Arts & Ideas Magazine — June 2012

Martha’s Vineyard Insight and Imagination | Early Summer 2012 | Free

Talking with Trudy TaylorInterconnected Life

Patrick Phillips

New GenerationSun As Electricity

Amelia Smith

ImagineHow Creativity Works

Jonah Lehrer

Martha’s Vineyard

Arts & IdeasCelebrating Our Creative Island

LLOYD KELLY

“Juillet en Provence” 40 x 48 oil on canvas

“Recent Paintings of Provence”July 5 - 20, 2012

ARTIST’S RECEPTIONJuly 12 6:00 - 8:00 pm

32 North Water Street • Edgartown, MA 02539

508.627.8794 • 800.648.1815 • www.christina.com • Open Year Round

On The Island Of Martha’s Vineyard

CTHE CHRISTINA GALLERY

Editor’s Letter

This summer A&I will publish three magazines loosely

based on two themes: imagination and resilience.

These are big, broad themes that touch us all.

From my perspective the ideas of imagination

and resilience come with a question: How do we

as individuals and a community imagine and create new things,

and how do we respond to shock?

This summer we won’t so much try to answer these questions

as we will share the evidence of imagination and resilience found

here. This evidence is in each of us: In the life of a ninety-year-old.

In the loss of a loved one. In an innovative response to the cost of

fossil fuel. In imagining geologic time and glaciers. And, of course

in imagination made evident in full through the arts.

The reason behind these themes is straightforward. Imagination

is essential. It’s on par with knowledge, food, clothing, money.

It carries us to the moon, to ancient China, to cures for cancer.

With it we make simple, tasty meals. Most of all, imagination

carries us beyond limits, and in limiting times that’s important.

This fits perfectly in these pages. The arts work hand in hand

with our community’s health. They strengthen our imagination,

so we might better overcome the collapse of the housing market

or another spike in the price of oil, the cost and practice of

healthcare. Imagination gives us bounce, relieves stress in

reflection and in the act of creation. A&I won’t fix things, but by

surfacing and celebrating our imagination and resilience as a

community we hope to help us imagine.

In this issue, Trudy Taylor shares her infinitely curious self.

Sarah Das talks about the Laurentide and Greenland ice sheets.

Sam Feldman, Sandy Broyard and others discuss grief and

recovery from the loss of loved ones. We also look at the prospects

for solar energy and the potential to generate our own renewable

energy. We even draw on a national author to share his ideas

on imagination and how creativity works.

Perhaps most important and relevant, imagination and

resilience are essential aspects of island life. They take on

particular social value and meaning here in people’s make do,

bring forth, create and recreate a life approach. Life on the

margin does that. And, whether people are wealthy or struggling

on this island living here is creative; it points to possibilities, to

bounce and imagination. Here’s an opportunity to celebrate that,

all summer.

Patrick Phillips — Publisher & Executive Editor

Publisher & editor

Patrick Phillips

Art director

Malcolm Grear Designers

Poetry editor

Jennifer Tseng

AssociAte Photo editor

Tova Katzman

Ad director

Molly Purves Ad Sales: [email protected]

contAct

Arts & Ideas PO Box 1410 West Tisbury, MA 02575

[email protected]

508.293.1693

About Arts & ideAs, inc.

Arts & Ideas print and digital maga-zine is published by Arts and Ideas, Inc., a Martha’s Vineyard publishing company. A&I’s uses media to engage all people who live here and who come here in the arts and ideas that help our community thrive.

A&I is available for $4 per magazine, $22 for a one-year subscription (four issues) and $40 for two years (eight issues). Subscribers outside the U.S. must provide $15 per year for international postage.

Subscribe to Arts & Ideas at www.mvartsandideas.com/store/subscribe-to-arts-and-ideas. You will receive one of the most beautiful magazines anywhere, while you support our highly imaginative island community.

p h OTO ( l e f T )

Neal Rantoul

O N T h e C O v e R ( l e f T TO R I G h T )

Gretchen feldman, Fat Cells II

Neal Rantoul, Elizabeth Island Series

Kenneth vincent, Last Boat

lloyd Kelly, Pink Tree

Tova Katzman, Trudy Taylor

Martha’s Vineyard

Arts & Ideas

snow fence in september

TOp lefT, ClOCKwIse sam low, Richard Koury, Richard Koury, susan savory

3Martha’s Vineyard Arts & Ideas Early Summer 201 2

7 EyE on arts

Brief takes on gallery openings, performances and Island art events.

10 Island MosaIc

The Chicken Alley Thrift shop is a treasure of finds, people and a testament to resilience.

artIst profIlEs

1 2 Lloyd Kelly

20 Antoinnette Noble

30 Ketz

38 Kenneth Vincent

48 Jessica Pisano

artIst portraIts

27 Marston Clough

35 Barney Zeitz

45 Julia Kidd

56 Heather Goff

54 Susan Savory

poEtry

18 Jorie Graham

36 Kathy Garlick

52 Sarah Gambito

Essays

26 Disintegration / Integration Demaris wehr’s final, transformative conversations

with her dying husband.

51 The Nature of Nurture polly hill’s “natural selection” turns out-of-zone seeds

into hardy beauty.

vIsItIng artIst

1 1 Camille Seaman with essay by Sarah Das Climate and ice sheets connect Greenland with

Martha’s vineyard.

fIctIon

28 Amelia Smith — Dreamscape: The Elizabeth Islands The elizabeth Island are visually near, but form a

landscape of the mind.

37 Laura Wainwright — Evening Watch An evening home alone brings an expansive world

from the chair on the porch.

50 Emily Cavanaugh — Mia Not even two days old, a twin saves her sister’s life.

non-fIctIon

28 Jonah Lehrer — Imagine The sublimity and the science of how letting go allows

us to grasp how musicians and our brains bring beauty into the world.

46 Edward Hoagland — Alaskan Travels In cold, cold Alaska, an adventure where the human,

and the man survives in a desolate boundary of nature and life.

59 Individual Artisan and Artist Guide

60 Gallery Guide

64 Advertiser Guide

14 Talking with Trudy TailorInterconnected life might be the measure of each of us, our curiosity, our fascination with the known and unknown. Trudy Tailor talks and shares a some of her life and connections as an endlessly curious person on this planet.

22 Loss, Grief and LifeConfounded by grief people are literally at a loss, for everything. The return from despair can be long, and the return always takes different paths. Sandy Broyard, Sam Feldman and George Cohn reflect on grief, bereavement and recovery and what the process may mean for others.

42 New GenerationImagination is one measure of resilience and building a solar array in a grocery store parking lot takes imagination. With a new focus clean, local energy, the history of generated electricity here takes a new turn, and current solar projects redefine how collaboration could create an island-wide renewable energy utility.

CONTENTS

FEATurES

DepARTMeNTs

48

3011

4220

22

1 4

12

4 Martha’s Vineyard Arts & Ideas Early Summer 201 2 5Martha’s Vineyard Arts & Ideas Early Summer 201 2

CONTRIBUTORS

amelia smith writes on — and sometimes about — Martha’s Vineyard. She is taking a hiatus from ‘round-the-world travels to garden, raise children, and do some writing. Page 28 and 42

antoinette noble “I’ve been a student of art and the creative process from as far back as I can remember. It has been a journey filled with experimentation, discovery and adventure. Page 20

Barney Zeitz has lived and worked on Martha’s Vineyard for forty years doing his art in glass, metal and drawing. He has tried to live a full life by trying different interests, 10 years of modern dance, 10 years of aikido (martial art), motorcycling, raising kids, being married, and traveling. Page 35

camille seaman was born in 1969 to a Native American (Shinnecock tribe) father and African American mother. She lives in Emeryville, California and works in a documentary / fine art tradition. Since 2003 has concentrated on the fragile environment of the Polar Regions. Page 40

demaris Wehr, ph.d., lives with her Maine coon cat “Mikey” in West Tisbury, where she has a small private psychotherapy practice. She is currently writing two books: a memoir of the final year she shared with her husband, Dr. David Hart, and one that chronicles the lives of eight survivors of the war in Bosnia. Page 26

don McKillop left a senior corporate position in global technology and information systems to become a full-time artist in the early 90s. He has been painting for over 50 years. Page 54

Emily cavanagh lives on Martha’s Vineyard with her family and teaches English at the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School. Her stories have been published in Grain Magazine, Transfer, and Red Rock Review. She is at work on a second novel. Page 50

Heather goff lives in Oak Bluffs with her husband, artist Andrew Moore, their children, and their dog. She is the lead programmer and designer at goffgrafix, a website design company. Page 53

Jeanne campbell “I have been a part-time islanders for forty-five years. As a photogra-pher, I am an unofficial record keeper, helping

our children and their children remember and feel what it is about the place that keeps us all coming back, year after year.” Page 11

Jessica pisano grew up on the Vineyard, has a BA in Fine Art from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR, and a Masters in Arts Administration from the Art Institute of Chicago. She currently lives in Newport, RI. Page 48

Jorie graham is the author of twelve collec-tions, including “The Dream of the Unified Field”, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and teaches at Harvard University. Page 18

Julia Kidd has maintained a private Psychotherapy practice in Vineyard Haven since moving to Martha’s Vineyard in 2001. She holds an MFA from California Institute for the Arts. “I got all your messages and loved every one.” is her first public art project. Page 45

Kathy garlick’s chapbook, “The Listening World,” was published by Momotombo Press. She lives in Oakland, CA and teaches in San Francisco. Page 36

Kenneth vincent I paint because I have to. I paint the Vineyard because it is a major part how I have learned to perceive the world and I think my work reflects this. To be honest I don’t like to be an artist. Its a really crap way to live a life, and I am certain that anyone with any sense would avoid the profession. Page 38

Ketz Weiler Discrete personal experiences with abstraction are far more potent when kept unrevealed. I enjoy blurring lines of composition and setting up unique interactions with art. Page 30

laura Wainwright, a graduate of Yale University, was a teacher and children’s librarian before becoming a writer. Her essays have appeared regularly in The Martha’s Vineyard Times. She lives in Lambert’s Cove with her husband, Whit Griswold; they have two grown children. Page 37

lloyd Kelly has been exhibited extensively in galleries and museums in the United States, Europe, Mexico, Russia and Asia. He has been a summer visitor to the Martha’s Vineyard for years and lives in the Louisville, Kentucky area. Page 12

Marnie stanton is a long time Tisbury resident who raised her kids on Lake Tashmoo. Her love of nature with a particular emphasis on island waters, is repeatedly expressed through her art and videography. Page 51

Marston clough “I studied and taught science for years and find that art, like science, is a continual search. Through art, I have joined the Board of Featherstone and other local non-profits, re-engaging with the community where I was born and raised.” Page 27

neal rantoul is a career artist and educator. Recently retired from 30 years as head of the Photo Program at Northeastern University in Boston. He is the author of several books of his photographs. Neal Rantoul was featured in the second issue of Art & Ideas as a “Visiting Artist.” Page 28

sam low is a photographer, journalist and writer who lives on Martha’s Vineyard. Page 3 and 54

sarah das serves as PI Principle Investigator at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) on a number of research project on Greenland. She conceives of projects and submit projects to funding agencies and then manages them. Page 40

sarah gambito is the author of the poetry collections “Delivered” (Persea Books) and “Matadora” (Alice James Books). She is Assistant Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at Fordham University. Page 52

susan davy is a photographer who retired from a career as a senior non-profit pro-fessional at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Peabody Essex Museum, and the New England Conservatory of Music. Page 54

susan savory is a writer, illustrator and photographer who supports her arts habit with a day-job as the children’s buyer at Bunch of Grapes Bookstore. Page 3 and 54

6 Martha’s Vineyard Arts & Ideas Early Summer 201 2

dragonfly fInE arts

gallEry

Dragonfly Fine Arts Gallery, an

award winning gallery located on

Martha’s Vineyard, celebrates

its 19th Anniversary Season in

2012 with 30 new and returning

artists, a broad selection of work

in various media, and our always

exceptional client services. We

look forward to seeing you at the

Gallery throughout the season.

Featured Artists

Nora RosenbaumThursday, June 14

Laura WilkThursday, June 21

Nan Hass FeldmanThursday, June 28

Peter BatchelderThursday, July 5

Jessica PisanoThursday, July 12

ARTS District STROLL Thursday, July 14, 4–7pm

Artist Jessica Pisano will be in

attendance.

granary gallEry

The Granary Gallery organizes

events for several other galleries

across the island, including the

Field Gallery and the North Water

Gallery. Events for the beginning of

the summer include the following:

Artists’ Reception Barry Rockwell, Kate Madsen, Heidi Lang-Parrinello & Wendy Lichtensteiger

Sunday, June 17, 5–7pm

Artists’ Reception Alison Shaw, Kenneth Vincent, David Wallis & Dan West Sunday, July 1, 5–7pm

Artists’ Reception David Fokos, Gigi Horr-Liverant, Don Wilks & Heather Neill Sunday, July 15, 5–7pm

Kara taylor

Kara Taylor Fine Arts Gallery is

located on Main Street, Vineyard

Haven. In the summertime

the gallery is open 11am–6pm,

Tuesday–Sunday.

Opening Reception Case History

June 1, 5–8pm

fEatHErstonE

Opening Reception “The Art of iPhone Photography” Sunday, June 10, 4–6pm

Opening Reception “Across the Pond and Back”

works by Inas Al-soqi and

Marshall Pratt Sunday, June 10, 4–6pm

Opening Reception Martha’s Vineyard Artists of the Copley Society

Sunday, July 1, 4–6pm

Vineyard Stories Book Launch PartyWhere Horses Fly Sunday, July 8, 4–6pm

Musical Mondays 6:30–8pm on the outdoor stage

The Tashmoo Trio featuring

Christine McLean, Chris Seidel &

Penny HuffJune 18

Jon Zeeman & FriendsJune 25

Joanne CassidyJuly 2

Tristan Israel, Nancy Jephcote &

Paul ThurlowJuly 9

Kevin KeadyJuly 16

Featherstone Flea & Fine Arts MarketsEvery Tuesday, 9:30am–2pm

The Pathways/Featherstone Summer Festival of PoetryPoets Laureate: Dan Waters, Fan Ogilvie, Justen Ahren & Steve Ewing

Tuesday, July 17, 7pm

MartHa’s vInEyard

MusEuM

The Martha’s Vineyard Museum is

dedicated to furthering an interest

in, experience of, and appreciation

for the history and culture of the

Island and its environs.

