LAWRENCE, Mass. — Eleven panels of a mural removed from the lobby of the Maine Department of Labor will be on display in Everett Mill as part of the city’s commemoration of the textile mill strike of 1912.
The 36-foot long mural was created by artist Judy Taylor in 2008 after a juried selection and $60,000 grant.
Maine Gov. Paul LePage had the mural removed last year after residents complained it was too political.
Taylor said it depicts the state of Maine’s labor history including the shoe mill strike in 1937, Rosie the Riveter and paper mill workers strike in 1986.
Taylor and the curator, Nancy Nesvet, made the reproductions for the traveling exhibit.
The themes in the mural and the exhibit texts are closely related to the 1912 textile strike in Lawrence.
If you go
What: The History of the Maine Mural
When: Sunday to May 6. Opening reception is Sunday, 1 p.m. Exhibit Hours are Tuesdays to Sundays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Where: Everett Mill, 15 Union St., sixth floor.
© 2012 The Eagle-Tribune
Distributed by MCT Information Services
funny
Wonder if your reporter could clarify about the supposed “complaints” about the mural, the small and targeted number was controversial.
Jim, “Well that depicts they way it was many years ago”. Jill, “How long ago?”. Paul, “Oh, about a year and a half ago in Maine. I thought it made me look bad so i ordered it taken down and hidden”. Jim, “Hey Paul, how many jobs ago was that?”. Paul, “Jim, I don’t care what you think. My union busting plan was working perfectly until this display popped up again, mine was the only state where workers were treated bad. Kiss my butt…….”
At least the people of Mass will be able to view what is denied to the people of Maine.
Good riddance. They’re extremely hideous…
And bring all your belongings with you!
I wonder if they will charge admission.
Good place for it – Massachusetts – the hack state where everyone is entitled.
That’s because it was made that way by Mitt Romney.
Yeah, having lived there I can tell you that Mike Dukakis and Deval Patrick have had no part at all in hwo that state operates. But you know who truly is to blame? The State House and its one party majority rule going on for years and years. Four House Speakers all indicted for Federal Crimes and either convicted or currently on Trial. Care to guess their political affiliations?
Sounds like the LePage administration.
Its too bad to see people who can even be remotely impartial even one times out of a hundred. I guess I have missed all the FBI investigations, indictments and prison sentences that have been launched or been handed out here against Maine politicians.
The 36-foot long mural was created by artist Judy Taylor in 2008 after a juried selection and $60,000 grant. $60,000 in waste – a drop in the bucket for Maine or the Feds – but waste nonetheless. I don’t see $60,000 worth of talent anywhere in that.
Republicans never do see reality.
Republicans this, Democrats that…. I take it you don’t see either group as people just labels, neatly packaged up and summarized?
One thing is for sure, history will not paint a pretty picture of Lepage, and his Teabilly friends.
Once we stop letting Liberals write the history books we can stop that sort of spinning as well.
Maine Gov. Paul LePage had the mural removed last year after residents complained it was too political.
This is the first Big LIe by the “WORST” Governor in the history of Maine. Write it down:)
Judy Taylor should have these images reproduced on nice quality T-shirts. She’d sell many thousands of them. Then as a hoot she could donate all the profit to the Maine Democratic party. I’ll take two right now.
She cant, she doesn’t own the rights to the image any longer.
Wrong !
So this monstrosity was paid for with Gov(tax payer) funds and she got to keep the rights to it? LOL, only a lib would call that a deal.
You do understand that such an arrangement is pretty standard, don’t you? When you buy a CD, DVD, book, etc., you are not buying the right to make reproductions; you’re buying the materials the art has been reproduced on, plus a license to use the items privately.
Yes I do, I just do not agree with the practice . If I commission a work, and pay for it, it is mine. Signing an agreement surrendering resale rights on a work you have commissioned is foolishness. One might offer in the contract ,and it is reasonable to do so, a percentage sum of the appreciated value If the Purchaser sells, barters, exchanges, trades, donates, or otherwise transfers the Commissioned Work to another person,but not let the artist collect money for the commissioned original work.
With music movies books, ect. you are buying reproductions of originals, there lies the difference.
I’d buy one if she would donate the proceeds to Independent candidates who truly stand for We, the People, making the decisions that affect our lives.
If we had voted whether to keep this mural in place, I’m confident the people would have kept it there…..these drawings depict our lives……….and here the Gov. likes to say people should “get a job.” But he clearly disrespects those who do work with their hands…..guess we should all become Marden’s managers.
Yet another explaination of the removal of the mural.
