Mainebiz

V O L . X X X I I N O. X I I I J U N E 1 5 , 2 0 2 6 16 G oogly-eyed in green and blue, the friendly monsters painted on the wall welcome visitors inside Tyler Casey's Biddeford art studio like characters out of a Pac-Man arcade game. Bedecked in bold colors and a gallery of pop stars from Dolly Parton to Pee-wee Herman, the single-room workspace inside the Pepperrell Mill complex overflows with paintings and prints of gannets, puffins and the spritely shorebirds that inspired the Little Plover Studio name. "I love birds," Casey says as she stands ready to welcome visitors on a Friday evening for Heart of Biddeford's first art walk of the season. "My expectations are low, but I was hoping that at least one person came in," she says. "I'm always wanting to show people my studio and the way it looks." e Waterboro resident also has lots to sell, including art-print cards, sweatshirts and other portable objects she can fit on a table at art shows from Portland to Boston — limiting her commutes to under an hour. Art walks are a nationwide cul- tural tradition that started in a Seattle neighborhood in 1981 to lure the public into galleries, not only to experience art created in their communities but also to make purchases, meet the creators and support small businesses. Much smaller than Portland's year-round First Friday events, Biddeford holds its version every third Friday from May through October on Main Street and inside the buildings that once housed large-scale textile manufacturing. Across the hall from Little Plover, the crowd inside Cheryl Lichwell's ceramic studio is an inanimate surreal gathering of sculpted human faces and torsos. Unlike her neighbor, Lichwell goes to only a couple of shows a year, mainly because it's hard for her to carry her works. Some represent silence, while the current theme is how people identify themselves with hats, the artist explains as she adjusts a stovepipe on a Winston Churchill lookalike. "I have hit on a collector who abso- lutely loves everything," she says. A former engineer and karate instructor who got into sculpting more than three decades ago, Lichwell says she sat out the art walk the past couple of years because she felt everything was concentrated downtown rather than in the refurbished textile mill. "Now it's starting to come back to this area. People are recognizing that we're here," she says. Art walk organizers are still strug- gling to find the right formula without Engine, a former arts nonprofit that dissolved in 2025. Engine's co-founder Tamsyn Bodwell opened Mill Pond Ceramics Studio inside Pepperell Mill in 2023 and participated in the mid- May art walk. For three hours that evening, only 20 visitors stopped by the warren of kilns, wheels and blocks of clay wait- ing to be shaped: "It's not worth three hours of sitting there waiting to show up," she says. "I don't think I'll partici- pate next time around." Street Sense by Renee Cordes, Mainebiz deputy editor, is a monthly column offering on-the-ground glimpses of small business life in Maine. Renee can be reached at rcordes @ mainebiz.biz Street Sense Reframing Biddeford Downtown monthly art walk still an unfinished canvas P H O T O / J I M N E U G E R P H O T O / J I M N E U G E R P H O T O / J I M N E U G E R P H O T O / J I M N E U G E R Tile color samples on a wall at Mill Pond Ceramics Studio. After making five sales at her stand on Main Street, Julia Sternad plans to become a Biddeford art walk regular. Selina Chan is among the creators at Mill Pond Ceramics Studio inside Pepperell Mill. Laser-cut puzzles featuring flora, fauna and architectural landmarks are Jonas Lavasseur's stock in trade.

• Cover