The house feels like a mystical sort of fun house, with hundreds of his works -- ''It's my own private Indiana museum'' -- and dozens of stuffed giraffes, dogs, apes, zebras and other animals throughout. ''These are my friends,'' he says, standing next to one of his 11 stuffed giraffes. ``It keeps one from becoming lonely.''

His LOVE icon is everywhere: on wall hangings, on sculptures that sit on tables and bookcases, on lamp shades, on a vest worn by a stuffed bear. His personal assistant wears a leather jacket with LOVE on the back.

Indiana didn't move to this Down East fishing village for its rocky coast and lobster boats. Rather, he moved to his house -- which a benefactor bought for him in 1969 -- when he needed a place to go after his lease ran out on his five-story studio and gallery in the Bowery section of New York City.

He's never quite fit in here and says he lives the life of a recluse, spending most his time with his personal assistant and some helpers who come during the day. One of his studios is an old sail loft that has a waterfront view of Vinalhaven's picturesque harbor; lobster traps, buoys and rope are piled in the yard next door.

Yet none of this makes its way into his work. He says only one of his pieces was inspired by living in Maine: a canvas that is essentially blank except for the word FOG -- with a tilted ''O'' -- at the bottom.

``I thought one day I'd do a landscape. I looked out the window, and this is what I saw.''

Instead, he says his work is driven by his life all the way back to his roots in Indiana, where he grew up as Robert Clark before changing his last name to that of his home state. He finds meaning in numbers and colors and says his life is full of coincidences that propel his work forward.

Ask him about his father and he'll tell you that he worked for Phillips 66, whose signs, gas pumps and buildings were red and green in those days. When Indiana passed by one of those signs as a child, he'd see the red and green against the blue sky -- which is why he used red, green and blue in his LOVE works.

Phillips 66 also plays a role in his frequent use of numbers -- in this case, the No. 6.

''My father was born in June, the sixth month, to a family of six members,'' Indiana says. 'He worked for Phillips 66, he left my mother and headed out on Highway 66 to California and he passed all those little signs on the farmers' fences that said 'Use 666,' which was a cold remedy. Six, which is a sign of love, is definitely a dominant number.''

The EAT sign has been hidden away since the World's Fair showing. For much of the time, it was kept in a storage shed behind Indiana's house that was once an eight-seater outhouse for the Oddfellows Lodge.

While Indiana's art seems to be more New York than Maine, Farnsworth Art Museum curator Michael K. Komanecky says he expects large turnouts.

''Given our mission to celebrate Maine's role in American art, an exhibition of Robert Indiana's work is common sense,'' he says.

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