The Eyrie is a literary/arts trade journal published by Eastern Maine Community College to showcase student work. The issue highlights exceptional writers and craftsmen from across the campus. Faculty Advisors Heather Magee, Dr. Lesley Gillis Cover Design Stella Cashman Page Design Callie Walker Page Layout/Design Sadie Bills Issac Brissette Aleyne Brown Stella Cashman Peter Hilyard
Mariam Mohowass Colin Moran James Plowman Aidan Qualey Callie Walker
DGD231 Printing and Publishing
©All work in this journal remain the sole property of their owner and may not be reprinted without permission
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CREATIVE WRITING Reflection & Poem Señor Borges and his Labyrinth...7 The Empty...9 Reflection & Poem Coffee with Gramps...11
INTRO TO FILM This Eve of Parting: The Driving Symbolism of “Lady Bird”...15 LITERATURE OF A CHILD The Time and Culture of the Nancy Drew and Little House Books...21 2D DESIGN Blue Blazer...31 LAYOUT DESIGN Eyrie Journal Cover...35 PHOTOGRAPHY Lemon Blueberry Cake...37 Enamelware Bowls for Possibilities Gift Shop ...38 Decay...39
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PHOTOSHOP Tyler Joseph...41 The Beginning...42 Fight Scene...43 Supes in Colour...44 Oily Bar...45 The Unknown...46 Cabin in the Woods...47 Last of Their Kind...48 Big Dreams...49 792...50 Portrait of Amy Adams...51 Final project...52 TYPOGRAPHY Design Culture Now Poster...55 A Beautiful Mind” Film Title Redesign...56 Positive/Negative Space Design...57 Design Culture Now...58 CULINARY Bread Production...61
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Creative Writing
Reflection & Poem Señor Borges and his Labyrinth By Kenyon Geiger
Pathway 3.3 - Serious Daring This poem was written for Creative Writing (ENG 112 95 WE) with Dr. Lesley Gillis. The assignment was to “Choose a person you have strong feelings about and write a story or narrative poem about that person doing something. Capture the rhythm of that person or of how you feel about that person.” I also included a brief “reflection” to give context to the poem. This reflection does not have to be included with the poem to enjoy it. Reflection: I chose to do Pathway 3.3 because I wanted to try and capture the action, essence, and cadence of one of my favorite writers, Jorge Luis Borges. I wrote the poem in his cadence, going off the lectures that were recorded in the 1960’s (which are available on Youtube). The poem is also written in free verse. I tried to capture an honest piece of him and found I could only succeed in doing so if I was as obscure as I was. Therefore, I worry the poem loses its meaning to those that are unfamiliar with the work of Borges and of labyrinths. To be brief, Borges used labyrinths as a recurring motif in his stories. It seems to represent different things, including something that’s called metafiction (which is a story within a story) and the mystery that we are all trying to solve (in life). In the ancient Greek tale of the labyrinth, there is a minotaur guarding the center. Theseus goes into the labyrinth and his only way of not getting lost and finding his way back out is for Ariadne to build him a long string to mark his way. If anyone is compelled to read Borges, start with his short story collection Ficciones. You’ll never look at reality the same way again. Continued on following page... 7
Señor Borges and his Labyrinth Little Jorge, sneaking into his father’s library, finding Arabian Nights, feet running up the stairs and onto the roof, stories within stories within stories. His eyes move left to right, roving. Conjuring. Seeing. Buenos Aires. Why did fate set you there to blossom? You did see your beloved Europe though. Did you find Ariadne there? In Schoppenhauer? In Kafka? In the Kabbalah? In Cervantes? You saw the universe in Jewish mysticism, Were those the first keys to that first door in the labyrinth? Are you Daedalus, constructing the very Depths you find yourself disappearing into? Señor Borges, his vision having left him long ago climbs the steps of the stage with assistance. To a chair, not a roof. His blindness is not a Crutch. He is not ashamed of it. He looks off and speaks of language and myth, all with the affection of a grandfather. I stand, the auditorium quieting. My blood is thick with anger, confusion. I say, Who is Ariadne? There seems to be no Theseus, only mysteries and more mysteries, and Borges smiles and says, Is that such a bad thing?