Museum Author Talk “Thomas Hart Benton: A Life”Tuesday, June 5

In the Community 5th Annual Lighthouse ChallengeSaturday, June 9

Museum Shipwrecks Lecture “Disaster Off Martha’s Vineyard: The Sinking Of The City Of Columbus” Tuesday, June 12

tHE louIsa gould gallEry

The Louisa Gould Gallery is an

award winning gallery celebrating

its 10th Summer Season with a

wide range of artists and art. The

Gallery represents 30 artists

both national and international

emerging and well-known in

their respective fields. The hand

selected artwork ranges from

paintings, mixed media, new

media, sculpture, furniture,

ceramics, jewelry, works on paper,

photography and ship models to

glass sculptures. The Gallery hosts

rotating shows throughout the

summer and fall seasons.

“Memorial Day Group Show”Featuring the work of Chris Pendergast, Lesile Self, Thanassi, Warren Gaines, Janet Woodcock, Paul Beebe, Louisa Gould,

Tim Coy, Debra Gaines, John Holladay, Debra Colligan and Donna Blackburn Ongoing exhibit in early June

“Island Contemporary” Featuring artists Carol Gove,

Vaclav Vytlacill, Ethel Grodsky,

Suzanne Hill, Genevieve Jacobs

June 13–26

Artist Reception

Saturday, June 16, 5–7pm

EYE ON ARTSEYE ON ARTS

vInEyard artIsans

fEstIvals

15th Annual Summer FestivalsSundays: June 10–September 30

Thursdays: July 5–August 30

Grange Hall, West Tisbury

10am–2pm each day

Representing over 120 Island

Artists & Artisans. All hand made

fine art and craft exclusively by

Island Artists. Catered food from

Chesca’s of Edgartown.

Free admission Rain or shine with

Great Food and Free Parking!

For more information:

www.vineyardartisans.com

Museum Shipwrecks Lecture “In the Wake of Kon Tiki: Thor Heyerdahl and Andean-Polynesian Contact”Tuesday, June 26

Museum Special Event 14th Annual Evening of DiscoverySaturday, June 30

Museum Special Event Dr. Stuart Frank and Mary Malloy present “Vineyard Sailor Ballads”Tuesday, July 10

Museum Special Event David Murphy presents Stanley Murphy artworkThursday, July 12

Museum Book Launch: “To the Harbor Light: Lighthouses of Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and Cape Cod”Tuesday, July 17

“Summer Reflection” New works by Carol Rowan,

Robert Jewett, Tim Coy and

Maya Farber with live music by

Wes Nagy June 27–July 18

Artist Reception

Friday, July 6, 6–8pm

Carol Rowan will give an Artist

Talk, Thursday, July 5, 5pm

In the Community Museum Summer Opening ReceptionFriday, June 15

Museum Author Talk “Dorothy West’s Paradise”Thursday, June 21

Museum Special Event 2nd Annual Vineyard Haven House TourSaturday, June 23

Lecture “Historic Vineyard Haven Architecture”Saturday, June 23, 11am

Stone Church: 89 William Street,

Vineyard Haven (corner of Church

Street). Patron Tickets: Enjoy a

patron’s brunch from 9:30–11 am,

receive admission to the lecture,

and enjoy the tour. $100 per

person. Call 508-627-4441 x110.


MartHa’s vInEyard fIlM

fEstIval

Summer Film SeriesJune 27–August 30

Bringing you the best films in the

world and combining them with

filmmaker discussions, fresh local

food, and live music, all within a

laid-back community atmosphere.

Screenings begin at 8pm

Arrive early to enjoy dinner &

live music.

Marina Abramovic: The Artist

is PresentWednesday, June 27

The Chilmark Community Center

Thursday, June 28

The Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown

Under African SkiesMonday, July 2


Beasts of The Southern WildTuesday, July 10

Capawock in Vineyard Haven

This screening is FREE for members!

Chasing IceWednesday, July 18


Thursday, July 19

The Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown

Visit www.tmvff.org for full

schedule.

Special Membership ScreeningThe Intouchables Friday, June, 8pm

The Capawock Theater

Main Street, Vineyard Haven

Tickets: Free for MVFF members,

$9 for non-members. Seats on a

first come first served basis. Non-

member tickets and memberships

will be sold at the door.

cInEMa cIrcus scHEdulE

Starting June 27 The Martha’s

Vineyard Film Festival catapults

into another summer of Cinema

Circus! The Cinema Circus “little

big top” is open to all. Let the kid

in you explore! Films are most

appropriate for ages 3–10.

Visit www.tmvff.org for a full

schedule

Upcoming ShowsWednesday, June 27


Monday, July 2


Wednesday, July 11


Wednesday, July 18


cHrIstIna gallEry

The Christina Gallery will feature

as part of its 2012 Summer

Exhibition schedule, an extensive

collection of Works on Paper by

many celebrated artists including

Camille Pissarro and Family,

James Jacques Tissot, Mary Cassatt, Pierre-Auguste Renoir,

and many others. The collection

includes watercolors, drawings

aquatints, etchings, pochoirs and

original lithographs from the late 1800’s through the mid 1900’s.

Please visit the gallery, which is

located in the historic district of

downtown Edgartown, to view this

wonderful collection in person.

The Christina Gallery32 North Water Street

Edgartown, MA 02539

508-627-8794

Among the hundreds of items available at Chicken Alley: clothing furniture, books, dishes, glass-ware — small electrical appliances, vases, there is most especially a welcoming warmth, friendship and pride.

For many residents of this small island the Thrift Shop is the first place to look for a warm jacket for a grandchild and an almost-new winter coat for a grandmother who generally goes without. “I come in almost every day, and I always find some-thing we need and can use”, she said. “Besides, the folks who work here have become my friends. People I can talk to.”

Phronsie Conlin has been a volunteer for close to twenty years. “I look forward to my time here,” she said. I meet people from all over the island. It’s like a social club working with friends and customers who come in almost daily who have become friends. What we do here is appreciated, and at my age — ninety two, that feels very good. Plus we know we are doing good for our island and people.”

Other islanders find other reasons for stopping in at the large blue building on Lagoon Pond Road in Vineyard Haven.

Viet Bachellor, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Martha’s Vineyard Community services has many occasions when she has to look her best.

“The most elegant piece of clothing I own came from the Thrift Shop — a leather jacket I could not have afforded in an expensive shop off island. Every time I wear it, I receive compli-ments. And yes! I proudly tell people where it came from.

“When my husband and I first moved to Vineyard Haven in 1969,” she continued, “the very first piece of furniture we bought was an old seaman’s chest from the Thrift Shop. It’s still one of our most prized possessions. Now I come in fairly often to look for unusual vases and other containers for flower arrangements for the Garden Club shows. I don’t go off island often and the Thrift Shop has become the first place many of us year round islanders go to.”

It’s the first place others head to for the warmth of friendly human contact, knowing they are welcome to browse or just come in, out of the cold. Sandy Pratt, busy manager, takes time to talk to me. “The Thrift Shop supports the Community

Jeanne Campbell —The Chicken Alley Thrift shopDoes not sell chickens, does not sell eggs

Services organization, but is itself, unofficially an important community relations destination. There are lonely people, elderly, often living alone who stop by almost every day. The staff and I

get to know them. If a few days go by and he or she doesn’t come in, one of us will call and

checkup. A gentleman, bringing in clothing that belonged to a family member, needs time to express his feelings. We don’t take time; we give it.”

It was my neighbor, Olga Hirshorn, ultimate thrift shop browser, who recognized the value of several donated art pieces, and came up with the idea of an annual art show. She gave the show its name, and began showcasing paintings, sculpture, photography, valuable first edition books, and other pieces of art, making the weekend in August a collector’s desti-nation — bringing $40,000 to $50,000 to Community Services.

In this sputtering economy, the Thrift Shop is a thread that weaves residents and visitors to each other and so to the island itself. Islanders have depended on the shop since 1962 — when it opened on Main Street, and more so now on Lagoon Pond Road in a roomier building where more people can come in, where strollers, cribs, and car seats, bicycles, and kayaks, tennis racquets and even wedding dresses are attractively displayed.

I like to think of the Thrift Shop as a typical, yet unique island resource. I bring in household and clothing I no longer use. I take home household and clothing items someone else no longer uses — I feel pride and excitement in finding something I truly want. I’m also indirectly donating to Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, which contributes to the daily lives of hundreds of islanders. (Last year alone the Thrift Shop contributed over $380,000.00 to Community Services.) The Thrift Shop is daily proof of the resilient spirit of Islanders, rising to address community needs, each one of us contributing, discovering and adapting to what’s made available at “Chicken Alley”— and, for all generations here it’s also cool to be thrifty.

EYE ON ARTS

pIKnIK

PIKNIK Art & Apparel is pleased

to be welcoming several new

and talented artist to the roster

this season. Among them are

Ketz Weiler...seen in this issue and

the wonderful folk art paintings

of Carl Ristaino. Vineyard son

Max Decker is planning on picking

up “the brush” after a two year

break to pursue his music career

in Brooklyn, and many Vineyard

fans are anxiously awaiting

his new work. Curator Michael Hunter will be splitting his time

this summer between his new

Edgartown location, while still

supporting the events and strolls

in The Arts District, as well as

many new, and as yet nailed down

events of music, fashion, and art

in Edgartown.

I s l A N D M O sA I C

nortH WatEr gallEry

Coffee & Conversation with Ray Ellis Saturday July 7, 10–11:30am

Artists’ Reception Traeger di Pietro, Ken Otsuka & Jim Holland Thursday, July 12, 5–7pm

fIEld gallEry

Artists’ Reception Jhenn Watts, Kenneth Pillsworth & Jeff Hoerle Sunday, June 24, 5–7pm

Artists’ Reception Eva Cincotta & Craig Mooney Sunday, July 8, 5–7pm

davIs HousE gallEry

The Davis House Gallery Hours

June: Saturdays and Sundays,

1–6pm

July: Thursday–Saturday, 1–6pm


lloyd Kelly

A RT I sT p R O f I l e

Born of aBstractIon

My paintings are not about what is depicted. They come

from within. They are born of emotions, experiences and

concepts which surface subconsciously, and consciously.

Utilizing opposites, the paintings attract, repel, create

tension and come to a resolution through visual dialogue

and interaction with the viewer.

contEMporary rEalIst

This is a high wire act. Could be dismissed at a glance

as trite, nothing new, decorative and illustrative. This is

dangerous territory for someone who claims to be

post modern. I balance the yin and yang of conceptual

abstraction and the use of conventional images and

motifs that are accessible and familiar.

Born of Abstraction

Contemporary Realist

with hidden Balance

A Story

A woman from a Massachusetts first family invited me

for tea at her Vineyard cottage. She said “Mr. Kelly,

don’t get me wrong, I love your painting…” an opening

every artist finds uncomfortable… “I bought your painting

to match my chintz, which it does perfectly — I realize

one is not supposed to do that sort of thing. But I must

say, that painting is doing something in my sitting room.

I can’t stop looking at it. This is some sort of Trojan Horse;

I fear something is creeping out. Can you explain it?”

asyMMEtrIcal or occult BalancE

Asymmetry has a way of inviting the spectator to

participate in offbeat rhythms, elastic tempos, tensions,

and the internal life of the design. The word occult

denotes secretiveness, mystery, and there is something

that wants to escape us in fine examples of this kind of

hidden balance. Some of these are to be found in ancient

Chinese and Japanese pairings, in the art of Japanese

flower arranging and in the art of the Japanese garden.

Exactitude is not truth

— Matisse

There is no excellent

beauty that hath

not some strangeness

in the proportion

— Francis Bacon (essayist)

>> Christina Gallery website: www.christina.com Artist website: www.lloydkelly.com

Cupcakes, Oil on Canvas, 21 x 24”

Pink Tree, Oil on Canvas, 17 x 17"

St. Remy de Provence, Oil on Canvas, 45 x 49"


“Madame, I Have No Idea”Talking with Trudy Taylor

Patrick Phillips Trudy, last week you said to me you felt every cell in our bodies knows the sun. What did you mean by that?

Trudy Taylor I feel that everything, all the cells in our bodies, are there for a purpose. For some, you may wonder... (laughs) But all the cells fulfill some purpose. They are designated to be heart cells or brain cells or tooth cells, or skin cells or eye cells when they are very, very tiny. So, to me they have to know the sun because the sun is what allows us to live.

If we have a huge surprise by an asteroid or something that bangs into the earth like the one that killed off the dinosaurs, if we had another one of those and it was dark for ten years because of the debris in the air, it would stop the sun from coming to the surface of the planet. It would create an environ-ment in which we couldn’t live. Some other form of life would live through it and develop in a different way. So we are totally dependent upon the sun.

It’s so fascinating. Animals know when to hibernate. A bear goes into hibernation, and when she’s pregnant and lies underground in a semi-comatose condition, while she develops her new bears inside and delivers them in an almost comatose condition — that’s all because of the sun and the length of the day, and she knows all that on some level. If you’re an animal all the cells are tuned into the sun. We don’t think about it.

The plants all respond to it. There’s an interesting editorial in the New York Times about the plants and Thoreau. The plants are all timing themselves in a different way because of the warming of the planet, the changes in the planet. Some are blooming earlier in the spring and some are blooming even earlier. It’s all so connected. The birds fly up here because they know they’re going to have the blossoming and the new insects and something to eat... How do they know all that? It’s all in the cellular level at some point. They don’t think about it.

PP I was watching something last night and they were talking about sentience, or awareness. And even small multicellular organisms have awareness. They bounce off things and move away. Attracting and repelling.

Trudy Taylor They know why they are here. But, they don’t think about it... And we don’t either... (laughter.) We say, Oh, I have to go to the post office. We have to open the sliding glass door, which is having trouble, and you have to close the door properly. And you have to walk out into the garden and be aware, or partially aware, of what’s going on there, and without asking the birds start singing, as if they are singing for me. And I start thinking about the birds. And I get in the car and go to the post office. There are a couple of aging people.

