Salt Marsh

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Salt Marsh 
Screening & Discussion
Thu, Oct 8, 6 pm / Reception: 5:30 pm
UVA Contemplative Commons 300 - Studio 3B

Mitchell Rasor: Salt Marsh Artworks
Exhibition
Mon, Sept 14–Mon, Oct 19
Campbell East Wing Gallery

Salt Marsh, directed by Tom Bell, documents Maine artist Mitchell Rasor's wintertime salt marsh drawings. Filmed in the Spears Farm Estuary Preserve on the Royal River in Yarmouth, the film is a finely observed and evocative meditation on landscape, memory, and one man's obsession with capturing nature's fleeting essence on paper.

The film unfolds as a compelling portrait of the artist. The original score by Lee Ranaldo (former member of Sonic Youth) deepens the emotional register, resonating with the stillness and delicacy of Rasor's drawings. At once a study of a landscape and a meditation on artistic process, Salt Marsh offers a rare, poetic glimpse into drawing as a way of seeing and holding onto a world that is steadily disappearing. 2025, US, 15 minutes.

Mitchell Rasor is the inaugural artist-in-residence at the UVA Morven Sustainability Lab (MSL), October 7–10, 2026. Following the screening, MSL faculty director Elizabeth Meyer will join Rasor for a post-screening discussion. 

About the Artist

Mitchell Rasor is an artist, musician, and founder of the award-winning landscape architecture and urban design office Rasor, which has been serving clients in Maine and beyond since 2000. He holds degrees from Oberlin College and Harvard University and is an Assistant Professor at the Maine College of Art & Design. In 2025, Rasor attended the Pace House Residency and was the Visiting Artist and Scholar at Oberlin College and Harvard University. Salt Marsh, a documentary about his drawings by Tom Bell, premiered at the Camden International Film Festival and the Barcelona Film Festival in the fall of 2025.