The Southport Memorial Library is pleased to announce André Benoit as Artist of the Month in November and December. The artist and physician has collected objects of interesting shapes and sizes all of his life - from the shore to the transfer station.

Wrote Benoit, “Most of my youthful treasures were wooden washed ashore lobster buoys often shaped by the salt water hardened hands of a fisherman equally skilled in sculpting half models and duck decoys out of season. Less colorful and less unique were brass shell casings found at a pre-WW1 coastal defense installation that abutted my grandmother's property.

“My early paintings were primarily dry brush watercolor and my recent work in oil and acrylic. In my professional life as a physician I had the good fortune of living in a primarily marine oriented community which provided work for many skilled ships carpenters as well as a vacation destination for many third and fourth generation families occupying turn-of-the-century cottages stressed by strong wind and repetitive wetting and drying requiring the need for replacement of porch trim and other ornamental details of Victorian cottage architecture.

“Over the past 15 years I had growing interest in assemblage sculpture - struck by the initial work of Louise Nevelson where entropy was allowed to invade later more organized eclectic wooden collections as well as the creative designs and animal representation of Bernard Langlais who utilized flotsam, jetsam and found wood that he often would distress in innumerable ways.

A template for my wooden assemblages or constructs, as some people refer to them, was chosen when I witnessed the disposal of multiple desks and bureaus, and other cabinet like structures containing drawers, that had been inhabited by mice and squirrels during the winter in vacated cottages. The drawers I prefer are dovetailed and exhibit a century of patina. Nearly all have to be cut down to a depth of approximately 3 inches to prevent room intrusion when hung on the wall or excessive shadowing of the component pieces.

What I choose to represent may range from maritime iconic to impressionistic and their coloration mono to multi-chromic. With abstractions, I generally attempt to create more than one focal point to maintain eye-movement through the composition beyond a single glance.

“ Although it is easy to comment on what my intent was with each piece that I complete, I prefer to tell of the circumstances surrounding the acquiring of the composite pieces as many come from interesting circumstances, occurrences and human interaction as well as often from viewer unrecognized prior use or purpose.”

The Southport Memorial Library is located at 1032 Hendricks Hill Road, Southport Island. Call 207-633-2741 for hours.