Sue West, art teacher at the Chewonki Semester School in Wiscasset, doesn't consider herself a writer.

But her words find their place in the former Wiscasset resident's favorite form of artwork to create: artist's books.

“These are unique things, ways to create art and put it in mostly a sequential fashion,” she said. The works can be multi-media, including watercolor, ink, pencil and charcoal.

A poem, like the one in an artist's book she did about beech trees in Brookline, Mass., can help convey an experience West is sharing.

She writes in “City Branches”:

“As I move the pen around the page,

the sweeping branches and deep roots

 remind me of intricate maps —

 of rivers, roads, and subway lines.

 “In the midst of Boston, these gray limbs

 have quietly grown into complex sculptures,

 while the city around them hurries

 toward a comparable complexity

 with its own wild branchings

 of asphalt and steel.”

West's book will be on display starting January 14 at the Saco Museum. It's one of more than 40 works in a Maine Art Education Association exhibit that ends March 1.

“I'm really excited to be a part of it,” West, 57, of Brunswick said December 27.

West is on a year's sabbatical from Chewonki, to focus on her artwork.

She's worked at Chewonki since 1979 and has taught at the semester school for 25 years. “I love teaching students to experiment with art and to push themselves, especially people who have not done a lot of art before,” she said. “I want them to realize it’s about learning to see, and to be patient, and that, with practice, they can do amazing things.”

The semester program draws high school juniors and seniors from around the country. The campus' natural setting and the owls and other animals in Chewonki's care provide ample inspiration for art classes, West said.

“Your breath is taken away by these amazing birds, and the whole (Chewonki Neck) peninsula is an amazing resource.”

West’s portrait-artist father Ed West inspired her to get into art; her daughter, 2011 Wiscasset High School graduate Margaret West, is creative, too, the art teacher said. “She's an amazing writer.”

For the Saco Museum's hours and rates, call 207-283-3861, or go to www.dyerlibrarysacomuseum.org.