I intentionally make my mind go cheerful to greet them. “Hey Jack.” I think about all these things as I go along through the day, but my whole physiology has a life of its own. I mean, it tells me, ‘You’re sleepy, it’s time to go to bed.” You’re func-tioning on so many cellular levels, I call it. It’s a different part of you. Since you’ve been in utero they have been timed to do their function.

A scientist once told me that when you are having a heart attack you can have pains in different places. And the reason for that is that those areas were once heart cells, and they are in trouble. It might be part of your jaw that might have heart cells, or did in the very beginning of you, and they respond in very unusual ways when you are having a heart attack. Don’t you just wish you were a physiologist or a microbiologist!? I do!

PP I wish my eyes could zoom. I wish I could see the bird close up, and look at the reflection of its eye. I also wish I could see on a molecular level and see all the teeming bacteria on things. I wish that were not a guess.

Trudy Taylor I knew that when I was ten. It came to be near Christmas and someone asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I said I wanted a microscope. And my darling mother went out to find me a toy microscope, and I was terribly disap-pointed. Christmas was always a terrible let down for me.

PP With the microscope, did you get a legitimate...

Trudy Taylor Things were enlarged. I could look at textiles, or a piece of my hair, or dust bunnies under my bed. I could hone in to get some magnification, but it would have been a good time for me to have start taking some science courses with a really good teacher. But, those are things you learn. Instead of studying a lot of science when I was ready for it in the beginning I was just incredibly curious. I filled up the science part of me by

looking at things intensely and wondering and reading about them. One educates oneself.

PP Were you following the dictates of your cells, building the sentient awareness, mindful and curious? Is curiosity innate?

Trudy Taylor I don’t know whether it is or not, but it’s some-thing that needs to be really treasured in the child if they are curious, instead of putting them off. If you’re curious, it’s an itch you have to find out.

Sometimes when I travelled a lot I would go ostensibly to visit a friend in Hawaii who I met in Bali. I’d see as much as I could in a sensory way while I was in the Hawaiian islands — I’d rent a car and drive all around. I’d learn as much as I could. I’d be in touch with the social history and the ecological history and I’d talk to as many people as I could, kind of like a journalist, with curiosity about how the place evolved with people on it. I wanted to know it in a more personal way. Then when I’d get home here I’d go to the library and I’d bring home 3, 6 or whatever was there, fascinating books about whatever I could find. For example, about Elizabeth Bird travels around the Sand-wich Islands. I wanted an in depth perception about everything.

I knew when I was a little kid that I was okay, you know, being here. I belonged to the planet. That I felt related to every-thing and everybody on the planet. I knew that we are all of us capable of terrible things and beautiful things. I knew that we were related to all animals. I could just tell.

You’re part of the planet. You belong on the planet. Every-thing about you is related to the planet. Everything. You are a huge percentage of water and bone and all of that is intercon-nected with other animals. We all came out of the planet. Unless we flew in from outer space.

When I first went to the zoo in Boston when I was a little kid I was so amazed looking in the eyes of the chimpanzee.

This conversation took place April 19, 2012 at Trudy Taylor’s small cape off stonewall Beach in Chilmark.

In earlier conversations she and I had wandered around the riches of memory, knowledge and

curiosity. Trudy possesses interconnected sparks of life that take a conversation easily from a flower

or a bird to the sun and back, in a blink. she told a story once of having “baptized” her children in

walden pond, soon before they all moved to North Carolina from Massachusetts. she said, “They were

all in their little swim trunks. One of them found a coke bottle, another a dollar bill.” Of course, with

everything interwoven in Trudy’s mind and body, in her person, Thoreau is but a small, ironic step away.

his ability to take walks, to teach us about nature, society and life is with her, her kids, and now with

this conversation maybe a few more people.

— Patrick Phillips


few people to think about it, if I dared ask the question. Ameri-cans I thought, as John Lennon was quoted as saying, “I went out to America but found that no one was home.” And I find that about Americans.

PP What is that?

Trudy Taylor I don’t know. I think that we’re such a young coun-try and we’re such a melting pot of different cultures with different ideas and religions. In one way, the reason for our curiosity and our recklessness and our feeling that we can do whatever human beings can do, and do it better. When I first went to China, I saw people who came from a very, very different philosophy and very established civilization. Their attitude was very, very different, and their ideas were very, very different from ours. I could only think of one word — harmony. Couldn’t speak the language, but I felt very at ease and, in a queer way at home there.

PP Was it because that centuries or millennia provide intercon-nectedness as basis for...

Trudy Taylor I’d have to go back again and back and back looking for some explanation for how we are different and they appeared to be so at ease in their environment. And knew how to be there.

PP What’s an example?

Trudy Taylor For instance I was walking with a young inter-preter down a side street in an ancient town, in probably Sujo somewhere. I came across a well in a community — not a monastery but something similar to that. And there were these older men, there was a roof over the well. These men were sitting around talking, as they often do in the countryside. My interpreter and I were walking slowly through this village. It was different, the look of that group of men, bonding to each other. They had old costumes on — faded blue or gray from the Revolution days. And I suspected they were of a cadre, or neighbors. I stopped and looked at the whole scene. They were sitting on a rise with a structure over it.

I spoke to the translator. At that time the men looked up. I call them old men but they weren’t necessarily old. One of

The chimpanzee was looking right back at me. I knew that we were connected, and the animal knew we were connected. It was a very big occasion for me. It taught me something amazing. When you’re a kid you get a burst of knowledge. Where does that understanding come from? You put it together in your mind somehow. Here is this creature that doesn’t look much like you, although the hands do and the eyes do, and their faces do in a way. Then you wonder what happened as we evolved and changed, what we did with the hair for instance. A chim-panzee’s hair. When you get chills, you get what I call duck bumps. You get cold and the little parts of your skin fluff up. If you had hair on you they’d be fluffing up the hair for insulation, like a bird when it gets cold. So we lost the hair but we still have the tools physiologically to keep us warm, to a point.

I had an uncle named Nicholas who, when he was sixteen or so, froze to death on a salt marsh up in Newburyport. He froze because he made a couple of serious mistakes. It was near Christmas and he evidently shot a duck. It came down in the water in the middle of winter. So he naturally took a rowboat from shore, and went out. Whether he had one sculling oar or whether he had two they don’t know. He got caught in the podge, which is a word for ice floating out that was cracked up and floating out to the sea. He yelled from the river but it was a blizzard and no one could go out there. He managed to get the rowboat up into the salt marsh so he wouldn’t go out to the sea. He had a couple of matches and he tried to light a haystack on fire. My father found him, his brother, frozen into the marsh.

So, I think about him once in awhile. The fact that my family lived on those meadows and fished and were there making a living, it connects me with that part of the world, of the land, that I miss very much. What you’re connected to and how you’re connected to the planet.

PP There’s a kind of metaphor about your uncle being frozen into the marsh. It’s similar to you seeing yourself in the eyes of a chimpanzee. Or what you were saying the last time we met that a flower is connected with everything. It’s not independent.

Trudy Taylor Everything is connected and everything is changing in a subtle and dramatic ways all the time, but all on a planetary scale. One of the great, huge mysteries that we’ll probably never know is what really goes on in the universe in this floating orgy of whatever it is out there. Sometimes I prefer to think that our little planet is flat. (Laughter.) It’s flat. That’s it. No more talk. (More laughter.)

Once when I was in the middle of the Atlantic, I climbed up to the top of the main mast, and there, once again, you are learning something that you’ve never known before. And once you feel secure being there, and you know you’re not going to fall, you can look out and actually see ships going off the edge. You can really feel the curvature of your little planet. All those experiences put you on a footing.

PP If we say that awareness is really a matter of knowing and responding to boundary in some way...

Trudy Taylor To boundary I’m not sure, but I love thinking about how the human being has evolved on the planet. The more complicated it becomes the more interested I am. For instance, I love the idea there may have been several different humanoids evolving on the planet. It’s just not, you know, simple... There were a lot of them. Were they melding? How did the different kinds of animals evolve? How related are we to the Neanderthals? I love the idea of the Neanderthals. The idea that my distant ancient forebears may have procreated... I mean I love that idea.

PP That we were somehow connected to a different genetic make up, a different...

Trudy Taylor ...way of survival. I mean anything you can tell me you have found in the bottom of the deepest cave off the west coast of Africa. I would love to know who they were. I would love a little vignette, a little CD. What kind of music did they have? I’ve seen little horns and flutes and stuff made of bone. I suspect we had music millions of years ago that we could make. That we could tell jokes, and make jewelry. Make pictures of animals in caves. That so delights me. ‘Cause in one human lifetime it’s so brief, you can’t really see the move-ment of the species. But you can imagine it in your mind.

PP What is that? As we move from curiosity to what we thinkis the object of curiosity, like the Neanderthals. What is that motivation to move from absence of understanding to understanding.

Trudy Taylor You want to know more about yourself, maybe.

PP Or is it a preexisting state of being human. That we find essential pleasure in sensing and feeling and understanding and sharing that grasp of something.

Trudy Taylor It’s how we learn. It’s how we develop. We throw ideas into the great melting pot and stir it around over and over and over again, until we get some awareness and belief that some of it really does apply to us, I think.

PP Belief can lead to consciousness, or belief can lead to...

Trudy Taylor Belief is not written in stone. It can be changed and modified and chucked. It’s whatever sustains you in your spiritual life. Once I decided I was going to drive around America by myself to see what people in different areas believed in. It takes a long long time. I soon gave up on that, because you have to know people and get into them to let them tell you how they get their spiritual sustenance, just to stay alive. Some people told me they got sustenance from going down to the Battery in New York and putting their feet in the water, or listening to music, or they’d go out to Walden Pond. I got very

them said some question. And he said to me “They are interested in why you are interested in them.” I said, “I just wondered how long people had been sitting around this well talking, and if this is the original well that served this community. How long have they been doing this?” He said that to these men, and one of them perked up and said, “How perceptive of her to even ask such a question. Yes, it’s the original well.” That was all.

PP That’s just beautiful. Here’s something I’ve been reading. How John Coltrane would practice and practice and practice. Then he would get out on stage and create hours of beauty, coming out of him. Life is, if we are truly aware, much the same. That we practice and practice and practice and that we can have these moments where you’re able to ask this question. Because we live so brief a time our relationship to that practice of life...

Trudy Taylor There’s no dress rehearsal for dying, and you’ve always got dying looking at you, peeking around the fence at you. Life is never long enough, cause there’s so much you want to know and feel and so many things you want to try to experience and know more. I can’t imagine that anyone is satisfied with death and the prospect of death, unless you lose your cells and your brain isn’t functioning anymore.

PP I guess what I’m saying is the clues to awareness to all of us are there all the time, if we remain curious... I like your social-anthropology. You just posit the question.

Trudy Taylor I threw it all in. I’m very, very interested in any community I’ve lived in. I like to learn about the geology and what happened in the past.

I was once in Lugano with my kids in Italy, and I was trying to find out about how they could get little boats so they could row themselves around. They found condoms floating around in the water and asked “What is this mother? Do they come in different colors?” (Laughter) I went to the desk fairly soon after our arrival, and I said to the manager — “Did the glaciers go through here?” I was trying to picture this landscape, and he said, “Madame, I have no idea.” (Laughter.)

My Delights

Thoughts on the Solstice, December 21, 1996

Knowing my bones are the same stuff as the coral reefs, that my blood is of

the ancient seas, that I share the same cells with all the animals, that I belong

for this miraculous moment on this planet.

Standing in the garden with the sea and horizon to steady me, with the garden

of my world at my feet. Flowers, like some cats, purring at my knees.

When I casually join a group of people and discover some of my children or

grandchildren among them.

From “My Delights,” a small chapbook drawn from Trudy Taylor’s journals


Jorie Graham — Of Inner experience

Eyes shut I sense I am awakening & then I am

awake but

deciding

to keep eyes shut, look at the inside, stay inside, in the long and dark of it,

if it were a garden what would I plant

in it, for now I am

alive I think I feel who among you will tell me

after all this time

the difference & yet again now I am alive & what does that mean lying here eyes

closed first winter morning coming on all round,

yes, this is the start of winter is what

my body

sensing a new dis-

equilibrium says, hypnotized, trembling with fiction, love, the sensation of time passing,

& fear of a-

temporality, & this is

the play of heaven the mind in-

side this body lying here still

alive for

now

thinks—if you could only see my body and beyond me the three windows in the room

letting the uninvented

in—and how true it is

because of the closed

eyes on my human being lying there in the room glistening with plenitude, all conquest

gone from the air—you could say here god owns everything, it is a discharge of duration,

the floor the panes the mirror the single stalk of

freesia the gilded frame the two lionclaw-footed chairs and the tree-knots

still in

the floors someone laid in 1890, the

wormholes here and there in them from those creatures’ work long ago, not long after the

counter-revolution, the troubles—& the wreck here of consciousness—as long as the

person’s eyes

stay shut—beyond the limits of thought—(& who am I

then?)(& don’t go there says my hand as I need it, my

hand, here in this

writing )—and yet

I am also lying on the bed eyes closed

and keeping them so, god owes us

everything I

think from out here, there is not god I think lying in the non-dark of the mind, eyes

closed, hearing the crows rustling in

the nearest

trees, the hayfork in the next field—I want to pray says the person behind the eyes—you

cannot do so I say with these fingers—I want to break the dark with the idea of God says the

non-sleeping person on her back in the beginning of the 21st century, trying to hold onto

duration which is slipping, slipping, as she speaks as I write, active translator, look

I can make a tale of the sinking sun I can begin

summer again here are its

swallows they have

just returned

look

up—but no, they did not come back after that one year, we waited—but here they

are again, do not be

fooled, here, breaking their circles

across the evening air, and there is still sun up near the children’s bedtime, we still say

bedtime, it is a habit, and the bells

ring vespers, or the recording of it, and somewhere there must still be a crafty

animal digging a long tunnel under

this strange hard ground, finding some moisture in there, turning it, grain by grain,

perhaps there is still

the creature

which when it

was known

was known as

the blind mole

somewhere.

>> Author website: www.joriegraham.com

p O e T Ry


I ’vE BEEn WrItIng Journals — was encouraged to do it

after reading the artist’s way in 1993. She suggested 3 pages

every morning — in a kind of stream of consciousness style to

clear the garbage out of your head, to clear the creative block.

