Photo “Thorofare” by Peter Ralston
By Peter Ralston
This “hug from Maine” is one that I first sent your way back on April 19th, 2020, when I was first starting to send these notes. It was my seventh such message!
Yes this is a “recycle” and it propels me back in time to a period that now seems decades ago. We were all seriously battening down as COVID swept the world and re-visiting this has a surreal time-warp quality to it. I hope that you and yours—that your community—made it through the pandemic as well as we generally did here. We were blessed with superb leadership in the form of our Governor Janet Mills whose “tough love” saved a lot of lives… Maine consistently had the lowest COVID rates in the country.
But just as then, so too do we now luxuriate in the return of spring… some things never change. Ah, the profound blessing—and luxury—of more light and returning warmth. Spring always feels like hope incarnate to me!
From here, all cheers,
Peter
The following was originally sent August 16th, 2020:
Dear Friends,
Slowly, slowly we trend into spring and thank our lucky stars for that. Here’s another little selection for you… of Maine, from Maine.
It’s eerily quiet along the coast now. Hereabouts we’re taking the present historic challenges extremely seriously but we know that this too shall pass and our streets and harbors will once again bustle when the current storm clears. How we look forward to seeing you back here then!
Meanwhile, Thorofare is an old favorite of mine which speaks of all that the coast and islands offer… beauty, diversity and, most of all, the resolve and character of our working communities; Waterman recalls our time on, in and around the water here and the blessing of its presence in our lives; and Prophets which references not only an island determination to be independent and environmentally responsible, but also a sense of bifurcation, of two different worlds… one blanketed by an immense fog bank and the other, risen above the cloak, still out in the sun, somehow free. And finally, an image I made two days ago, Distancing, April. I know I needn’t elaborate upon this one.



Distancing, April
We hope that you and yours are finding at least a few silver linings in all of this; who knows, it’s possible that wonderful things we can scarcely imagine may result from our present situation. In any event, take great good care out there.
Ralston Gallery, 23 Central Street, Rockport, ME 04856
Instagram: @peterinmaine
Email: info@ralstongallery.com
Copyright 2024 Peter Ralston
Ralston Gallery, 23 Central Street, Rockport, ME 04856
Instagram: @peterinmaine
Email: info@ralstongallery.com
Copyright 2024 Peter Ralston