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Interpreting Nature, an exhibit of handmade prints by members of the Anne Arundel Community College Printmaking Club, highlights the broad variety of individual visions and styles of the group’s members and presents a wide range of printmaking techniques. Comprising etchings, lithographs, silkscreens and relief prints, the show is on view at the Adkins Arboretum Visitor’s Center through Oct. 29. Many of the artists will be present at a reception on Sat., Sept. 10 from 2 to 4 p.m. to talk about their ideas and techniques and to answer questions.

Founded in 2012 to foster collaboration and advanced learning, the AACC Printmaking Club includes faculty members and beginning to mid-career artists enrolled in the college’s art department programs. These include classes in intaglio, lithography, relief and silkscreen print techniques and the use of the department’s five presses and other printmaking equipment.

With an active membership of 25 artists, the club hosts visiting master printmakers and open houses in the printmaking studio for both the college and the community. It also holds annual member art shows that focus on developing professionalism in creating images, framing presentation and hanging and exhibiting prints. These shows have been held in AACC’s galleries and in venues on both the Eastern and Western shores.

Along with several other works, the show features a collaborative portfolio titled “Nature,” which had its beginnings in a field trip to Adkins Arboretum to provide members of the group with an opportunity to draw from nature.

Chris Mona, who serves as the club’s faculty advisor, noted, “We made this portfolio before COVID, and this is our first real public show, so we’re excited.”

The portfolio is composed of 15 original prints, created in each of the four techniques the college teaches, along with information about the artists and their work elegantly printed on a traditional letterpress and encased in a handsome custom-made box created in collaboration with Jill Cypher and Ray Nichols of Lead Graffiti in Newark, Del.

The portfolio includes one of Mona’s quirky lithographs, “Ma Rainey’s Lichens,” in which the celebrated blues singer’s eyes float in a field of frilly lichens, as well as Mary Bell Shock’s engaging intaglio of a hollow tree and Jake Muirhead’s intaglio, “Little Greenman,” with its strange face, straight out of folklore, staring hauntingly from deep in a bundle of spiky oak leaves.

Several more works, not in the portfolio, include Sandy Sapienza’s delicately nuanced eco print revealing every detail of the intricately patterned veins of a sprig of redbud leaves and Jenni Woolums’ silkscreen, “Hooper’s Eagles,” which captures the calm beauty of a stand of dying loblolly pines reflected in sky-blue water.

Perhaps the most unusual print in the show is “Smith Island #1,” with its dramatic sweep of shadowy black interlaced with a foamy white that suggests a breaking wave. It was created by Louise Wallendorf using a technique she calls “surf lithography.”

“Louise basically invented this,” said Mona, explaining how Wallendorf puts a lithography plate directly into the water. “Then the surf comes up and washes over the plate. She’s using the wave action, so the chemistry of the water creates the image.”

“I’m using bio-based chemistry,” Wallendorf said of the lithography emulsion that reacts to the water’s chemistry. “This particular plate was made over Columbus Day weekend after a Nor’easter full moon when Smith Island was flooded. Our Airbnb didn’t flood, but the water came close to the back door.”

This show is part of Adkins Arboretum’s ongoing exhibition series of work on natural themes by regional artists. It is on view through Oct. 29 at the Arboretum’s Visitor’s Center located at 12610 Eveland Road near Tuckahoe State Park in Ridgely. Contact the Arboretum at 410–634–2847, ext. 0 or info@adkinsarboretum.org for gallery hours.

Prepare for fall in the garden! Adkins Arboretum, offering the Chesapeake gardener the best selection of landscape-ready native plants for more than two decades, announces its Fall Native Plant Sale. All proceeds benefit the Arboretum’s rich catalog of education programs that teach about the Delmarva’s native plants and their connection to a healthy Chesapeake Bay

To ensure the best-quality plants, sales will be conducted entirely online. Orders will be accepted Thurs., July 21 through Thurs., Aug. 11 at adkinsarboretum.org and will be fulfilled via timed, scheduled pickup Sept. 9–10 and Sept. 13–17. There will be no in-person shopping at the Arboretum.

Fall is the best season for planting, and the Arboretum offers the Chesapeake region’s largest selection of ornamental native trees, shrubs, perennials, ferns and grasses for the fall landscape. Many native plants produce seeds, flowers and fruit in fall that attract migratory birds and butterflies. Brilliant orange butterfly weed and stunning red cardinal flower attract pollinators to the garden, while native asters add subtle shades of purple and blue. Redbud and dogwood dot the early-spring landscape with color, and shrubs such as chokeberry and beautyberry provide critical habitat for wildlife.

