Maine Mutant: Folk Art
Posted by: Loren Coleman on August 20th, 2006
Artist: Roland LaVallee, Crow Track Gallery, Eastport, Maine. Used with permission.
Travel over to eBay.com and you will find an auction that lasts until August 26, for the first piece of folk art coming out of the recent cryptid media frenzy. The title of the object is “Turner Maine Mutant Mystery Beast”
The artist, Roland LaVallee has given us permission to share these photographs of the carving.
Here’s the artist’s description:
I am Roland LaVallee a woodcarver from Eastport, Maine. I carved this mystery beast on August 19 2006 after reading of the death of an animal in Turner, Maine. Local folklore tells of a strange animal living in the area for the past 15 years that has been killing and attacking pets. And now this dog thing has shown up dead, a car hit it. The description in the newspaper is a doglike animal of a charcoal gray color, small pointy ears, short muzzle, fangs that curl back, extra claws on the top of the feet pointing up, approximately 40 – 50 lbs. Folks who have claimed to see the animal alive in the past, say that while it looks dog like it does not act dog like. The science community is now trying to figure just what this thing is through DNA. I personally would like to know its sex, and age, if it had been in battles and showed scars from much fighting in its life, what was in its stomach, if it was fertile, if it ever had a litter, and if we might see more beasts with these traits in the Maine woods. Unfortunately our fish and wildlife department dropped the ball when the call came in about the beast. They did not send a warden to claim the carcass. It has since been exposed to the summer heat, insects and scavengers. So here is my first carving of a crouching mystery animal. I am offering it for sale on ebay for someone who is looking for a little of Maine history and a good story to remind them of the summer of 2006. Please note the images here are a tad darker than the colors of the carving. I have been carving in Eastport, Maine since 1983 and have a gallery called CROW TRACKS where I sell my work during the tourist season.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
The sculpture itself is wonderful.