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The Empty
By Marvea Jackson This is a work from Eng 162 01 (Creative Non Fiction Writing) for Lola Ellis’s class. We were able to choose what topic we wanted regarding an essay reading we had been assigned, and I chose to write about the darkness that people sometimes feel when they are going through troubles in their lives. I’m falling into a dark space. An emptiness that is me. A collapsed star, engulfed in anger and pain. The real me. The me that no one should see, because if they did... They would get sucked into the dark space. The empty space. But it isn’t that bad. In this dark space you can be free, free to fall without the worry of disacknowledgment, free to be alone, compressed in all your thoughts or none, away from the hammering fragments of “good”. You can be, whatever you want to be. At the same time, if you’re not careful, the empty can destroy you and everything you know about yourself. It starts to twist and turn your mind into thinking that you’re something that you’re not! Slowly ripping you to pieces, like paper from a notebook, blinding you of your truest potentials. Yes, this dark empty is a sad place, but it is a real place and sometimes you cannot escape. It is a place where you can get stuck and lose yourself, where you cease to exist in all forms human. There are no obligations, or strategies to be you, because there is no more, you don’t exist. “I am not of this world”, I say.. “I don’t belong, I never really did”. “Is that why they treated me with such disrespect?”. “Are they afraid of me? And that’s why they secluded me?”. Down this deep, dark, rabbit hole of disgust and troublesome thoughts are endless questions of resentment, guilt, sadness, what if’s, confusion, and hostility... Loneliness... Why? Why am I so lonely? Why am I so troubled? Because no one knows my truth and I am burdened to carry the weight of every possible incident that has happened in my life, burdened to carry the weight of the world like Atlas, on my shoulders in defeat, on my knees, in this empty. Slowly, breaking with every breath, every cry, every silent struggle on the inside... I find myself creeping to the 9
edge to try to escape, but there is too much weight and I am down to one knee. A silent whisper I take, “is it worth it? All the pain? All the burdens? All the punishment? Is it worth being stuck in this place of hell and discernment?”. I don’t know. I just know that I am here, and the space is filling quickly.
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Reflection & Poem Coffee with Gramps By Kamrynn D. Stahl
I wrote this for my Creative Writing class. The book we are reading (Serious Daring by Lisa Roney) has writing exercises called “Pathways” at the end of each chapter. Our assignment was to read Chapter 3 and choose one of the given Pathway exercises to complete and hand in. I chose Pathway 3.8, which was to write a palindrome poem, or mirror poem. As part of my coursework, I also included a reflection that explains the story, inspiration, and meaning behind my poem. Pathway 3.8 - Palindrome Poem I chose to do this pathway because I have never written a palindrome poem before, and wanted to take on the challenge. A lot of my poems are not written with a particular structure, so I also felt that this was a good way to practice doing that. I wasn’t sure at first what I was going to mirror in this poem, but it came to me while making coffee one morning. I was thinking about the simplicity of making a cup of coffee, and how important it is for me to have a cup to wake up in the morning. I fixed my grandfather, “Gramps” a cup. While talking to him and thinking about the humdrum of mornings, it struck me that his experience each day is far different from mine. I have a cup of coffee and then go on to my job, to my classes, to my boyfriend’s house. But for him, sometimes that cup of coffee we have in the morning is one of the very few experiences he has in a day. Even when I’m engaging him in conversation, it is possible for him to be alone, because when you speak to him you are competing with persistent auditory hallucinations for his attention. He spends most of his time in his head, napping, or chain-smoking cigarettes. It is hard to get him out of his own world. He used to be just like us in college. He had a girlfriend, friends, and 11
hobbies. He graduated and became a brilliant accountant. Sometimes, he and I look through his old photo albums from college together and I often tell him about my courses because it makes him happy to know about my classes. I think he lives vicariously through me. So, even though it’s sad and made me emotional to write, I needed to write this little poem to convey what he’s lost that I still have; that sense of normalcy and flow to each day.
Coffee with Gramps Coffee is up in the morning with me, To cure me of my lethargy. I rinse the pot to wash away the stains that came from yesterday. The bittersweet smell wrinkles my nose, and the cream I pour swirls to repose. The dark brown depth erases all sorrow, Today will outdo yesterday, and be outdone by tomorrow. His today is just like yesterday, and all the same tomorrow. In his dark brown eyes there is a lingering sorrow. His head may swirl but he’s in repose, A bittersweet life has wrinkled his nose. His brain has stains from yesterday That can never quite be washed away. No cure for this kind of lethargy, He’s up in the morning with his disease.
