Lydia and Emma Soctomah are Passamaquoddy weavers who represent the next generation of Wabanaki basketmakers.  The two sisters’ baskets draw inspiration from their grandmother, Molly Neptune Parker, and celebrate the cultural traditions of their community Motahkomikuk.  Their works feature flower top baskets and a family hallmark form that has been passed down for generations.  

Basketry was a major part of the family’s life, especially its matriarch Molly Neptune Parker, who passed the tradition on to her daughters and grandchildren.  Molly was a board member of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance, which offered community workshops where young and old were taught how to weave and braid sweetgrass.  Emma and Lydia participated in these events as well as spending time learning from their grandmother and other family members, including Geo Neptune.

Gallery – Lydia & Emma Soctomah, Passamaquoddy Basketmakers

Upcoming 2025 Wabanaki Winter Market (Saturday, December 13, 2025):

Organized by the Hudson Museum, the Wabanaki Winter Market is New England’s largest holiday gathering of Wabanaki artists. The annual December event features award-winning Wabanaki weavers as well as new artists representing the next generation of artists.

The event is supported in part by a grant from .

Location of the event: The (2 Flagstaff Road | Orono, Maine)

Date: Saturday, December 13, 2025 (from 9 am to 3 pm)

Contact: Gretchen Faulkner | Director, Hudson Museum (207.581.1904) For event updates, please visit:

The post Lydia & Emma Soctomah (Artist Profile) appeared first on Hudson Museum.

Jennifer Pictou, Mi’kmaq

Jennifer Pictou is a citizen of the Mi’kmaq Nation with has an extensive background in museum leadership and tribal historic preservation. She is an award-winning artist in a variety of media including beadwork and stained glass and an extraordinary traditional storyteller. Her storytelling work has been seen and heard by international audiences in-person, online, and on stage. She is the founder of Bar Harbor Ghost Tours, which features Wabanaki Spirit Tales and the co-author of Haunted Bar Harbor published by Arcadia Publishing.

Jennifer draws inspiration from her deep connection to her Mi’kmaq heritage, especially her ancestors’ cultural resilience and perseverance despite efforts to eradicate their culture. Through her art, Jennifer seeks to “explore the themes of identity and belonging, to reclaim and redefine Mi’kmaq narratives in a contemporary context. Each piece is a rebuttal of the prevalent ideas that we are no longer here, reminding viewers of the importance of preserving and honoring indigenous heritage in an ever-changing world.”

Photos: Jennifer Pictou – Mi’kmaq Artist and Storyteller

Upcoming 2025 Wabanaki Winter Market (Saturday, December 13, 2025):

Organized by the Hudson Museum, the Wabanaki Winter Market is New England’s largest holiday gathering of Wabanaki artists. The annual December event features award-winning Wabanaki weavers as well as new artists representing the next generation of artists.

The event is supported in part by a grant from .

Location of the event: The (2 Flagstaff Road | Orono, Maine)

Date: Saturday, December 13, 2025 (from 9 am to 3 pm)

Contact: Gretchen Faulkner | Director, Hudson Museum (207.581.1904) For event updates, please visit:

The post Jennifer Pictou (Artist Profile) appeared first on Hudson Museum.

Jason Pardilla, Penobscot

Jason Pardilla, Penobscot is a photographer, guide, fisherman, and artist whose connection to
the Penobscot River is deeply ingrained in all aspects to his life. Jason’s photography focuses on
documenting the Wabanaki landscape. He shares his deep relationship with his Wabanaki
Homeland through his work, while seeking to advocate for the protection and preservation of
this special place for future generations.

Jason’s images showcase scenes of the river, the surrounding landscape, and birchbark canoes as well
as images of other places around the world that Jason has travelled to that are also connected
to water.

The Hudson Museum’s Minsky Culture Lab is currently featuring an exhibit of Jason’s images
taken through the lens of a ±č˛ą˛Ô˛ą·Éáłó±č˛ő°ě±đ·Éľ± (Penobscot). Water connects all of the images near
and far either by water itself or the craft utilized to travel by water. There are also images
where indigenous communities live by the water. These images reveal items used to provide
sustenance and places important to indigenous people. We share these places with all of
creation. Welcome to a new dawn.
°ě˛őì±č˛ą (so you see)

Photos: Jason Pardilla – Penobscot Photographer

Upcoming 2025 Wabanaki Winter Market (Saturday, December 13, 2025):

Organized by the Hudson Museum, the Wabanaki Winter Market is New England’s largest holiday gathering of Wabanaki artists. The annual December event features award-winning Wabanaki weavers as well as new artists representing the next generation of artists.

