Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

THURSDAY OPINIONIt's a painted oil tank, but is it art?

— Well, that'll teach me to stay quiet and invisible!

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Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer: Painting of the tank at the Sprague Energy terminal in South Portland should be finished by mid-week next week. The design by artist Jaime Gili was chosen from 560 entries submitted. Here, workers paint the top of the tank on Tuesday, October 27, 2009.

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I've recently read the article about the commencement of the Maine Center for Creativity's project to paint the tanks at Sprague Energy in South Portland and have also followed (quietly and invisibly) the efforts of this group over the past few years, as reported by the Press Herald and other media, to promote and foster Maine's creative economy through such a high-visibility project.

I like the idea of painting such a giant canvas. What a challenge!

Makes my fingers itch to get into my own tiny studio and splash some paint on a 16-by-230, celebrating the magic of mixing colors, developing an idea, stepping back to gain perspective and eventually setting down the brushes and feeling that rush of ''hey, that's neat!''

Art grabs and pulls us out of mediocrity, offering soothing to the soul, warmth to the heart and perhaps even a lightening of the step.

''(Jaime) Gili's abstract design of sharp, jagged angles, meant to represent explosions and movement onto the 36-foot-tall oil tank'' (The Forecaster, Oct. 21) is going to have to work hard to soothe my soul, warm my heart and lighten my step. No matter how I work to let it.

At best, I'll be soothing my head with migraine medication. Maine is pine forests, and the spectacular coastline, and sailboats, and moose, and lighthouses, and islands, and fishing boats and Native peoples -- and so much more than jagged angles that represent explosions.

I don't want to see those migraine auras of explosions from the highway or from the air, and I very much do not want our visitors from near and far to thing that this is the way life should be in Maine. It's not.

It is the nature of oil storage tanks to be boring to the eye. To undertake to paint 16 of them out of their mediocrity -- wow! What an opportunity for a statement to be made on behalf of all of Maine -- here we are, this is what we are all about.

Yup, I know, too late. The dye is cast, the paint is on the palette, the project is underway. And when the paint buckets are emptied, the brushes are finally set down, and we step back to gain perspective, what then?

Well, that's teach us to stay quiet and invisible!

Judith Manion

South Portland

Obama's record not exactly one worth boasting about

Let's just take a closer look at ''the good judgment'' of our president as recently referred to by a reader:

Trillions of dollars in deficit on a stimulus bill that isn't stimulating; a health care bill debacle that is less about reform and more about government control (Why the rush? Concerned that people all over the country and even in Congress are beginning to catch on?); a concerted attack on Fox News for bringing the truth (i.e. anything that is in opposition to his radical agenda); the appointment of several czars (not elected) who have admitted to having Marxist/communist/revolutionary ideologies (Van Jones was one who was fired only because his cover was blown by Glenn Beck at Fox News); and his close association with the national union SEIU.

Then there is the government takeover of the auto and banking industries, using strong-arm tactics in regards to lending, salary caps and free-enterprise compensations; wavering on military needs in Afghanistan; gifting British leaders with videotapes of his own campaign speeches; allowing the demonization of our CIA (thus undermining security) -- to cite a few ''judgment'' calls.

For those interested in hearing the truth, tune into Beck on Fox at 5 p.m. on weekdays.

The town meetings, tea parties and now the New Jersey and Virginia elections are a referendum against runaway, corrupt government! Time for us all to wake up and stand for the values and principles.

Our free society is threatened by the ''judgment'' of this demagogue president and his Congress. It is no longer about a political party. It is about the survival of democracy and freedom for our children and grandchildren.

Donna Fenton

Scarborough

Despite repeated efforts, it's hard to reach Rep. Pingree

Over the past several weeks I have utilized her Web site to contact U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree on various matters.

My first request was for a copy of House Bill 3200. In response I received a rather bland form letter, but no bill has been forthcoming.

My second communication expressed my concern regarding her vote to effectively kill a resolution requiring Rep. Charles Rangel to step down from his committee chairmanship while the House Ethics Committee continues its seemingly endless investigation of numerous widely reported allegations of ethics violations by the congressman. There has been no response to this communication.

Most recently I asked Rep. Pingree if she was troubled by the statement of White House Communications Director Anita Dunn in which Ms. Dunn stated that Mao Zedong was one of the people that she looked to first for philosophical guidance.

As yet, there has been no response to this inquiry. I find this repeated lack of response very troubling and, I hope that it does not represent a general policy of ignoring constituent requests that might be troublesome.

Gary Reed

Falmouth

Let's preserve old homes while winterizing them

While the goal of significantly reducing the energy consumed by Maine's existing housing stock is commendable, the remedies described in a recent article on the ''deep retrofit'' of a house in Freeport are misguided (''House retrofit test seeks super-efficiency,'' Oct. 5).

Unlike the rest of the country, New England is fortunate to have a wealth of architecturally significant houses from the early 20th, 19th and even 18th centuries.

The project house in Freeport is just one example of the type of vernacular Victorian architecture found throughout Maine.

To build a second exterior wall over the existing exterior would eradicate all of the original architectural details. Replacing the windows would further alter the original architecture.

Wouldn't a better approach be to fund research into how to effectively winterize Maine's older homes without sacrificing our architectural heritage in the process?

Daniel Garte, AIA

Yarmouth