After I finished the book I kept writing journals daily. I can’t tell

you how many journals I have — boxes and boxes.

I then said, “Okay, I have to do something with the journals.” I was

going to pack them up and get rid of them. Even though they

were taking up all the room in the house I couldn’t throw them

out. — I thought, Maybe I can take the words and do some-

thing with them to make them matter. Make MY life matter.

They are my private journals. They’re not for reading, not public,

not a story about my life. I liked the public private thing.

So going back to the Artist’s Way, let me stay with the process

of the book. I would take a few pages, not read them,

tear them up, and work quickly. Just put them down and see

what happens.

Antoinnette Noble


Initially, I used paper the size of notebook paper, so the scale

of the paintings were kept close to the size of the paper.

I created 30 to 40 pieces. But, it was not enough.

I thought, “maybe I should read them, and not just tear them up.

So, I started reading 2004 to see if the process of reading

would change anything.

I only read the amount I would tear up, glue it down spontane-

ously and see what came out.

As I worked, the defined lines of the page would keep the chaos

within the defined limit.

The contrast between the words could be disturbing and could

be presented as a calm painting

There is a flux between words and painting, and that is my cur-

rent process and situation.

I’m an intuitive person, but know the journal was directing me

in some way — it created a life in art.

I needed to have one constraint and then to go for it — to do a

free for all on a small piece of paper… Then the idea of com-

ing back with a different palette, or composition came to

me because of the constraints I would arrive at through the

use of the journals.

To me, matter is action oriented. Materializing something is

very important. Meaning is important, and journal writing is

a meaningful act. The matter was, “How am I going to take

action and put it out there and make my mark for myself?”

Because the words are painted over and cut out people can’t

see the meaning, but they can see the material. I like taking

the thoughts and meanings in my world and making some-

thing of it that you can see and touch. It makes me matter

Putting the journals on the paintings mattered to me — whether

my words are profound or silly, they are me, and I’m

here. It’s a point in time where I can take action, and a mean-

ingful action at that, in my life — where I bring these

things together is important because it’s me. I honor that.

When I glue the words, they might be in specific area, and I’ll

work in another area without attending to the words.

Sometimes I’ll do the opposite. Paint large color areas without

paper on the canvas.

I work in imbalance. But when I finish there is a cohabitation.

I might be bothered by it, but it is what it is.

>> Shaw Cramer Gallery: www.shawcramergallery.com Artist website: www.antoinettenoble.com

Word Series: Fluttering Thoughts, mixed media on

paper/panel, 30 x 40"

Word Series: The Most Important Thought, mixed media on paper/panel, 30 x 40"

The Space Between Words, mixed media on paper/panel, 30 x 22"


SF That’s another issue — the triggers that bring you back to when your grief started, and the period of grief. It was a combination of a physical and emotional experience for me of tremendous, tremen-dous, tremendous loss.

George Cohn What Sandy and Sam are talking about is somewhat different than my experience with grief. I have not lost a mate but a very dear friend. He was a house officer, married with a young child, when he took his life. He did it in a way that was bereft of the fact that we did not know he was that seriously depressed. He was so caught up in his own problems, problems which he did not share with any of his two close friends. The experi-ence of the feelings I had after I had heard he had taken his life was catastrophic because we had shared life together as house officers and as residents... I lost parents when I was in my fifties. Nothing compared to this. They died after I lost my good friend. Their death was nothing compared to what it felt like to lose this close friend.

SB Bereft and bereavement are not the words that were front and center when my husband died. I was 53 and that was twenty years ago. In the first couple of years of losing my husband I had a lot of trouble with the idea that when people suffer a terrible loss there will be some-thing good that will come into your life. You will learn something, or you will be spiritually much more or in touch with yourself.

Those attitudes really bothered me. They bothered me tremendously... I remember reading a book by some kind of guru who had this horrible anecdote about a mother who had to identify her six year old daughter who had been dis-membered by a shark, and this guru said

that this was such an incredible oppor-tunity for her spiritual growth. I thought that’s just total B.S.

SF The part that you bring out, Sandy, so well is that it is such an individual thing, and each person has his or her own ownership of it, and trying to impose a formula on anyone in handling their grief and their life is not very productive, because it is such a personal thing. It’s like the Kubler-Ross thing of the stages of healing was the way of thinking 20–25 years ago. But, there is no one-size-fits-all in this whole arena. And, the more we realize that each person has to do it in his or her own way I think the better the healing process will be.

Patrick Phillips What is grief?

Sam Feldman Grief, to me, was an atomic blast of loneliness and a black cloud over my head, not a gray cloud, but a black cloud, and feeling totally dismembered as if half of my body had been lost and ravaged.

[Pause]

Sandy Broyard Sam, I would agree with that. Your words describe something that is a very physical reaction. I certainly had that when my husband died. It’s an emotional experience, but it’s also a physical experience. There were moments when I couldn’t catch my breath, where I felt like my insides were going to vomit out of me. I couldn’t predict when I was going to be normal or presentable. There’d be times when well-meaning friends would want me to come to dinner or do something, to make me feel better. But, I’d realize as I was going out the door I couldn’t do that. I physically couldn’t do it, because I was shaking and trembling...

This conversation between sandy Broyard, sam feldman and George Cohn took place on April 24, 2012.

The “article” focuses on a single question: “what is grief, and how might we recover from loss?”

The conversation is presented as a Q&A in the interest of living through the words of people who have

suffered grief, and who have, each in their own way, recovered from the loss of a life partner. The purpose

of this piece is to “sit in” on a conversation on loss and recovery. Through it we share how we as human

beings can be resilient in life and discover how people we may know have responded to death and who,

after loss, have engaged in vibrant life.

Loss, Grief and LifeA conversation with Sandy Broyard, Sam Feldman and George Cohn

PP What’s the difference between bereavement and bereft?

GC I think bereavement is the process of healing from your grief and moving on. It’s quite different. The word “bereave-ment” has a completely different connota-tion from grief. My bereavement groups are for healing, for moving on in your life, for not being depressed, and for starting to live again.

SF I think bereft and bereavement are quite different. You can feel bereft, but you can’t feel bereavement because that’s moving forward.

GC Bereft is something being sapped from you. It seems to be something that’s sucked out of you that you can’t put back in. I agree with Sam about bereavement being different from bereft. It’s a feeling that something cannot be replaced. You can make it over again. You can do it again. You can start again. With bereavement, yes, you can get to a point where you can resolve it yourself. Life has to go on.

PP Is there a consistency? Are Time and Reconnection ideas / concepts that are universal?

SF Time is very flexible for each person. I’m not sure they are universal. Maybe they are, but I’m not sure about it. Being involved in the men’s bereavement group with anywhere from six to twelve men every other week, everyone’s story is unique. There are some similarities. You’re right.

PP How do we engage that intercon-nectedness, that social, human, symbolic referencing that we do with another person that’s gone. That needs to be reconsti-tuted in our soul, in our body. How does that occur?

Gretchen Feldman, Fat Cells II, 2007, watercolor on paper, 29 x 37"

Fat Cells II was second in a series of paintings made after Gretchen was

diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. she began to study and paint the

molecular cell structure of the body.


SB I still think, and Sam you would probably agree with this, when you have such a major loss in your life you’re really isolated in the beginning. Nobody really knows or can know the extent of what you’re feeling and experiencing, and that’s all right.

I had a good friend. She was also a social worker, and she used to say,

“This must be hard, Sandy.” And that was enough. She would just acknowledge that it was hard. That was very comforting.

SF A lot of people say that friends and family are great distractions after a major loss. I didn’t find it that way. I felt it was such an inward thing that was inside of me that external things did not help at the beginning.

GC I think there’s a major issue here that we’re not addressing, and that is that death is a part of life. When you’re alive, you don’t think in terms of death. And there’s no training for the process. You sort of go on, live your life, go on and do what you’re supposed to do. Then suddenly, there’s a loss. Someone dies who is very close to you. You’ve had no training, no experience, and no one has told you what you’re supposed to do and how you’re supposed to react to all this. You’re suddenly supposed to find out for yourself. I agree with both Sandy and Sam; it’s an individual process — how well you’re brought up to live your life and experience death. My experience is different than that. My grandmother had four sisters and two brothers, and I was a little boy and I went to a funeral home for every one of those deaths. So I was inculcated with death at a very early age — except, when it happens with someone you’re close to, it’s entirely dif-ferent than with all the training you could possibly have. You still have that feeling as if someone has sucked something out of your life that you can’t get back in.

SF I agree with you completely, George.

SB I too.

PP As you were saying George, there is no dress rehearsal for death, but it is part of our lives. I’m trying to understand what happens that allows you to live, move on within new connections. What is that, and how did it occur in your lives?

SF For me, the loneliness drove me to seek companionship. So, I started seeking female companions. That is very com-mon with men, mainly to assuage their loneliness.

PP Was that very hard, at first?

SF It was terrible. Terrible. Because everyone who I was with I would sit across from a dinner table and compare them to Gretchen. It was awful. It was terrible. It was painful.

[Long Pause]

SB I kind of assumed that I would find someone. But, my husband was so unusual. I have male friends, and I’m not with anyone in particular right now. Since he died, and it’s been twenty years, I’ve had a number of relationships. None of them have evolved into long term rela-tionships, and that’s because my husband was a hard act to follow. For a number of years I felt I’d have to have that in order to feel okay about myself — I would have to have an “other” in my life. But, my life was very rich and very full before my husband died, and I think that’s just who I am... I think I’m fortunate in my own personality, in who I am, because I have things that I love to do that I’m passionate about. I discovered fly fishing. I moved to the Vineyard permanently. I’ve always been a dancer... So, I feel very fortunate in those ways.

PP Having read your book [Sandy] there’s this River Styx thing that happens when you take the ferry from Woods Hole to the Vineyard — [but going from death to life.] And that you have an internal will that’s both guided by and released from this grief is profound.

Sandy Broyard lives in Chilmark. She facil-

itates the improvisational dance group,

“What’s Written Within” and serves on the

Advisory Board of The Yard. Her husband,

Anatole Broyard who died in 1990 was a

book critic and essayist for the New York

Times. Her book, “Standby,” (Knopf, 2005)

chronicles that loss.

Read “Waving Adieu, Adieu, Adieu” by

Wallace Stevens here: jayx2.livejournal.

com/63285.html

Sam Feldman After selling my national

chain of apparel store in 1990, we moved

to Martha’s Vineyard from Baltimore.

Gretchen loved painting and I was able to

use my entrepreneurial skills to help

create institutions to fill community needs.

We were involved in the start up of the

Charter School, Polly Hill Arboretum, The

Martha’s Vineyard Donor’s Collaborative,

Mopeds are Dangerous, The Farm Insti-

tute, and after Gretchen died, the National

Widowers Organization.

Gretchen Feldman When Gretchen moved

to Martha’s Vineyard she thought nothing

would be more appropriate than becoming

a water color painter since she was sur-

rounded by water. Her love and passion

for the Vineyard was expressed in the way

she blended the landscapes, ocean and

beautiful sky. In the last year of her life she

painted colorful microscopic cancer cells.

However the last one on her easel before

she died was dark and foreboding.

George Cohn I practice Psychiatry on the

Vineyard,after spending almost 30 years

at Yale. My practice involves individual and

group therapy with adults.

The National Widowers’ Organization

is a nonprofit organization whose goal is

to educate the public about the special

needs of men who have lost their life part-

ner. They strive to provide support for men

who have lost and are suffering through

bereavement groups and widower-to-

widower support. For more information go

to their website: nationalwidowers.org

The WConnection strives to help widows

to cope with the difficult loss of their

husbands by providing emotional support

as well as information and training to

help them adjust to their new lives. Learn

more about the WConnection here:

www.wconnection.org

feelings out. What the bereavement group has taught us is that men can express this, and that men can go beyond the group and find a life for themselves with-out their mate.

SF One of the shocking things for many of the men in the group, and was cer-tainly so for me, is when they start dating they’re not the only ones involved. It’s their family. It’s their children, their in-laws, their grandchildren. Many of the men in our group have had a particular problem with their daughters when they start a new relationship. “It’s not mom. She’s so different from mom. She’s not up to mom. How can you do this to us, Dad?” And, “You’re disrespecting mom.” That is a common theme that has come up in our meetings which I never expected.

PP Is that associated with the protector motif, the provider, the solid continuity provider for family?

SF My experience has been that when a widow has a relationship or gets married her children cheer. When a widower has a relationship the sons say “Yeah, dad, go for it.” And the daughters say, in many cases, “It’s awful.” “You’re doing the wrong thing.” This bereavement, this healing, spreads out concentrically in the family and that has been very interesting to me to see how many people it really affects. It often affects the people where the person works and their relationships with others. It’s a big deal. It’s not just 415,000 men a year, and 975,000 widows being created a year. It’s the 1,300,000 people and the 3 or 4 million people who are affected on an annual basis just in this country.

PP In the interest of time... is there something important I have missed that you’d like to share before we call it a conversation?

SF I think it’s important that men know that they are not alone. And, the national organization that we have created,

SB I’m not sure it’s profound. It’s who I am. I think everyone is born having this profound experience of living. I don’t judge. Even people who have “failed” lives, or what we consider a difficult life, their experience is profound. Even if they are frozen in their feelings, that can be a horribly profound experience. I think people and their lives are so end-lessly, amazingly interesting. The trajectory of a person’s life and unique stories are incredible — how people manage or don’t manage, how they fall down, how they can’t go on, and how they do go on.

GC I think something we are addressing is that everyone has their own coping skills. And the question is how grief interferes with one’s ability to have coping skills. Those who have problems with coping skills will try to find ways of assuaging the feeling they have. So, they take up a drug or alcohol and they begin to use that to modify or temper the feeling that they have. But, they don’t under-stand. That becomes more destructive than the original processes. It’s very, very difficult... Sam wanted to found a group with men who have lost. All of them have different coping skills that have been brought out. They use their own individ-ual skills to the best of their abilities.

SF It’s about people who share their own experiences. Sharing your experiences seem to help you in moving on.

PP So shared experience and intercon-nectedness is very important in your own experience — the capacity to learn to cope, to learn to reengage.

