About the artist:

Hildreth grew up in Massachusetts and Maine. As a child, she put her painting set in her closet to make her first studio and would spend hours outside making little villages out of rocks and sticks. Her friends call her “Wooly,” a nickname that came about because her mother and great-aunt were also named Alison.

After graduating from Vassar College with a B.A. in Art History, Alison Hildreth worked in New York and went to night school at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Art. She and her husband, Horace “Hoddy” Hildreth, who was also from Maine, then returned to the state, where they raised four sons. She enrolled at what was then called the Portland School of Art (now the Maine College of Art & Design) and graduated in 1976. Since that time Alison has had several studios in Portland and now is located at the Bakery Studios at 61 Pleasant Street. Her prolific practice includes mixed media drawing, painting, printmaking, and installation work. While she incorporates ideas from research in cartography, astronomy, environmental studies, history, and philosophy into her work—many of her ideas come from walking and daydreaming.

Alison taught as a non-resident studio instructor for MFA programs at MECA, Vermont College, and Lesley College in Boston and as part of the Continuing Studies Program at MECA. She has received honorary degrees from MECA and IDSVA. She has been a member of Portland Public Art Committee and currently sits on the committee re-envisioning Congress Square Park with selected sculptures by artist Sarah Sze. She is the co-owner and operator of the Bakery studio building, which houses over a dozen individual artists and Peregrine Press. Alison has exhibited in the United States and abroad. Her work is included in many permanent collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Farnsworth Art Museum and the New York, Boston and Portland Public Libraries.