As always, Arboretum members receive a generous discount on plants that varies according to membership level. To join, renew your membership or give an Arboretum membership as a gift, visit adkinsarboretum.org or contact Kellen McCluskey at kmccluskey@adkinsarboretum.org.For more information on plants, purchasing or pickup procedures, visit adkinsarboretum.org, send email to nativeplants@adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

“En plein air,” a French term that means “in the open air,” refers to the practice of painting entire finished artworks out of doors. On Saturday, November 5th, Adkins Arboretum will host the inaugural Plein Air Adkins, a plein air paint-out, exhibit and sale, on the Arboretum grounds. The public is invited to explore the Arboretum forest, meadows and wetland and observe as artists paint their original works.

Artists will begin painting the Arboretum’s spectacular autumn landscape at 10 a.m. At 12:30 p.m., they will bring their completed works to the Visitor’s Center for exhibition and sale beginning at 1 p.m. The juror, Bernard J. Dellario, will award first, second and third places and two honorable mentions at 2 p.m. Dellario is a painter and instructor who exhibits widely across the Maryland Eastern Shore and Washington, D.C., regions.

Dellario studied art at the Art League School in Alexandria, Va., and has attended workshops with several nationally known artists. He has been a member of the Washington Society of Landscape Painters, one of the oldest active artist organizations in the Washington area, since 2003 and currently serves as president.

Fine Times will provide live music during the exhibit and sale, and Blue Monkey Tacos will be on site to sell food beginning at 11 a.m.

All works created during Plein Air Adkins will be for sale beginning at 1 p.m. The event is open to any artist who wishes to participate. Artists may register in advance or on the day of the event. The artist registration fee is $10. A registration form and event agenda are available at adkinsarboretum.org. Fee waivers are available upon request. Admission for observers is free for members and $5, which includes Arboretum admission, for non-members.

For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

Adkins Arboretum, 12610 Eveland Road, Ridgely, MD 21620

410.634.2847  |  adkinsarboretum.org  |  info@adkinsarboretum.org

The Fiber Arts Center of the Eastern Shore, located at 7 N. 4th Street in historic Denton, invites you to an exhibit featuring the work of Laura Waggner Boehl, on view now through September 3, 2022.  Quilting is Laura’s passion and fabric her artistic medium. The quilts she makes are what is in her head or what suites her fancy at the time, and she is always open to inspiration and new techniques to express herself.

Laura became a quilter in 1984 when her passion was ignited by her mother-in-law, Marie Boehl. Shortly after starting her first quilt, Laura attended a lecture on quilting given by Pat Long Gardner, a Baltimore fiber artist and teacher of fiber art at Maryland Institute of Art. Pat also taught quilting classes in her home and Laura soon joined the other 20+ women who quilted with them. She has always considered these women her mentors and the group her quilting Master’s degree.

Partially due to her quilting group who all encouraged risk taking and forward thinking, Laura has always had a modern twist to her work. She especially enjoys piecing her backs which become a canvas for artistic exploration. She uses all the leftovers from the front, plus extras from her stash and pieces it all together in a random, artistic improv fashion. 

The exhibit runs through September 3rd, 2022 in the FACES gallery, 7 N. 4th Street, Denton, Maryland.  FACES is open Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 12-4pm.  The exhibit is free of charge.

Join the Caroline County Humane Society and guest bartenders at the Market Street Pub on Wednesday, July 20, 2022 from 5-9 pm. Live music generously provided by Reagan Kent and The Glooms.

Reagan is a young talent from Caroline County. He loves to play everything from country to classic rock. Starting his professional career at age 13, he is now a seasoned pro at 16. He will be playing 5– p.m. The Glooms are a four-part teen band based in Ridgely, Maryland. Playing music from decades both before and after they were born, they are always sure to put their own dark folk spin on their songs. It’s always the season of the witch when The Glooms are around. They will be playing 7–9 p.m.

Guest bartenders include: Tracey Synder, Executive Director of the Caroline County Chamber of Commerce from 5-6 pm, Bonnie Johnson, Realtor for Long & Foster and Caroline County Humane Society Board President from 6-7 pm, Sue Simmons, Director of Caroline County Recreation & Parks from 7-8 pm, and Dennis Farina, Denton Lawyer from 8-9 pm. All tips for the bartenders will be donated to the Humane Society.

There will be a raffle for a Summerfield 44 in. x 24.5 in. Square Steel Propane Fire Pit with Wood-Look Tile Top (value $479) $2 for one ticket, $10 for six. Donate supplies and get a free raffle ticket: Kitten Milk Replacer (available at Petco), or go to Chewy.com for wish list under “give back.” There is also a link at carolinehumane.org under “Donate.”

No admission charge. Let’s pack the pub and have a great time for the animals!

