“Mandala,” digital art work by Kate Quinn Sibole. Submitted photo

FARMINGTON—The UMF Art Gallery is pleased to open the 2022-2023 season with “Mandala” and “Push Pull Place”—exhibitions of new and ongoing digital work by Kate Quinn Sibole. The exhibit will be on display at the University of Maine at Farmington gallery from Sept. 1  through Oct. 8, 2022, with an opening reception on Thursday, Sept. 1 from 5-7 p.m. The exhibit is free and open to the public.

In Mandala, Sibole explores the symbol of the universe in ideal form, the process of the form’s creation signifying the transformation of suffering and worry into joy and beauty. Working on these “digital meditations” on and off for the past 10+ years, Sibole’s practice with them resurfaced in a more intentional way in 2020.

The mandalas have become her almost daily meditation. They are a way to center and ground her presence in the moments when nothing else feels balanced or tenable. Even as a quest for completeness and self-unity, still they are elusive. The push and pull of the digital format yields infinitesimal outcomes. So on and on the process grows. Because will we ever be complete?

“Push Pull Place,” digital art work by Kate Quinn Sibole Submitted photo

In a new body of work based in the Maine landscape, Push Pull Place, Sibole finds inspiration in the words of poet Victoria Erickson:
“Listen to the night as the night knows your truths, your stories, your aches, your dreams, your cravings, your forgotten memories; not so forgotten.”
This series of photographs is the artist’s slow roll to the edge of memory. She asks, can we step fully into a beautiful place graced by warm sun, tender waves, and grounding earth? Do we bring with us the layers of worry, imbalance, and fear? We can’t have one without the other. It is an overwhelming frustration – push without the pull?

Tomorrow is mixed with today and all the yesterdays that have come before or are yet to be. How can an image only ever sit with one version of time and place? Memory, grief, love…they are doorways. A doorway is neither and both of the rooms it connects. And yet it’s not its own room at all.

Kate Sibole received her MFA in Photography & Animation at The School of Visual Arts in NYC. Since 1999 she has been professor and department chair of Communications and New Media Studies at Southern Maine Community College. She is also a mother, cat wrangler, beekeeper and chaos gardener.

The UMF Art Gallery is dedicated to bringing contemporary art to the campus and regional communities. The gallery is located at 246 Main Street, behind the Admissions Office. Gallery hours are Tuesdays-Sundays 12-4 p.m., and by appointment. Please contact Sarah at maline@maine.edu or 778-1062 for more information or to make an appointment.