GC The fact of the matter is that with men having a bereavement group is they come to realize that they are not alone. They come to realize that there are other men there who can begin to share their feelings. It’s very difficult for men to share their feelings openly. Women can do it very easily. It’s a lot more difficult for men. It’s not perceived as manly to cry. But it is manly to cry, to get the

NationalWidowers.org, is a very impor-tant resource for men whose spouses or significant others have died. If you take a look you will see many of the things we have discussed on that site. We have also started a peer to peer program. All of our meetings are peer-led. They’re not led by professional therapists or psychia-trists. They are led by people who have gone through the experience. We are hav-ing a peer-to-peer program on a national basis where people can give us their names and telephone numbers and we’ll have someone who has gone through the experience speak with them on the phone and let them know that they are not alone and that they will be helped through the process. There’s also a women’s group very similar to ours that has been organically created called the WConnection.org. They are doing wonderful things and are trying to be a national organization to help women.

SB Well, I just think it’s important to keep breathing and to find ways to continue to be present in your life, to stay connected to your community, to be loyal to one’s friends and to be very forgiving to one’s self and not to expect a lot in the early stages of grief. To be gentle and kind to one’s self. There’s a beautiful poem by Wallace Steven’s, “Waving Adieu, Adieu, Adieu.” It’s about staying still. It’s enough to stay still when saying good-bye. For me, it really speaks so deeply about just being present and being still.

GC I think the points that Sam and Sandy have made are very valid. I also think that everyone should understand that death is a part of life. That when we make out a will, we don’t ever expect it to be enforced. You sit in the attorney’s office and you say “This is not going to happen to us. We’re just going to go on...” People should be aware of the fact that death can be beautiful, that it can be a blessing for someone to die a very grace-ful, peaceful, quiet death.


It’s an amazing area to be in. It’s not the usual methods of understanding, or reason, or argument. It’s outside of all that. Could you give it a name? I’m sure there is one, but it’s hard to find. How can I express something which goes beyond the usual expression? It helps even to put it this way, to try to….it amounts to another view of life. What I really sense is that reality is the nature of life beyond everything that is generally accepted as ‘this’ or ‘that.’ Beyond dualism. Yes. So this includes everything it sounds like. Yeah. Very interesting. It really is. I could imagine setting this up in order to avoid opposition or argument or something, but this isn’t that. Yeah, that would be avoidance and this isn’t that. Yes. As I go on experiencing life now, some new way of experiencing enters into it. And it’s meaningful. This is a very important point, because there’s a temptation I’ve had at least, to dismiss life as meaningless. And that’s not it at all.

Life is expressing Itself, being out there, being there. I’ve never looked at it this way before. It’s way beyond ego. This whole belief in a separate ego isn’t true. Exactly true. Because what we so often feel is that we’re separate, but we’re not separate. We can’t even use the word. Something in you is absolutely related to this.

(We got cut off by the nurse, Linda, coming in.)

David: I sense that love is all around…. Love is our guide, too.

David: I sense that where there is disintegration, there is an even deeper integration going on. Demaris: What, in your experience, is disintegration and integration? Disintegra-tion — the best way I can describe it is an old habit I’ve had of not making ultimate sense out of life. I’ve carried that with me a long time. Now, something else is turning up. Integration is a way of describing it, which is very meaningful to me. What’s getting integrated? laughs…I can’t really…. It’s that, there is a much greater meaning in life than I’ve ever recog-nized before — sharing life, growing, changing, developing —especially in recent times I’ve been very aware of that process. The word ‘integration’ says to me, no matter what you think, there’s an ultimate meaningfulness about life and that’s something you can discover ongoingly. Even when you’re sick and almost dying some of the time, you discover this? Yes. I think so. That’s a very important aspect of it, because the large and small issues, like inadequacies or losses of certain abilities — but there’s something else that’s quite in the other direction. Like what? The Truth seems to be emerging somehow that there’s no end to learning or coming to the reality of life. Some of the time that you’re in this sickness you’re closer to the Light. Yes, I agree. There are examples, like in the material that I’ve been reading today. It’s about a remarkable process of becoming one with life, as though every aspect of life becomes a part of the awareness of its own meaning. And that means a process of recognition, as though the Reality or Truth were being recognized more and more. Maybe it recognizes Itself. Yes. That could very well be, that there’s a Self-recognition involved. And the basis of all this goes well beyond the usual basis of reason and argument. It’s bigger. And there’s no competition, and there is no argu-ment here for Something that’s Beyond. It just is.

Disintegration/Integration

august 12, 2011

august 13, 2011

About eight months before my late husband David hart passed away, I realized that he was saying

some very important, very transcendent things. I felt I had better write them down as a record

for myself and possibly for others. with this realization, our “Conversations” began. starting in early

January of 2011, I began sitting with David, taking dictation while he talked. he was able to articulate

his perceptions as he approached the border between this life and the next one. his perceptions are

a life line to me now when I reread them. They are a gift.

Demaris Wehr, David hart’s widow, is a psychotherapist in private practice on

the vineyard. she is currently finishing a book about work she did in Bosnia

and writing another book about her last year with David. It is provisionally entitled

“from loss to legacy: A Gift of healing in later years.” After it is finished, she plans

to offer workshops called “Grieving as soul work.”

I Was Born on tHE vInEyard, love the beauty of the land,

sea and sky. My art is my response to the endlessly changing

light and color. I often make monotypes without using a brush,

and with my oil paintings I attempt to keep some of the same

simplicity — sometimes to the point of abstraction.

Marston Clough

A RT I sT p O RT R A I T

David Hart and Demeris Wehr discuss life at the end of life.

>> Artist website: www.marstonclough.com

Front, oil on canvas, 16 x 20"

es sAy


queen, Elizabeth I, for whom they had named these islands. Less official reports of their voyage were probably circulated over pints of ale and bitter.

Stories of these new world adventures could have spread through their letters, journals, and tales told. William Shakespeare, writing at this time, most likely heard rumors of newly discovered islands. In the early 20th century, someone speculated that Cuttyhunk was the model for Prospero’s island, featured in The Tempest.

The theory rests on several descriptions within the play. Like Prospero’s island, Cuttyhunk has two harbors and a pond. On it, a group of shipwrecked sailors could completely lose track of one another, but not for long. The island is windswept and virtually bare of trees: “Here’s neither bush nor shrub to bear off any weather at all, and another storm brewing.” (The Tempest, Act II, scene 2, lines 18–19). Also, a breeze comes to the island from the Bermudas, suggesting that it is in the north. More serious scholars argued that Caliban’s black-ness and a mention of marmosets, a South American primate, pointed to a location in the Caribbean.

As a writer, Shakespeare need not have relied on a single account for his imaginary island. More likely, he knit together the dreamlike setting of The Tempest from a variety of sources, including his imagination, and stories from Gosnold and his crew. Prospero’s island is more dreamscape than real, just like the view of Cuttyhunk from the shores of the Vineyard on a sunny winter day.

In my basement, there is a pile of white oak and marine plywood, the very sketchy beginnings of a boat. I believe that some day my brother and I will finish it and sail across the Vineyard Sound. Then, we could join the yachts crowding Tarpaulin Cove on Naushon every August. Or, I could wait until the crowds and summer haze have given way to clearer autumn light, and the land and sea shine in saturated, crisp colors, just before the cold turns them brown. I could take my small boat and beat through the waves along the shores of the Elisabeth Islands, all the way to Cuttyhunk, then sail back home, to dream of them again.

I have never visited Naushon, not in my waking life, but I’ve dreamed myself there dozens of times. I’ve watched its landscape roll by, season after season, as I take the ferry to and from my home, Martha’s Vineyard. As the

ferry pulls through the waters of Woods Hole, I gaze at its low, grassy hills.

I’ve constructed a landscape in my mind from these glimpses, and follow its contours as I sleep. I visit the house that’s just over the hill, in a little valley. Further west lies a mansion where there might be a party, or perhaps the guests have just

departed. I wander through its dusty rooms, looking out to sea.

The real Naushon, on my horizon, is tan-talizingly out of reach. The Forbes family has owned it, the largest of the Elizabeth Islands, since 1856. They also own Uncatena, Nonameset, Pasque and Nashewena — almost the entire group of these low-lying lands. I know some people who’ve been to Naushon, legally and illegally, but so far, I haven’t touched its shores. Sometimes I imagine myself in their virgin forests of windswept trees, as I traipse, trespassing, through the lesser woods on my side of the sound.

Sometimes I look across to the Elizabeth Islands as I sit on the beach at Lambert’s Cove or lean against the fence at the top of the Aquinnah cliffs. In summer, yachts sail along the sound, tantalizingly close to

that other shore. Tidal waters run through the gaps between the islands, from Wood’s Hole beside the mainland to Robinson’s Hole and Quick’s Hole, all the way out to Robinson’s Gap and Cuttyhunk. Beyond lie Buzzards Bay and the continent of North America. The sun sets across those waves, illuminat-ing the islands, then obscuring them as they fade against the vibrant sky.

Another island sits out of sight, in Buzzards Bay. Once upon a time, Penikese served as a leper colony, a place to cast away the victims of that unsightly disease. Now it’s the site

of an alternate juvenile detention program for teenage boys, today’s undesired citizens. I’ve thought of getting a job there, just so I could visit. So far, I haven’t.

The final, seawardmost island in the chain is Cuttyhunk. This one, I could legally visit, without any special permission from the Forbes family or grappling with the problems of troubled adolescents. A town covers the lee side of the island’s main hill. About 30 people live there year-round, but its population swells in the summer months. I could sail there from Menemsha on the catamaran Arabella, but only in July and August.

I went to Cuttyhunk on my cousin’s fishing boat when I was about 12 years old. I remember running up through the town, but then we were hurried back to the boat and home. I’ve always wanted to return. A ferry runs from New Bedford every day in the summer, but only once a week in the colder months. In winter, Cuttyhunk is nearly as inaccessible as those other islands. From the sands beneath the cliffs, the clear light of a December sun sometimes refracts its low profile into a mirage city.

Cuttyhunk’s dreamscape pedigree is more exalted than my night-time ramblings over the sunny hills of Naushon. In 1602, the explorer Bartholomew Gosnold and his crew landed there. They intended to establish the first English settlement in this part of the world. During their three-week stay, the Englishmen built a fort on a tiny island in Cuttyhunk’s seaward pond, and gathered sassafras roots to sell back in their home port.

In those days, Wampanoags came to Cuttyhunk and the other Elizabeth Islands in the summer, to hunt, fish, and gather, but their homes were on the mainland or Martha’s Vineyard. The island was mostly uninhabited, which partly explains its appeal to the small expedition. In their journals, members of Gosnold’s crew wrote about the island and their feast with the visiting native Americans, who they described as tall and fair.

When Gosnold’s ship prepared to sail back across the Atlantic, few crewmembers were willing to remain. They abandoned their fort on this wind-swept island, vulnerable as it was to hurricanes and lesser blasts from the sea. On their return to England, Gosnold and his crew presumably reported to their

Amelia smith — Dreamscape: The elizabeth Islands

f I CT I O N

>> Author website: www.ameliasmith.net Photographer website: www.nealrantoul.com

Photographs courtesy of Neal Rantoul, Elizabeth Island Series, 2011


My drIvE to paInt Is rootEd In tHE dEsIgn procEss and letting people draw their own

conclusions. I enjoy the uninterrupted, materialization of the object and the potency of the end

product. Things that happen quickly tend to retain underlying concepts. There isn’t enough time to

pick away at an idea when something happens in a matter of days. In my experience, the original

concept of a design can sometimes get lost in the act of collaboration and construction. I guess I have

a strong desire for creative control and these paintings are a part of that. If I desire anything from

my art it would be for viewer to take something away from the experience and keep it to themselves.

I feel its a very personal experience. I guess I want different people to connect with the art in

different ways. The only way to do this is to not force ideas or meanings onto a viewer and allow a

unique interaction. I don’t title the works or force a particular orientation as this gives someone

the chance for a unique interaction with the art. I don’t think people want to be told what they should

see in my art. I trust the process and don’t have a set approach except to do what I’m sure

to love. I like the idea of blurring the lines between painting, sculpture and an interactive object. By not

forcing an orientation for a painting you leave open the possibility for multiple people to view

the art differently. I like this level of interaction between the art and the viewer — I look at most of my

paintings as interactive sculpture.

Ketz


>> PIK NIK Art and Apparel Gallery: www.piknikmv.com Artist website: www.ketzweiler.com

B2, (double sided), acrylic paint on panel, 44 x 44"

C5, (4 sheets), acrylic paint, perm ink, oil pastel on paper, 46 x 70"


The theater is empty; the house lights are low. Yo-Yo Ma is lugging his cello across the stage toward a lonely metal chair at its center. The instrument looks heavy, and

Ma takes delicate steps, the long horsehair bow jutting out into space. He sits, steadies himself in the chair, and stares for a long moment at the sheet music. Then he raises his right arm, positions his fingers on the wooden neck, and drags the bow across the strings. The first note sounds like a beautiful moan.

I’m sitting next to Bruce Adolphe, the composer of the piece Ma is rehearsing, and he seems a little nervous. Because Ma is such a celebrity — in the previous two months, he’s played twenty-three concerts in eighteen cities — this is the first time Adolphe has heard him play the music. “There’s always that anxiety that comes during the run-throughs,” Adolphe says.

“I’ve been living with these notes for so long, but it always sounds different when it’s up on stage.” Ma is sight-reading the piece, so he begins playing slowly, like someone trying to decipher the first pages of a novel written in a barely familiar language. Sometimes he stops in the middle of a phrase and then repeats the notes with a slightly different interpretation.

And then, after a few tentative minutes, Ma begins to disappear into the music. I see it first in his body, which begins to subtly sway. The movement then spreads to his right arm, so that the bow starts to trace wider and wider arcs in the air. Before long, Ma’s shoulders are relaxed and expressive, drawing together whenever the tempo increases. And when he repeats the theme of the piece, his eyes briefly close, as if he were entranced by the same beauty he’s pouring into space. I look over at Adolphe: his tension has turned into a faint smile.

