WHS art teacher expands his creativity beyond classroom with goal of community through murals

By Sophia Atherton

Art has always been a part of Joe McLaughlin’s life, and he wanted to share the love of creativity by becoming an art teacher. But little did he know how far his love for painting would take him. McLaughlin, who currently teaches painting, street art, printmaking, and drawing at Windham High School, has broadened his canvas beyond the classroom and onto walls of businesses throughout Maine.

Windham High School art teacher Joe McLaughlin finds
artwork, including murals, to be a rewarding opportunity
to create transformation and change the way people
experience the world. Here he shows a mural he painted
for Big Swing Golf Sim in Windham.
PHOTO BY LORRAINE GLOWCZAK 

Recently, you’ll find McLaughlin’s talented artwork at a few businesses in Windham including the Big Swing Golf Sim. He explains how that opportunity took place.

"My first public mural came about unexpectedly,” McLaughlin said. “While visiting Flight Deck Brewing in Brunswick, I noticed a large white wall at the entrance and immediately wanted to fill that blank space with artwork. I asked the owners what they planned to do with it. When they told me they didn't have any plans, I suggested a mural.”

That project led to a second mural for the brewery and showed McLaughlin the power of community connections and word-of-mouth recommendations. He not only enjoys painting for businesses and community members, but also the relationship that art creates.

“I've met incredible people and have been given opportunities I never would have expected. I enjoy the interactions with the owners and patrons and seeing their excitement at the outcome, watching their business and space grow from just a shell of a room to an art installation."

He said that he has painted subjects that he never imagined doing, from aviation scenes to bees and golf courses, and his murals have taken him to places he otherwise might never have visited.

One of McLaughlin's favorite parts about creating murals is watching the pieces come together.

“Seeing the progress each time I complete the next step is very rewarding to me,” he said.

McLaughlin also finds artwork rewarding because it has the power to create transformation and change the way people experience the world.

"Art has always been a part of my life. I've been teaching art for 25 years at every grade level, from kindergarten through high school, but my passion for drawing and painting began long before I ever stepped into a classroom,” he said.

When McLaughlin was in high school, he said he was always creating, and that passion eventually grew into painting murals. His parents gave him the freedom and the space to paint a wall in his bedroom. At first, it was just one wall that featured a mural of Jerry Garcia, then before he knew it, every wall in his room was painted. The support of his parents gave him more than just a spark for mural painting but in changing the way he looked at blank walls.

Although painting, drawing and street art come naturally to McLaughlin, he admits that some things do not come easily while creating murals professionally.

“Some challenges that I face include scaling up a small drawing,” McLaughlin said. “When designing the golf ball, for example, I sometimes need to make changes on the wall adjusting the size from the original sketch. I will need to scale and proportion the artwork, so everything doesn’t appear too massive or too small.”

McLaughlin also takes a lot of photographs and will look at them at home to discover how things can be improved, learning to deviate from the original sketch.

“I also receive a lot of help from my wife, Kristin, and sometimes we work as a team to improve the artwork,” he said.

McLaughlin's view on the value of public art in the community was formed from traveling nationally and internationally.

“Sometimes public art can change the landscape of downtrodden communities and become a tourist attraction,” McLaughlin said. “Even changing the energy of a space. When things are so divisive these days, art can act as a universal language to bring people together."

McLaughlin’s love of art is more than a creative and teaching endeavor and, as a result, he hopes to add more art in the Windham and Raymond areas.

“Ultimately, I hope my work inspires others to see the value of art,” he said. “Murals have the power to transform businesses and strengthen communities.”

For his next mural, McLaughlin has been commissioned to provide artwork for a private individual in Casco. <

Restored 1802 Windham map focus of historical presentation

By Ed Pierce

Famed American author Brené Brown once said that "Maps are the most important documents in human history as they are the history of human perception." That may be the case right here in Windham as a new presentation on Monday night will examine a 224-year-old map of the town.

During a presentation at the Little Meetinghouse in Windham
on Monday, April 27, participants will be able to see an 1802
map of North Windham drawn on fabric. The map was 
recently discovered by Raymond Philpot of Windham 
among a box of family artifacts. SUBMITTED PHOTO     

Windham Historical Society member Carol Manchester says that earlier this year, Raymond Philpot, a lifelong resident of Windham, discovered the map when he was given a box of historic Windham items by a family member and an 1802 drawing of the North Windham section of town was contained among the artifacts.

“He believes it was sketched on some sort of fabric,” Manchester said.

Because this document is important to the Windham Historical Society, but very delicate and expensive for them to restore, a decision was made to turn the map over to the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education at the University of Southern Maine for restoration and display with a commitment that the historical society would be given a representation or copy of the map.

The map was conserved by Green Dragon bindery of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts and features an 1802 drawing and manuscript map by Lothrop Snow of the plans of the last division of the town of Windham.

Libby Bischof, Executive Director of the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education at USM has examined the map and will offer a free presentation open to the public and lead a discussion about the map starting at 7 p.m. Monday, April 27 at the Little Meetinghouse, 719 Roosevelt Trail in Windham. Bischof’s presentation is called “Mapping Windham Across Time.”

Bischof is a history professor and the inaugural University Historian at USM where she has taught courses in Maine History, History and Photography, Popular Culture, and Public History for the past 18 years. A visual and cultural historian of the 19th and 20th centuries, Bischof is interested in the way in which friendship informs cultural production, especially in relation to landscape and place. 

