We're thrilled to announce we have won
the Vermont PBS Award for Best Documentary
from the "Made Here" Film Festival
So great to get this citation from the judges:
This film is a delight. Mayers is a compelling character, lively, intelligent and interesting. But what makes it award-worthy is its intelligent and playful stylistic approach, its story arc and pacing, and its avoidance of some of the foibles of bio-pics. Overall an excellent, fun and relevant documentary.

See the film at this Vermont International Film Festival Site for the Shorts 4 program between May 5th & May 9th
It's free -- pay as you can

for more info about the film, please visit
NatashaMayers.org

I'm pleased to be in Monson, ME at the Monson Arts Residency from Oct - Nov. 2020. Pictured: my studio before I messed it up.
For more info see Monsonarts.org

Thank you to Harlow Gallery for First Place Prize
in the "Women Respond" show!

Aug. 2nd - Sept. 7th
Harlow Gallery
100 Water St.
Hallowell, ME
harlowgallery.org

At the CMCA Biennial, Rockland, ME,
Opening 11/3/18 5-7 PM, running through 3/3/2019.
The piece is a pun on "projection," creating a physical shape for people's "projections" onto women's bodies. We use video projection to wash away some of those words used to describe women.

INFLUX 2018, an experimental art installation at the Pepperell Mill Campus, a former textile mill in Biddeford, Maine. Installations and performances placed throughout the mill, including video installation by Anita Clearfield & Geoffrey Leighton, "Labor Weave/Capital Warp."

On view Sept 14th - Oct 13th
hours: Monday - Friday 10 - 4p

Opening night! Friday Sept 14th 5 - 8p

Biddeford/Saco ArtWalk: Friday Sept 28th 5 - 8p
Artist Walk/Talk : A Self-Guided Tour w/ Influx Artists

Closing Day: Saturday Oct 13th 12 - 4p

Still want to help us fund our new film Natasha Mayers: an Un-still Life? Tax-deductible donations can be made out to Union of Maine Visual Artists and sent to

UMVA, c/o Jackie Bennett, Treasurer
PO Box 51
Walpole, ME 04573

press about our campaign on
Maine Today Media

Maine Jewish Museum
267 Congress St.
Portland, ME
July 13th - September 5th
Opening Reception July 13, 5-7 PM

Two of my paintings in fine company in this group exhibit, including above:
"Before the Flood: Hands Up, Don't..." oil and ink on canvas, 60" x 48" (2016)

"Light in the Dark: Art as a Sane Voice in an Insane World"
Curated by Rachel McDonald
UMVA Gallery at CTN
519 Congress St.
Portland, ME
Opening Friday April 7th, 5-8 PM
Featuring: Franklin Ahrens, Brendan Bullock, Matt Blackwell, Michael Branca, Crystal Cawley, Anita Clearfield, Kenny Cole, Jeannie Hutchins, Scott Minzy, Natasha Mayer, and Vivien Russe.

"Nasty Women New Haven"
The Institute Library
845 Chapel St.
New Haven, CT.
3/9 - 4/8
Opening Reception: 3/9 6-8 PM

Artist Residency
August 27th - September 2nd
Will be shooting underwater footage/projecting it/painting it

Neurotica -- a group art exhibition at the UMVA Gallery at CTN
516 Congress St.
Portland, ME
April 1 - 30
M - F 12-5
Opening Reception April 1, 5-8 PM

USM/UMVA Collaborations
January 28 - March 6
USM Art Gallery, Gorham Campus
Opening: Thursday, January 28, 5-7 PM
Artist Talks 6-7 PM

"Let There Be Light: 2015 Menorah Invitational Show"
Maine Jewish Museum
267 Congress St., Portland
November 12 - December 30, 2015
Mon. - Fri. 10-2
Sundays 1-5

Maine Jewish Museum
267 Congress St., Portland
"Maine Synagogues"
Opening May 21, 5-7pm
through July 6 (M-F 10-2 and Sunday 1-5)

January 16 - April 4
Opening Friday, Jan. 16, 6-8 pm
Atrium Art Gallery
University of Southern Maine Lewiston-Auburn
51 Westminster St.
Lewiston, ME 04240

Featuring some of my work with the
Artists’ Rapid Response Team (ARRT!)
at Uri-Eichen Gallery
2101 S. Halsted
Chicago
June 13 - July 5
see: http://www.uri-eichen.com

Harlow Gallery
April 4-26
Wed. - Sat. 12-6 PM.
Opening Friday 4/4, 5-8 PM

Edited and with an Introduction by Marcia F. Brown

I have a poem in this new anthology that contains the work of 39 area poets writing on themes inspired by the City of Portland. It's a project of the Portland Poet Laureate Program in association with the nonprofit Maine Poetry Central. All proceeds from the sale of books will go to Maine Poetry Central for the furtherance of its programs to advance awareness and enjoyment of poetry in the State of Maine. Available at local book stores...

