Fish Art Raffle – Damariscotta Mills Fish Ladder Restoration

Damariscotta Mills Fish Ladder Restoration Fundraiser

The Fish Art Raffle is a community-based fundraising initiative that celebrates local creativity while supporting the ongoing restoration and maintenance of the Damariscotta Mills Fish Ladder.

Local artists contribute unique, fish-inspired artwork, offering visitors a chance to engage with the project in a creative and meaningful way. Proceeds from past raffles have directly supported preservation efforts and public access to this historic site.

While the raffle is not currently active, we look forward to offering it again in the future. Please check back for updates or follow our announcements to learn when the next Fish Art Raffle will be held.

A special thank you to all of our artists – their only guidance was to use their talent and creativity. They were certainly successful!

2025 Artist contributors:

Unofficial Map of Damariscotta Mills - Rhea Butler

Mark Lazzari is an ichthyologist by training and a painter since he moved to Maine in 1988. He says ‘Maine is my muse’. He has been painting with pastels since the 1970s and greatly benefited from his friendship with local pastelist, Kathleen Galligan. Mark switched to acrylics a few years ago and enjoys their bright palette and immediacy that is similar to painting with pastels. Mark has had several solo and group shows and has been represented by several Maine art galleries.

Jacques Vesery is an Artist/ Sculptor from Damariscotta striving to create an illusion of reality, vision and inspiration through repetitive patterns derived from the 'golden mean' or 'divine proportions'. The marriage of pattern, form and proportion conveys a sense of growth from within each of his pieces. His work is in numerous public and private collections including the Detroit Institute of Art, The Renwick Gallery-Smithsonian American Art Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, Peabody- Essex Museum, The Carnegie Museum and Permanent Museum collections in France, Turkey and Japan. He is a Maine Arts Commission Fellow [2000] and “Master Craft Artist” and lifetime membership from the Maine Crafts Association [2011].

My name is Abbi Beckford. I moved to Wiscasset 4 years ago after retiring from my nursing career on Johns Island, SC. I moved here specifically to learn to be a farmer and an artist. I was super excited to get the opportunity to try my hand at creating an Alewife for the fish ladder restoration project. I want to thank David Beckford for sharing his beautiful inlay with me and Matthew at the Carpenters Boat Shop for showing me how to use a router. Also, thanks to You Tube for the lessons in using milk paint and how to use a wood burner. I had so much fun making this charcuterie board and I'm hoping it goes to a good home.

George Mason has a background in ceramic architectural tile and his work is steeped in the exploration of materials and history. Richly textured and saturated with color, the largest of his “relief tapestries” are pieced together panels that occupy entire walls. A recipient of 3 National Endowment for the Arts awards, and a founder of Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, Mason has taught at Cranbrook Academy of Art, the College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Ohio State, U.C. Boulder, and Haystack. “This incised fish remembers the original cut-out I made so many years ago when we first launched the current iteration of Damariscotta Mills neighbors gathering to celebrate the return of the alewives. The cut out survived our neighbors’ house fire and became the logo for efforts to repair the fish ladder; and look at the ladder now!”

: Unofficial Map of Damariscotta Mills - Rhea Butler

: Scarborough Marsh - Mark Lazzari

: Transformation - Jack Vesery

: Fish Art Raffle

: Resist the Tide - Abbi Beckford

Unofficial Map of Damariscotta Mills - Rhea Butler

Scarborough Marsh - Mark Lazzari

Transformation - Jack Vesery

Resist the Tide - Abbie Beckford

The Original - George Mason