Geometric shapes of bright color, little monsters waiting for children to give them names and personalities, and rectangular patterns of yellow and orange hues.
For three artists with three different approaches to art, painting a piano was a new challenge, but one they were willing to take on.
The Queen City Piano Project, an undertaking by local arts nonprofit Launchpad, was part of ARTober, a month-long celebration of the arts in Bangor. The project began with three donated pianos, which were restored and creatively designed by Maine artists Maire Gardner, Mike Lewis and Abbie Allen, a trio of varying degrees of experience and talent that they agreed to put on display in Bangor’s public parks.
ARTober is over, and the pianos have been removed from their spots, but Allen’s can still be seen in the dining area at the Family Dog in Orono, until it finds a more permanent home. The others have been donated to private entities, and now the creativity and drive behind designing a piano for others to enjoy is something the artists can reflect on after bringing a taste of piano music and public art to Bangor.
Gardner, a sophomore art education major at the University of Maine, realized her passion for art when she was a sophomore in high school.
“I never thought of it as something I would pursue, just something I would do for fun,” Gardner said. “Then I talked to my art teacher in high school about it, and she definitely was a big influence for me.”
Gardner painted a piano that was placed in Second Street Park. Her creation drew from her own interests in the power of color and a preoccupation with geometric shapes, which crop up while she’s sketching.
“I’m really interested in color theory and how colors have an impact on a person,” Gardner said. “I’ve always been a really outgoing person, and I like bright colors. They’re kind of like me.”
She completed the project with a little help from unexpected companions who jumped in along the way.
“When I was putting a base coat on it, a lot of the kids in the area came up and said, ‘What’re you doing?’ I explained that it was for the park, and they helped me choose the colors,” Gardner said.
As an aspiring art teacher, the experience of painting the piano after it had been placed in the park combined her love of art and working with children.
“I enjoyed having the kids come up and be interested in it,” Gardner said. “A lot of them played on it while I worked on it. In fact, there was one time someone came up and he actually played piano, and a couple of the kids learned a couple of notes on the piano while I was working on it.”
Gardner wasn’t the only artist who had helpers along the way.
For Allen, her inspiration was drawn primarily from the fact that her piano, which was placed in Hayford Park, was close to a playground.
Allen, a resident of Lamoine, studies studio art at the University of Maine. She’s been holding a pencil for as long as she can remember, and as an artist, she does a lot of work with figures. When designing this piano, she turned to a different kind of inspiration.
“With public art you have to consider the public before you consider the art. You have to think about your environment and your audience and that will determine what you can and cannot create,” Allen said. “I went to Hayford Park, and it was right by the playground, and the kids were already jumping on it. I have a deep appreciation for education and consequently asked myself, ‘How can the kids learn? How can this inspire them?’”
Allen removed the front panel of the piano so children interacting with it could see the keys working. For the exterior of the piano she created “little monsters” as she calls them — cartoonish depictions of small creatures just waiting for children to create stories from their imaginations.
“I really wanted them to create and imagine for themselves — and for them to play,” Allen said.
One moment during her time painting the piano stood out. There was a 14-year-old boy who was walking through the park to get home.
“He was a little timid about it, and I asked him why he was so interested. He said he actually played, so he sat down and played while I was painting the piano,” Allen said.
After that point, any time a child approached the piano, Allen made an effort to encourage them to sit down and play as she painted.
“It created an experience for me, but it also created an experience for them where they saw art being created and music being played,” Allen said. “It was almost a collaboration because it was an influence to hear the kids play and have a good time.”
“I’m really jealous of Bangor’s art community,” Allen said with a laugh. “I think Bangor is kind of used to seeing wonderful things in downtown, but it brings some excitement and attention to the arts, which is important.”
For Lewis, a resident of Portland, a city engulfed in the arts, Bangor was a perfect place for a project of this kind.
“Portland is such a saturated city. It’s hard to bring a project in that anyone is surprised by or taken aback by because someone is doing something all the time,” Lewis said. “I think there’s something really attractive about doing this in a city like Bangor. There’s more opportunity and more room to grow in Bangor.”
Lewis, a graduate of the Maine College of Art with a master’s degree in studio arts, has been painting since 2003. When he first saw the piano he would be working on, he immediately realized that it was special.
“Upon quick perusal I saw it had been made in Albany, New York, and I was really excited about it. … I immediately had a connection to that piano.” As a native of New York, he found himself invested in the instrument, and with a little spontaneity, he created a piece of public art dotted with patterns of orange and yellow.
Lewis, much like Gardner and Allen, also had many people come up to him as he worked.
“I was curious about walking that line between being a monkey in a zoo and being invited into people’s daily routines. Will people watch and stare and wonder why you’re doing this to a piano? Or do they say, ‘Thanks for coming to our community, we really appreciate you.’ I think I got about 50/50,” Lewis said.
The Queen City Piano Project came together because of the work of Launchpad’s board of directors and a collection of volunteers who helped bring Bangor more music to enjoy.
“We consider it a success. We got to work with some great artists, and they seemed to really enjoy it. We hit our funding goal and a little bit more,” Meg Shorette, executive director of Launchpad, said. “As for next year, we’re not sure if we’ll do the same project or a different one. We’re curious about what else is out there.”