Open to the public
Time
12 – 1pm
About the Speaker
Robert Shetterly was born in 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He graduated in 1969 from Harvard College with a degree in English Literature. At Harvard he took some courses in drawing which changed the direction of his creative life — from the written word to the image. Also, during this time, he was active in Civil Rights and in the Anti-Vietnam War movement. After college and moving to Maine in 1970, he taught himself drawing, printmaking, and painting. While trying to become proficient in printmaking and painting, he illustrated widely. For twelve years he did the editorial page drawings for The Maine Times newspaper and illustrated National Audubon’s children’s newspaper Audubon Adventures and approximately 30 books. For more than 20 years he has been painting the series of portraits Americans Who Tell the Truth. These portraits have been traveling around the country since 2003. Each series contains 50 portraits, two series are titled “Portraits of Racial Justice” (2021) and “Portraits of Earth Justice” (2022).
The portraits have given Shetterly an opportunity to speak with children and adults all over this country about the necessity of dissent in a democracy, the obligations of citizenship, sustainability, US history, and how democracy cannot function if politicians do not tell the truth, if the media doesn’t report it, and if the people do not demand it. Much of his current work focuses on the intersections of climate change, systemic racism and militarism.
Funded by the generous support of the TD Charitable Foundation.