NEWS CENTER MAINE: Artists celebrate Maine’s dark skies at Belfast exhibit
The exhibit featuring paintings, photographs, and mixed-media artworks from more than 40 different artists across the state.
Author: Drew Peters
Published: 1:09 PM EST January 19, 2025
BELFAST, Maine — For as long as she can remember, Maine artist Emily Sabino has loved spending her time drawing the night sky.
“You can see the moon, you can see the stars, and it just brings us all together,” Sabino said while standing next to a circular painted canvas. “This right here is sort of an homage to natural cycles while we sleep and to just celebrate darkness.”
And with the help of curators at the Waterfall Arts Gallery in Belfast, she and other Maine artists are getting to share what they find so special about the darkness of Maine’s sky.
“The artists who contributed work to the show understand how precious it is, and they want people to think about that and know that we need to protect our dark skies,” Waterfall Arts Program Director Amy Tingle explained.
Photographer Liv Kristin Robinson said her series of photos, inspired by nighttime drives with her husband, helped her discover the unseen beauty of darkness.
“It just made you realize there’s a whole other world in the night sky,” Kristin Robinson said.
While every piece of art represents the creator’s connection to the sky in some way, many of them also carry a message about the importance of preserving Maine’s dark skies.
“This artwork has to do with the transmission of seeds at night, a lot of pollinators actually pollinate plants at night,” Sabino said, “We think of bumblebees, but moths are actually a really important part of the cycle of life.”
Dark Sky Maine Director Nancy Hathaway said Maine holds some of the last truly dark skies in the region, with little light pollution in areas like the Northern Maine woods and Down East.
“There’s a big black hole on the map, and that’s the dark sky area,” Hathaway said.
Despite Maine having considerable amounts of dark sky, Hathaway said the impacts of light pollution can still be seen by humans and animals alike.
“The American Medical Association has actually done some research on breast and prostate cancer and their relationship to exposure of different lights,” Hathaway explained.
With exhibits like this as well as implementing little adjustments, like turning your outside lights off at night and replacing your bulbs with warmer color lights, Hathaway says we can work to keep Maine’s sky beautiful and dark.
“It’s wonderful, so many people are passionate about saving the night sky,” Hathaway said.