The Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library in Presque Isle hosted an exhibition on Dec. 21 from an artist whose roots run deep in Aroostook County. “The Art of Evelyn Kok: There Has to be Magic” showcased 57 original watercolor paintings, 48 of which were on sale, from a woman whose art career spanned 70 years and reflected her love of the rural community she called home.
Kok was a Massachusetts native who attended art school in Boston and moved to Presque Isle with her husband, Jan Kok, in 1952 after he became a professor of music and math at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, known then as Aroostook State Teachers College. Evelyn Kok was a librarian at the university and often taught classes in watercolor painting and music while Jan Kok taught in his departments for 38 years.
The Koks were much-loved members of the Presque Isle community and they often travelled to schools throughout Aroostook County to teach children about music. Jan Kok started the musical groups Hilltop Carolers and the Ren-Bar, short for Renaissance-Baroque, and was a member of the Kiwanis Talent Revue. Both he and Evelyn Kok were members of the Presque Isle Recorder Consort.
After Evelyn Kok passed away in 2014, her niece, Christina Shipps, inherited her entire collection of artwork, which included hundreds of watercolor paintings and pen and ink drawings and thousands of bookmarks that she printed from her own small press at her and Jan Kok’s home in Stonington Harbor on Deer Isle.
Shipps’ aunt had done exhibitions at the library in Presque Isle before and was a great admirer of the community space. When Library Director Sonja Plummer Eyler suggested hosting an exhibit of Evelyn Kok’s watercolor work, Shipps thought that the location was a natural choice.
“My aunt was very proud of Aroostook County and you could see that in her paintings. They really capture the spirit of The County,” Shipps said. “She used to say that The County was ‘the most civilized place on Earth.’”
Many of Evelyn Kok’s watercolor paintings featured bright, vibrant colors showing rural Maine farmlands, potato fields, waterways and famous spots such as Quoggy Jo Mountain and Mount Katahdin. Other paintings included images of Stonington Harbor on Deer Isle and coastal Maine. The exhibit also featured maps of Presque Isle and Aroostook County that Evelyn Kok created for the Chamber of Commerce and paintings that reveal her experimentation with Japanese styles of art.
“Watercolor is extremely difficult work and I admire the subtleties of how she paints,” said Clifton Boudman, library artist-in-residence and former UMPI professor of fine art. “Artwork should have form and with form comes meaning. Her art shows her working with both form and meaning.”.
Jackie Shaw attended Evelyn Kok’s exhibit and noted how much she admired her both as an artist and person. Shaw’s husband, Mark, took music lessons from Jan Kok at UMPI and both of them got to meet the Koks at one of their Christmas parties.
“She had a sweet spirit about her and her art shows that,” Shaw said. “Few people have created colors that really jump out at you like she did.”
Shipps hosted the exhibit in part to raise money for the creation of a museum in East Sandwich, Massachusetts, that will feature her aunt’s artwork and will open in June 2018. The Kok museum will stand on the same original homestead as the Wing Fort House and Memorial Hall Museum, which details the history of the Wing family, from whom Evelyn Kok and Shipp are descendants.
The Wing family has an extensive history of involvement in the creative arts. Evelyn Kok’s great-grandfather, Simon Wing, was a photographer and inventor, her grandfather, Harvey Wing, was an inventor, musician and photographer and her mother, Cora Wing Olsen, was a sculptor.
Eighty percent of the proceeds from painting sales are going toward the museum and 20 percent to the Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library. In addition to the watercolor paintings, attendees could purchase one of Evelyn Kok’s hand-painted greeting card sets with themes such as “The Good Life Outdoors” and “Buoys and Traps.” Shipps also sold copies of a book that she co-wrote about her aunt called “There Has to be Magic: The Art of Evelyn Kok,” which features much of her artwork.
Shipps said that her aunt was a “free spirit” who was “spontaneous” and never stopped educating herself through art and her involvement with the Maine communities she lived in.
“My aunt told me, ‘As soon as you master something, you should stop doing it because you won’t be learning anymore. You should reinvent yourself if that happens and not be afraid to change as a person,’” Shipp recalled. “When you look at her paintings you could see her progression through styles of art but also her progression through life.”
(Photos by Melissa Lizotte)