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Intro To Film
This Eve of Parting: The Driving Symbolism of “Lady Bird” By Matt LeVasseur
I created this work specifically for ENG 212, Introduction to Film, taught by Lesley Gillis. It is a paper regarding the use of specific motifs in Lady Bird. Namely, these motifs involve use of cars to mark characters’ relationships; as well as the use of the song “This Eve of Parting.” In watching Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, what stood out to me the most was how the film used its cinematic language to showcase the relationship between Christine, the titular “Lady Bird” (played by Saoirse Ronan), and her mother Marion (played by Laurie Metcalf). Ultimately, the film shows us that mother and daughter have the same personality. And amazingly, I found a unique motif within the film: cars. Strange as it may seem, we are able to see through this motif that Lady Bird and Marion aren’t all that different. What’s more, John Hartford’s song “This Eve of Parting” is predominantly heard during these car scenes. In this paper, I will go over key moments using this car motif, as well as the song “This Eve of Parting,” and see how it reflects the characters of Lady Bird and Marion. We first see the car motif in the opening scene, wherein we are first shown Lady Bird and Marion’s dysfunctional relationship. Lady Bird wants to leave her dull home-town of Sacramento, but Marion shoots down the notion, citing some very good reasons: “Your dad and I will barely be able to afford in-state tuition” (Lady Bird 0:02:11), she says. But to the initially-egocentric ears of Lady Bird, she thinks it’s just Mom wanting to keep her in a dull old town. And consider how the argument ends—with Lady Bird deliberately jumping out of the car while it is still in motion (0:03:19)! And the very next shot is of her arm bound in a cast, upon which she has written “FUCK YOU MOM” (0:03:21). This shows how dysfunctional these two are and how quick they are to argue. We first hear “This Eve of Parting” in a scene where Marion drives home from work at the mental hospital (Lady Bird 0:07:56—0:08:24), driving past the various things you’d find in an average This Eve of 15
Parting: The Driving Symbolism of “Lady Bird” In watching Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, what stood out to me the most was how the film used its cinematic language to showcase the relationship between Christine, the titular “Lady Bird” (played by Saoirse Ronan), and her mother Marion (played by Laurie Metcalf). Ultimately, the film shows us that mother and daughter have the same personality. And amazingly, I found a unique motif within the film: cars. Strange as it may seem, we are able to see through this motif that Lady Bird and Marion aren’t all that different. What’s more, John Hartford’s song “This Eve of Parting” is predominantly heard during these car scenes. In this paper, I will go over key moments using this car motif, as well as the song “This Eve of Parting,” and see how it reflects the characters of Lady Bird and Marion. We first see the car motif in the opening scene, wherein we are first shown Lady Bird and Marion’s dysfunctional relationship. Lady Bird wants to leave her dull home-town of Sacramento, but Marion shoots down the notion, citing some very good reasons: “Your dad and I will barely be able to afford in-state tuition” (Lady Bird 0:02:11), she says. But to the initially-egocentric ears of Lady Bird, she thinks it’s just Mom wanting to keep her in a dull old town. And consider how the argument ends—with Lady Bird deliberately jumping out of the car while it is still in motion (0:03:19)! And the very next shot is of her arm bound in a cast, upon which she has written “FUCK YOU MOM” (0:03:21). This shows how dysfunctional these two are and how quick they are to argue. We first hear “This Eve of Parting” in a scene where Marion drives home from work at the mental hospital (Lady Bird 0:07:56—0:08:24), driving past the various things you’d find in an average small-town: trees, bridges, houses, and other such like. What’s more, we can see the sun rising in the sky. (Lady Bird 0:08:14). During this, we hear the first verse of “This Eve of Parting”: “It’s hard to think this eve of parting / Turns to sand of summer gone / When both our minds are warped with parting / Break the thought of nights alone” (Hartford). To me, this song represents how Marion feels about Lady Bird graduating and going off to college. Lady Bird is her last child, and she’s realizing that 16
her nest is about to become empty. Perhaps the scene that invokes the most stark emotion is the scene when Lady Bird finally leaves for New York. Throughout that whole summer, Marion has refused to speak to her when she discovered that she applied for East Coast colleges behind her back. Even as they drive off to the airport, Marion remains as stiff as stone. Once again, we see the family head off to the airport, passing by the various locales of small-town Sacramento; and they reach the airport just as the sun rises (Lady Bird 1:19:00—1:19:21). This particular trip is underscored with the line “Flesh cries out, ‘Don't move, don't leave me’ / Conscience runs till out of breath / Sunrise pregnant with your leaving / Creeping in like certain death” (Hartford). And yes, they deliberately had a shot of the sunrise compliment the line “Sunrise pregnant with your leaving” (Lady Bird 1:19:01—1:19:06). Marion may be stiff, but who’s to say that this song isn’t reflecting how she’s truly feeling about Lady Bird leaving; what she’s too proud to say? When Lady Bird initially leaves, Marion offers excuses as to why she won’t go in to say goodbye: “You can’t walk up to the gates anymore, anyway” (Lady Bird 1:19:28), and “Parking’s too expensive here.” (Lady Bird 1:19:36) But when she changes her mind, it’s too late. But then, there’s the issue of how the film ends. Lady Bird is in New