“I was there when Marc Arnts came into Visions/Blue Moon Art Gallery with a twinkle in is his eyes and a smile on his lips,” said Carmel Bowers.
He came in to show Bob Cowperthwaite, president of SACAP, his invitational poem for a piece of artwork by Homer Winslow.
Arnts, of Crystal, works for U.S. Customs as an agricultural specialist, but has a passion for writing. So much so that in 2010, with the help of the Southern Aroostook Cultural Art Program, started the Shiretown Scribes writing group.
This is where anyone with a passion, secret or not, about writing can hone their skills and share their work. The group will help each other with thought process and critique each other’s work, in a positive way, every second and fourth Wednesday of each month. The group has also published its first book containing original pieces from each member, which can be purchased at Visions.
With so much creativity and passion it was bound that Arnts would be recognized as a serious writer. His invitation came by way of the nation-wide poetry organization, Loft Anthology. The writer/poet is to “write one poem inspired by artwork from a New England museum.” With a list of museums that was enclosed in the invitation Arnts started his search. He first searched the museum that he grew up going to, the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, N.H.
He found one or two, but they did not seem to really do the trick for him. So, he continued to search the museums in Maine. When he searched the artwork in the Portland Museum of Art he knew he found his piece. What caught his eye was that he had been to the place that Homer Winslow had painted. It is a place very familiar to his wife, Alisa, too. It is the pond across the dirt road from where his wife grew up, Togue Pond, in Baxter State Park.
The painting is of two men canoeing, one is paddling the other is fishing. With this inspiration Arnts was able to rough out his first draft in about half an hour. He has already completed his second draft and will take it to the Shiretown Scribes to critique. The deadline for the competition is Feb. 1. Poet Denise Duhamel will judge all the submissions.
“I, for one, hope that our scribe, Marc Arnts, will be attending the awards gala held on June 6,” added Bowers.
The awards gala will be held at the Grand Hall and Garden Courtyard, Providence Public Library in Rhode Island.
