The public is invited to a reception for recent GSA graduate Emery Bradshaw Thomas and his art show, Order Amidst Disorder, abstract pen and ink drawings,  on Saturday, October 7, from noon to 2:00 p.m. The show opens October 3.

 This isn’t Emery’s first show at the library.  Ten years ago, as a boy of eight years old, Emery had a show of drawings and found objects in the library’s Larchwood Children’s Room, so the library staff are excited about his new show.

Raised in Penobscot, Emery was a patron and regular visitor to the Blue Hill Library as a young boy, with his mom Gwyneth Thomas. Library staff member Leda Beth Gray remembers him asking her for interlibrary loan books about specific species of seemingly obscure animals so that he could study and draw them. The library had a display of his artwork in the Library’s Larchwood Children’s Room when he was only about 8 years old.  An issue of the library’s newsletter in 2013 reported about the exhibit, “Emery has an intense interest in the natural world and often focuses on one creature or plant for days or even weeks, drawing his subject repeatedly and learning as much as he can about it.  Recent areas of focus have been scorpions, bean plants, brittle stars, spiders, and snakes.”

According to Emery, "Keeping my head close to the page, I use pen and ink to create lines that interact with each other on the micro level before stepping back to see the bigger picture. I often fixate on a pattern or theme of patterns that I witness in life, and I will persistently draw the same thing until I can replicate these marks on a dense scale. The quality of every single mark is vetted, and I hope people, regardless of their background, are able to appreciate my work without needing to know my purpose. My abstract art is meant to be experienced purely aesthetically and often evokes a neutrality in emotions."

Although his media and subjects have changed, clearly this young artist's innate process of focusing intensely on aspects of his work is still at play.  The exhibit will be available for viewing in the library’s Britton Gallery and Roland Howard Meeting Room, subject to the meeting room schedule. For more information, call the library at 374-5515.