York, like she always wanted. But yet, she feels homesick. Her final phone call to her mother is directly intercut with footage of the various sights—trees, bridges, houses, rivers (Lady Bird 1:27:07—1:28:09)— seen along the journey, intercut with footage of Lady Bird wistfully watching as she drives past; as well as sights from Sacramento the first time this motif occurred (Lady Bird 1:27:30—1:27:56). As if to hammer in the point, a shot of Lady Bird driving is soon replaced by a shot of Marion in her exact same position (Lady Bird 1:27:57— 1:28:09). On top of that, consider Christine’s monologue: “Did you feel emotional the first time you drove in Sacramento? I did, and I wanted to tell you, but we weren’t really talking when it happened. All those bends I’ve known my whole life, and stores and the whole thing. But I wanted to tell you…I love you. Thank you. I’m… thank you.” (1:27:23— 1:28:22) It was her voice that started the film, saying “Do I look like I’m from Sacramento?” (Lady Bird 0:00:26—0:00:35) Now, she knows 17
the answer: she does, and she’s incredibly homesick. What makes Lady Bird work so well is that it ties into an issue that many know so well: the feeling of starting adulthood, leaving parents behind, and coming to terms with differences; realizing that you had more in common with your parents than ever before. And through this car motif, we are able to see these similarities brought to life through cinematic language. And that song, “This Eve of Parting”, I think perfectly encapsulates the feelings that run through every parent’s mind when they send their kid off to college. Works Cited Hartford, John. “This Eve of Parting.” Lady Bird (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture), Lakeshore Records, 2017, track 13. Genius, https:// genius.com/John-hartford-this-eve-of-parting-lyrics. Accessed 20 Jan. 2019. Lady Bird. Directed by Greta Gerwig, performances by Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, A24, 2017.
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Literature of a Child
The Time and Culture of the Nancy Drew and Little House Books By Aleyne L. Brown
This was written for Anna Arquette’s class, Literature of a Child, offered in the spring of 2018. This was for the Common Assignment, and according to the directions we were to write, “[a] formal paper that will focus on historical context of literary works for Children – on the ways this literature reflects the cultures that produced them and the way our own culture reflects the ways we receive them.” (Arquette) Here is my paper on the cultural context of the first two Nancy Drew books and Wilder’s Little House series. When my oldest daughter was reading everything she could get her hands on, we came across a collection of Nancy Drew books at our local grocery store’s used book bin. I snagged them all for her, but I must admit that I had not actually read one. That was over ten years ago. She read them multiple times, moved onto college, onto her own apartment, and those books remained on my shelf. The series has moved with us, twice. They were in a list of items that my daughter instructed me to keep, along with the Playmobile toys, American Girl Dolls, Barbies, Lemony Snicket books, and The Little House series. Since Nancy took up precious real estate in my home, and on my bookshelf, I thought it only right that we get more acquainted. In keeping with the modern times though, the book stayed on the shelf while I purchased and listened to an audio copy. Laura Linney masterfully narrated Nancy’s adventure during my morning commute. My first impression was that everything works out for Nancy. She was, as the 2007 Nancy Drew movie would describe her using the words and title of the Joanna Pattici Song, “Pretty Much Amazing” (Paulsen 1:17:52).1 In her first book, and my first experience with Nancy, she saves a little girl, discovers an injustice, procures singing lessons for a destitute girl, helps take care of a sick woman, changes her own flat tire, foils the plans of a group of thieves, and secures the lost fortune 1 Pretty Much Amazing, Joanne Pattici, Nancy Drew Soundtrack, https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=VMzrndoUorw
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for those in desperate need (Keene, The Secret of the Old Clock).2 Everyone trusts her implicitly and has complete confidence in her ability to do just about anything. She is not only pretty much amazing, but pretty much Supergirl. Even though she has a deceased mother, a loss the series barely acknowledges, she is too perfect. I think perhaps Kathern Patterson would say that “every stray thread [was tied] into a splendiferous macramé of justice and joy” (Paterson 946) I scoffed at the ease at which she proceeded with her charmed life, and the ease with which the plot glided along. Contrary to my own first impression however, Sara Paretsky in her essay, Keeping Nancy Drew Alive, claims that when you “mention Nancy Drew to any woman between the ages of twenty-five and seventy…chances are her face will turn dreamy and she’ll say, ‘Nancy Drew! I haven’t thought about her for years, but used to love her’” (Paretsky 642) When I posted on Facebook that at the age of forty-seven I read my very first Nancy Drew book, the responses gushed forth that mirrored the adoration Paresky experienced – Nancy Drew books were loved and still held a special place in the hearts of girls everywhere. It wasn’t just the girls, either. My own husband, when Nancy Drew is mentioned, comments that he, too, had read and enjoyed the series, and that he had always wanted a blue roadster just like Nancy. I was still acting like one of the LA school kids in the 2007 movie, looking on in disgust and rolling my eyes as Nancy eats her perfect lunch at the table and wears vintage clothing (Paulsen 1:16:25). I still wanted to dismiss her and her influence because life is simply not like that - but then I thought of my love of the Hallmark Movies and Mysteries channel. I also indulge in a little bit of suspension of reality and acceptance of a sanitized macramé of justice and joy when I watch yet another mystery at the bakery, in the quaint town where yet another murder takes place. I still want to live there, and visit the cookie lady, even though she is always finding dead bodies – sometimes right outside 2 I have since learned that the version I read is the updated 1959 version. Some of the details of the story are changed from the 1930 version, but the plot points and my points remain unchanged. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ The_Secret_of_the_Old_Clock