The event is supported in part by a grant from .

Location of the event: The (2 Flagstaff Road | Orono, Maine)

Date: Saturday, December 13, 2025 (from 9 am to 3 pm)

Contact: Gretchen Faulkner | Director, Hudson Museum (207.581.1904) For event updates, please visit:

The post Jason Pardilla (Artist Profile) appeared first on Hudson Museum.

David Lone Bear Sanipass, Mi’kmaq

David Lone Bear Sanipass is a Mi’kmaq Artist and Storyteller.  He comes from a family that is renowned for their basketry–a tradition that he grew up with in Aroostook County.  For over 50 years, David has made traditional Mi’kmaq Northern Block flutes. 

David learned to carve by watching his grandfather as a child.  He harvests white cedar that has been struck by lightning, which crystalizes the tree’s wood.  His flutes have a unique sound and tone and each is specially tuned to a song and melody that he knows.  David also paints and sketches as well as forges tools, such as knives and splint gauges for Wabanaki basketmakers.

Photos: David Lone Bear Sanipass – Artist and Storyteller

Photography by Andrew Estey and Lights Out Gallery

Upcoming 2025 Wabanaki Winter Market (Saturday, December 13, 2025):

Organized by the Hudson Museum, the Wabanaki Winter Market is New England’s largest holiday gathering of Wabanaki artists. The annual December event features award-winning Wabanaki weavers as well as new artists representing the next generation of artists.

The event is supported in part by a grant from .

Location of the event: The (2 Flagstaff Road | Orono, Maine)

Date: Saturday, December 13, 2025 (from 9 am to 3 pm)

Contact: Gretchen Faulkner | Director, Hudson Museum (207.581.1904) For event updates, please visit:

The post David Lone Bear Sanipass (Artist Profile) appeared first on Hudson Museum.

Randi creates oil and acrylic paintings and digital drawings featuring traditional Wabanaki imagery in her studio in coastal Washington County.  She is a graduate of the 91±¬ÁĎ at Machias with a degree in Interdisciplinary Fine Arts.  Her work includes portraits, flora and fauna from this region and explores the connection to land as well as reflecting her life and Passamaquoddy heritage and culture.

Her work has been featured in museum exhibitions and galleries, including the Farnsworth Museum, Abbe Museum, the Coastal Botanical Gardens, the State Capitol in Augusta, and the Eastport Arts Center among many others.  She regularly attends Wabanaki Art Markets, including the Hudson’s Wabanaki Winter Market.

For more on Randi, please visit her website:

Gallery – Norma Randi Marshall, Passamaquoddy Artist

Upcoming 2025 Wabanaki Winter Market (Saturday, December 13, 2025):

Organized by the Hudson Museum, the Wabanaki Winter Market is New England’s largest holiday gathering of Wabanaki artists. The annual December event features award-winning Wabanaki weavers as well as new artists representing the next generation of artists.

The event is supported in part by a grant from .

Location of the event: The (2 Flagstaff Road | Orono, Maine)

Date: Saturday, December 13, 2025 (from 9 am to 3 pm)

Contact: Gretchen Faulkner | Director, Hudson Museum (207.581.1904) For event updates, please visit:

The post Norma Randi Marshall (Artist Profile) appeared first on Hudson Museum.

Erica Nelson Menard is a Penobscot brown ash and sweetgrass basket maker. She was introduced to the tradition by her grandmother, Philomene Saulis Nelson.  During visits to Philomene’s home Erica watched her prepare materials on Indian Island.  She loved watching Philomene dye splints in bright blues, reds, browns, yellows, and purples and seeing her grandmother combining them into baskets to create stunning color combinations. It wasn’t until Erica was in her late 40s that she took up the tradition of basketmaking.

