<p>From the vibrant screenprints, robust lighthouses rise over quaint beachside towns.</p>
<p>Pink, yellow and white Victorian-era beach houses invite you to sit for a spell on a front porch. Ferries and sailboats and racing log canoes skip over the blue ocean. You can almost hear the gulls cawing overhead, the waves crashing into the shore, the sizzle of French fries cooking on the boardwalk.</p>
<p>That was the point for artist Erick Sahler.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]
<p>“It’s where I was born, where I was raised. I went away for four years for college, and after that, I just ached to be back home. I ached to be on the Eastern Shore,” he said.</p>
<p>The scenes of the Eastern Shore are coming to Franklin. Sahler will bring his brightly colored representations of the Chesapeake Bay region to Franklin College for an exhibition through Nov. 22. More than three dozen original silkscreens are on display capturing the iconic sights, sounds and experiences that make the shorelands of Maryland, Delaware and Virginia so unique.</p>
<p>Sahler knows that it may be difficult to bring his home to life for a Midwestern audience. But his reason for capturing these images, and for living in the area in the first place, says something about a sense of place that everyone has.</p>
<p>“I can’t make them love an Eastern Shore skipjack or a blue crab or a Choptank oyster. That’s not going to resonate with them,” he said. “But whatever was around Franklin, there’s something there that’s a way of life and it’s something that’s special, that you hold on to throughout your life and think about what was really important.”</p>
<p>Sahler got more than his love of the Eastern Shore from his childhood. His love of artistry started then, too. His mother kept a book of Norman Rockwell works in the home, and he’d spend hours going over all of the portrayals of American life in it. At the same time, MAD Magazine and its in-your-face graphics were a big influence.</p>
<p>“Every kid is an artist. A lot of times, they move away from that, but it’s something I always enjoyed doing,” he said.</p>
<p>His parents signed him up for private art lessons, and he learned to draw, paint and the fundamentals that led to fine art training. Sahler’s teacher, Chesapeake Bay artist C. Keith Whitelock, also instilled in him a love of the Eastern Shore region.</p>
<p>When he went to school at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, he earned a degree specializing in graphic art.</p>
<p>As a 16-year-old, he started working for a local screenprinting company. That gave him a look at what it takes to sketch, do ink drawings and hand-cut separation for each project. He stayed at that job throughout the rest of high school and through his time in college.</p>
<p>“Any time a customer needed something designed or something drawn, they let me do it,” he said. “If you look at t-shirt designs of the 1980s, that was my total influence. That’s the kind of art I still do today: big, flat, bold colors.”</p>
<p>When Sahler started doing silkscreen art prints, known as serigraphs, he wanted to focus on a particular subject that spoke to him. That was the Eastern Shore, a unique landscape and community of beach communities.</p>
<p>“We’re surrounded by water here. We’re between the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay, and there are rivers and creeks all over here,” he said. “It’s a special place. To me, it’s home, and it’s what I’m passionate about.”</p>
<p>Multitudes of artists had been inspired by the landscape for generations, making watercolor pieces, oil paintings and sculptures of what they’d seen.</p>
<p>Sahler wanted something different. He drew inspiration from the bold posters of the 1930s Works Progress Administration, as well as travel posters from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.</p>
<p>His tagline became “Eastern Shore art for the rest of us.”</p>
<p>Creating his pieces takes about a month of work. He creates a stencil from a high-mesh screen for every color that he plans to use, and hand-pulls the paint through the screen using a squeegee. Each piece is created one color at a time, one sheet of paper at a time.</p>
<p>Sahler is inspired by the places around him, creating images of the communities and aspects of Eastern Shore life that have impacted him.</p>
<p>Places such as Ocean City, Maryland and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware are celebrated, as are regionally iconic places such as the Choptank Light in Cambridge, Maryland, and the Ben’s Red Swings playground project in Salisbury, Maryland.</p>
<p>Sahler also celebrates some of the region’s famous foods, from the famed blue crabs to the decadent 10-layer Smith Island cake to scrapple, a key part of any Eastern Shore breakfast. One screenprint for Thrasher’s French Fries in Ocean City is captioned with the eatery’s most important rule.</p>
<p>“They are so tasty, in fact, they don’t need anything more than a splash of apple cider vinegar and a shake of salt. No cheese, no gravy and especially no ketchup. It’s Rule No. 1, and it’s posted right next to the cashier. So don’t even think of asking for it,” Sahler writes in the description for the work.</p>
<p>In advance of the Franklin College show, Sahler created a screenprint of Old Main, the historic building that serves as the gateway to campus. People will be able to buy prints of the limited-edition artwork at Middle David’s Candle Co. in downtown Franklin, as well as at his website.</p>
<p>“This illustration is a departure for me in style and palette. Franklin College and Old Main date to the 1800s, so I didn’t feel my bold colors and 1930s typography served it well. My goal became to capture the splendor of the Victorian architecture and bucolic beauty of rural Indiana,” he wrote in a description of the piece.</p>
<p>Sahler understands that audiences in Johnson County may not get all of the references in his works. But he thinks the ideas behind creating them will resonate all the same.</p>
<p>In a discussion he gave at the college on Tuesday, he tried to broaden his own experience to help others appreciate where they are.</p>
<p>“Just like every kid growing up, at some point, you want to get away. You can’t stand living there anymore, and you want to get away to something better,” he said. “But the thing is, you can reject your home or embrace your home, but at some point, you’re going to recognize that’s what is in your bones.”</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="If you go" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Erick Sahler Exhibition</p>
<p>When: Through Nov. 22</p>
<p>Where: Elba L. &amp; Gene Portteus Branigin Atrium, Franklin College, corner of Branigin Boulevard and Grizzly Drive.</p>
<p>Hours: The exhibit will be open for viewing 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.</p>
<p>Information on Sahler and how to buy his screenprints: ErickSahler.com</p>[sc:pullout-text-end]
