It may be wilderness without –
Far feet of failing Men
But Holiday excludes the night –
And it is Bells – within
Emily Dickinson
Year: 2015
On the road again…
Peg that is…
Oh the stories her hat will have to tell when next we see her…
From somewhere in New Zealand…
A Meinelt Christmas
I just read a wonderful article by Lindsey Lee, oral history curator on Martha’s Vineyard, who, along with the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, is putting together a show based on Ted and Polly Meinelt and their annual Christmas displays.
Readers here will know how deeply Ted and Polly touched our lives, and we got to see a few of their holiday trimmings in person over the years. This article brings to life their unique creativity and cherished love of art and people and the Vineyard.
Clicking on the picture below, one of Ted’s famous holiday cards, will take you to the article on MVTimes web page.
A great big thank you to Lindsey for her dedication to telling Islander stories,
and for putting a smile back in my heart on this, as Ted would call it…
Dull winter day.
Puppies !!!!
Meet our newest pack members…Ellie and Ava
After a hard year in which our friend Saren and family said farewell to three of their dogs, she is welcoming these two precious girls into their home…and our pack !
We have already fallen in love. Ellie is the lab and Ava the shepard and it’s hard not to see their predecessors, Nina and Finn’s special pal Tallie, in these wee furry two. They were perfect angels, as all puppies are and I’m so happy for the light back in Saren’s eyes.
It’ll take some time for Finn to adjust, she’s an old dog now and it was a bit of a furprise (I’ll leave that spell check in there)…but all tails were wagging and there’s nothing better than starting your day with puppy kisses !!!!
The wanderer
Peg among the Arctic…
So happy to post this pic of Dear Peggy Cohn,
The Queen of Adventure
who is on a grand tour of New Zealand.
She proudly sports her HN Artisan gear and it brings smiles to us here in the studio.
Go Peg !!!
Today marks the annual pulling up of the drawbridge…
which signals the beginning of the next chapter
in the “Oeuvre” of this artiste.
As the days lean into the lengthening shadows,and the winds whistle through the greying trees,
let the lights of the season
flicker in your souls.
Deep breath…
I’m heading for the easel….
Vive
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
As I read and hear the hate filled angry words
of so many here in this country who scream to slam shut our doors,
it makes me mournful and so so weary of the intolerance and ignorance.
Behind those volatile rantings is so much fear.
Something that they have in common with refugees.
Couldn’t that be a place to start.
I’m back…
in the studio that is. After a loooong hiatus wherein parties were engaged, film crews aimed cameras, god moose daughters were wed, fancy party shoes were danced off, the flu gripped, horses flew, stone walls were studied, the stars came alive, the sun rises blazed, the chowder ran through our veins and the seals laughed at we who stared out to sea while knitting.
Home now to the tapestry of autumn colors that are bringing me to my bionic knees.
It is Scare Crow season my friends,
There is much to do before I officially pull up the drawbridge and settle in for a long season of painting. I got the garlic planted yesterday, but all those straw bales need to be put to bed. The panel making process got interrupted so there is a garage full of unfinished rectangles out there to gesso. Well over ten thousand reference photos, from our Vineyard weeks, are awaiting review, and oh how good it is to be home.
I have a couple dozen blog posts in the wings to catch you up on, but first some rest and re-entry and unpacking of the craziness of the last few months.
Here’s hoping that you can find a heaping pile of leaves to jump in…
Easel…here I come.
In Fokos
In July, when we were on the island of Martha’s Vineyard for the Granary Gallery show, I gave blog readers a teaser which may have left some of you wondering, why is a world famous photographer, David Fokos, following HN around with his camera ?
And why were his Emmy winning wife, Barbarella, and Herself in such gleeful moods down at the dock in Menemsha ?
Well, their award winning selves are executive producers for a new art venture,
the Artist’s Odyssey 
They describe it as, “A Netflix for Art”, with an emphasis on educating and inspiring. Click Here for Barb’s better explanation.
A successful Kickstarter campaign launched them into the production phase where they have begun to film and interview artists. These documentaries will be featured on the network site.
I agreed to be one of their flagship projects and the fun began in earnest on MV in July.
David Fokos and I have been paired for the same group show week in the Granary’s summer schedule for a few years now, so we have come to know each other after long respecting each other’s work. He creates breathtaking, large format black and white photographs, like this…Eight Rocks and a Stone, Chilmark, Massachusetts, 2000.
Barbarella is, well…a Diva.
I’ve linked the image below to the bio page on her website, and, while there, you can click around and find out a bucket full of interesting, humorous, artsy and eyebrow raising tidbits about Barb, her juicy creative mind, and her many projects.
Together, these two are a force for creative good, and, after two days of being tethered to them, (Literally, my pocket was full of wires and my every word…heard by a studio full of machines.)…and trying to keep up with their production energy…Pat and I fell into heaps of old lady exhaustion.
In between takes, and camera set ups, and retakes, and hours of listening to myself ramble about…myself…we had a few breaks to get to know each other better. Oh the laughter, the stories, the entertainment quotient was stellar, and we agreed that we live in exciting times.
Here are a few behind the scenes snaps from the first “shoot” on Martha’s Vineyard, and the last two days of frivolity, here in the studio. Click on thumbnails to view photos.
I’m in awe of the amount of work they managed to accomplish in this small and densely packed studio, and I’m in a stupor thinking back to my bumbling responses to their thought provoking questions. I have no idea what documentary worthy words they will be able to tease out of the mess that was my commentary…but I am confident in their abilities to make the visuals stunning.
I’ll keep you posted on the progress and let you know when they deem it launchable.
Now, it’s travel time for us…a weekend of wedding celebrations, then back to the island for some working R and R.
Here’s to the autumnal equinox and clear cooler days to come…Stay frosty out there, HN
News Flash…
for all the Wolsey fans out there, and I have heard from a surprisingly many of you…
The Wolseys have become new parents…
I discovered this nest, which is in a bush just outside the kitchen window, when we were watching the tree cutters taking down another of the dying Pin Oaks. When all the noisy machinery quited down…the tiny chirps alerted me to the source. You can imagine my surprise when Herself, THE Cardinal Wolsey, flew out of the middle of the bush. You can see that the nest is well hidden. I wasn’t able to get a shot of the babies…yet.
Now, my theories of evolutional avian psychology are about to be tested…
Will the offspring of the ever tapping cardinal be taught that the woman behind the curtain, the one in the baseball hat, with the tiny paint brushes…is She Whose Cocentration Must Be Toyed With.
Instinctive behavior…
or Muse.
Stay Tuned…
Sky chair summer
After the big summer shows I usually come home and crash…
for a week…
then get right back to the easel.
Well, this year I’m taking it slooooow.
We have been blessed with a new studio apprentice, Alex.
Here he is with his Dad, splitting away the mountain of wood that arose
after the two great, but sadly decaying, pin oaks came down last month.
Alex is one strong, enthusiastic, and smart worker, and he is making it possible for this old artist to cross off a long list of chores that have been put on hold…for a decade…while all focus has been on painting.
He has begun to learn the art of panel making and is teaching me a thing or two about snakes, and we’ve both enjoyed some spoon carving on the back porch after the mornings of hard work.
Pat and I feel like we have won the lottery as far as good neighbors go. Every which way we turn, we find kindness and generosity. Believe me it is appreciated.
And, after all that fun morning work…the garden beckons.
Those straw bales are producing, and though I have had an attack of storm trooper squash bugs, there has been progress…
Time to try the new slushy machine…
and of course… Reesers…with friends
and, at the end of these perfect summer days…
Sending you love from the Sky Chair.