An apprenticeship with her mentor and cousin, Theresa Secord gave Erica an opportunity to reconnect with basketmaking.  Using her grandmother’s molds, she creates ancestral designs based on the Penobscot-style baskets produced by her grandmother, Philomene and her cousin, Theresa.  Erica’s baskets include ash and sweetgrass boxes, sweetgrass flats, and other baskets with braided sweetgrass in the Nelson family style. For Erica, each basket she creates connects her with her grandmother and this traditional art form.   She is passing the tradition on to her daughter and granddaughter, who will also attend the Wabanaki Winter Market at the Hudson Museum.

Erica’s work has been showcased in various exhibitions, including the Portland Museum of Art and the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, Maine.  Erica has done art  basket demonstrations for the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA.

Gallery – Erica Nelson Menard, Penobscot Basketmaker

Upcoming 2025 Wabanaki Winter Market (Saturday, December 13, 2025):

Organized by the Hudson Museum, the Wabanaki Winter Market is New England’s largest holiday gathering of Wabanaki artists. The annual December event features award-winning Wabanaki weavers as well as new artists representing the next generation of artists.

The event is supported in part by a grant from .

Location of the event: The (2 Flagstaff Road | Orono, Maine)

Date: Saturday, December 13, 2025 (from 9 am to 3 pm)

Contact: Gretchen Faulkner | Director, Hudson Museum (207.581.1904) For event updates, please visit:

The post Erica Nelson Menard (Artist Profile) appeared first on Hudson Museum.

Eric Otter Bacon was born in 1977 and grew up in Indian Township and surrounding towns in Washington County. As a youngster, he was drawn to basketmaking, watching elders in his neighborhood making baskets. He was influenced by many artists, some basketmakers and birchbark artist and his style evolved as his work was also influenced by indigenous artforms from around the world.

Otter combines brown ash, sweetgrass and etched birchbark in his work, as well as spruce root, wampum, and even carbon fiber. His blocks and gauges are custom designed specifically for the baskets that he makes.

Today, in addition to basketry earrings and acorn-shaped baskets, Otter works in leather.  His new line, features Mokuk tote bags, inspired by traditional birchbark containers, sewn with spruce root and decorated with double curve designs.

Otter will showcase his impressive array of work at the upcoming  on Saturday, December 13, 2025, organized by the Hudson Museum.

Photos: Eric Otter Bacon – Passamaquoddy Artist

Upcoming 2025 Wabanaki Winter Market (Saturday, December 13, 2025):

Organized by the Hudson Museum, the Wabanaki Winter Market is New England’s largest holiday gathering of Wabanaki artists. The annual December event features award-winning Wabanaki weavers as well as new artists representing the next generation of artists.

The event is supported in part by a grant from .

Location of the event: The (2 Flagstaff Road | Orono, Maine)

Date: Saturday, December 13, 2025 (from 9 am to 3 pm)

Contact: Gretchen Faulkner | Director, Hudson Museum (207.581.1904) For event updates, please visit:

The post Eric Otter Bacon (Artist Profile) appeared first on Hudson Museum.

Dolly Barnes learned to make baskets from her mother, Molly Neptune Parker (1939-2020). Molly was an acclaimed Wabanaki basketmaker who received a 2012 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow and a First Peoples’ Fund Community Spirit Award. 

As a child, Dolly created her first baskets using scraps. Over time, her mother taught her fancy basket styles, particularly flower top baskets, passed down from prior generations. Dolly continued to make these styles, but also vases, tall open cylinder baskets, knitting baskets, button baskets, and forms ornamented with curl work and sweetgrass braid. 

Dolly’s work has been showcased in various exhibitions, including the Portland Museum of Art, where her baskets are displayed alongside those of her mother, emphasizing the enduring legacy of Passamaquoddy weaving traditions.

In addition to her artistic endeavors, Dolly has been actively involved in education within her community. She was appointed a social worker for the Indian Township Passamaquoddy School Department for the 2021-2022 academic year. More recently, she was nominated Assistant Principal for the 2024-2025 school year, highlighting her commitment to supporting and guiding students in her community.

Through her artistry and dedication to education, Dolly Barnes continues to make significant contributions to the cultural and social fabric of the Passamaquoddy community.

Dolly Barnes was chosen to create the Friends of the Hudson Museum Raffle basket for the upcoming 2025  on Saturday, December 13, 2025, organized by the Hudson Museum, where she will also showcase her beautiful work for sale.

