Art of the Maine Islands

Carl Little, a poet, essayist, art critic and (to make ends meet) Director of Public Relations for College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, has made it his life's work to glorify his great loves: language, painting, and Maine. In Art of the Maine Islands he collaborates once again with his `Comrade in Art,' designer Arnold Sklonick--this time to offer an assortment of artists all in one way or another captivated by the charm of Maine's chilly dark air, red rocks and frothing waters. Little and Skolnick have the breadth of appreciation to have included contemporary art along with the more staid efforts of the 19th and early 20th Centuries. The book's lively and diverse ninety-six pages probably are more designed to invite leafing through on a coffee table, than to increase the dry and dusty clutter on the scholar's bookshelf. It is homage to a place artists have always loved--and in its colorful pages you can see why.