Like enormous 3-D drawings, vines sweep and spiral, bend and corkscrew around the trees in Howard and Mary McCoy’s outdoor sculpture exhibit, Re-Vision, at Adkins Arboretum. Interspersed with Mary’s poems directly inspired by the Adkins landscape, they are on view through Sept. 30. On Sat., June 4, from 2 to 4 p.m., there will be a reception for the McCoys’ outdoor show and Chinese painter and calligrapher Kit-Keung Kan’s exhibit in the Visitor’s Center, including a guided sculpture and poetry walk.

Grapevines swirl up from the forest floor in “Reconfigure,” and pale bittersweet vines twirl in wide arcs around a tree trunk in a tall sculpture called “Reorganize.” Nearby, a poem called “Not for the Faint of Heart” is wrapped around the prickly trunk of a devil’s walking stick plant.

These two Centreville artists have served as Resident Artists at the Arboretum for more than two decades, helping with the art program and periodically exhibiting their own work. This is their twelfth show of site-specific sculpture and the first to include several of Mary’s poems.

A map showing the location of the sculptures is available in the Visitor’s Center, and each sculpture is marked with a bright blue sign on the ground. To find the poems, however, you must keep an eye out for the same blue—perhaps on a tree, a signpost or even the railing of one of the wooden bridges that cross the Arboretum’s stream.

“I want the poems to be surprises that you come upon unexpectedly,” said Mary, who is a 2022 recipient of a Regional Individual Artist’s Award in Literary Arts from the Maryland State Arts Council. “For me, they were gifts from the landscape itself—feelings and ideas that came to me while I was walking through the forest or just sitting quietly on a log.”

The McCoys also walked the forest paths together, keeping an eye out for vines growing up into the treetops.

“Vines are like three-dimensional drawings,” Howard explained. “We both used to like to draw and paint a lot. It’s sort of like the paintings of Jackson Pollock or some of the other Abstract Expressionist painters—gesture painting. It has art historical context, and it’s sometimes hysterical what it ends up doing.”

The two artists chose to call their show Re-Vision not only because their work offers new ways of seeing nature, but also because they have “revised” the way the vines were growing and because both the vine sculptures and Mary’s poems were created by experimenting with trying one thing, then another, revising each work until it finally felt lively, balanced and whole.

As to why they cut vines out of the trees, Howard said, “We’ve talked about it with a couple visitors who came by while we were working—the importance of clearing vines off the trees so that you save the tree from the choking vines, and at the same time, you’re making sculpture, making art.”

“They are wonderful materials,” Mary said. “But you have to follow what they dictate. You want it to curve one direction, but because of the way it grew with an elbow or some tight curvature, it’ll want to go the exact opposite. So it’s a real collaboration with nature. We feel like the idea of collaboration is important not only when we’re making art in nature but in the larger context, that if we all were more interested in collaborating with nature instead of dominating it, we might be better off.”

Re-Vision is part of Adkins Arboretum’s ongoing exhibition series of work on natural themes by regional artists. It is on view through Sept. 30 at the Arboretum, located at 12610 Eveland Road near Tuckahoe State Park in Ridgely. Contact the Arboretum at 410–634–2847, ext. 0 or info@adkinsarboretum.org for more information.

A special installation ceremony will be held at 1pm on Saturday April 30 at the Caroline County Courthouse to honor Thomas Carney, a free-born black man from Denton who served in Maryland’s Revolutionary militia in several crucial battles and won widespread recognition for saving the life of another Maryland patriot, General Perry Benson. The General Perry Benson chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution has joined with the NAACP Caroline County Branch to host the ceremony, with Thomas Carney descendants and state and local officials invited as special guests. The Caroline County Commissioners and the Office of Tourism proposed the site on the Courthouse Greens, as it is a cornerstone of Denton’s historic downtown. A grant from the Maryland Historic Trust, and the State Highway Administration made it possible to find the appropriate site.

Historians claim Thomas Carney, described in the 20th century as an African-American, actually was born free on the Eastern Shore of Maryland with Irish roots, and was described as a “light-skinned colored man” with white brothers. Tom’s life on the family farm ended in 1777 when he enlisted in Maryland’s 5th Regiment  in time to take part in the October, 1777 Battle of Germantown. He also fought in the Battle of the Guilford Court House, in which he reportedly boasted of using his bayonet to kill 7 enemy soldiers.

Thomas Carney enlisted as a private, but in short order was promoted to corporal after his transfer to Maryland’s  7th regiment. History claims only four African-American soldiers ever achieved that rank. There is no record of an African-American being promoted to sergeant or beyond until years later.  Carney fought in a number of other memorable battles at Camden, Hobkirk’s Hill and The Ninety-Six in South Carolina. During The Ninety-Six, the 7th Regiment’s Captain Perry Benson received a life-threatening wound in his arm, with non-stop bleeding.

