RICHARD BUXTON BIOGRAPHY
I was born at Blue Hill Hospital and grew up on Deer Isle most of my life and graduated from the Deer Isle -Stonington High School. I received a BFA from the University of Maine but my education sarted with the study of Anthropology (more specially, Archeology). This is the study of historical and pre-historic cultures and the varied tools they created to provide for their needs. I spent many happy boyhood summers on the islands around Deer Isle looking for fossils and arrowheads. This was the genesis of my life-long interest in all things ancient. After college I moved to Portland, Maine to live and work there for 15 years. Among the many things I was involved in, such as semi-pro music, was a stint volunteering at Spring Point Museum in South Portland where I helped with the care of artifacts and the setting up of shows. At about that time I was the resident overseer of a place called The Parson Smith House in South Windham, built in 1764, a few miles outside of Portland where I lived and took care of this historic house and its artifacts in the original house/museum. It satisfied my love of period houses and all the historically significant items associated. The colonial period and the forming of our nation has always been interesting to me because of the carefully handmade items such as the beautiful furniture of that period and even the everyday objects that were necessary for their existence. At that time I also developed a fascination with violins and the techniques of creating them and their history. More recently, it has been the Shakers and their way of life, including the remarkable furniture and other everyday items used in everyday life.There are other objects that have captured my attention over the years and I started to see a pattern forming. Having worked 10 years making fine jewelry for Ronald Hayes Pearson Designs in Deer Isle, I’m now exploring new art media and I was drawn to making my own Contemporary Artifacts.In recent years I realized that the common denominator in my work was Form-Follows-Function! So, now I look for the elements, patterns, the essence of design that they all share in the forms that follow function.

~ Richard Buxton, August 2021
Contact the artist directly: rabuxton@gmail.com