Bruce Adolphe first met Ma at the Juilliard School in New York City. Although Ma was only fifteen years old at the time, he was already an established performer, having played for JFK at the White House and with Leonard Bernstein on national television. Adolphe was a promising young composer who had just written his first cello piece. “Unfortunately, I had no idea what I was doing,” Adolphe remembers. “I’d never written for the instrument before.” He’d shown a draft of his composition to a Juilliard instructor, who told him that the piece featured a

chord that was impossible to play. Before Adolphe could correct the music, however, Ma decided to rehearse the composition in his dorm room. “Yo-Yo played through my piece, sight-read-ing the whole thing,” Adolphe says. “And when that impossible chord came, he somehow found a way to play it. His bow was straight across all four strings. Afterward, I asked him how he did it, because I had been told by the teacher that it couldn’t be done. And Yo-Yo said, ‘You’re right. I don’t think it can be done.’ And so we started over again, and this time when the chord came I yelled, ‘Stop!’ We both looked at his left hand, and it was completely contorted on the fingerboard. The hand position he had somehow found was uncomfortable for him to hold; his fingers were twisted in a most unnatural way. ‘See,’ Yo-Yo said,

‘you’re right, you really can’t play that.’ But he did!” For Adolphe, the story is a reminder of Ma’s astonishing

talent, his ability to play those unplayable chords. It’s a virtuos-ity that has turned Ma into one of the most famous classical performers in the world, an artist celebrated for a wide variety of recordings, from the cello suites of Bach to the swing of American bluegrass. He’s improvised with Bobby McFerrin, recorded scores for Hollywood blockbusters, and popularized the melodies of Central Asia. “Sometimes, I’ll watch him play and I’ll feel that same awe I felt as a student at Juilliard,” Adolphe says. “He can take your notes and he can find the thing that makes them come alive. Ma is a technical master, of course, but what makes him such a special performer is that he also knows when to release technique for something deeper, for that depth of emotion that no one else can find.”

But Ma wasn’t always such an expressive performer. In fact, his pursuit of musical emotion began only after a memorable failure. “I was nineteen and I had worked my butt off,” Ma told David Blum of The New Yorker in 1989. “I knew the music inside and out. While sitting there at the concert, playing all the notes correctly, I started to wonder, ‘Why am I here? What’s at stake? Nothing. Not only is the audience bored but I myself am bored.’ Perfection is not very communicative.” For Ma, the tedium of the flawless performance taught him that there is often a tradeoff between perfection and expression. “If you are

Imagine | Jonah LehrerThe struggle of maturity is to recover the seriousness of a child at play.

— Friedrich Nietzsche

only worried about not making a mistake, then you will communicate nothing,” he says. “You will have missed the point of making music, which is to make people feel something.”

This search for emotion shapes the way Ma approaches every concert. He doesn’t begin by analyzing the details of his cello part or by glancing at what the violins are supposed to play. Instead, he reviews the complete score, searching for the larger story. “I always look at a piece of music like a detective novel,” Ma says. “Maybe the novel is about a murder. Well, who committed the murder? Why did he do it? My job is to retrace the story so that the audience feels the suspense. So that when the climax comes, they’re right there with me, listening to my beautiful detective story. It’s all about making people care about what happens next.”

Ma’s unusual musical approach is apparent during these rehearsals, as he carefully refines his interpretations of Adolphe’s score. Over the course of the afternoon, his performance steadily accumulates its feeling; his body grows more loose-limbed and expressive. Ma’s slight shifts of interpretation — hushing a pianissimo even more, speeding up a melodic riff, exaggerating a crescendo — turn a work of intricate tonal patterns into a passionate narrative. These shifts are not in the score, and yet they reveal what the score is trying to say. Most of the time, Ma can’t explain what inspired these changes, but that doesn’t matter: he has learned to trust himself, to follow his storytelling instincts.

And this is why Ma sways as he plays: Because he can’t restrain himself. Because he is experiencing the same emotions that he is trying to express. Because he is letting himself go.

“The best storytellers always get really into their own stories,” Ma says. “They’re waving their arms, laughing at their own jokes. That’s what I try to be like on stage . . . I know that some of the best music happens when you let yourself get a little carried away.”1

To make this kind of performance possible, Ma cultivates an easy, casual air backstage. Thirty minutes before the concert begins, Ma disappears into a quiet room. When he reemerges, I expect him to be somber and serious and maybe a little nervous. Instead, Ma is just as disarming and funny as ever, teasing me about my tie, eating a banana, and making small talk with Adolphe. This ease is not a pose: Ma needs to stay relaxed. If he is too clenched with focus, too edgy with nerves, then the range of his musical expression will vanish. He will not be able to listen to those feelings that guide his playing.

“People always ask me how I stay loose before a performance,” Ma says. “The first thing I tell them is that everybody gets nervous. You can’t help it. But what I do before I walk onstage is I pretend that I’m the host of a big dinner party, and everybody in the audience is in my living room. And one of the worst things you can do as a host is to show you’re worried. Is the fish overcooked? Is the wine too warm? Is the beef too rare? If you show that you’re worried, then everybody feels uncomfortable.

This is what I learned from Julia Child. You know, she would drop her roast chicken on the floor, but did she scream? Did she cry or panic? No, she just calmly picked the chicken off the floor and managed to keep her smile. Playing the cello is the same way. I will make a mistake on stage. And you know what? I welcome that first mistake. Because then I can shrug it off and keep smiling. Then I can get on with the performance and turn off that part of the mind that judges everything. I’m not thinking or worrying anymore. And it’s when I’m least conscious of what I’m doing, when I’m just lost in the emotion of the music, that I’m performing at my best.” 1. There is something scary about letting ourselves go. It means that we will screw up, that we will relinquish the possibility of perfection. It means that we will say things we didn’t mean to say and express feelings that we can’t explain. It means that we will be onstage and not have complete control, that we won’t know what we’re going to play until we begin, until the bow is drawn across the strings.

While this spontaneous method might be frightening, it’s also an extremely valuable source of creativity. In fact, the act of letting go has inspired some of the most famous works of modern culture, from John Coltrane’s saxophone solos to Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings. It’s Miles Davis playing his trumpet on Kind of Blue — most of the album was recorded on the very first take — and Lenny Bruce inventing jokes at Carnegie Hall. Although this kind of creativity has always been defined by its secrecy, we are now beginning to understand how it happens.

The story begins in the brain. Charles Limb, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University, has investigated the mental process underlying improvisation. Limb is a self-proclaimed music addict — he has a small recording studio near his office — and has long been obsessed with the fleshy substrate of creative performance. “How did Coltrane do it?” Limb asks. “How did he get up there onstage and improvise his music for an hour or sometimes more? Sure, a lot of musicians can throw out a creative little ditty here and there, but to continually produce masterpiece after masterpiece is nothing short of remarkable. I wanted to know how that happened.”

Although Limb’s experiment was simple in concept — he was going to watch jazz pianists improvise new tunes while in a brain scanner — it proved difficult to execute. That’s because the giant superconducting magnets in fMRI machines require absolute stillness of the body part being studied, which meant that Limb needed to design a custom keyboard that could be played while the pianists were lying down. (The setup involved an intricate system of angled mirrors, so the subjects could see their hands.) Each musician began by playing pieces that required no imagination, such as the C-major scale and a simple blues tune memorized in advance. But then came the creativity

N O N - f I CT I O N

CHAP TER 4 The Letting Go

This excerpt is reprinted courtesy of houghton Mifflin harcourt

Copyright © 2012 by Jonah lehrer, houghton Mifflin harcourt publishing Company

www.hmhbooks.com


condition: the subject was told to improvise a new melody as she played along with a recorded jazz quartet.

While the subject was riffing on the keyboard, the scanner was monitoring minor shifts in brain activity. The scientists found that jazz improv relied on a carefully choreographed set of mental events. The process started with a surge of activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, an area at the front of the brain that is closely associated with self-expression. (Limb refers to it as the “center of autobiography” in the brain.) This suggests that the musician was engaged in a kind of storytelling, searching for the notes that reflected her personal style.

At the same time, the scientists observed, there was a dramatic shift in a nearby circuit, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). While the DLPFC has many talents, it’s most closely associated with impulse control. This is the bit of neural matter that keeps each of us from making embarrassing confessions, or grabbing at food, or stealing from a store. In other words, it’s a neural restraint system, a set of handcuffs that the mind uses on itself. What does self-control have to do with creative improvisation? Before a single note was played in the improv condition, each of the pianists exhibited a

“deactivation” of the DLPFC, as the brain instantly silenced the circuit. (In contrast, this area remained active when the pianist played a memorized tune.) The musicians were inhibiting their inhibitions, slipping off those mental handcuffs. According to Limb, this allowed them to create new music without worrying about what they were creating. They were letting themselves go.

But unleashing the mind is not enough — successful improv requires a very particular kind of creative expression. After it slips off the handcuffs, the brain must still find something interesting to say. This is the generation phase of the improv process, in which performers unleash a flood of raw material. What’s so astonishing about this creative production, however, is that it’s not reckless or random. Instead, the spontaneously generated ideas are constrained by the particular rules of the form. The jazz pianists, for instance, needed to improvise in the right key and tempo and mode. Jackson Pollock had to drip the paint in a precise pattern across the canvas. Or look at Yo-Yo Ma: his emotional release always fits the exacting requirements of the music. He sways, but he sways in perfect time. “I think the best way to perform is when your unconscious is fully available to you, but you’re still a little conscious too,” Ma says.

“It’s like when you’re lying in bed in the early morning. I always have my best ideas then. And I think it’s because I’m still half-asleep, listening to what my unconscious is telling me. But at the same time, I’m not in the midst of some crazy dream, because then it’s just crazy. I guess it’s a controlled kind of craziness. That’s the ideal state for performance.”

How does the brain find this liminal space? That was the question asked in a recent fMRI study by neuroscientists at Harvard in which twelve classically trained pianists were told to invent melodies. Unlike the Limb study, which compared brain

activity during improv and memorized piano pieces, this experiment was designed to compare brain activity during different kinds of improv. (This would allow the scientists to detect the neural substrate shared by every form of spontane-ous creativity, not just those bits of brain associated with particular types of music.) As expected, the various improv conditions — regardless of the musical genre — led to a surge of activity in a variety of neural areas, including the premotor cortex and the inferior frontal gyrus. The premotor activity is simply an echo of execution, as the new musical patterns are translated into bodily movements. The inferior frontal gyrus, however, is most closely associated with language and the production of speech. Why, then, is it so active when people compose on the spot? The scientists argue that expert musicians invent new melodies by relying on the same mental muscles used to create a sentence; every note is like a word. “Those bebop players play what sounds like seventy notes within a few seconds,” says Aaron Berkowitz, the lead author on the Harvard study. “There’s no time to think of each individual note. They have to have some patterns in their toolbox.”

Of course, the development of these patterns requires years of practice, which is why Berkowitz compares improvisation to the learning of a second language. At first, he says, it’s all about the vocabulary words; students must memorize a dizzying number of nouns, adjectives, and verb conjugations. Likewise, musicians need to immerse themselves in the art, internalizing the intricacies of Shostakovich or Coltrane or Hendrix. After musicians have studied for years, however, the process of articulation starts to become automatic — the language student doesn’t need to contemplate her verb charts before speaking, just as the musician can play without worrying about the movement of his fingers. It’s only at this point, after expertise has been achieved, that improvisation can take place. When the new music is needed, the notes are simply there, waiting to be expressed. It looks easy because they have already worked so hard.

These cortical machinations reveal the wonder of improvisa-tion, the mirrors and wire behind this magic trick of creativity. They capture a mind able to selectively silence that which keeps us silent. And then, just when we’ve found the courage to create something new, the brain surprises us with a perfectly tuned burst of expression. This is what we sound like when nothing is holding us back.

1. In many respects, Ma’s obsession with spontaneity and expression — and his disinterest

in perfection — evokes an earlier mode of performance. The classical music of the eighteenth

century, for instance, is full of cadenzas, those brief parentheses in the score where

the performer is supposed to play “ freely.” (The practice peaked with Mozart, who wrote

cadenzas into most of his compositions.) In these frantic and somewhat unscripted moments,

the performer was able to become a personality and express what he felt.

Barney Zeitz


I HavE spEnt 40 yEars tryIng to figure things out. I want to

infuse objects with meaning, where a centerpiece on the table not only

holds flowers, or a cat, but makes a ceremony of sitting in front of it.

Building my house / studio made for many opportunities to figure out a

solution to a problem by creating objects of glass, metal, and drawing

to function as doors, lighting fixtures; even the garbage bin.

Designing and building the studio and enclosures for the yard became

a large art piece with the outdoor shower, arbors with sculptures on top

and the large metal and glass wall of the welding studio. Working on a

functional item is just as important in that moment of creation as a public

memorial. Being present in the moment is my greatest challenge.

Not looking ahead to finishing, or back at what is done, but just being here.

Purchase at Bunch of Grapes Bookstore:

site.booksite.com/7205/showdetail/?isbn=9780547386072

>> Author website: www.jonahlehrer.com

>> Artist website: www.bzeitz.com


Kathy Garlick

Even on summer evenings I don’t often linger outside. I’ll walk down to the beach and take a swim, but once I hang my wet suit on the line and step into the kitchen, this room becomes the center of

my concentration. I flick on the lights, turn up the radio, and start dinner.

One of the kids or a guest may call me out onto the back porch to admire the sunset, but no matter how lovely it is, my attention remains with the meal on the stove. The ding of a timer or the scent of finely chopped basil tugs me back inside. So I usually miss the time when light slowly fades and so many animals become active.

Not this evening. Tonight I am home alone. I pour a glass of cold white wine, drag a chair into the far corner of our porch and sink into it. The cottage next door is empty of its usual summer tenants. There are no sing-song voices playing hide and seek in the small yard. No screen doors bang. The grill sits unlit. The porch light is off. I notice three catbirds hopping along the low stone wall between our house from theirs. The undiluted quiet is a gift.

Fog blankets the dropping sun. This isn’t one of those nights with wild reds and oranges swirling across the sky. The fading light is the dusty color of a blueberry. As the dusk slowly ebbs, I watch the color bleed and thicken to a deep plum against the umber of the newly mown field.