Photos: Dolly Barnes – Passamaquoddy Basketmaker

Video: Molly Neptune Parker – National Heritage Fellow

Upcoming 2025 Wabanaki Winter Market (Saturday, December 13, 2025):

Organized by the Hudson Museum, the Wabanaki Winter Market is New England’s largest holiday gathering of Wabanaki artists. The annual December event features award-winning Wabanaki weavers as well as new artists representing the next generation of artists.

The event is supported in part by a grant from .

Location of the event: The (2 Flagstaff Road | Orono, Maine)

Date: Saturday, December 13, 2025 (from 9 am to 3 pm)

Contact: Gretchen Faulkner | Director, Hudson Museum (207.581.1904) For event updates, please visit:

The post Dolly Barnes (Artist Profile) appeared first on Hudson Museum.

Kenny Keezer, son of renowned basket maker Clara Neptune Keezer, carries on a rich tradition of Native American basketry, specifically within the Passamaquoddy tribe. 

His mother, Clara Neptune Keezer (1930-2016), was an award-winning Passamaquoddy basketmaker who received a National Heritage Fellowship Award from the National Endowment for the Arts. She was a celebrated figure in the art world, known for her exquisite craftsmanship and preservation of traditional methods.

His brother, Rocky Keezer; aunts, Angela Barnes and Theresa Neptune Gardner; his uncle, Peter Neptune; and his cousin, Debbie Nicholas, are all renowned Passamaquoddy basketmakers.

Kenny continues his family legacy, creating intricate and finely woven baskets that reflect the cultural heritage of the Passamaquoddy people.

Kenny lives at Sipayik (Pleasant Point) in Perry, Maine, and has been weaving baskets since 1997. Kenny’s work, like his mother’s, emphasizes the use of natural materials such as brown ash and sweetgrass, staples in Wabanaki basketry.

Many of Kenny’s basket-making tools have been passed down for generations–the blocks and forms that baskets are woven over, splint gauges, and splitters.

Kenny was commissioned by the Hudson Museum to make a basket for the 2024 Winter Market raffle.

For more information about Kenny Keezer, please visit: /hudsonmuseum/kenny-keezer/

Photos: Kenny Keezer – Passamaquoddy Basketmaker

Video: Clara Keezer – National Heritage Fellow

Upcoming 2025 Wabanaki Winter Market (Saturday, December 13, 2025):

Organized by the Hudson Museum, the Wabanaki Winter Market is New England’s largest holiday gathering of Wabanaki artists. The annual December event features award-winning Wabanaki weavers as well as new artists representing the next generation of artists.

The event is supported in part by a grant from .

Location of the event: The (2 Flagstaff Road | Orono, Maine)

Date: Saturday, December 13, 2025 (from 9 am to 3 pm)

Contact: Gretchen Faulkner | Director, Hudson Museum (207.581.1904) For event updates, please visit:

The post Kenny Keezer (Artist Profile) appeared first on Hudson Museum.

Gerald “Butch” Jacobs, Passamaquoddy, learned basketmaking from his grandmother Angela Barnes, a member of the renowned Neptune family of basketmakers.

Angela was known for her fancy baskets, and taught Butch how to make her signature forms. Butch bases his baskets on the styles that he learned from his grandmother: acorns, comb baskets, drum baskets and miniatures. Jacobs also makes work baskets, such as pack, market and waste baskets.

One of the few basketmakers who still harvests brown ash, Butch pounds logs to produce splints and then prepares the ash for weaving. He is passing on these traditions to his son.

In addition to baskets, Jacobs has recently started making wooden items from tree deadfall. Look for his beautiful cutting boards, boxes and spoons at the 2025 Wabanaki Winter Market at the Hudson Museum.

Gallery: Gerald “Butch” Jacobs (Artist Profile)

Upcoming 2025 Wabanaki Winter Market (Saturday, December 13, 2025):

Organized by the Hudson Museum, the Wabanaki Winter Market is New England’s largest holiday gathering of Wabanaki artists. The annual December event features award-winning Wabanaki weavers as well as new artists representing the next generation of artists.

The event is supported in part by a grant from .

Location of the event: The (2 Flagstaff Road | Orono, Maine)

Date: Saturday, December 13, 2025 (from 9 am to 3 pm)

Contact: Gretchen Faulkner | Director, Hudson Museum (207.581.1904) For event updates, please visit:

The post Gerald “Butch” Jacobs (Artist Profile) appeared first on Hudson Museum.