started in creative writing. After getting my associates in Graphic Design at a local college, I attended Savannah College of Art and Design, where I honed more of my skills in illustration and storytelling. As I find footing in creating my craft, I'm currently an employee at PHA, which is very fulfilling for me despite it not being an art job.

My goal in creating my "Pretty Refreshing" collection was to create cute and cozy art. This is not my typical art style, but I really wanted to play with color and simplicity, as well as some typography. These pieces are intended to come as a set to add to your cute kitchen wall art or dining room. Of course, they can go anywhere, but "cozy and cute kitchen aesthetic" was what I had in mind when creating them. @jubiemoon

Teyonda Hall

Teyonda is the Director of Resident Services at PHA and organized this exhibit!

Tyechia Bauld

I do a lot of things like home decor. My favorite is the marble effect. I also make elegant, glass candle holders, which I could not show, because they do not hang on the wall. I have a YouTube channel, called “Tyechia Recreations” where you can see the work I do.

My mother and grandmother did crafts. It runs in our family. I just started doing the paint pour, so I could have something in the show. It is not my zen place, like making candles, but I like it.

Violet Lancaster

My art is mixed media. My creative process is: Get struck by inspiration, obsess, then gain the skills and materials required to create whatever image I have in my head. I was born and raised in rural Maine, and the forests, streams, glades, and mythology of the area have influence in all of my work. Mythology, and fairytales in general, have a strong influence in my work as well.

My ongoing project is a mixed media project, comprised of stained glass and hanging ceramics, that’s an attempt to explore the same mythical islands that Odysseus travelled in Greek stories, & the women that lived on them. I try to use light and color to convoke the visuals of an Ambrose tinted reality. @gatedhare

Zoë Dexter

"I am a multimedia artist focusing on photography and collage. I live in Portland with my Chihuahua Coco Chanel. I went to Parson’s School of design. I am inspired by architecture, street, travel, food, and the connections that bring people together. I have lived all over the country and in Madrid, Spain. My work is inspired by architecture, street, travel, food, landscapes, the use of shadows, reflections, and light and color.

I use handmade paper from around the world, I cut out each heart by hand and put them on the canvases.

Collage is an expression of color, texture, and puzzle pieces. It is a way to lose myself in a calming practice, healing through art.

The year after I had my accident, I couldn’t go outside because it was icy. I started cutting out hearts. A friend’s logo inspired me to do a collage with the hearts. As time went along, the hearts have morphed into other images.

ABOUT KAFARI

Kafari (he/him) is the alias of Cincinnati, OH-born, Portland, ME-based pianist, rhythm bones player, beatmaker, and teaching artist Ahmad Muhammad. Kafari’s music synthesizes his love of ambient piano music, spiritual jazz, and experimental hip-hop, inspired by the musical legacies of Dorothy Ashby, J Dilla, Chopin, and the Carolina Chocolate Drops, who in a 2014 performance sparked his interest in the rhythm bones - an Irish percussion instrument popularized in America through blackface minstrelsy which Kafari often distributes and teaches to his audiences. 

PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN POLICY

No one will be turned away for lack of funds; contact MSA at 207-879-4629 or info@mayostreetarts.org to take advantage of pay-what-you-can admission.

COVID-19 POLICY

Mayo Street Arts no longer requires audience members attending public events to wear masks. Audience members who feel sick—whether due to COVID or any other illness—should stay home out of respect for others.

CANCELLATION POLICY

Mayo Street Arts has a no refund policy for all reservations. In the event that MSA is forced to cancel an event due to weather, illness, etc., refunds will be offered via the Ticket Tailor platform.