Creating artwork from local settings

Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Karen Donato
A PROUD ACCOMPLISHMENT — Rick Carpenter, above, has completed a 10-month project replicating the south side of Market Square in Houlton. The work of art is on display at the Southern Aroostook Agricultural Museum in Littleton from now through Columbus Day weekend. The scene is made of intricately cut pieces of veneer that give a three dimensional effect. This is one of 14 projects Carpenter has completed.
By Karen Donato
Staff/Writer
    HOULTON —  While going to Northern Maine Technical College in the late 1980s and living in an apartment above a grocery store in Presque Isle, Rick Carpenter discovered a use for wooden crates that has led to some beautiful masterpieces. The form of art really has no common name, but Carpenter says the closest he can come to a definition is Intarsia. This is the fitting together of small pieces of veneer to replicate a scene or an object.
    Carpenter’s latest work is on display at the Southern Aroostook Agricultural Museum in Littleton. It measures six feet wide and two and a half feet high. It is a replica of the south side of Houlton’s Main Street in Market Square as it looked in the early 1900s. He has researched the history of Houlton to find original photos that gave him the details that he needed to make it as authentic as possible. Some of those photos came from postcards. A local man, the late Ralph Longstaff had such a collection for Carpenter to see and influenced him to become a collector of photographs, history and postcards.
    “I love this kind of work,” said Carpenter. “I become so immersed in it that the hours just fly by. Sometimes I realize I have been working 14 hours straight, not even thinking that I have missed a meal or two,” he added.
    It took him 10 months to finish the Main Street wall hanging. The scene is comprised of cut and layered veneer, which gives a crisp, almost 3-D effect. He first draws the scene on paper. Then he cuts out each piece and places the individual sections on the wood to trace. He cuts the pieces with a utility knife, and then glues them in place on a sheet of paneling. He paints the buildings, people and everything else to complete the scene. One of his paintbrushes has only three hairs that enable him to paint the intricate embellishments necessary. Once the scene is complete he seals it with three coats of polyurethane and places it into a frame.
Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Karen Donato
PIECE OF HISTORY — The artwook of Rick Carpenter provides a glimpse into the days of yesteryear in Houlton. He spends countless hours making sure the details are precise.
    Carpenter recalled that this art form came to him somewhat as a fluke. While looking out the window of his apartment he noticed a stack of crates left beside the grocery store dumpster. There had been a sale on grapes that week and the empty wooden crates were discarded. He brought them inside and while watching Hoss and Little Joe Cartwright, characters in the “Lost Episodes of Bonanza” he pondered the stack. He wondered how he could reuse them. His interest was sparked by the scene of a main street in the old western town of Virginia City. He decided to recreate the Main Street with a saloon, a blacksmith shop, a general store and other businesses common to a frontier town. When he finished it looked quite nice.
    Since then he has completed more than a dozen other scenes, including the home of his late grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Merle Foster located on the Station Road in Monticello, the Oakfield and Monticello train stations, Ken’s Store, High Street Grocery and now Houlton’s Main Street.
    Carpenter’s love for history and art has grown. He scouts the countryside stopping at yard sales in hopes of finding original photographs of buildings and communities. As the saying goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. He is in hopes that readers will contact him if they have any local photographs of buildings and businesses that he could use rather than just throwing them out.
    Carpenter may have been born with this unique talent, admitting that he has never had an art lesson. He can find no one else in his family that has this ability. He wonders if he gained this skill from a slight accident he had. He said that at a young age he had fallen off his bicycle and was unconscious for a short time and after that he became more adept at drawing and visualizing.
    He also credits two former Houlton High School teachers, Bob Askren and Joe Feeney for giving him confidence while in high school and encouraging him to draw.
    “I was always doodling and drawing in school,” he said.
    “Unfortunately in the ‘80s there were very few opportunities for art programs at the secondary level,” Carpenter said, “but both of these teachers complimented my art and that just made me want to work harder.”
    Each time Carpenter completes a project he improves a little bit more. He has learned just how to cut the curves in the wood veneer so as not to split it. It takes a lot of practice but he has become a master of the art.
    He is in the process of deciding what to work on next and thinks it may be the well-known Snell House formerly located on the North Side of Market Square where the Key Bank parking lot is now.
    This was a popular hotel and center of activity for a variety of businesses. He can do any place as long as he has a photo of the building. One can contact Carpenter at 532-1082.
    The Market Square display will be at the Ag. Museum until Columbus Day weekend. The hours there are Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 1 until 4 p.m.