Porter unveils ‘Paul’s Passions’

By Karen Donato
Special to the Pioneer Times
    “Paul’s Passions,” a collection of various art forms created by Paul Porter of New Limerick debuted July 3 at Visions, Blue Moon Gallery on Main Street.
    Porter received guests at a public reception as part of Houlton’s annual Midnight Madness. The gallery was bustling with family, friends and guests visiting the community for the 4th of July week. “Paul’s Passions includes a variety of items made using the craft of woodturning, as well as paintings, and some metal work.
    Creativity has been in Porter’s bones since he was a little boy on his parents’ farm on the Porter Settlement Road in Cary’s Mills. His father, Herman gave him a workbench, hammer, saw and a tri-square for his seventh birthday and he has been working with wood and other mediums ever since.
Photo by Karen Donato
CELEBRATING WITH FRIENDS — Former colleagues surprised Paul Porter during his art exhibit reception at Vision’s Blue Moon Gallery during Midnight Madness. The trio taught math at Lawrenceville School in N.J. for many years and became longtime friends. Porter’s exhibit will be on display until July 27. From left Dave Schorr, Porter and Hal Wilder.
    After graduating from Houlton High School, Porter completed four years at Bowdoin College and two years of active duty as a Signal Corps Officer at the Tobyhanna Signal Depot in Pennsylvania.
    He returned to Houlton to teach math and driver’s education for two years before securing a grant from the National Science Foundation for a summer session at his alma mater, followed by a year at Brown University to earn his master’s in teaching. Porter garnered a math position at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey where he taught for 38 years and later became department head.
    Porter was active in the school community, as well as serving on a variety of boards. He was also instrumental in creating a woodworking shop for students at the school. A parent of one of the students there made tools, so Porter suggested that he donate a collection to get the shop up and running. He instructed students in building a variety of items including scenery for school plays and created a number of wooden shapes to assist math students to learn volume, area and other dimensions.
    Summering at Nickerson Lake during his teaching career, he teamed up with Gary Bossie, an HHS faculty member, doing carpentry and painting for local residents. When Porter and his wife, Glynn retired full-time to New Limerick in 1998, he found extra time on his hands and became involved with the local children’s theatre, Star Bright Theatre, building sets for them.
    In 2007, when Houlton was celebrating its bicentennial, he participated in the Paint Houlton’s Heritage project, which drew artists to paint scenes of Houlton landmarks. Porter chose to create paintings of several steeples in the downtown, among those, the steeple on the post office and several area churches. His interest in painting was inspired by local artist, Esther Orr Faulkner who taught a painting class for seniors.
Photo by Karen Donato
BEING CREATIVE — Paul Porter has an eye for the unique. Once he comes up with an idea a new creation is made. Above left, is a logging truck donated to the Houlton Rotary Auction, an organ player and a high-rise gum ball machine.
    However, his first love is wood-turning. In his youth he used a hand-me-down lathe from his father who used it to turn peevee handles and other farming implements, then moving up to a “Dunlap” given to him by his cousin. Finally while on active duty in Pennsylvania he bought a decent lathe and through the years has fine-tuned the art form of wood-turning. He is currently the secretary of the “Up There Woodturners of Aroostook County,” a recognized chapter of the American Association of Woodturners.
    Porter has built a kiosk for Houlton’s Riverfront Park, several display pieces at Visions for large works of art, a pedestal that holds a guest book and the star on the Visions street sign. For the past nine years he has made and donated wooden toys for the Houlton Rotary Auction and a local resident has purchased each of them. They were loaned back for the reception at the gallery.
    Other items found in the Porter collection are bowls, plates, balls, Christmas ornaments, weather vanes and cheese trays with marble inserts, wine bottle stoppers and a variety of gadgets.
    About midway through the reception as guests filtered in and out, Porter was pleasantly surprised by the arrival of four longtime friends from Lawrenceville. Dave Schorr and Hal Wilder with their wives made the trip to attend the event unbeknownst to the guest of honor. Both Shorr and Wilder taught in the math department with Porter for many years.
    “I just can’t believe this,” said Porter. “What a great night and having these good friends walk through the door made it even better.”
    The exhibit will be on display until Friday, July 27. The gallery hours are Tuesday-Friday, noon to 5 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
    For more information, call 532-9119; e-mail SACAP@pioneercable.net or visit www. sacap.us.