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her shop and at the competing bakery across the street.3 Any town with that many murders and mysteries would surely be a town to move away from, not to, but on the Hallmark Movies and Mysteries channel, I conveniently forget that the murder per capita in this town is much higher than the average. Why do I do this? Why do I accept a reality on the screen where it is obviously not safe, but not care? Why does everyone still want to go to Hogwarts even though it is a dangerous school? I think that this foray into the world of Nancy Drew might provide me some answers to that very question. Nancy Drew was first published in the year 1930, less than a year after the big Wall Street stock market crash that would lead the country into the Great Depression. Jobs and money would be scarce. FDR would become president in 1932, and institute the New Deal in 1933 (Burrows 127-130). According to Peter Stoneley, though, in his book, Consumerism in American Girl’s Literature, “two girls would succeed where the Work Progress Administration failed. Nancy Drew and Laura Ingalls beat the Depression” (Stoneley 122). Their books would proliferate throughout the 30s and onward. He also tantalizingly posited a point of view that I think rather poignant: The [Nancy Drew] novels present the reader with the security and pleasure of class and money, and then refuse to let us see beyond that. The girl-reader, and the heroine herself, will never gaze into the distance, because there is always trouble in the fore ground (Stoneley 133). America was in chaos. There was no longer financial security. According to The Visual History of the Modern World “[t]he 1930s could be summarized as a decade of fear and paranoia” (Burrows 114) and “[t]hirty percent of Americans lost their jobs in just four years” (128). Across the ocean Germany experienced a banking crisis of its own which would set up the circumstances and rise to power of the Nazi regime and Adolf Hitler. No wonder girls would not want to gaze into the distance. There was nothing good to look to outside of the book world, especially for the girls because their security was in the hands of the working men, and the working men were having trouble 3 Murder, She Baked, Hallmark Movies and Mysteries Channel original series, based on the Joanne Fluke novels of the same name.
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finding and/or keeping jobs. Perhaps the time in which Nancy Drew was created was an era in which the reader would like to escape reality. The escape of reality continues in the second book in the Nancy Drew series. The Secret Stair Case has Nancy assisting a group of women, and aside from the crooks and police force who are men, it is suspiciously devoid of a man’s presence. Nancy and the Turnbull sisters proceed to uncover the mystery of the hauntings at their mansion, including a night of dress-up in vintage costumes (Keene, The Hidden Staircase). This book epitomized Stoneley’s position, when he refers to Bobby Ann Mason’s essay in The Feminist Press, stating that “Nancy’s ambitions are strategically curbed, and the narrative encourages girls to look for power in enclosed spaces. Mason interprets the settings in this light, suggesting that we see them as ‘enlarged dollhouses’” (Stoneley 127) There is no place more enclosed than the Turnbull’s mansion – the elaborate dollhouse - where they even play dress-up. Right there in their own house is enough mystery to keep their minds and bodies occupied. Are their enclosed houses truly safe though? Nearly two years later the Lindbergh baby kidnapping case could cause anyone reading a book about a secret staircase that enters a locked house to shudder (Stolley 72). Who needs a ladder when there is a secret passage? Again, we practice a form of suspension of reality when we don’t consider the real danger the women in that house were facing. They could have lost more than a necklace or two. Another book series would come on the scene in 1932 with its own form of enclosed escapism, but from a different time period than the present. Laura Ingalls Wilder at the age of sixty began to publish books about her childhood (135). While they were published at the same time as the Nancy Drew series, they were different in that they didn’t take place during the time period in which they were presented to the world. The Little House is set about sixty years earlier than the Drew series. In the first book, Wilder presents a simpler life where they churn butter, play with a pig’s bladder after the pig is slaughtered, and have great fun with paper dolls. On Christmas it was a treat to get a peppermint stick and a rag doll (Wilder, Little House in the Big Woods 74). All the drama happens to the main characters in the form of stories that Pa tells the girls. In the second book, Little House on the Prairie, the girls, along 24