A tawny smudge moves at the bottom of the field, catching my eye. I wait. Out from behind a huckleberry bush steps a young doe. Her four legs are delicate and lanky, thin strips of gold against a puddle of the blue grey light. She must sniff me, since she stops and looks my way, but she does not startle. Instead, she twists to rub her hind leg with her head, indulging in a long, thorough scratch before continuing along the path.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve watched my own children and dogs meander down this same trail heading for the beach. I anticipate where she will vanish behind two beetlebungs and then move my eyes to the exact spot where

she will reappear. I track her journey until she disappears at the far end of the field, absorbed by a purple patch of oak.

Just as I lose sight of the deer, two skunks saunter into view as if on cue. Separated solely by a low stone wall, these solitary animals seem oblivious of one another. What innate signal roused these animals from their burrows at the exact same moment? One patrols our yard, while the other comman-deers the cottage field. They notice me: both tails are up in warning, but otherwise they sniff the ground for grubs, fully absorbed with the business of dinner.

Their black-and-white coats look glossy and thick. The white stripe glows iridescent in the advancing dark. I have an urge to run my hand through their fur, but it’s short-lived. The skunk in our yard comes closer and closer to my perch on the porch. He’s more at home than I am comfortable with. I click my tongue to remind him I’m here. It works. He races across the lawn and slithers over the wall and vanishes in a tangle of bittersweet and wild cherry.

Stars pepper the sky. It’s fully dark now, and the thought of my own dinner pulls me inside. Encircled by the yellow glow of my cozy kitchen I try to picture all the other animal lives I run parallel to but rarely intersect with. Who else do I routinely miss? Otters? Owls? Raccoons? Moles? Spiders? I wonder how many species use the path I think of as ours and which animals are just now getting up and starting their day in the night?

I’m grateful to be reminded of the extraordinary way living things fill each niche. It’s too easy to forget how remarkably complex and rich our world is. From the kitchen window I can just make out the outline of my bathing suit on the line. Tomorrow morning when I put it on, I’ll be following the deer’s path to the beach and looking for signs of other travelers. Tomorrow evening I hope to be back on the porch watching and listening to the vibrant world that’s always there. It’s just a matter of paying attention.

laura wainwright — evening watch

Angels, who fell nine days

And nine nights, how much pity

You must have felt for yourselves.

Falling, did one of you dream

Of a crippled child sitting at your knee,

Looking up at you with his big gold eyes?

Did you say, I envy you.

Did you hear crackles of seeds

Pushing through

The plowed earth below?

Or were the sounds around you

Only your own voices

Falling through the reverse of life?

Everyone knows it is not because of you

That we don’t love the world enough.

You must grieve for us now; it’s only fair.

We gave you so much time.

You see, you have to go deep inside

your own history, and find what

trembles there, on the ice

on the middle of the continent—

a little deer standing just three feet high

and ask, what are you doing here?

and you have to let the stars look

and be blind to the ghost dance

while the delicate play of causes

forgets you

and the red faced man lying

beside a wall, worked over by men

who hated their days and nights

who drank and spit in a light rain.

You are supposed to stay still—

you’re to call to each other

at night when you hear your enemies

pray, and the cries from the street

which make you afraid as teeth are big—

I tell you now because I love you, and

if you think I’m lying, you’re lost.

What Did You Hear?

Letter to the Insomniacs

f I CT I O N This essay is published by permission of vineyard stories, from the collection

of twenty-seven essays titled: “home Bird four seasons on Martha’s vineyard.”

published in June, 2012.

>> Publisher website: http://vineyardstories.com/book.php/21/Home-Bird

p O e T Ry


Arts & Ideas How would you describe the

importance of your geometric approach to

volume and light?

Kenneth Vincent I focus on the composi-

tion of things, and the geometry of things is

a template for me to place over what I see.

I’m interested in shape. I organize my paint-

ings around geometry. It forces me to come

to a point, to the tip of the spear.

A&I What do you mean “tip of the spear?”

KV It’s almost like looking through the key-

hole of the door. Everyone has their own

perspective and my geometrical perspective

forces me to look through this little hole and

makes me organize space around whatever

Kenneth vincent

I’m looking for. It forces a particular construct

upon myself.

A&I So your geometry is a prism of sorts

that allows you to see?

KV It gets rid of other people’s noise.

A&I What do you mean?

KV As an artist you’re constantly aware of

the viewer — somebody’s going to see this.

And, as an artist, you’re looking and

seeing through other’s perspectives, what

other artists are doing and have done — in

your awareness, you kind of make a gumbo

at times. That’s fine, but I want to make very

intentional ideas, and this does it.


>> Granary Gallery: www.granarygallery.com

A&I So, why landscape?

KV My response to place is about trying to find

out who I am and about reconciling my history—

my painting puts me someplace solid.

Landscape is a starting point for me evolving

into different things. Slowly I’m getting closer to

people and animals. The landscape is constantly

evolving as I become more immersed.

A&I So there is a formal process of refinement

and there’s an overarching process of refine-

ment. In that refinement process, are you trying

to say something or see something?

KV Seeing things is the ultimate goal. There

are so many things to see. Seeing is usually the

hardest thing. Whether you’re a photo-realist

or an abstract artist.

I’m ruled by a visual world — I have to let

visual things come out. I don’t focus on the

other things, so I’m always trying to get the

visual out.

A&I Where are you going in your work?

KV It’s funny. It’s like looking back in your

memory. I look at what I’m doing now and my

first painting and I think of it as a thought pro-

cess. I can revisit things in the past that I want

to keep and decide what I want to do as I go

forward — it fits into the refinement process —

or the evolution.

A&I Where do you think you’re going?

KV God, I don’t know… It’s kind of weird.

I always have had this thing for people who are

into psychics — you know, the people who

want to fast forward the movie. I don’t. I’m really

committed to process. I have faith that I’ll

keep going.

A&I Let’s just hope you keep going.

KV Well, I think that’s the thing about being an

artist — you have no choice.

When I was 5, I couldn’t get this fire truck

just right and I wanted to quit right then.

Obviously, I didn’t. So, you can’t stop until you

pull your plug for real.

Bull, oil on canvas, 54 x 85"

Last Boat, oil on canvas, 12 x 15"

Slack Tide, oil on canvas, 43 x 48"


Camille seaman — Grounded Iceberg, east Greenland

Scientists are trying to understand

the [Greenland] ice sheet in two

ways — “What is the mass balance.”—

What is new snow and new melting. So, it’s

about the snow coming in and ice going out.

Over the last couple of decades the ice sheet

has been losing more ice every year and

the rate of loss has increased — so it’s getting

smaller, faster.

One of the ways the ice sheet loses mass

is the ice moving more quickly with is moving

into the ocean. The amount of ice mass, the

pace of ice loss and climate change all figure

into it.

I’m a geologist by training and the human

time on earth is a microscopic fingertip

change — these [geological] changes are large

v I s I T I N G A RT I sT

on the scale of human history. Greenland and

Martha’s Vineyard are both islands —

Greenland I think is the largest island? They

are both dominated by glacial processes.

Martha’s Vineyard was formed by sediments

and rocks from the [Laurentide] ice sheet

that covered North America.

Greenland is being formed and shaped by

an ice sheet that is disappearing. Greenland

is an island made of rock with ice coming off

of it. We wouldn’t have Martha’s Vineyard

without ice sheets.

Sea level rise and erosion is one thing —

but Martha’s vineyard arose out of an ice

sheet. In that process is both growth and

loss. One real connection is that here

are global climate imprints on a local scale.

A big connection between Greenland and

Martha’s Vineyard can be seen by looking at

it on geological time: Martha’s Vineyard is a

bit of the Laurentide ice sheet. It is temporary.

An iceberg and an ice sheet is temporary.

A moraine is temporary. Like changes on

Greenland, Martha’s Vineyard is here now, but

then one day it could the gone; it’s ephemeral.

We are forced to look at climate models.

We still get a variety of interpretations about

how Greenland would contributed to sea

level rise. We then have to know how well are

our climate models are distilling what we

understand of our climate system.

What’s driving the temperature change is

the build up of greenhouse gasses carbon

emissions and methane releases in the arctic.

We don’t know what those will be, so we don’t

know what the temperature will be.

But there are projections that Greenland

[ice sheet] melting can increase ocean level

from millimeters to a meter over the next 100

years — that’s a lot of water. It’s a big place.

One of the proposed mechanisms for

some of the speedup and loss of ice has been

warming of the ocean water around

Greenland — not just by warming of the air.

The current scientific question is, “Are the

ocean currents are just getting warmer, or are

there new ocean currents that haven’t been

there in the past.”

There is some indication that the Gulf

Stream has spun off warm sub-surface rivers

of water at depth and these are heading up

into the fjords and melting the glaciers.

We are just learning about this now.

Obviously, the ocean connects this region

to Greenland in a big way — not to say we

could put a bottle and find it in Greenland.

But, water can warm up here and be

transported northward by the Gulf stream

and spill off into the fjords to melt ice.

So, it goes both ways — it heats up here

and goes up there. And, around Greenland

the air / water temperature increases ice

melt and could increase ocean levels down

here. It’s as if there is a bit of Greenland

floating around.

— sarah das

Camille Seaman, photographer,

knows time and earth. She brings us

in through expansive images and

helps us appreciate our place

on the planet. Sarah Das, a WHOI

scientist, sees and documents a

planet in motion through a lens of

geologic time. They see the

collapse of Greenland’s ice shelf as

process of both timeless change

and climate change. Greenland and

Martha’s Vineyard are connected

through their perspectives.

>> Artist website: www.camilleseaman.com Sarah Das Whoi website: www.whoi.edu/profile.do?id=sdas 40 Martha’s Vineyard Arts & Ideas Early Summer 201 2

One hundred thirty years ago, in September of 1882, Thomas Edison switched on the world’s first electrical

supply network. It carried direct current electricity to 59 customers in Lower Man-hattan. In the summer of 1883, less than a year after Edison’s Manhattan network, Martha’s Vineyard got its first small electric plant — a generator in Hiawatha Park which powered about a dozen arc lights along Circuit Ave. The lights were smoky, danger-ous, and burned only on summer evenings.

A few years later, a year-round power plant was built in Eastville to supply Vineyard Haven and Oak Bluffs. The rest of the island caught on slowly. Edgartown’s streets were lit by oil lamps until 1896. Electric lines crept up South Road into

Chilmark in the 1940s. Gay Head didn’t get electricity until the 1950s. We no longer had to rely directly on fire, coal and oil lamps for light. Convenient, flick of a switch electricity had arrived.

At first, the island’s electricity came from generators located on-island but owned and controlled off-island. In 1955, the island’s last diesel power plant shut down and the island became entirely reli-ant on the mainland for our electricity. We were connected to a plant in New Bedford, and to the growing industrial power grid.

Over the past century the amount of coal, oil and gas used to light homes, busi-nesses, towns and cities has expanded on massive scale. The U.S. uses about a billion

“short tons” of coal a year in electricity production.1 On a regional basis, figures

New GenerationIn the 1990s and early 2000’s PV panels were installed around the island. Some of those early systems produced solar-generated power that flowed back into the grid. Grid-tied panels on these homes could be thought of as small “cottage industry” energy production sites. Other solar panel projects gave a few households energy independence — free of the grid and industrial electricity. But because of relatively high upfront cost, and consumer habit, decisions to install solar panels were for the most part made on moral, not economic, grounds. Since before the first Earth Day in April 1970 there’s been a powerful refrain: “We’re destroy-ing the earth to light our homes.” Like it or not, moral arguments didn’t provide much market incentive. Until recently that’s where things stood. However, as Edison bet, things are changing.

Today, here on Martha’s Vineyard, a new solar energy economy is emerging. As a result of state and federal rebates, competitive mortgages on solar installa-tions and Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SRECs) it is now feasible and economically practical to conceive of, design, finance and build modest scale energy production sites on Martha’s Vineyard. As a result of these economic incentives, local towns and businesses are refocusing attention on the financial practicality of solar energy and land- leaseprojects. Aquinnah has agreed to install an array. Tisbury is looking into the economics of leasing land to install an array — potentially contributing four hundred thousand dollars in town revenue. Farmers are also leasing land to small- scale energy developers.4 Not all under-used land suitable for solar arrays is farm or undeveloped land. For municipal and retail land, parking lots are a good example of underused land which can be put to use to generate local renewable electricity.

The array over Cronig’s parking lot is an up-close example of these new “gen-erators” going up in a high-traffic, public space. The arrays are a small-scale local power station at a grocery store. They off-set the building’s fossil energy use by 25%.

In economic terms, when the arrays are generating more electricity than Cronig’s uses, they will pump that energy back into the grid for credit. In addition, with every 1000 Kilowatts generated, Vineyard Power will receive SRECs which can be sold back to the energy supplier. A social benefit exists alongside the economic. With a nod to the future of electric cars on-island, people will be able to drive to the store, park in the shade beneath the arrays, and charge their cars. Perhaps most importantly, the arrays are a model of energy generation. The arrays at Cronig’s will familiarize people with a real life story of energy generation here on Martha’s Vineyard. In the near future, the relationship between people, open public parking space and energy produc-tion could become routine.

The solar arrays at Cronig’s went up quickly; however, they didn’t just spring into being. It took the collaborative interests, design and / or construction capacity of a bank, a retailer, a commu-nity organization and a design / build /energy company. The project is primarily a collaboration between Vineyard Power, Cronig’s, and South Mountain Company. Vineyard Power is building a cooperative of residents and businesses “that own their energy future,” says Richard Andre of Vineyard Power. “We can build a renewable energy infrastructure around solar energy. The solar arrays at Cronig’s are a real demonstration of the physical thing.” To be viable the arrays must be more than a physical model; they must be a financial model as well. “This solar array also creates income. We need to have a functioning business model. Our success depends upon it. Edgartown National Bank is jazzed. Their financing helps it happen,” says Andre. Beyond financial viability and public awareness,

from February 2012 show New England uses one hundred and thirteen thousand tons of coal to produce electricity.2 Over-all, the burning of fossilized plant and animal life accounts for ninety percent of America’s energy. These fossils are limited resources. Some project extraction and production of oil, coal and natural gas will peak — likely within this generation.3

Fossil fuels is not the only story in the last one-hundred-thirty years. The first solar electric cell was built in the 1880s. After a century of slow product and mar-ket development, photovoltaic (PV) panels became a technically practical way to generate electricity for homes. On Martha’s Vineyard, PV panels were put on houses that had never been connected to the grid — as with some on the camps on Cape Pogue.

the arrays, of course, reduce fossil fuel consumption. “The renewable energy put into the grid backs out and replaces fossil fuels,” says Andre. “The state of Mas-sachusetts’s power comes primarily from natural gas, coal, and oil. That money goes away from the island to OPEC, and strip mining,” says Mr. Andre. “Vineyard Pow-er’s goal is to transition the island away from a fossil fuel based energy economy to a renewable energy economy, first through solar and then through large-scale offshore wind, then later through biomass.” This is another “future story.” But, the work done now to finance, design and build early models is important. Vineyard Power’s goal is to become a public utility. They would like to produce 75% of the island’s energy needs locally, through renewable energy, while keeping money, jobs, and control in the island community. “These could happen at the airport, or the High School. We’d like to get to 5 megawatts of island solar energy generation in three years. We’ve built this one, now let’s see.”

