Artist Statement

My paintings explore the tension between strength and vulnerability—between what is held and what slips away. Figures, birds, and elemental forms emerge and dissolve within layered compositions that echo the wash of memory: blurred, reappearing, half-known. These images hover, dissolve, and reform, like emotional states just beneath the surface.

While my work has drawn comparisons to the emotional immediacy of Marlene Dumas and the visual clarity of Alex Katz, my focus lies elsewhere. I am less interested in provocation or detachment and more drawn to what lingers—what dissolves and returns. I seek to hold a quiet middle space where memory and emotion pass through the body of the image. My muted palette allows tenderness, ambiguity, and presence to surface without demand.

Through gestural abstraction and figuration, I aim not to resolve, but to resonate. The work invites introspection—offering a space where the spiritual and the visual meet, and where viewers may recognize something of their own interior.

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

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, 2000
Sacred, light-based installation with printed and sewn Mylar, Lesley College, 1998
Closure, paintings and earthen sculpture, Aziz Gallery, San Francisco, 1991
Earthen Channels, grounds installation of clay forms, University of Michigan, 1983

Selected Group Exhibitions/Collaborations

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, Duso and Maiden, 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.  (NEA Funded) Invitational Eastern Slope Exhibition, 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.