with the entire family, are thrown into more dangerous situations like nearly drowning during the river crossing and alarming visits from the local Native American tribe (Wilder, Little House on the Prairie). While no one could accuse Wilder of omitting harsh realities, she does perform her own romantic narrative in which the readers wish to enter. Michael Dorris would call Wilde’s characters “shaped and crafted verisimilitudes, rather than drawn, word for word, upon fact only” (Dorris 967). As my own children entered reading age for the Little House books, there were cookbooks and groups that participated in the romantic pursuit of all things from the 1860s. We gladly made the tie-in recipes, bought the prairie dress sewing patterns, and dreamt of the simpler life where we also churned our own butter and tapped the trees in our yard. My friends and neighbors to this day tap their trees and boil-down their syrup having their own “Sugar Snow” parties (Wilder, Little House in the Big Woods 117). Unlike Wilder’s time though, there is no NEED for the syrup to get through the long winter. The entire process is simply nostalgic. If the tree sap doesn’t run well that year, they will just buy maple syrup from the grocery store and lament that it isn’t as good as their own. During the Great Depression, though, a book about living off the land and pioneering can give another form of escapism where one does not have to rely on the government to fix the economy or look for a job. Their job was the land and the land rewarded them with bounty. Did Wilder have some ulterior motive in penning her life when and how she did? Stoneley would say that: What Wilder chose to tell…was significantly reshaped to reflect her political understanding of the Depression and the New Deal. She aligns her own realism with the resourceful vigor of the past, and sets both against the artificiality of the modern age. But realism is, of course,an alternative mythology, and in rewriting her past, Wilder seeks to enshrine a social vision of much later vintage (Stoneley 135). The artificiality of the modern age would be the modern age of the 1930s. Can we picture Wilder sitting on her front porch, exclaiming, “Back in my day we didn’t rely on the government to bail us out. We lived off the land and used every part of the pig, even the tail!” My 25
friends and I, in our desire to provide an educational experience for our kids with mop caps and gingerbread, participated in our own romantic notions of the 1860s in the modern age of the 1990s. We could pretend all we wanted, and head back to our houses with our vaccinated children, running water, and electric lights. Wilder includes realism, like Stoneley states, but she includes only certain forms of that realism and social vision of the past. Michael Dorris in his essay Trusting the Words indicates that in Wilder’s book there was “no cholera-ridden starving reservations, no prohibitions to the practice of native religion, no Wounded Knee a few hundred miles to the north, no Sand Creek an equal distance to the west” (Dorris 968). She also leaves out the countless settlers who never made it, turned back, or died of dysentery. Unless it was on the game Oregon Trail, no one at our “prairie groups” died of dysentery either. No matter what Wilder remembers of her childhood and includes in her books, or the social sensibilities the 1860s that she narrates, the age of her childhood had its issues, and life was not a sugar party – especially for the Native Americans. She could write her books as a social commentary of the current times from the comfort of her home in the 1930s with all its own wonderful modernity. Neither the world of Nancy Drew nor Laura Ingalls Wilder are completely and factually real, and yet they both “flourished” as successful book series in a time when luxuries like books should not have succeeded. (Stoneley 122). Nancy provided a world where “it is as if the Depression is not happening” and the “money is scarce, fiction must make it more visible” (122). Nancy Drew ignores The Depression, allowing her readers to ignore The Depression as well – for at least the time it takes to read a book. The money is absent, but in the book world Nancy Drew, her family, her friends and her town are doing just fine. She has a great little car, a housekeeper, and Mr. Drew does not seem to be concerned about his place as a lawyer in the town at all. Not only do her books provide an escape, but perhaps a reassurance that “some collapsed fortunes may, with Nancy’s help, be resurrected” (133) Wilder writes of a time before the Great Depression was on the horizon, therefore the young reader can once again ignore the Depressed for a time. Perhaps reading of a little girl who is happy with the gift of heart-shaped cakes made of “pure white flour and 26
sweetened with white sugar” would make a child grateful for what they had in the 1930s (Wilder, Little House on the Prairie 249)? Little House on the Prairie was a calculated attempt to teach of the pioneer life and Nancy Drew was a calculated marketing attempt to produce a series that would fill a niche. The American readers rewarded both their efforts by using their hard to come by money to purchase these books. The reader didn’t walk away with nothing for their hard-earned cash. They purchased a few hours to have just enough drama and a solvable problem that is all wrapped up by the end. It was the right amount of escapism. This is the same reason that I purchase the Hallmark Movies and Mysteries Channel. I can, for a few hours, immerse myself in a world that has a mystery that needs solving within the enclosed town. I trade reality for a story of a woman who, like Nancy, solves mysteries. The main character’s life may be, like Wilder’s, in danger on occasion, but we know she will make it through to the other side of the creek. We are not bored with the cookie lady’s somewhat saccharine life, because she uses REAL sugar and white flour in her all her baking, and by the end all is well. Hallmark Movies are my modern day Little House and Nancy Drew. I can, for an hour or so forget the racial tensions, political unrest, and economic uncertainty in our own modern time – and the fact that white flour and white sugar are now considered the enemy.
