By Emma Bouthillette 

Staff Writer

It all started with a small town idea, but has become a big event. After six months of planning, the “Finding Norman Rockwell’s Small Town America” exhibit is opening Friday for a three-day affair in Kennebunk. The exhibit includes Liam Crotty’s photographic reproductions of Rockwell paintings, local artwork inspired by Rockwell, original 15-minute plays and a dinner recreating Rockwell’s “Freedom of Want.”

“I’m an event planner, so I’m always looking for something unique. I’ve loved Norman Rockwell, and thought ‘Wouldn’t it be great if somehow his paintings come to life?’” said exhibit organizer Danie Connolly.

Connolly took her idea and posed a challenge to Maine’s playwrights to take a piece of Rockwell’s art as inspiration to create a short play, she said.

“The results were mind-boggling. Some were deep, others humorous and some very poignant,” Connolly said. 

Playwright Clare Smith of Cape Elizabeth said when she received Connolly’s invitation, she began searching through hundreds of Rockwell illustrations and decided on two, both of which were accepted. 

“Rockwell’s illustration ‘The Critic’ opened inspiration for dramatic interpretation. I also chose ‘The Interloper.’ I named the prim and proper character of the painting Percival. I feel as though I channeled Norman Rockwell because about a month ago, when I looked up his biography, I found his middle name was Percival,” Smith said. 

Saturday evening will feature 12 plays ranging between three to 15 minutes, Connolly said. 

“Chuck Galle [the plays’ director] has juggled actors schedules for 12 scripts from playwrights from all over Maine,” she said.

Connolly said another struggle was deciding how to transition sets between the short skits. Kennebunk carpenter Ed Spaulding donated his time creating a life-size frame for the set.

“This whole idea just sort of mushroomed from there,” Connolly said. 

“Danie [Connolly] called me and said ‘Hey Tina, I’ve got a great idea.’ When Danie says that, it usually means a lot of work,” said Kennebunk artist Tina Ambrose.

Ambrose, an art event planner, helped Connolly recruit local artists to contribute to “Finding Norman Rockwell’s Small Town America.”

Nine local artists responded to Ambrose’s invitation to create a Rockwell inspired piece of artwork for the exhibit. Ambrose has also included “So She Will Learn,” a painting of her husband and granddaughter watching an American flag inspired by one of Rockwell’s paintings. 

“I like his patriotic work. Rockwell described America in his own way, choosing the little things that happen that we don’t take note of,” Ambrose said.

Susan Matusen of Worcester, Mass. exhibits her work in Ambrose’s gallery and said she was very interested in contributing to the exhibit. Matusen based her painting on Rockwell’s “Abstract and Concrete,” an image of a man in a grey suit viewing a Jackson Pollock abstract painting. In Matusen’s “Contemporary and Viewer,” she painted herself viewing one of her own contemporary paintings.

“It is a great idea, and having it at the town hall is fabulous,” Matusen said. “The Rockwell painting I based mine on, I like very much.”

Along with original artwork, Kennebunk photographer Liam Crotty has been working since April on photographic reproductions of scenes in Rockwell’s “Saturday Evening Post” covers. When Crotty agreed to participate, he had 323 cover images to chose from and said they started with his favorite Rockwell illustration, “The Runaway.”

“We shot ‘The Runaway’ at the Maine Diner in Wells,” Crotty said. “The whole idea behind ‘Finding Norman Rockwell’s Small Town America,’ is that we had to find the locations and the models, the perfect scenes and props. The hardest one to shoot was ‘A Fair Catch.’ Rockwell’s original had a hard angle to achieve, so we had to shoot from the roof of Pier 77 to get the same angle.” 

He said with the exception of Miss Teen Maine, Michelle Smith of Scarborough, Mainely Media reporter Nate Jones of South Portland, and the Sea Dogs team, the models for the photos were from Kennebunk and Kennebunkport, and they were not professionals. Connolly and Crotty recruited retired doctor Lyman Page for “Doctor and the Doll” image, and Crotty said Page practiced his expression before the photo shoot.

“It was tricky to recreate the paintings. One thing Rockwell was good at was creating exaggerated or over the top expressions, but they come across real well.  When Michelle [Smith] was squinting [as she posed for “169^th Year of Baseball] she looked angry. I asked her to wink at me instead, and it worked out well,” Crotty said.

Connolly said the community rallied around the event, and didn’t turn her down when she asked for help.

“That’s the power of a small town. It pulls together to get things done. The idea was so easy to evolve, we decided to make it a long weekend,” Connolly said.