Damariscotta’s Lincoln Theater is pleased to present another round of Talking Art in Maine: Intimate conversations.  This free series featuring talks between artist, Jane Dahmen, and notable artists and curators who have made a substantial contribution to the arts in the state of Maine kicks off its fifth season with special guest, Sam Cady on Thursday, Jan. 10 at 7 p.m.

Sam Cady is an American visual artist who was born in Boothbay Harbor, in 1943. He received his BA from the University of New Hampshire in 1965 and his MFA from Indiana University in 1967. He is currently an instructor in the Master of Fine Arts Program at the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Cady’s large scale, shaped canvas paintings often blur the boundary between painted illusion and the three-dimensional world that we inhabit. Remarkably, it is often not until you walk up close to the large, cut-out compositions that you can be sure that you are looking at a two-dimensional flat surface and not a three-dimensional sculpture, or a painting with pieces of the real thing fastened to it, or even the object itself. This trompe l’œil (literally, fool the eye) is key to Cady’s realism, although in his hands this venerable technique serves as a playful means to an end rather than as a deliberate final product.

In Sam Cady’s art it is we, the viewers, who occupy the artist’s places and structures. We are engaged; we study the paintings, ponder the subjects as though seeing them for the first time, and provide our own context. Cady’s work beckons us to become the contemplative observers.

And mark your calendars for our next two guests; Charlie Hewitt, Thursday, Feb. 21 and Jocelyne Lee, May 2.

The Talking Art in Maine series is free and open to the public, thanks to the generous sponsorship of Horch Roofing and Maine Home+Design Magazine.