Described as a man “above the common size” Carney carried Capt. Benson on his shoulders through the battlefield, keeping hold of his musket, until they reached the company surgeon. Carney asked to return to his company, but the commanding officer ordered him to remain to protect his captain. A grateful Capt. Benson was instrumental in granting Carney 50 acres of land in Caroline County, and always made sure to visit Tom first when he was in the area. Their relationship only strengthened through the years as then Brigadier General Perry Benson had Tom serve with him in the Battle of St. Michaels in the War of 1812. An obituary in 1828 reported the death “of a colored man, at the advanced age of 74”, describing Thomas Carney as courageous, kind, brave and loyal.

The General Perry Benson Chapter of the DAR, founded in Talbot County, actively researches and honors Maryland Revolutionary War patriots, and five years ago longtime member Helen “Betty” Seymour began her research into the man who saved the life of the chapter Patriot. Thanks to her, the Maryland Historic Trust and the NAACP Caroline County Branch, now celebrating its 75th anniversary, and the Caroline County Commissioners agreed that native son Thomas Carney deserved permanent recognition. The monument will be located on the Courthouse Greens, adjacent to other landmarks celebrating African Americans who served in the Civil War, Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, and the Emancipation Proclamation. The marker will be located on the in the front of the courthouse, (east side) in proximity to the miniature information center on the greens.

The installation ceremony will begin at 1pm, Saturday, April 30 at 109 Market St., Denton. Parking is available.

Adkins Arboretum has announced the 2022 lineup for its popular Soup ’n Walk programs. Discover early blooms and wildlife, ephemeral flowers, sure signs of spring, meadow grasses, fall color and autumn nuts and berries. Following a guided walk through the Arboretum’s forest, meadow and wetland communities, enjoy a delicious lunch and a short talk about nutrition. Copies of recipes are provided, and all gift shop purchases on these days receive a 20% discount. This year’s offerings include:

Early Blooms, Songbirds & Spring Frogs

Sat., March 19, 11 a.m.–1:30 p.m.
Listen for songbirds and spring frogs while searching for early purple, pink and white blooms. Plants of interest include skunk cabbage, paw paw, spring beauty and bloodroot. Menu: country bean and red cabbage soup, quinoa-red pepper salad, pumpernickel bread with spinach spread, Black Forest cake with cherries.

Spring Ephemerals & Pollinators

Sat., April 16, 11 a.m.–1:30 p.m.

Look again! The blooms of ephemeral plants, trees and shrubs are here and gone in the blink of an eye. Look for pink, white and yellow blooms and listen for early pollinators. Plants of interest include pink spring beauty, may apple, dogwood, golden groundsel, spicebush, sassafras and white beech. Menu: ginger sweet potato soup, Eastern Shore crunchy coleslaw, wheat flaxseed bread with peach jam, almond cupcake with lemon frosting.

Beavers, Tuckahoe Creek & Beyond
Sat., May 21, 11 a.m.–1:30 p.m.

Observe the beautiful Tuckahoe Creek view while scouting for signs of beavers. Plants of interest include mountain laurel, beech, tulip tree, pink lady’s slipper, Solomon’s seal and may apple. Menu: minestrone, oven-roasted red beets and carrots, brown rice bread with raspberry jam, cinnamon crunch apple cake.

Sunny Meadows
Sat., Sept. 17, 11 a.m.–1:30 p.m.
Walk the meadows in search of golden-brown grasses and yellow and purple flowers while watching and listening for bluebirds and dragonflies. Plants of interest include milkweed, black-eyed Susan, goldenrod, Indian grass, big bluestem and sumac berries. Menu: lentil and greens soup, wild rice berry salad, anadama cornbread with salsa, ginger oatmeal walnut cookies.

Dazzling Fall Color

Sat., Oct. 15, 11 a.m.–1:30 p.m.

Fall colors dazzle the eye and pique the appetite. Listen for migrating birds and woodpeckers while watching for changing color on sweet gum, sassafras, tupelo, sumac, dogwood, paw paw, hickory, beech and tulip trees. Menu: cream of broccoli soup, black-eyed pea salad, dill cottage cheese bread with strawberry jam, old-fashioned pear cobbler.

Autumn Harvest

Sat., Nov. 19, 11 a.m.–1:30 p.m.

Enjoy the autumn harvest as we hunt for nutritious berries, nuts and seeds and check for signs of beaver. Plants of interest include dogwood, hibiscus, partridge berry, oak, loblolly pine, juniper, verbena, ironwood and strawberry bush. Menu: kale and chicken soup, apple date salad, cinnamon raisin bread, baked cranberry apples.

Soup ’n Walk programs are $25 for members and $30 for non-members. Advance registration is required; early registration is recommended. Visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0 for more information or to register.