One of the most fascinating things about living in our larger community, for me, is the diversity and unusual quality of our population.
You’d think, after 50-plus years in the area, that it would be possible to know a lot about the residents. Yet, to this day, I am often surprised or at least intrigued by how many people I do not know. I do realize that the local population is always changing as new folks arrive and leave, some by choice, others, without permission! Many of the wonderful people I have known since arriving in Maine are gone. Most of the folks I got to know in my early days as a Mainiac have moved on. Those who were in their 70s and 80s in 1975 are no longer with us. They were good friends and great people, and I miss them.
However, there are people who have lived here as long as I have, but for a variety of reasons, have not shown up on my radar. Philippe Villard is one such individual.
For years I have known the name and even seen the work of Villard Studios, but in person visits had never occurred until recently. And, I must say, my introduction was pretty amazing.
The Villard studios and home are tucked away nicely on Campbell Street, in the shadow of the historic Mt. Pisgah art colony. Philippe and Kim Despres-Villard built their home and studio themselves, and it is truly also a work of art. But this is not the first house that Philippe built.
Fom 1977 until 1997, Philippe lived in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, on the Cape, one of my favorite places other than Maine. It turned out that we actually had a good friend in common there, Martin Nerber, whose mother owned a small but very influential art gallery. Philippe built his house all but exclusively from materials gathered at the next-door dump, as houses were being dismantled with perfectly useful items discarded. He also met his future wife Kim, who, at the time, was the navigator aboard the Spirit of Massachusetts, a 125-foot schooner which happened to be tied up nearby. Philippe was conscripted and captivated, becoming crew for the ship’s educational tours.
Kim brought much talent and energy to the couple’s world of art. At the tender age of 13, she became the youngest artist to have work accepted by the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. In 1975, she created the first oyster farm on the Damariscotta River. And now Kim and Philippe split their time between their home here in Maine and a new to them location in the south of France where Kim writes and they produce new work.
The woodblock technique for which the Villards are best known was invented in 1914 from Japanese original art. The “Whiteline Print” color woodblock process is the first of its type in North America. Philippe became interested in this technique when he met his mentor, Bill Evaul at Castle Hill Center for Arts, in Truro, Massachusetts, not far from his then-home in Wellfleet. Since his first experience, Villard has created over 500 woodblocks and now shares the technique yearly with interested visitors to the studio from all over the world.
Among his many accomplishments, Villard has created special collections focusing on the natural world of the Boothbay peninsula. His work has been collected and displayed worldwide and is of significant importance, especially in relationship to collaborations with Bigelow Labs where a special series is part of a permanent installation which can be seen with permission. Additionally, Philippe was invited to join a special Bigelow Arctic trip to study the accelerated permafrost melting. During this trip, on a casual “stroll” through areas heretofore frozen in time, Villard filmed with an underwater “GoPro” camera, an iron oxidizing bacterium which turned water orange when thawing occurred. It was a very important revelation which Philippe instantly recorded as art. The new work produced from this discovery will become part of a new collection. Villard”s “North Atlantic Peninsula Series” of 100 original woodblock prints has already been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, in bound editions, produced over a period of 17 years!
As acclaimed artists, Kim and Philippe are motivated by a perpetual sense of wonder, sharing their passion for the natural world. More can be learned about their work on the Internet at villardstudios.com