Artist Statement

Though I consider myself primarily a painter, I move between painting, sculpture and installation. Much of my work begins with the human body. I think of the body as a place where strength and vulnerability can exist at the same time. Figures move, reach, hold, fall, rise, and sometimes simply remain. Birds have at times become companions to these figures and a language of their own. They move between earth and sky, carrying ideas of courage, compassion, resilience, and becoming.

Water often enters my work. I use washes to obscure, reveal, dissolve, and begin again. The washing can become a kind of ritual act for me. I never know what might emerge after parts have been washed away.  Renewal is often what I am reaching for.

I want my work to stay open...to hold the tension between what is here and what is disappearing, between being grounded and taking flight. I’m less interested in resolution than in that quiet, unsettled place in between.

For me, making art is a way of holding what it means to be human...to be alive.  We change, lose, love...and simply keep becoming.

Education

MFA, San Francisco Art Institute, 1990
MA, Lesley College, Art Therapy, 2000
Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, Hangzhou, China, 1986
BFA Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1980–83

Authored Works

Remember the bird, Yvonne Maiden, Maine Arts Journal, Spring 2025

Fellowships and Awards

Springboard Grant, Maine Arts Commission, 2025–26
Fellowship in Painting and Related Writings, Vermont Studio Center, 2009
Fellowship in Painting, Vermont Studio Center, 2007
Mural Project Grant, University of Michigan, Medical Center Campus, 1982

Related Experience

Visiting Artist Lecturer, Lesley College, Cambridge, MA, 1999
Curator/Artist, Women’s Ways, exhibition for trauma survivors, Charles River Hospital, Wellesley, MA, 1999
Stage Design Development, Pickle Family Circus, San Francisco, CA, 1991
Adjunct Faculty (Painting & Drawing), San Francisco Art Institute, Summer Program, 1990-91

Additional Experience

Art therapist, educator, and consultant supporting individuals and communities across Maine, 2002–2015

Selected Solo Exhibitions/Installations

A Paler Shade, Maine Jewish Museum, Portland, Maine, 2024–25
Burdens of the Bird, Parsonage Gallery, Searsport, Maine, 2024
Meditations, outdoor forest installation, Bar Harbor, Maine, 2005
A Woman’s Lament, installation with sound, sculpture, and candles, Lesley College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2000
Sacred, light-based installation with printed and sewn Mylar, Lesley College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1998
Closure, paintings and earthen sculpture, Aziz Gallery, San Francisco, 1991
Earthen Channels, grounds installation of clay forms, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1983

Selected Group Exhibitions/Collaborations

Conduits of care, UNE Art Gallery, Portland, Maine, 2026-27. S.N.O.W., Sidle House Gallery, Freeport, Maine, 2026. With the current, 82Parris Gallery, Portland, Maine, 2025.  Little Sparks, Lights Out Gallery, Norway, Maine, 2023.   Summer Invitational Exhibition, Parsonage Gallery, Searsport, Maine, 2023.   Open Studio, Portland, Maine, 2023.  I’m inside a painting, Invitational short film collaboration, 2022.   Yvonne Maiden, The interview, invitational short film interview collaboration, 2022.   Drawings and Paintings, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, 2010.   Open Studio Project, MDI artists' group, Maine, 2009.   Lost and Found, Schoodic School House,  Northeast Harbor, Maine, 2008.   Human Form, Shaw Gallery,  Southeast Harbor, Maine, 2007.   Body Parts, Maine Center for Contemporary Art/June Fitzpatrick Gallery/Maine College of Art, Portland, Maine, 2007.   Juried Annual, Lesley Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, 2006. Works on Paper, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, 2005.   UMVA Best Works, Ethel H. Blum Gallery, College of Atlantic,  Bar Harbor, Maine, 2004.   Shelter, Ethel H. Blum Gallery, College of Atlantic,  Bar Harbor, Maine, 2003.   Maiden and Shetterly, Gallery Untitled, Sedgwick, Maine, 2003.   Flight, Wendell Gilley Museum,  Southwest Harbor, Maine, 2002.   Best Works, Ethel H. Blum Gallery, College of Atlantic,  Bar Harbor, Maine, 2002;   Selections, Lesley College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2000.   Still-lights, Lesley College,  Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1999.   Transitions, Lesley College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1998.   Self Images, Pierpoint Commons Gallery,  Arbor, Michigan, 1997.   Turning Point, Maiden and Duso (Oboist), Installation with paintings and sounds for oboe, Kerrytown Concert House,  Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1997.   Open Studio Project, Jerusalem, Israel, 1994. Selections, The Point,  San Francisco, California, 1993. Pro Arts Annual, (Curator, Jacquelynn Bass, University Art Museum of Berkeley, California), Pro Arts, Oakland, California, 1990.   Selections, (Honored artist), Walter and McBean Gallery,  San Francisco, California, 1989.   Small/Big, SFAI Market Street Gallery,  San Francisco, California, 1988.   Selected Works, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, California, 1987.   Ink Works, Zhejiang Gallery,  Zhejiang Academy of Art,  Hangzhou, China, 1986.   Maiden and Pfruender, Goethe Institute, San Francisco, California, 1985.    Invitational Eastern Slope Exhibition (NEA funded), Gallery East, Eastern Utah College, Price, Utah, 1984.   Selections, University of Michigan Gallery,  Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1982 

Bibliography 

Jorge S. Arango, “At Maine Jewish Museum viewers invited on personal journeys”, Portland Press Herald, 2024.   

Lisa Kristoff, “Parsonage Gallery…Yvonne Maiden”, Pen-Bay Pilot, 2024.   

Nan Lincoln, “Lost and Found,” Bar Harbor Times, 2008.

Alice Fricassa, “Human Form at Shaw’s”, Bar Harbor Times/Mount Desert Islander, 2007.

Bob Keyes, “Body Parts,” Portland Press Herald, 2007.   

Jetsun Penkalski, "Mood Meets Narrative",  Ellsworth American, February, 2002. 

Jetsun Penkalski, "Art Takes Flight...", Ellsworth American, November, 2002.

Kenneth Baker, “…Pro Arts Annual,” San Francisco Chronicle, 1990.   

Celeste Conner, “Body as Leitmotif,” Artweek Magazine, 1990.