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Works Cited Burrows, Terry, ed. The Visual History of the Modern World. Carlton Books, 1999. Dorris, Michael. “Trusting the Words.” J. D. Stahl, Tina L. Hanlon, Elizabeth Lennox Keyser. Crosscurrents of Children’s Literature: An Anthology of Texts and Criticism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. 966 - 970. Keene, Carolyn. The Hidden Staircase. Random House Inc., Listening Library, 2002. Audiobook. —. The Secret of the Old Clock. Random House, Inc. Listening Library, 2002. Audiobook. Nancy Drew. By Flemming & Paulsen. Dir. Andrew Fleming. Prod. Jerry Weintraub. 2007. Movie. Pacitti, Joanna. “Pretty Much Amazing.” Nancy Drew Soundtrack. cond. Ralph Sall. By Ralph Sall. 2007. Soundtrack. Paretsky, Sara. “Keeping Nancy Drew Alive.” J. D. Stahl, Tina L. Hanlon, Elizabeth Lennox Keyser. Crosscurrents of Children’s Literature: An Anthology of Texts and Criticism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. 642-644. Paterson, Kathern. “Hope and Happy Endings.” Stahl, Hanlon, Keyser. Crosscurrents in Children’s Literature: An Anthology of Texts and Critisicm. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Stolley, Richard B., ed. Life Our Century in Pictures For Young People. Boston, New York, London: Little, Brown And Company, 2000. Stoneley, Peter. Consumerism in American Girl’s Literture; 18601940. Vol. Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture. Cambridge University Press, 2003. <EBSCOhost, libraries.maine.edu/ 28
mainedatabases/authmaine.asp?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/ login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,uid&db=nlebk&AN=1202 86&site=eds-live>. Wilder, Laura Ingalls. Little House in the Big Woods. HarperCollins, 1932. —. Little House on the Prairie. HarperCollins, 1935.
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2D Design
The Blue Blazer Menu By Callie Walker
This was part of our final project. We were given the name of a restaurant and instructed to design a logo, menu, and business card. I wanted to blend together Scottish style with a minimalist/sleek feel to the brand. I also made it a point not to use the color blue as I felt like it would have been too cliché already having it in the name.
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The Blue Blazer Storefront Sign By Callie Walker
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The Blue Blazer Business Card By Callie Walker
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Layout Design
Eyrie Journal Cover By Isaac Brissette
I created this Cover for Printing and Publishing as an option for the annual student journal, The Eyrie.
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Photography
Lemon Blueberry Cake By Aleyne Brown
This was for the food photography assignment for Commercial Photography with Jodi Renshaw in 2017. Not only did I take a picture of this delicious cake, but I made it. Shot using natural light with a Nikon Digital Camera.
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Enamelware Bowls for Possibilities Gift Shop By Aleyne Brown
This was part of a series for our final project for Commercial Photography in 2017, in which we had to offer our photography services to a client. Possibilities is a gift shop in Lincoln, Maine that needed photographs of their new line of blue enamelware. They hoped to use these product shots for their web site. Shot using a Nikon Digital Camera.
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Decay By Peter Hilyard
This image was part of a Fine Art Photography project that was all about lens creativity. Rather than changing things through postprocessing, we experimented with different objects that we could place in front of the lens to achieve a different effect. In this example, I angled a pair of polarized sunglasses toward the lens to achieve a very dark, dingy filter.