Paintings
University of New England -- Biddeford
July 1st -- August 5th
Opening Reception
Thursday, July 11th, 5-7 PM

Campus Center
UNE -- Biddeford
11 Hills Beach Road
directions at http://www.une.edu/directions/#biddeford

Fellowship:
I'll be the Video Artist in Residence at Ghost Ranch (Georgia O'Keeffe's Abiquiu, New Mexico) during A Room of Her Own Foundation's Retreat for Women Writers.
August 12 - 18, 2013

Columbus Museum of Art
Columbus, Ohio
9/30 - 12/31/12
"SAND"
Video by Anita Clearfield & Geoffrey Leighton

Jurors: Dan Mills & Gail Skudera
Atrium Gallery, USM, Lewiston, ME.
Jan. 18 - March 23, 2013
Opening Friday, Jan. 18, 6-8 PM

Curated by Robyn Holman/Juried by Joel Babb & James Strickland
USM Lewiston-Auburn Atrium Gallery
51 Westminister St., Lewiston
November 9-December 14
Opening: Friday, November 9, 6-8 PM

Recent paintings -- curated by Meghann Gipson

Opening Reception: June 29th, 5-8 PM, Friday Art Walk

June 29th - July 25th
Monday thru Friday 7 to 7
Saturday 8 to 4

Forage Market
180 Lisbon Streeet
Lewiston

University of New England
Biddeford
8/2 - 8/31
Curated by Diane Noble
Opening Reception Thursday, August 2nd, 5:30 - 7:30 PM

BEING AND NOTHINGNESS AND ART DEGREES

All Mass Art students worth their bacon
know the best place to ask big
art questions is at
THE PIG,
“The Squealing Pig” Bar and Restaurant that is;
you can tell by the name that
there will be struggle,
that it takes a lot of Guiness
and countless nights of dissecting
George’s definition of
the “signifier”
for a true MassArt student to reach the core of the truth of truths
that must be asked by each artist
sitting here today: that is:
why should we celebrate getting a degree in…art
when there is so much suffering?

Isn’t that the question? No matter how many curators put
a label next to our work to explain its relevance in a post-modern context
or how many theses we write on civilizations remembered for their art,
it all comes down to that moment, after a day in the studio
adding cobalt blue that costs $60 a tube to a painting that still
looks like Gerhard Richter puked…
and then his puke painted it,
that you will drool into your beer at the Pig and ask THE question:
how do I
measure the worth of my artistic effort
in the unbearable
Larger Scheme of Things?

Of course, there’s always Chucky Fullovit who waves
his Tuscan fries in your face and gushes about happiness, that all
that matters is how great it feels to discover the exploding properties
of acrylic gel medium when torched in his installations, but you know if happiness
were the ultimate value here, you wouldn’t be listening to him at the Pig
and scraping by working at Home Depot for the rest of your life, when
you took out just as many Stafford loans as the MBA grads and enjoy
the feeling of leather upholstery in a BMW as much as anyone.

Marjorie Meaningful may make a case for how her wheat-paste posters,
body work happenings, and model eco houses will change lives, but even if
there weren’t a zillion artists
and the chances of making an impact were better,
as the night wears on, we sag onto the bar
tasting the unsavory nature of an art degree;
this odd need to “express things,”
gives off a desperate aroma
of children chasing unicorns while
grownups are doing real work
like providing medicine or shelter or…food.

When “Last call,” squeals The Pig bartender and you wake
to find yourself at graduation and you survived the final
critique and thesis and the answer feels close now
and the speaker, she’s going to turn this poem around, get
to the yes that reaffirms that yes, there is value for art,
that yes, an answer is coming and yes, that
degree about to descend on you like the Artist God’s anointed word
was worth all you suffered for it, except you know what?
I can’t do that
for you.

There’s no objective reason to make art. In the end it’s just you
and that white white canvas, that
camera on your shoulder, that pink plastic mouse
you picked up from the gutter that you want to go home
and cover with blue polka dots and swing from the gallery ceiling
to a video of your mother singing “Beat It,”
and the only meaning comes from what you choose to do.
Create. Destroy. Act. Sit there.

It’s always lousy weather when we leave the Pig. Foggy.
We’re artists so we don’t know where we’re going
and there are no rides home. We only know
we’re headed toward what we fear most --
That’s what we do for society. They’re too afraid. It’s up to us
because graduating today means we’re mastering the ability to be afraid
and still take a step…

In the face of great sorrow
and horrors that can never be described
we walk out the door,
or crawl through the window,
inch along the edge
of society,
full of fear and hopelessness,
and we leap

not just once
but with
every
mark
we
make.

Now it’s really Last Call.
It’s never been scarier, darker
or more troubled out there --
the kind of world
where we artists
do our best.
Congratulations.


Anita Clearfield/May, 2012

Celebrating the late artist Carlo Pittore (1943-2005), by showing over two dozen artists inspired by the figure. Curated by Susan Drucker.

May 9 - June 1
Opening Reception: May 14th, 5-7 PM
Closing Reception: June 1, First Friday Art Walk, 5-8 PM

Aucocisco Galleries
89 Exchange Street
Portland, Maine 04101

A group exhibition curated by Natasha Mell-Taylor

When: Nov. 12 – December 1, 2011
with an Opening Reception on Saturday, November 12, from 6-9 PM Gallery hours are Wednesdays from 12-3 and Saturday’s from 4-6;
All other times by appointment only.

Where: a large space gallery
1608 N. 21st Street
Philadelphia, PA 19121
973-868-6675

Wednesday, October 19 through Sunday, October 23
Gallery Hours: 2 to 6 pm

Performance Events: 7 to 11 pm Friday and Saturday, Sunday 4 to 7 pm
Suggested donation: $10

Mobius Gallery
55 Norfolk St
Cambridge, MA

http://www.mobius.org/events/memento-mori-0

Maine statewide juried exhibition
Jurors: Lois Dodd, Nancy Wissemann Widrig and John Wissemann,

Presented by the BOOTHBAY REGION ART FOUNDATION
BRAF Gallery, One Townsend Ave., Boothbay Harbor, Maine

Sat., OCTOBER 1 - Sat., NOVEMBER 19

Hours: October: Daily 10am-5pm, Sundays: 11am 4pm
November: Fridays & Saturdays: 10am-5pm, Sundays: 11am-4pm

This juried exhibition includes video:
Tree Arts: Peach Tree Repair

808 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston, MA 02215

Opening July 15th
Gallery Hours 11-2