1- An anonomous e-mail
2- Goveror LePage said he took it down until the state gets re-imbursed for the cost.
3- The neighbors were complaining.
It’s begining to sound like the reasons are adding up as fast as the reasons to go to war in Iraq.
Many reasons maybe … but in the end he doesn’t need to even give ONE.
Remember he is King:)
LePage only made the mural stronger, more important, more meaningful.
Art overcame ignorance.
Art?
Maine Gov. Paul LePage had the mural removed last year after residents complained it was too political.
This the “WORST” Governor’s first big lie.
Yes, but my question is – – how did they get the mural? Where’s it been?
The word reproduction in the “news” article should be a tip off. On the other hand the headline would make you think the “original” was being shown. Another non-news story printed by the LePage hating BDN. Story might be of interest to people in the Lawrence area who want to see a reproduction of a”famous art work.” The only maj0r news outlet in Maine trying to keep this story alive.
We should be happy for Mass. Now they can reap the rewards of this mural. Did it come with a DNR… “Do Not Remove” for the love of all that is holy? I think it should go on tour actually – spread its wealth around.
Every time that LePage goes near this mural he goes and reminds the Maine voters just who’s interests he represents and who he’s ‘on the hook’ to. So go ahead Paulie. Move the mural. And everytime you go near it the mural’s gonna be growing in power and symbolism. I’m just surprised that there hasn’t been an ‘accident’ and the mural getting destroyed. Seeing how afraid the GOP’rs, and the Tea Partyer’s especially are of it, that it’s stayed intact is a miracle. Somehow that old story of Dorain Gray keeps coming back. Eventually he had to see the painting. And November is coming, isin’t it ?
“An accident” would martyr the mural. LePige probably has nightmares about this. Well at least I hope he does.
Nov. 6
Fully expected response from a long term government bureaucrat.
Long term sir, yes. And ‘retired’ right after I caught my Agency’s Director funneling gun’s to the local dope dealer’s with the FBI’s full knowledge as part of a supposed ‘sting’. Sting my butt ! My Director, who both Susie and Oly know, was allowed to retire instead of facing formal charges for embezzlement, theft, extortion, contract bid rigging and worse since if he had ever stood trial the whole of the DoD and the DOJ’s headshed would probably be doing time in either Butner or Talladega. Brian Terry wasn’t the first. He was just the most publicly unhideable !
And in all deference to Bill Cohen, who I respect and admire hugely, he never knew since he trusted those who were supposed to be telling him the truth. When he did finally find out, courtesy of the Japanese Defense Minister, it was too late for him to do anything. And under Bush it was worse. The public trust is, and has been, for sale for a very long time. The next time you hear about some lowly GS-3 to 7 getting fired for some kind of insubordination charge do yourself a favor and ask yourself 1 simple question. If they were fired for insubordination, then why is the Agency so opposed to making the fact’s public by claiming it’s an ‘Official Personnel Matter subject to Privacy Act restriction’s’ when the ex-Fed has no problem making the facts of the same case public for all to see ? Extortion ‘retirement’s are a current and favorite means of forcing people out from Gov’t work when the powers-that-be are caught with their hand’s, or other body part’s, in the proverbial ‘cookie jar’ by their subordinate’s. Any number of sexual harassment case’s have been settled out using these type ‘retirement’s’. The military has been doing the same thing, and now they have PTSD to use as an excuse, when Unit Commander’s are caught ‘dirty’. Just go look at what happened to the witness’s at Alan West’s Court Martial. Everyone of them had their career trashed, all for simply doing what their oath of office and Service-princple’s called for. The public trust, Sir, has been trashed, by both Party’s, in the name of political expectation and personal agenda’s. That LePage is doing it to Maine is not so much a shame as it’s another verse in a very sick sounding song.
This is a reproduction of the mural. We still don’t know where he’s hidden the original.
The Mural is in the closet in the State Police building on Civic Ctr. drive. the color are starting to run for a better government that will actually represent the people of Maine.
You see a depiction of the historical struggles in life of Maine workers as “Dreary.” Hmm…I see my grandparents and parents lives and everything they did to help me escape into a better life. Their efforts paid off. I made it out of that kind of struggle. I’ve done so without losing my respect for who they were/are and what they went through and I’d never be so pompous as to view them or their lives as dreary. They were just typical Maine laborers that I knew, loved, and now respect more than ever.
Great statement! It sounds as though you grew up surrounded by family who loved you and served as strong role models! Amen to that! Young folks should have more exposure to those lessons!
