ROCKPORT —  Just four months ago, Justin Roig’s world was a lot different than it is now. As the front of the house manager of Primo, Roig was working six days a week along with his wife, Emily, who worked in the office of Primo. As a father of a 4-year-old son, he had very little time for his artwork, but like many Maine artists, continued to chisel away at it.

In August, while driving home from work to Augusta, he fell asleep at the wheel. His car hit a large rock and flipped, leaving Justin with a broken back and sternum. Consequently, both he and Emily were forced to step down from their jobs at Primo and take extended family leave.

While he is now out of a back brace and moving around, he is still not physically able to handle much of the activity he did before the accident. The financial hardships have been a challenge, and Emily took two more jobs closer to where they live in Augusta.

“I used to be able to do pretty much anything physically, but now I’m relearning a lot of things,” he said. “At first, it totally changed our lives and our jobs, but it has also been a whole new chapter for our family.”

The time off to heal has had unexpected positives for Justin and his family. He has been able to spend more time with his wife and his son, and has been steadily working on a new body of artwork, commissioned after the accident.  Just in time for the annual Christmas by the Sea weekend in Camden, Lincolnville and Rockport, the Michael Good Gallery Annex in Rockport is hosting a special benefit exhibition for Roig titled Justin By-The-SEE, from Dec. 2 to 4.  

A self-taught artist from the age of 3, Roig predominantly works in colored pencil, creating extraordinary hand-drawn portraits on old boards and doors. The detail in his art is so finely tuned, oftentimes, when people are viewing them for the first time, they mistakenly assume the portraits are photographs transposed onto the wood.

A deeper examination of these colored pencil portraits reveals imperfections and abrasions in the grain of old doors and boards, which adds depth and character to the pieces.

“Found wood has its own personality. Though I would in no way compare myself to him, Michelangelo believed that when he was sculpting a block of marble, the statue was already inside and it was his task to bring it out. It’s comparable to drawing on found wood as a medium and I believe in that same concept.”

An avid history buff, Justin picks historical characters he finds personally compelling to portray.

“I am fascinated by American history as well as the old West,” he said.

The three portraits behind Roig in the lead photo, from left, are Kit Carson, the American frontiersman; Dr. David Livingstone, the Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary and African explorer and the man who coined the legendary quote, “Dr. Livingstone I presume”; and Sir Henry Morton Stanley, a Welsh-American journalist and explorer.

“I find with portraiture, it makes people stop and think: “Oh who is that? Do I know who that is?” Roig said. “Faces seem to capture people’s attention much more than abstracts.”

His pen and ink drawings are more whimsical.

“I never did pen and ink with the concept in mind that they were headed for a gallery, so it gave me more freedom to do whatever I wanted,” he said. “These are much more irreverent, much more playful.”

In addition, he’ll also have small self-published books of poetry for sale called: Poems to be Sung in an Off-Key Puppet Voice.

The Michael Good Gallery is going a step further by raffling off a gift basket filled with its own handcrafted objects, valued at $1,000. Tickets will be sold at the Annex for $20 each, with 100 percent of the proceeds to benefit Roig's family. The Michael Good Gallery Annex is off Route 1 in Rockport. The event is free and open to the public, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 2, 3 and 4, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and a "meet and greet" with Roig is planned for Saturday, Dec. 3, noon-4 p.m.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com