About Avis Turner
Living by Water…
It seems that I have always lived near water. Born in 1957, I spent my childhood in the Finger Lakes region of up state NY. At age 10, my family moved to the North Shore of Massachusetts, where I first got to know the ocean. At twenty-one, I left home for Washington, DC. to study art. Between DC and Arlington, Va., the great Potomac River flowed. Down from the Watergate there was a public beach and a small sailboat rental. At age 40, I moved back north, landing in Connecticut. The Farmington River and a small swimming/sailing lake were the center of town. During all these years, I visited my parents in Vermont. Their cottage on lake Bomoseen was magical! In 2014 I began to renovate old house (c.1847) on the coast of Maine. In 2017, at the age of 60, I moved here permanently.
Living in Maine
The Mid-coast region abounds with local musicians, visual artists, fine craft persons, and incredible family farms. This place is my forever home. My house is near the harbor and within walking distance to the village. Desiring to be a good steward of the small plot of land that came with the house, I have been working to revive the gardens.
It thrives now, with raised beds for vegetables, fruit trees, flowers, and berry bushes, a cold frame for winter crops, and a small meadow area for pollinators, birds, and crickets. It is paradise!
Early in the morning or at the end of a studio work day, I enjoy walking down to the beach. My German Shepherd swims, I watch the tides and the sky. Often a ferry is coming or going. The sky is big here and often full of sunshine. But on gray, stormy days, (which I also love) the wind-swept salt air and rugged beauty of water crashing on Maine’s rocky coast, feels and looks like Scotland; the birth place of my grandmother. Perhaps, I wonder, is this is in my DNA?
Living with Nature
I have always been intrigued by the connections which exist between art, math, science and nature. I love the geometries and stunning diversities. I think that the universe must still be holding back on us. There are yet to be discovered some hidden magical keys. Take for example: the Fibonacci Spiral, photons acting as both particle and wave; the proportions of the Golden Rectangle, a sunset, a snowflake, photosynthesis, gravity, the vast abundance of nature, with all the tiny connecting pieces, beings, and organisms.
Other
I am an eternal student. A maker of gardens and grower of orchids. I have German shepherds ….. I listening to Bach, Vivaldi, Gregorian chants & the sound of a cello. I enjoy Celtic and Scottish fiddle music, folk / rock, blues and jazz. I return often to the words of Rilke and other favorite poets. I am intrigued by quantum physics, nature, science, and light.
I enjoy reading fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. Besides Rilke’s, Letters to a Young Poet, and his Duino Elegies, I would humbly mention~ The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav and Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez as books of value. I am a novice practitioner of Qi Gong (patterns of energy movement).
Inquire
This website with virtual galleries, is a sampling. To see more images or discuss possibilities, please inquire with the artist.