It only sounds like a replica and not the original,otherwise if it was the original wouldn’t LePage send it to Canada instead?
People have died for what you have today don’t you have any respect for that ??
First the story says its 11 panels from the mural. Then the story says they’re reproductions for the traveling exhibit. So, which is it? Has the mural been found and shipped to Mass.?
The mural depicts the people who built this country….while the capitalists on government welfare were sitting on their butts in Bar Harbor sipping maritinis.
OOOH…Don’t point that out to the Romney-Rich..they think they’re getting away with the disguise just by wearing their LLBeans!
This country was built by unions????
Nothing brings the haters out like a Mural story… 16 hour work days, child labor, and unsafe working conditions must be more popular than I thought.
Get used to the idea of the 16 hr. work day, child labor, and unsafe working conditions. That is what is on the agenda for America.
“After residents complained it was too political”? I thought it was one anonymous little girl? Is Poor Paul mis-remembering again?
Don’t you remember – This was the “WORST” Governor’s first BIG lie to the People of Maine that he truly does not represent. Respectively submitted.
And maybe find a employer willing to pay a livable wage while your at it. Now we see you conservatives with the audacity to scratch your heads when Maine’s youth and citizens in general leave Maine for a better future.
Yes, and they all started doing that on January 12th of 2010. Before that it had never happened. It truly is the fault of one political party.
Perhaps the employers aren’t hiring Maine’s youth and citizens when they don’t know the difference between “your” and “you’re.”
As someone who employees people I can tell you there are many reasons why I would rather hire older people or people who have work visas to legally employed here.
It’s called “cheap labor,” and all businesses love it.
For me it is called not wanting to hire lazy kids or lazy twenty to twenty five year olds who think they should be making as much as someone with twenty years of experience. Its called hiring people who respect a job and are good workers rather than hiring texting bunnies and people who call out with the brown bottle flu.
There are plenty of good kids out here who work hard. Perhaps you’re concentrating too much on cheap labor (foreign labor) than on building up a good, local work force who care about doing a good job.
Local workers would spend their money here, rather than sending it to foreign shores, which is what most of the foreign laborers do with their low wages.
The restaurant business (if that’s what can be inferred by your screen name) is notoriously poor-paying, so that perhaps only foreign laborers who are housed in hovels for the season, or older people who already get Social Security but need more to have enough to both eat and heat their homes, are the only ones who can afford the wages you’re willing to pay.
Look further – there are lots of good kids who will work hard for you — so long as you pay them a decent wage. Goldman-Sachs, et al on Wall Street are trying to drive down workers’ wages worldwide, and we see the results here Downeast. Employers’ taking advantage of the bad economy to short-change workers’ pay.
Give local workers $1 more an hour so they can afford to travel to work and eat and have somewhere to sleep and you’ll find plenty of good workers. If you’re willing to look, that is.
I make a pretty good investment in being able to hire J2 and H2B visa workers, its in the thousands of dollars to do so.Yes, there are some good younger local kids but I have found that to be the exception and not the rule. I had three quit in a week as making 8 dollars an hour to do the unskilled job of dishwasher as a teenager was not enough money. I was lucky though and found two lovely young ladies who are now seniors in high school that wanted to make money for college and to also have some to spend. They are coming back to work for me this season.
My low wage dining room workers, 2 servers, make over a thousand dollars a week in high season. The other one, a cook from France, makes 900 dollars a week. Im not sure how much money they spend when they are here, but I imagine its more than a few bucks. The young man from France wanted to do an externship for me and he turned out to be the best young cook I ever hired as an extern. The American kids, with one exception, were lazy loafs with attitude problems who thought because they went to the CIA(where I also went) they knew everything. The two ladies in the dining room came to work as bus girls(again, had a problem with 4 out of 5 of the previous ones, Americans) and I promoted them to servers. They come to the US to work and make about three years of wages back home in four months of work here. The other people I employ are two college students, four teachers who work on summer vacation and my head chef who has been with me for years, he makes 1500 a week, which is not too low of a wage in my opinion. Of course there are more workers, all people who get fairly paid for what they do. If
people want to work, and do a good job, they are welcome to stay with me as
long as they like. Lazy loafers dont last too long in my place.
Im not in the charge the workers rent game like OPL and Witham in Bar
Harbor are. You are right about the hovels they keep employees in, its a
travesty in my opinion. The kid from France stays with my chef. The two
ladies rent a place together each year and thus, put some of their money
into the community.
