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Eva and Edith Marie Make Appearance at Reed Fine Art Gallery

By: David Deschesne

Sarah Ulman and Rayle Reed Ainsworth, co-chairs for the Fort Fairfield Sesquicentennial celebration must be breathing a sigh of relief as their final event of the year comes to a close.

The Grand Finale for Fort Fairfield’s 150th celebration was a art exhibit at the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Reed Fine Art Gallery, featuring art from Fort Fairfield artists.

“As was our goal, we’ve had a full year of celebration and this art show is yet another display of the many talents we have in our diverse community,” said Ulman.

The art exhibit featured art from; Carl and Sadie Ayoob, Margaret Sullivan Baker, Kate Barnes, Emma Campbell, Marion Cassidy, Bernice Clark, Charles and Craig Cormier, Julie Daly, Jayson and Joshua Duncan, Mark Edgecomb, Mildred Atwater Estabrook, David Esty, Marcie Fowler, Edwena Philbrick Gagnon, Edith Katerine Greiner, Melanie Guimond, Wilda Burtchell Hutcheon, Mary Kimball; Joshua, Matthew and Stephen Leighton, Dillan MacDougal, Mark Matson, Ruth Mraz, Louis Murphy, Richard Nichols, Svetlana Novakova, Renee O’Neill, Sarah Owens, Alyce Ramisch, Richard Robles, Andreas Schneider, Chris, Don and Edith Schwartz, Roger Sprague, Carolyn Wadman and Sadie Webb.

The exhibit ran from December 5 through January 17 at the art gallery.

The centerpiece of the exhibit were the Edith Marie and Eva Marie dolls from the Art and Ruth Mraz collection (see photo, this page, photo ©2008 David Deschesne).

The dolls were made by the late Ruth Mraz around 20 years ago and named after her mother and good friend, Ruth Anderson’s mother.

Eva and Edith have over 200 outfits, a horse-drawn sleigh, and bicycles. They currently live with Art Mraz and twelve of their “cousins.”

“They have a whole stack of letters from all over the world and they’re always talking and carrying on,” Mraz. said, jocularly. “It’s hard keeping track of all they do.”

Eva and Edith have visited the Maine Governor’s house in Augusta and have participated as bridesmaids—with matching bridesmaids outfits—at a Catholic wedding in Fort Fairfield about ten years ago. They even have a life insurance policy. “It’s a whole life policy,” said Mraz, “it was set up by Peter Hunt.”

As the two dolls sat in their chairs “conversing” with each other, spectators meandered about the gallery reviewing many of the pieces provided by Fort Fairfield artists.

This was the final event of Fort Fairfield’s 150th anniversary of the town charter. Other events this past year were a Community pot luck dinner, one-room school house reenactment, Princess tea, Frontier Heritage Historical Society fashion show and an All Faiths Community Progressive dinner.