The Harold Baldwin Photo Gallery at MTSU is hosting ’Maine Women: Living on the Land,’ an art exhibit exploring the connection that rural women have with family, community and nature.

The exhibit, which runs through Feb. 28 in the McWherter Learning Resource Center, is the culmination of ten years of work for photographer Lauren Shaw, who started the project in 1995 and opened in 2005.

’I got a small grant to travel [to Maine], really not knowing what I was going to do except that I really wanted to understand what it meant to feel like you’re part of a community,’ Shaw said.

Shaw interviewed a medicinal herbalist, a state representative, and a Native American tribal chief, among other women, to create dialog and critical thought about the lessons learned through leading a simple but fulfilling life.

Shaw’s photography and video accompaniment tell a captivating story. A m’lange of women, one with short, gray hair, another with chocolate brown dreadlocks, and one surrounded by goats, all share a respect for their surroundings and a desire to leave a legacy.

Shaw said her combination of a traditional collection of still images and motion picture video results from her professional evolution over the past 30 years and has allowed people understand the women in their own words.

’I wanted people to start asking the question that I was asking, which was, ’What does it mean to live in a [certain community]?’’ Shaw said.

The photographer said she decided to focus on women from Maine because the people there had a culture and bond with one another that she had not seen anywhere else.

She admitted, however, that she was not entirely sure if the exhibit would strike a cord with people who have no connection with Maine.

’It’s had an incredible response but whether it’ll play in California and whether people will get it I don’t know,’ Shaw said.

Murfreesboro, even with all of its developments, is no California though, so Shaw should not have a problem attracting an audience in Middle Tennessee.