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Photoshop
Tyler Joseph By Stella Cashman
This piece was created for an assignment in which we needed to create a self-portrait or the portrait of a celebrity using only the pen tool. The subject is Tyler Joseph, the frontman for the band Twenty Øne Piløts; he’s a singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and rapper. I created this while I was really heavily into Twenty Øne Piløts and while I’m not anymore, I still loved creating this piece.
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The Beginning By Sadie Bills
This was assigned at the end of the semester for me to show what I had learned through the year. I had put some things in the assignment that I loved to show some of who I am.
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Fight Scene By Sadie Bills
This was assigned to create a scene that does not exist currently. I created a scene with a Resident Evil character making him look off the picture trying to make it look like he was fighting something before he had to run across the rocks.
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Supes in Colour By Jim Plowman
Using an image from one of my favorite childhood television shows, I rebuilt the character using a vast amount of pathways and colors to reproduce the lighting that accurately depicted the character.
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Oily Bar By Jim Plowman
I took different images from various online sources and then combined them. Once the scene was designed, I used a variety of smudge and blur tools to give it the appearance of an oil painting.
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The Unknown By Colin Moran
This project was one of my favorites because I have always wanted to push myself to see what I can achieve in photoshop and this is what came to be. She is an unknown evil that came soaring in one day and brought destruction to the rest of the town for a whole week.
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Cabin in the Woods By Colin Moran
For this project we were supposed to take several photos and put them into one scene and then make the images look like it is actually a painting instead of just a bunch of pictures put together. In this scene the man is visiting his old lodge in the woods and playing fetch with this dog.
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Last of Their Kind By Peter Hilyard
For this project, I was required to create a composition that embodied the theme of surreal fantasy. My primary idea was centered around foxes and how I could put together a scene that would transform the idea of foxes from an everyday environment into something more surreal. This is one of my favorite photoshop projects I’d created throughout the semester.
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Big Dreams By Mariam Mohowass
Big dreams was a photoshop creation which combines ten different images together to create an image. The image shows a young lady that is staring into the sky. She is thinking about her dreams and future and everwilde possibilities she could encounter.
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792 By Mariam Mohowass
792 is a painted creation in photoshop where we had to combine images togother and creat them in to a one panting.
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Portrait of Amy Adams By Rubie Kollman
Use of the pen tool in Photoshop to create an illustration of a celebrity.
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Final project By Rubie Kollman
Intro to Photoshop project utilizing all the skills learned throughout the semester.
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Typography
Design Culture Now Poster By Peter Hilyard Jr
This project required me to create a poster using only one font family and the design had to be primarily typographic. My design consisted of simple lines and shapes with color scheme involving bright complementary colors, and the large diagonal element through the middle served as a dynamic that would gather more attention from the viewer. 55
Positive/Negative Space Design By Aidan Qualey
This was another assignment for Typography. This assignment required me to manipulate my initials’ letterforms and the positive / negative space around them in order to combine the letters in an a creative way. The final design had to be legible. I preferred to create my own, and fortunately my professor allowed me. Later during my Graphic web design course, I used my ‘logo’ again, but refined it. I changed the fill to red and added a rounded rectangle behind it,white fill with a thick black stroke. I hope to continue redesigning it and using it for my future career. 56
“A Beautiful Mind” Film Title Redesign By Aidan Qualey
This was an assignment from my Typography course. I redesigned the typographical logo for the film “A Beautiful Mind.” The assignment required me to alter the logo typographically. The film in question is about a university professor who develops schizophrenia. Thus, I decided to incorporate that into my final design.
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Design Culture Now By Callie Walker
Description – For this project, we were given copy to use for a poster design. The idea was to use the only the copy to style the poster rather than images or graphics. I wanted to create a layout that was not only organized and readable, but also interesting enough to want to read what it said. To attempt to pull this off, I used diagonal lines and bold colors and lettering to draw attention. 58
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Culinary
Chef Nathan Scott doing a bread demonstration.
Student Pictured: Sojourn Bentley Photographer: Cara Quagliata 61
Kortnie Stone forming brioche à tête.
Photographer: Cara Quagliata
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Oven-fresh rye bread.
Photographer: Cara Quagliata
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Tyler Jardine putting bread in the proof box.
Photographer: Rakayla Rogan
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Nate Shepherd measuring ingredients.
Photographer: Rakayla Rogan 65
Ready for proofing.
Photographer: Benjamin Falvey
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Chef Kara Van demonstrating brioche à tête.
Other Students: Courtney Day, Nick Lander Photographer: Rakayla Rogan 67
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