MARTHA HULL IN PORTLAND SATURDAY MARKET

Death’s Daughter And The Basket Of Kittens With Martha Hull In Portland.

I had a mission one Saturday: Portland Saturday Market and Lagerfest.

The first stop was a tribute to the inextinguishable flame of creativity; the second was an attempt to extinguish that flame in art beer.

Only the first succeeded.

You know how it is when you look for something and find something even better? That’s what happened at Saturday Market.

I showed up looking for Martha Hull to buy her new book, “Death’s Daughter and The Basket of Kittens.” I found her booth, red velvet all around, and a wall of prints.

Two books and four prints later I can’t stop looking at them in awe.

Martha Hull in Portland is a game changer.

1. One print said “Bloom Where you’re Planted” and shows a grave with a skeletal hand reaching out. Perfect.

You’ve heard the admonition to “Start where you are with what you have?” I look at the bony hand in the grave and hear those words.

Bloom where you are. Having a bad day? Not when you’re in bloom. Having a bad night? Not when you’re in bloom.

Maybe you’re a rising artist gaining traction every week. You go to conventions where your work shows very well. You buy a van to transport your gear from event to event.

Then someone treats you to a random act of ignorance, breaks into the van, and robs you blind. Do you go bitter and hateful and vow revenge? Or get busy replacing what’s lost because you have a show and everyone knows, “The show must go on.”

Martha Hull is a trooper with the second choice. She’s blooming where she’s planted and a tweeker hit can’t chop her down.

Her ‘Bloom’ print is a life statement from an artist living her truth.

2. Another Hull print on my table shows a skeleton hanging from wall chains wearing a pair of black high top tennis shoes. The caption reads, “Today is the day.”

Optimism leaps off this print. Ghouly optimism, yes, but it’s the mantra of life. Today is the day, not the first day of the rest of your life, but THE day. All you need to do is fill in the blanks.

Today is the day you put aside your anger and pain; today is the day you forgive the professor who read your essay in class as an example of bad writing; today is the day you show you’re not too old, too wasted, or too weak.

Look at the happy faced skull and know it’s your day. It’s my day every time I see this print. It might be your day, too, but not without your Hull.

3. “Be who you are” shows a red bunny with a pitchfork, piercings, and a studded collar. Which of you little devils relate to this? All of you? Excellent.

Who we are is like the Wizard of Oz. We don’t want people looking behind that curtain, but we need help defining things in a world spinning too fast to hang onto anything for long.

The red bunny is a great grounder, a reminder that we are who we are, not what others need us to be, think we are, or tell us we are.

Well, we’re all those things when we need to be, but Little Red says stay true to your heart. Or else.

4. “BREATHE.” It sounds elemental, a part of life you don’t have to think of unless you have asthma, smoke, sleep apnea, and a load of other ailments. Other than that it’s automatic, somatic, not something you need to schedule.

The word breathe over a painting of what looks like a WWI gas mask from the trenches takes it to another level. The intentional streaks on the print suggest the view of one gas victim from another, an end of life view for thousands from 1914-1918.

BREATHE calls for a clean environment, air that isn’t toxic, a call of help from a previous era. I see Charles Dickens’ industrialized England under a cloud of coal fog, China choking on air unfit for human consumption.

If you know a smoker, this is the print present you need to give them.

If you know someone struggling with their identity, give them BLOOM.

The eternal procrastinator gets “Today is the day.”

The cute little devil in your life needs “Be who you are.”

Look for Martha Hull right here:

There might be a line. You might have to wait your turn. When you do, you’ll feel the reward.

If you’re out of town, here’s another option.