Painting Islands - Uniting Community with Art

This personal art project of Howie Motenko used participatory art and the photographic technique of light painting on all the 15 year-round Maine Islands. His idea was to assemble a team of resident island volunteers who, wielding flashlights, would “paint” an iconic scene with light while he created a long-exposure photograph. Howie partnered with the Maine Seacoast Mission and the Island Institute as a conduit to begin a dialogue with each local island community and travel support to each of the islands during the shoot. The project kicked off in May of 2014.

The project is funded in part by the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.