Atlantica - 01.12.2006, Page 39

MAINE a
AT L A N T I CA 37
“You wouldn’t be stretched to find me searching
around a dumpster if I see something cool.”
In 1997, Patricio was commissioned by MTV
to make eight framed dressing mirrors for its
then-new studio in Times Square. Nine years
later, the mirrors still hang. He is often commis-
sioned to frame work by local artists, including
painter Matt Welch, and he has also made fur-
niture for the CEO of the well-heeled Sundance
Catalogue.
I count 11 different workspaces in Patricio’s
4,000-square foot space, five ceiling fans, one
basketball hoop, and who-the-hell-knows how
many gallons of finish. Wood of all shapes, sizes,
widths, and colors are piled against the walls of
the one-time rigging warehouse with a view
of the water where Patricio, a Hawaiian native
who’s been living in Portland for 20 years, lives
and works with his girlfriend and his son, Kai.
His buzzwords: “texture, color, scale.” It’s
in the age of the wood, the patina, and the
richness of the colors – from layers of accumu-
lated paints aged over time and the harshness
of coastal Maine weather – where he finds the
greatest beauty. A more formal phrase for this,
he explains, is Wabi-Sabi, a Japanese concept
grounded in the idea of transience.
“I find beauty in things on the verge of decay.
You see, most woodworkers need and want very
precise tools. All of mine are very basic. I actu-
ally want these saw marks here.” He points to
an unfinished frame. “They represent 100 years
of history.”
5 pm: Sweetser’s Apple Barrel and Orchards
The apple doesn’t seem to fall too far from the
tree in the Sweetser family.
Connie and Dick Sweetser are sixth generation
Maine orchardists. They sell their hand-picked
apples in white paper bags from the wooden
fruit stand in front of their 14-acre home in
Cumberland, a small but rapidly growing town
15 minutes north of Portland. The homestead
has been in the family since 1810.
“My great, great grandfather, Sam, did some of
the planting out there,” says Dick Sweetser, 80,
After 80 years of apple tasting,
Dick’s favorite is still the
classic McIntosh.
CONNIE AND DICK SWEETSER
Scenes from Portland, Wiscasset, Cumberland, and Kennebunkport, Maine.
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