Newspaper Press in Moosehead Messenger and Moosehead Matters!

Zoning is Sexy! Taboo? What is Mildred Kennedy-Stirling’s recent artwork about? It is 200 years of land use, experiences, and accessing the North Maine Woods. Development, the working forest and the wilderness have always and continue to attract people. Mildred wants people to see beyond their own experiences to other’s experiences and use of the landscape. The three mannequins represent these attractions to the North Maine Woods: development, working forest, and wilderness. The mannequins are sexy because humor opens conversations in an otherwise taboo subject. Each piece asks people what really matters in the North Maine Woods? The piece as a whole speaks to how our experiences are all connected; we are in this place together. Changes are inevitable, but the quality of a place’s attractions is essential to quality of life.

Mildred did the piece because the debate over land use, experiences and access affects everyone: residents and visitors. The Historical and current issues are connected. Zones mark the official land use but these marks do not convey the multitude of uses actually experienced on the land. The artwork, “Zoning is Sexy! Taboo?” consists of an eight-foot by eight-foot backdrop. It is a collage of 200 years of human land use paperwork: maps, newspapers, books, advertisements, logos and references to canoeing, stage coaches, railways, hunting, snowmobiling, hiking, skiing, ATVs and more. Mildred placed plastic over the collage as a lens to write important words. These words are signs of human experience in the place. The words project upon the collage adding another layer of connection between the North Maine Woods and human experiences. The three mannequins stand before the backdrop. The working forest mannequin wears the skin of the Delorme Maine Gazetteer. Victoria Secret lingerie had Beaver fur [nature’s engineer], chainsaw chains and bullets added to represent the jobs, hunting and animals of the North Maine Woods. The Development mannequin wears the Greenville zoning map and her White Victoria Secret lingerie has Greenville “For Sale” signs to speak of how the landscape is a commodity. The third mannequin, wilderness, wears the Moosehead Lake region Delorme map and moss has been applied to her Victoria Secret lingerie. The moss grows and fades due to feeding. Like the landscape, it is alive and in a state of constant change. The three mannequins present the three attractions to the North Maine Woods [development, working forest and wilderness] and the mannequins reflect in the plastic on the backdrop adding another example of connections between land use and human experience. Like the world the artwork is made of independent, interdependent and connected parts; Experiences are all connected; we are in this place together.

The artwork, “Zoning is Sexy! Taboo?” is on view at Moosehead View 2 lily bay road in Greenville until July 29^th when it will be moving on to Montpelier Vermont.