The artist whose mural was removed from the Maine Department of Labor last year will speak at the Skidompha Public Library in Damariscotta on Thursday, Aug. 2.

Judy Taylor's presentation will focus on the “voices of women whose lives are featured in the Maine Labor Mural.” This will be a unique opportunity to hear from the creator of the inadvertently divisive work of art, and the woman who served as the model for Frances Perkins.

Taylor was chosen to execute a public art installation for the Department of Labor in 2007, through a competitive process. The resulting mural is 36 feet long and consists of eleven panels featuring characters and situations from Maine’s history, such as a scene at Bath Iron Works featuring “Rosie the Riveter,” and strikes at mills in Lewiston and Jay.

Taylor’s training as a “classical figurative and portrait painter in the atelier tradition” is apparent in the skillful depiction of the people in these panels.

She will be sharing a selection of preliminary sketches from her work on the mural as part of her talk. Taylor has written that she paints entirely from life, whether doing portraiture or still-life, and the woman who became the model for Frances Perkins will join her for this talk.

This talk will focus primarily on the women in the mural, such as the 1937 Lewiston Shoe Strike and the French-Canadian women who participated there, the female workers at Bath Ironworks, and Frances Perkins, the ground-breaking United States Secretary of Labor during Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidency. Perkins is buried in Newcastle and her family roots are in Maine.

Taylor will include letters she has received from women in response to her mural, selections from an opera written about a girl working in a textile mill, and the voices of women who worked in the shipyards.

In late March of 2011, the Gov. Paul LePage's administration ordered the mural to be removed from the Department of Labor, citing complaints that it was unfriendly to businesses and the administration’s pro-business stance. The resulting public outcry was quick to see the removal as a political action, despite Taylor’s assertion that the mural was intended to be a “pure depiction of the facts” with no political message at all.

Taylor currently resides on Mt. Desert Island and maintains a studio in Southwest Harbor. She periodically offers painting workshops during the year, including a summer class to hike and sketch in Acadia National Park.

This event will take place from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Skidompha Public Library, 184 Main St. in Damariscotta.