Maine author and artist plans talk, book signing

10 years ago

Maine author and artist plans talk, book signing

    HOULTON — The Southern Aroostook Cultural Arts Project (SACAP), 66 Main Street in Houlton, will host an art talk and book signing at 7 p.m., Friday, July 17, by Belfast artist David Estey for his new humorous, illustrated memoir “Whoop and Drive ’er! – Growing Up in Aroostook County, Maine.”

    Originally from Fort Fairfield, Estey stepped out of his usual role as an award-winning painter and published a unique labor of love, FS-Estey-DCX-SHARPT-28 a personal piece of Americana about colorful family members, friends, characters and situations he experienced while growing up during the 1940s and ‘50s in northern Maine, along the coast, and during 42 years away.
    He includes going to Rhode Island School of Design, studying art in Italy for a year, illustrating for the army during the Vietnam War, managing public affairs for IRS, dealing with the news media, living in the South, and enjoying a second career as an artist back in Maine.
    Estey is described as an engaging speaker, and will punctuate his talk with original pieces of art from the book and examples of his current abstract work.
    The book is endorsed on the back cover by Carl Little, distinguished poet and author of several books on Maine painting, and Kathryn Olmstead, editor of Echoes magazine and a columnist for the Bangor Daily News.
    Little wrote, in part, “In this entertaining and often moving memoir … vintage photographs and Estey’s portraits and paintings are the perfect accompaniment to a storyline that will leave you laughing and inspire a tear or two.”
     “David’s memoir is laced with humor and filled with anecdotes that make it a tribute to small-town America,” wrote Olmstead.
    The 144-page art book has 41 photos, drawings and paintings done over the years. For more information call SACAP at 532-9119.