The ongoing exhibition, "William Wegman: Hello Nature" at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (July 13–Oct. 21) is an comprehensive exhibition showcasing more than 100 works by Mr. Wegman that includes photographs, videos, paintings, and drawings, all produced in or inspired by the state of Maine.

While Wegman is known widely as a conceptual artist/ photographer of dogs, he can perform other tricks. He was raised in rural Massachusetts, and spent summers camping and scouting in the Rangeley Lakes Region of western Maine and was heavily influenced by New England landscapes and nature.

Fans of William Wegman’s work expect, want, and even need photographs of dogs and, yes, there are photos of dogs in this show: Fay Ray's children & grandchildren (notably, Batty, Chundo, and Crooky). The dog photos included were taken in western Maine, in and on and around and under lakes, forests, trees, and state parks.

Wegman produces thought-provoking images of his dogs in their country lives, working rocks, leaves, and tapestries of nature scenes into the photos to tell his story. He states that Weinmaraners are the perfect models due to their “expressionless” faces, but in the large-scale Polaroid “Crossing” (a triptych due to the vertical alignment of Polaroid images), there is passenger in the front of the canoe who looks directly at the camera with an expression that is so serious and direct that the viewer has to giggle. The dogs are not allowed to betray the artist with expressions in “Camofleur”, where the Weinmaraner is completely covered in leaves in front of an autumn-hued tapestry, or in “The Climber”, where only two paws and tip of nose visible behind a tree with mushroom “steps.”

As a painter, Wegman uses art school exercises as inspiration: color charts (“Landscape Color Chart” is made up of the written words of expected sky, grass, and sun colors) and the assignment of continuing the lines - story - of a photo. Wegman uses postcards as a starting point; his paintings morph the postcards into larger watercolor landscapes. With “Mainer”, Wegman uses the ubiquitous Maine vacationland souvenir postcard as a focal point - the pinecones become a forest, a card of Mt. Desert becomes a whole mountain range, the touristy lighthouse card is now part of the ocean. In “The Beach/The Sky”, a painting of Prout’s Neck (where Winslow Homer painted), Wegman fools us by including only one actual postcard, surrounded by 9 trompe-l’oeil’ed. His sense of irony is also apparent in “Vacancy”, where a tiny postcard view of a motel becomes a huge, vast, open, and empty landscape.

William Wegman’s paintings, like his photographs are playful, child-like, and irreverent. One watercolor consists of a horizontal green-brown smudge with the words, ‘Peat Moss - Does it Really Exist?’while “What is Sound?” clearly depicts a boy looking into a bucket filled with blueberries.

Other mediums are also on display: simple watercolor studies of what people do in the Maine wilderness (camp, canoe, hunt, fish), practically scream: "wallpaper!" Sure enough, in the next room, these same images were enlarged to cover a whole wall. There are hieroglyphics to be deciphered and deconstructed Maine “travel guides”/chamber of commerce pamphlets.

Every half hour, there is a film screening of The Hardly Boys in Hardly Gold, in which dogs playing Hardy Boys-like characters solve a mystery. As the narrator points out, the protagonists are “Hardly boys, they were girls and dogs.” Still photographs from the film, with Maine as a setting, include, “Rescue” and “Vacationland”.

The accompanying guidebook, Hello Nature - How to Draw, Paint, Cook, and Find Your Way, is also a feast for the senses: Wegman, an avid outdoorsman, offers quirky advice and recipes (“Cinnamon Teal Duck Cake” calls for 1-3/4 Teal Ducks!), illustrations from nature books, and collages packaged in a nostalgic-feeling package with Buffalo plaid accents.

Jessica Manbeck-Silverton is a classically-trained artist and illustrator. Born in Helsinki, Finland, she grew up in Brooklyn, NY, where she graduated from Pratt Institute with two degrees.

Jessica is the Marketing Manager for The Wood Chop School, a school teaching sustainability skills in midcoast Maine. More info at www.thewoodchopschool.com.

She enjoys writing, reading, gardening, cooking, and internet research and fully plans to become a millionaire and travel the world. For now, Jessica lives in Lincolnville with her husband, two children, a pack of dogs, a flock of chickens, and a warren of rabbits.