Hello, my name is Jim Sharkey. I live in Brunswick, Maine. Thank you for visiting my web site. I've been making these particular types of documentaries on crafts people since around January 1999. Before I started doing this I worked at WFMY TV in Greensboro, and WXII TV in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Before that I was a navy photographer in San Diego, California and before that I was in Ireland where I grew up in County Roscommon. Ireland was a nice place to grow up. We worked hard on the farm, but we ran wild and free too. I imagine that where you grow up always remains a big part of your life and who you are.

The best part for me about doing these documentaries is getting to know and becoming friends with the people who are in them. For a time my family lived in Asheboro, North Carolina which is very close to the pottery community of Seagrove. That is how I came to know the Luck, Cole, Owens, and McCanless families. They are all gifted potters, storytellers, musicians and more.

 "Penobscot Basket Maker"  was completed in 2003 and is about the life and work of Native American basket maker Barbara Francis. Barbara is a Penobscot Indian who lives and works in Maine on Indian Island. She is an amazing person and basket maker, and is becoming well known and appreciated throughout the country. In addition to numerous awards at Native American art shows Barbara was recently awarded a grant by the Smithsonian Institute to research Native American artifacts held by the Smithsonian Museum. She also was invited by the Peabody-Essex Museum to exhibit and demonstrate her work in September 2004. I met her and her husband, Marty, in 2001 when we moved to Maine.
 

Shortly after completing Penobscot Basket Maker I met Professor Carol Toner who teaches in the Maine Studies Department at the University of Maine in Orono and we began working on  "Hard Work" .  Years before this Carol had bought a used and tattered copy of an 1888 Maine Labor Report printed in book form. It contained the writings of many women factory workers from 1888  in response to questions about their working conditions at the time. Many people helped to put this documentary together. Several women from the university came in to record the "voices" of the women and many librarians and other people searched for and helped find photographs throughout Maine and elsewhere. Click on the title to go to the "Hard Work" page.