With the way you all seem to treat each other up there who’d want to stay? Many on here can’t have a civil discourse without resorting to calling each other names…doesn’t matter if your a democrat or a republican both parties are equally and ignorantly represented.
“Eleven panels of a mural removed from the lobby of the Maine Department of Labor will be on display in Everett Mill as part of the city’s commemoration of the textile mill strike of 1912.”
“Taylor and the curator, Nancy Nesvet, made the reproductions for the traveling exhibit.”
SO …………… Which is it, the Original or is it a reproduction?
—-
Am I not getting something here?The mural will be permanently in Massachusetts, the actual mural?This story mentions a reproduction of the mural. If the themes and art in the mural strongly represents Lawerence, Massachusetts then again Im confused. I was led to believe in earlier BDN articles that this mural depcited scense from the Jay Mill paper strike. A paper strike that became incredibly violent if I remember correctly.
I just talked with Lauren and she said it is too late to discuss as she is going home early today – Its Friday:)
Hey StillRelaxin, its you using your other screen name! How are you today?
Cul you forgot to take you seasoning and medication again today. I am not related or have anything to do with any one else. I use something you and your kind don’t like people to use called – Freedom of Speech. I am surprised the “WORST” Governor this state ever elected allows to you comment while on State time:)
Funny, you post the same way as StillRelaxin would, so if it is not you then I apologize, the same old tired medication comments make me get confused as to which one of you is who. If I was a state worker I would most likely be commenting against LePage. He is the evil anit-Christ that wants to destroy my Union Job remember?
Your attempts to sound funny and cute? FAIL. By the way, have fun down there in Lawerence looking at the mural, is one of Massachusetts crappiest cities.
Government Speech allowed for it to be put up, Government speech allowed for it to be taken down. A Democrat gets to do something with art he likes and a Republican gets to do something with that same art that he likes. Fair and Equal. Do you like the concept of fair and equal or do you just like to have things your own way?
Tell Massachusetts they can keep the damned mural as it has only created a firestorm in Maine. The thing is political in nature and should not have been commissioned in the first place.
It was a mural depicting life as a worker in Maine for the past 150+ years, even LePage couldn’t deny the truth of the mural only that is was too pro-labor.
I’ve never understood how this mural is “too political”. Unless, of course, you’re a Republican who believes that the Democratic party is the party of the working man (Not necessarily true, btw) and therefore anything that recognizes the working people is Democratic and therefore political.
His attitude toward this mural says more about his elitist Republican values than all the stupid statements he continues to make. I can only hope that the people of Maine remember the complete lack of respect Lepage has shown for those on the lower socio-economic spectrum than Lepage thinks he is come election day.
I’m with you. I always thought it was about history. Hiding it doesn’t change history1
My suspicion has always been that a mural depicting life in the mills of Lewiston/Auburn caused the Governor intense personal pain. Growing up as the son of an abusive mill worker has undoubtedly colored his perceptions, yet the fact that the strike was supported by 5,000 out of 6,000 workers certainly establishes it as a significant historical event in the story of labor in Maine.
The fact that a replica will be touring other states gives me some pride as a Mainer, yet I’m saddened that the original has been shuffled away to some dark closet in Augusta by the flippant order of a single man.
Judy Taylor’s work graphically illustrates not only the experience of those shoe mill workers, but of shipbuilders, woodsmen, paper mill workers, craftsmen and artisans, the casting of the first anonymous ballot in Maine and many famous faces of Maine Labor including the revered Francis Perkins (U.S. Secretary of Labor and the first woman appointed to a U.S. Cabinet position.
For me, the Taylor mural represents an essential economic and social truth that has escaped the Governor and his pundit supporters. While owners with their capital may be the captains of business, workers are the engine that provides the steam to make it run. Being worker hostile is not business friendly.
The mural is neither gone nor forgotten!
Remember The Mural Day: Nov.6th
I don’t know too much about this “mural”, but it is a terrible piece of artistic work. The story the mural projects could yet, be another thing indeed, as it tells stories from Maine’s Labor history. Looks like the Maine Governor made some very bad decision when he had this removed from the Maine DOL. Why could not the Governor mind his own business? He did not have to see this mural every day. The more discussions about this mural, the more public attention it creates. Looks like LePage just crapped and fell back into it. Again!
I guess it’s appropriate for Massachusetts to have the historical mural since they are a state that actually has jobs. We can get it back after next election when LePage is himself, history.
This isn’t the mural that was taken down. It’s a replica. I’m sure that come Novermber we will see lot’s of replicas. Come November 2014 there will be even more if Governor LePage tries to run for re-election.