She believes deeply in site-based, hands-on education and the ways in which teaching local and regional history can lead to deeper civic engagement. In an earlier program for Windham Historical Society, Bischof gave a presentation regarding the history and manufacture of postcards.

Prior to being settled by Europeans, most of Southern Maine, including Windham, was land of the Abenaki tribe of Native Americans. Associated with the Algonquin Nation, the Abenaki lived from the Maritime Provinces of Canada through upstate New York and Ontario.

There were many seasonal Abenaki settlements between the White Mountains and Casco Bay with local lakes and rivers used for travel for thousands of years.

Historians say that the Windham area was first settled by Europeans in 1737. Massachusetts Bay colony granted land to a group of individuals and families primarily from Marblehead, Massachusetts. These settlers named the township New Marblehead, and the township was incorporated as the Town of Windham in 1762.

Windham’s early economy in Windham focused on agriculture and forestry, but the next phase of Windham’s growth centered on industrialization and manufacturing driven by power generated by the Presumpscot and Pleasant Rivers.

By 1940, Windham’s population of Windham was about 2,000 people and since then it has increased to more than 19,000.

Those attending Bischof’s presentation will be able to see the newly conserved map in person. Light refreshments will be served and although the event is free, a $5 donation is suggested at the door.

For more details about the Windham Historical Society, visit https://www.windhamhistorical.org/ <

Mapmaker uses artistic skills to help those in need

By Ed Pierce

A map can tell you where you’ve been, where you are, and where you’re going and for one local mapmaker, his maps also are making a difference in the community.

Sam Merriam, the president of
Great Northern Docks, has been
making maps of local lakes for
the past 10 years. Proceeds from
map sales have been donated to
assist area food pantries. This
month the proceeds from online
map sales will benefit hurricane
victims in the south.
SUBMITTED PHOTO  

Sam Merriam of Great Northern Docks in Naples comes from an artistic family and became interested in cartography, the art and science of representing a geographical area on a vintage-style map about 10 years ago. One of his brothers, Tom, is a wildlife artist and sculptor and another brother, Dan, is a watercolor artist.

“They have been an inspiration to me,” Merriam said. “I’ve always enjoyed illustrations ever since I was a child, and art is a thing in my family.”

While visiting Waterboro’s Little Ossipee Lake in 2014, he decided to create a map through his work as President of Great Northern Docks and offer it to the public. He needed a place to distribute the map, and he found it at the Lakeside Market owned at the time by Sandy and Leo Binnette.

“I went to them and wanted to get the maps out there,” he said. “But I felt there would be no perceived value for them if they were free. I told them they can sell them, and they agreed. We set a suggested price, and they said they would donate 100 percent of sales from the maps to the local food pantry. I thought it was generous and that set everything into motion.”

Since then, Merriam has done the same thing for other local lakes and has produced maps for Long Lake, Brandy Pond, Sebago Lake and many others with proceeds from sales benefitting local food pantries in the Lakes Region.

“Every time I put a map out, I get requests for others I don’t have,” he said. “I’m up to 20 now and not ready to stop. It has given me such a sense of fulfillment.”

Most of his maps are completed in the winter. He starts with paper and a pencil and then determines how his idea will lay out on the page.

“Sometimes the borders will be different and there will be different illustrations. I figure out to use the art comprehensively with each map,” Merriam said.

The maps also include text for information such as the names of islands or coves, and sometimes local roads.

“The whole thing is a piece of art,” he said. “When it’s all finished it’s a piece of art to be put on a wall.

Each drawing is done by Merriam freehand with India ink and he sits and does a composite to put it all together as an 11 x 17 in a vertical and portrait type of presentation. It usually takes him about two to three weeks to complete each map from start to finish.

“They turn out, for the most part, to be mainly the vision I started with,” he said. “Another of my brothers Seth is a graphic artist, and he helps me in the editing phase and the graphic design of making the maps.”

His goal right now is to focus on making maps of the Sebago Lake region including Peabody Pond in Bridgton and Pleasant Lake in Casco. When those projects are finished, Merriam intends to wrap up local lakes and then move on to making a map of Casco Bay and eventually Moosehead Lake.

Among favorite maps that he’s worked on so far is the one he did of Moose Pond in Bridgton.

“I love the way the antlers came out on that one,” Merriam said. “It’s long jagged splash art that I’m happy with. I also enjoyed a map I created of Yarmouth as it has an interesting shoreline.”

Some of his maps have illustrations buried in them that you need to search to find the illustrations because you won’t see them anywhere else.

“I created one where the border depicts the story,” Merriam said. “Another was a lakebed with arrowheads. I enjoy hiding imagery in these maps, it’s the art of entertainment and perpetuates the message of giving subtlety. That would make art more purposeful. My aim is to create each map to have a positive impact.”

Merriam also plays piano and admits that he’s not the best artist or illustrator but is proud of what he’s accomplished through his mapmaking.

“You have to take what you’ve got, and somebody will like what you do,” he said. “Everybody’s needed. If you help or inspire one person in a positive way, you’re not wasted.”

Artistic lake maps of local lakes produced by Great Northern Docks are available at local stores or by visiting https://greatnortherndocks.com/maps/

From now until Oct. 31, for every map purchased all proceeds will be donated for hurricane relief to areas devastated by Hurricane Helen and Hurricane Milton in the Southern United States. <