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Painters to express creativity on violins
Sunday, December 27, 2003
By Bob Keyes

  For a dozen Maine painters, musical talents won't be necessary to leave their mark on a special violin. They'll use their abilities as visual artists instead. The Portland Symphony Orchestra has arranged for each of the 12 to paint a scene or design on a bare violin body. When the 12 violin designs are completed this spring, the orchestra will display them around Greater Portland in galleries and public spaces as part of the Variations on a violin fund-rasing campaign for the PSO's education and outreach programs, said Dyonisia Giatas, the orchestra's special events director. At the end of the promotion the orchestra will sell the violins in a raffle. Camille Cooke, an orchestra spokeswoman, said the campaign goal is $40,000, but she hopes to raise more. A raffle ticket will cost $10. "In an arts community like Portland, we have the opportunity to blow that goal out of the water," she said. Among the group of featured painters and designers are some of Maine's best known visual artists: Thomas Connolly, Thomas Crotty, William Fothergill, Suzanne Harden, Cannie Hayes, Anne Kilham, Nataniel Larrabee, Thomas Paquette, Scott Potter, Gail Spalen and Persis Weirs. A 12th painter will be chosen soon, very likely from the ranks of the student population at Maine College of Art, Cooke said. Although Variations on a Violin is a first-time event for the PSO, similar fund-raisers are fairly common elsewhere, Giatas said. "We've seen them in Jacksonville, Annapolis, California, and Vermont, among other places. There are probably 10 or 20 orchestras around the country that do something like this, and they've all been very successful," she said. The violins are stripped of all varnish, strings, bridge, and neck rest, leaving the artists with a bare, wooden body as their painting surface. Each will come up with a distinctive scene or design. The promotion will open March 5 with a reception for the artists and the first public display of the painted instruments. It will close June 25. In between, the 12 violins will be displayed in various public spaces. Raffle tickets will be available from the orchestra beginning Feb. 23, after which the will also be available wherever the instruments are displayed.

Courtesy Portland Press Herald
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