Reprinted from Coastal Connections, Summer 2002
A MASTER OF LIGHT
Maine attracts more than its share of artists and artisans, but perhaps none is as skilled and enduring as Boothbay Harbor's Dick Macdonald.He works in stained glass and after more than three decades of effort, he is world famous for the quality and creativity of his work, from large works of art that involve hundreds of hours and thousands of pieces of glass to lamps and mirrors that are sold in shops around the country.
Yet he found his life work quite by accident. Years ago while working toward a degree, he took a job in a hospital. He did research on schizophrenic patients.
 "I mentioned to a coworker that I wanted a lamp for the hallway of my apartment. His wife, who was an art teacher, told where I could get some colored glass," he recalls. "So I bought the glass and had to figure out how to make the lamp."
Dick learned his craft, he says, through trial and error. He talks about taking torches and melting fish weights to use in binding the glass pieces together. In the process of experimenting, he discovered more efficient ways to handle the material and do things.
 "In those days, there was no formal training or literature available. I just got hold of the materials involved and found I had a passion for creating." He did not go to art school, and says today he is glad he did not, in large part because he has enjoyed the accomplishment of figuring things out for himself.
As it turns out, Dick's entire family has produced generations of artists, designer craftsmen, jewelers, musicians and printers. He even had an ancestor who was deported from France for printing broadsides against the King before the French Revolution. He was deported to Devils Island, but escaped and was rewarded by a French historical society with a house on the Hudson River in the U.S. "And that's how one half of my family came to this country" he adds.
The tradition continues with his children. One daughter is a singer living in Australia. Another heads a band in Seattle featuring Cuban Charanga music. Another is recently back from two years in Africa, with the Peace Corps, and now working with her Dad.
 The Macdonald Stained Glass Studio, on Lobster Cove Road is on the east side of Boothbay Harbor, serves not only as the location for creation of the many pieces of art, but as a retail outlet.
His father was a painter, but Dick says he cannot draw at all. "My kids can draw, but I can't. I can draw a straight line in a pinch but have no real flare for it. My skills lie in the ability to design and use color."
It is, of course, the ability to understand the use of light, and how differing tones of color will appear when light is streaming through them, that is the hallmark of the stained glass artist. Macdonald must be considered a master at it.
He particularly likes to create an atmosphere that helps people to feel elegant or romantic, and he loves to create practical items as well. He will even do custom work on request. One of his commercial works is a stained glass sign for the Cod Cove Inn. It is seen by thousands of people every day at its location on Route 27 near Route 1 in Edgecomb. The types of work, in addition to the famous mirrors, wall sconces and lamps, include indoor and outdoor signs, a nautical collection, which includes boats rendered in glass as well as windows for yachts, compass rose lamps and medallions.
One recent work was a passionate window for the Southport United Methodist Church, designed to be seen mainly at night.
Before coming to Maine, Dick had a studio in Boston where he taught classes and sold materials as well as worked at his craft. "If I had stayed in the supply business," he muses, "I probably would have a warehouse the size of Wal-Mart. But I chose to do what I love, which is very rewarding but not as profitable as being a supplier."
He came to the Boothbay region in the early seventies because he had some items on consignment in an area shop. Once here, he decided to spend a summer, and then to buy a home and open his workshop.
His works can be found in shops from Boothbay to Tokyo. Local shops include Abacus in Boothbay and elsewhere, Sheepscot Pottery on Rt.1 and at Sarah's Restaurant in Wiscasset. You can also find his stained glass in the Cathedral Shop at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. and at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, as well as at other shops around the nation.
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