Courtesy / Harborview Properties
Work is underway to turn the former florist shop at 67 Brentwood St., in Portland, into an “electric garage” for the neon sculptures of Maine artist Charlie Hewitt.
Updated: July 19, 2021
Maker of light sculpture ‘Hopeful’ doubles down on neon with dedicated studio
Courtesy / Charlie Hewitt
Maine artist Charlie Hewitt designed his "Hopeful" light sculptures in a retro style. He's bought a new spot in Portland to eventually have better display areas.
A multi-genre Maine artist who discovered new creative possibilities with neon sculpture in recent years is going all in on the medium with the establishment of a dedicated studio in Portland.
Charlie Hewitt bought 67 Brentwood St., in Portland’s Deering Center neighborhood, from Gail Diamon for $425,000.
Loren Ayer of Harborview Properties and Kate Carey of Vitalius Real Estate Group brokered the deal, which closed July 1.
The property comprises a one-story, 6,240-square-foot retail building dating to 1930. The building has an attached greenhouse and there’s also a separate three-bedroom apartment and 10 parking spaces.
Former florist shop
The property was previously occupied by Dodge the Florist Inc., which was established in 1890, according to its website.
“The seller owned Dodge the Florist and actually grew up in that property,” said Ayer, who represented the seller. “She had owned the building and run the business for much of her life and was ready for a change of pace.”
The listing saw a lot of interest and is in a great neighborhood, she said.
“But it had been used as a florist and greenhouse for so many years, and needed some updating, so it was not ideal for every buyer,” she continued. “A significant bonus is the residential unit that would allow a new owner to live there or have additional income in addition to the retail space.”
Painter and sculptor
The buyer, Charlie Hewitt, is a Lewiston native who has studios in Jersey City, N.J., and on 61 Pleasant St. in Portland. His artwork is represented in numerous collections, including those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Public Library and Brooklyn Museum; the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.; and the Portland Museum of Art. His paintings, prints and sculptures are rooted in expressionism and surrealism.
According to his representative, Jim Kempner Fine Art of New York City, his most important work to date is “Urban Rattle,” the only permanent artwork installed along the High Line Park, on Manhattan's West Side. Hewitt has since installed large public Urban Rattle sculptures in Lewiston and Portland.
“His imagery is largely influenced by the mill-working communities he grew up around,” according to his bio.
Other works that have grabbed the eye in recent years are his neon sculptures that spell out the word “Hopeful.”
“I spent most of my life painting and making prints,” he said. “Then I got interested in neon.”
Neon marquees
The neon work got a big boost as a result of a commission several years ago. He was at an exhibition at Speedwell Projects, a nonprofit gallery at 630 Forest Ave. in Portland. Jocelyn Lee, an artist and the gallery’s director, asked his if he would consider putting a sculpture on the roof of the building.
Hewitt agreed and decided to make a lighted sculpture. He wasn’t sure at first what shape the sculpture would take. One day he visited Neokraft Signs Inc., a sign manufacturer in Lewiston whose work includes neon lighting.
“It was a revelation,” Hewitt said in a Kempner gallery brochure for a show of his Hopeful signs. “I saw possibilities there that I didn’t know were available to me. It was the chance to illuminate my images as retro marquee sculpture and on a huge scale.”
Hewitt had a concept in mind — a bold statement with a message spelled out in bright colors and marquee lights. He next needed a word. He was in the midst of a political discussion with Kempner when he had an epiphany.
“The word ‘hopeful’ popped up somewhere in our conversation and right then I knew that would be the message, it felt so right for the moment,” he said.
Courtesy / Charlie Hewitt
The first Hopeful light sculpture went up in 2019 on the roof of Speedwell Projects, a nonprofit gallery at 630 Forest Ave. in Portland.
He asked David Wolfe at Wolfe Editions — a printer and publisher of letterpress and fine art books, prints and posters in Portland — to help him design a font that would “carry” the message. Wolfe conceived of a retro automotive sign design, “which I loved because it spoke to me of an earlier time when the highway was the frontier, when the car and the road signs danced in harmony in a country excited by possibilities. Of a bright future, illuminated by roadside marquee signs,” Hewitt said.
The 24-foot-long sculpture was installed on the Speedwell roof in 2019. Since then, Hewitt has completed further Hopeful commissions for other places, including Bates Mill in Lewiston, Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick, Yarmouth, Easton, Md., and Greenwich and New Canaan, Conn. Signs range from 7 or 8 feet long up to 28 feet.
Hewitt designs the neon sculptures and Neokraft makes them. That includes not just the Hopeful marquees but other light sculptures, such as a 14-foot-tall cowboy boot commissioned for the corporate headquarters of a company based in Dallas, Texas.
‘Electric garage’
Courtesy / Charlie Hewitt
A Texas company commissioned a light sculpture shaped like a boot.
He bought 67 Brentwood St. as an investment property. The plan is to lease out the apartment and possibly the front portion of the retail shop.
“I’ll see if I can rent it out as coffee shop a or something along those lines,” he said.
He’ll turn the rest of the space, about 4,000 square feet, into a second Portland studio that he’s calling his “electric garage.”
He needed the additional space in order to properly show the light pieces. Currently he’s storing the completed signs at his Pleasant Street studio, which is too small for display.
“I need big wall space and height,” he said. “So I’m creating walls and spaces where they’ll fit and I can illuminate them and present them in a realistic way, rather than being cluttered. I wanted to have an opportunity to showcase these things in a professional way and this building came up.”
Some renovation needs to go into the building before he can move in. That includes replacing the greenhouse glass with a conventional roof and installing heat pumps and solar panels. He didn’t have a particular deadline for getting into the building, but thought it might be late this year.
Courtesy / Charlie Hewitt
Other light sculptures are more fanciful, such as this one, titled “Lighthouse.”
He added, “I have this unique commercial property in the middle of a beautiful residential neighborhood. So I want to serve the community in a way that’s fun, interesting and creative. I think people will get a kick out of this place.”
The purchase and renovation were financed through Bangor Savings Bank, which has worked with him on previous real estate investments.
“I’ve been involved with real estate for years,” he said. “Bangor Savings is great. I can’t thank them enough.
The neon work has been a revelation, he said.
“This is whole different world,” he said. “I’ll be 75 this summer. I’m so glad to have found this world of design and computers and working with fabricators.”
He continues with painting and printmaking as well. But there’s a creative difference when it comes to neon.
“As a painter, my highway is very crowded and slow,” he said. “It’s like a traffic jam. There are so many people – Picasso and Pollock and de Kooning. I’ve got to navigate around them and once in a while I bump up to them and take a little bit of them with me because I reference their work.
“But this other lane is completely open to me because no one else is making these. I’m creating my own aesthetic, my own narrative. I’m enjoying it.”
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