In 2003 Steve Bernier, owner of Cronig’s Markets, installed a solar array on the porch of Healthy Additions as a demonstration for the Vineyard Energy Project. As with the new array in the parking lot, part of that collaboration was to raise awareness of solar energy. “I’m doing this because I’m conscious of fossil fuel depletion,” says Mr. Bernier. “We’re tearing down mountains in Appalachia to dig coal, to create energy, to transport food. We have to do something about the fact that all the engines on this planet run on fossil fuel. This gives us a platform to experiment,” Mr. Bernier says. “We have a beautiful community. We are blessed. I just hope we are resilient enough to create shifts in our thinking. I think it’s better if we do this in our front yard, where we can all see it and feel it and talk about it.”

We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we

should be using Nature’s inexhaustible sources of energy — sun, wind and tide. ... I’d put my

money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait

until oil and coal run out before we tackle that. — Thomas Alva Edison

Edison in conversation Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone (1931), quoted as a recollection of the author, in James Newton,

Uncommon friends: life with Thomas edison, henry ford, harvey firestone, Alexis Carrel & Charles lindbergh (1987), 31.

The “farm Array” on Andrew

woodru’s land will generate 250

kilowatts of energy. Bill Bennett has

leased the land from Mr. woodru.

The fertile ground below might soon

be planted in a shade-crop.

By Amelia Smith, in collaboration with Patrick Phillips

synergy of imagination, finance, business

and design creates innovative ways to

generate renewable energy — where we live,

farm and shop.

p h OTO s Tova Katzman


The structural steel installation at Cronig’s is designed in part to inspire other businesses and individuals to move towards solar power. It was also designed and built by South Mountain Company, known more for wood and architecture than for steel and engineering. The initia-tive at Cronig’s “is about energy, cars and people. People can now drive to the store, park in a shady place, and charge their electric vehicles while they shop,” says John Abrams, President of South Mountain Company. “Most of all, it’s about appropriate land use. Parking lots are plentiful, and they consist of disturbed real estate used only for the temporary storage of vehicles. Now we can make them into renewable energy power plants rather than using valuable habitat, wood-lands, or agricultural land for this purpose. With Vineyard Power, instead of ‘them’ (the off-island utility) it’s ‘us’ (our local ratepayer-owned cooperative). “Vineyard Power is bringing banks, investors, solar designers and businesses together to cooperatively imagine and complete innovative solar systems,” says Abrams.

“For South Mountain, these projects, and our new ability to provide solar leases to residential and commercial customers, are expanding our business beyond our traditional areas of interest and expertise. This is the first parking lot canopy project in New England and the Aquinnah landfill project is one of the first on a capped landfill in Massachusetts. We’re constantly learning and taking this in new directions.”

So what happens when people drive home from the store? The Cronig’s array is a 210 kilowatt (kW) photovoltaic installation, but it can take as little as 5kW to power a single family home. South Mountain company also built a group of energy efficient houses on Eliakim’s Way in West Tisbury. Some residents of Eliakim’s Way, like Matt Coffey and his family, have attained zero net energy use — over the course of the year, their solar panels provide enough energy to power the whole house. Even those who still pay the electric company appreciate the combined benefits of solar power and efficiency.

Julia Kidd — The Messages project

JulIa KIdd InstallEd ElEvEn temporary, site specific signs around the

island, from April 23–May 8, 2012. The project was titled “The Messages Project.”

Most signs were in the landscape — Tashmoo overlook, Keith Farm, Aquinnah.

One was in the Regional High School, another on a banner above Main Street,

Edgartown. One was set on the side of the Shenandoah. In Julia’s words: “

The Messages Project” [was] about love and the power of our connection to

others through love. The idea was inspired by messages I received that were so

beautiful and healing I couldn’t help but think anyone would love to receive

such a message. For more information about Solar and

Solar incentive programs, see: www.mass.

gov/eea/energy-utilities-clean-tech/

renewable-energy/solar

US Energy Information Coal Use:

205.254.135.7/energy_in_brief/

role_coal_us.cfm

Table of National Electricity Use:

205.254.135.7/electricity/monthly/epm_

table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_2_5_a

Vineyard Power is an energy coopera-

tive based on Martha’s Vineyard dedicated

to the transition toward renewable energy

while simultaneously maintaining the cul-

ture of the island. Learn more about Vine-

yard Power here: www.vineyardpower.com

Learn more about South Mountain

Company here: www.southmountain.com

“All of our utilities are electric,” says Madeleine Ezanno. “It doesn’t take a lot to keep the house warm. Our houses have lots of light and they’re all south-facing.” With three adults and a teenager in the house, they use plenty of hot water, but despite not trying too hard to save energy, their bills are relatively low. “I’d love it if one day we could not be reliant on N-Star,” Ms. Ezanno says. Although they rely on the power system, that system also benefits from the contribution these households make. Home solar panels help create a recipro-cal relationship between homeowners and energy suppliers, rather than a world in which consumers are entirely dependent on industrial power. Through our homes we can understand our relationship to fossil fuels and to resilient, renewable- and low-energy systems.

Solar is a small part of the energy mix in this country. In 2011, solar energy production in the U.S. accounted for less than one percent of the total energy produced. Coal produced 42 percent. Even so, solar power generation is happening here. Innovative models are emerging and enterprising. Forward thinking people are imagining and collaboratively implement-ing new solar systems. Soon, it will be possible to imagine a solar array on every roof and to actually see multipurpose farm land with solar arrays shading let-tuce fields. With these initiatives we could imagine even larger, well-financed initiatives on state land with solar genera-tors producing renewable, grid-tied power we all can benefit from and own. We could piece together our very own power utility. Because of solar’s emer-gence as a close-to-home power source, within the next decade we could cash in on Edison’s hundred and thirty year bet on sun and solar and realize our own form of energy independence.

Energy Note “The energy in the photons that strike the earth each hour is roughly the equivalent to the total energy, from all sources, that humans use in a year.” source: Owen, David. “The Artificial leaf.” New Yorker 14 May

2012: 68–74.

The Jennibeck building on state Road in vineyard haven,

recently sealed, reshingled and fitted with a new solar array.

(work done by south Mountain Company.)


1. Us energy Information Administration —

http://205.254.135.7/energy_in_brief/role_coal _ us.cfm

2. Us energy Information Administration —

http://205.254.135.7/electricity/monthly/epm_ ta-

ble_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_2_5_a

3. Amory lovins; Reinventing fire, Chelsea Green,

October 2011 — humans started burning fossil fuels at a

recognizable scale in the mid-to-late 1800s, and have

consumed roughly one-third of the planet’s technically

and economically recoverable stock of fossil fuels. half of

this consumption has occurred since 1985. projections

from resource experts, although quite approximate,

suggest that we are approaching peak consumption for

oil (some assert the peak has already passed). perhaps

more surprising, projections also indicate that peak coal

may be decades off, not a century or more, since much

of the coal resource now looks too costly to recover. —

http://www.rmi.org/RfGraph-fossil_fuels_global_pro-

duction

4. Andrew woodruff a local farmer has leased land to

Bill Bennett, who is, among other things a local, small

scale energy developer.


Alaskan Travels | Edward HoaglandIt was february 27th, cold enough to sting the lungs, weigh down your arms,

and pinch the muscles in your heart.

A month after returning from the Kuskokwim, we boarded another Boeing 737, converted for carrying goods until only four rows of seats were left. A

Nome businessman wore a sealskin coat with a polar-bear collar. Hurtling through the clouds on Bering Standard Time, I listened to the thin metal wall rattle between us and eternity, reminding me of my creaky berths on the old Cunard Queens, crossing a stormy North Atlantic two decades before, when nature also slapped against human certainties.

“Welcome to Nome. Facilities are quite limited,” our pilot announced ironically. After the seal-skinned businessman had debarked, the pilot cowboyed up and off the spindly runway, past a talky-looking, tiny-looking, Cold War White Alice advance-warning radar station — the black hole of the jet engine was just outside my window — and over the tundra of Seward Peninsula: settlements such as Iron Creek, Mary’s Igloo, Coarse Gold, Coffee Creek, and the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, to Goodhope Bay and Kotzebue Sound. Kotzebue (pop. 2,700) was situated on salt water on a marshy peninsula at the mouths of two Brooks Range Rivers, the Kobuk and the Noatak. This meant a hunter could go inland thirty miles and shoot a moose or caribou, or seaward the same distance and shoot an “oogruk,” a hefty bearded seal, whose hide the whalers traditionally used for their skin boats. A walrus provided still more meat — twice as much as even a beluga whale — plus the tusks and skull that Eskimos could legally cut up to carve three-dimensionally or scrimshaw for sale.

Lacking Nome’s gold-stampede origins (and then deflation: its name supposedly a map draftsman’s misreading of the handwritten query, “?Name”), Kotzebue was instead a vibrantly unassuming Inupiat community memorializing an early nineteenth-century Russian explorer who searched past here for a Northwest Passage to Europe. Nor did it seem an airless regulation-processing center like Bethel, stranded neither on the sea nor in the wilds. As in Tanana or Fort Yukon, on the great Yukon River, I felt tentative, in the minority, and on my

best behavior, far from white-run Fairbanks, so to speak. God knows if there would be a hotel room within a hundred miles if Linda lost her temper with me.

It was February 27th, cold enough to sting the lungs, weigh down your arms, and pinch the muscles in your heart. Along Front Street, the wooden frame houses had caribou antler racks on the roofs. The women standing in the doors, as we drove through from the plane, looked haloed by their white-bear or grizzly hoods, often with the claws left on. But Kotzebue had a twenty-nine-bed hospital (four doctors in and out) and another solid supervisor for its three itinerant nurses, who served the many villages ringing Kotzebue Sound or sprinkled up the fabled Noatak and Kobuk. Martha, who took us in, was a tall, severe-faced, San Francisco ash-blonde beauty, now a veteran of six years living here, and good with a rifle or on a snow machine, as well as the healing arts — and at sizing up men. Pilots would risk their lives, stunting in barrel rolls overhead, to impress her. Others brought her luscious sable furs they had trapped, or delicious cuts of wild meat: not that she didn’t also hunt her own. Nonetheless, she’d not picked one of the macho guys to live with, but Fred, a round-faced, gently intellectual Inupiat birdwatcher, who had identified ninety-five species passing through last year. Both on North America’s closest contiguous point to Siberia at Wales and as a student of subsistence tactics and culture —strumming for us some of Greenland’s Inuit songs — Fred had probably also acquired part of his nimble versatility because for ten years during his childhood he had accompanied his mother when she lived at a tuberculosis sanatorium in Seward, in the south of the state. But after college he’d chosen to return and immerse himself in his ancestry, representing his heritage at statewide “walrus conferences,” for instance, where the current population census and harvest statistics were discussed with federal and state biologists and regulations thrashed out both to protect “the resource” and the natives’ need for walrus meat and ivory. Martha was more interested in exploring the Noatak, where she had a cabin, but that was up his alley, too.

Kotzebue was a tough town, each house a fortress against the cold — even Martha’s mud room felt cold enough to die in, if you were locked out of the rooms beyond — and armed for self-defense at night, when drunks wandered abroad. But the poverty was localized among families without a breadwinner. Not only Prudhoe Bay was sloshy with jobs for anybody fit to work, but the Anaconda and Kennicott copper companies were salivating over deposits recently discovered near Ambler on the Kobuk River, much closer indeed. And tin ore identified at Lost River on the Seward Peninsula offered another prospect of big bucks. Or two “fish-pickers” salmon-netting for six weeks in a twenty- foot boat during the summer in Kotzebue Sound might gross $40,000, if they knew how. Robust energy was the currency. Oil and metal geologists needed guys for their field crews who could deal with an unexpected snowslide, or fill the frying pan with Dolly Varden; and even the ancient craft of luring a lynx into a trap paid cash.

The harbor was navigable three months a year, when generator and heating fuel and durable goods were barged in. Then in the cold weather before freeze-up, the waves of the wake of your motorboat lost their rooster tails, Martha said. But even now, through the ice, you could hook up to sixty twenty-pound sheefish in a couple of hours, or twenty dog salmon in just one. Or elsewhere, pike, char, whitefish, lingcod (called “mud sharks” here), and tomcod from the ocean that you froze before you ate them to kill the worms inside. Household running water was piped ten miles above ground from a frozen lake to town, heated twice in boilers along the way. The new senior center had been architectured like a spacious igloo, with a lovely skylight impersonating the smoke hole. We walked across a frozen lagoon, admiring the darkening blues of the night in the east, a peach light to the west, and the town’s appealing sparkle behind us. Then back to Martha’s low, red-painted log house to look at her angel-wing begonias, asparagus ferns, and spider plants, plus Fred’s collection of paddle-shaped Eskimo drums fashioned from walrus intestines stretched over a thin driftwood frame.

Both of them had lately become embroiled in native politics: Fred quitting as vice-president of the health corporation —though still loyally claiming it was better than working for the State — and Martha moderating in that organization’s disputes with the federal Indian Health Service. But the doctor who lived next door was cutting his schedule in half to train his dog team for a two-hundred-mile run to Nome. Some couldn’t stand the isolation, she said; yet some went native on you. And one of her troubles was that when a patient not hers came back to the area from an operation in Fairbanks or Anchorage without their paperwork catching up to them, they might not be able to tell her what had been repaired or removed, so passive was their relationship to white-man’s medicine. She was the tallest, richest woman in town, with a polar-bear hood and the tails breezily tossing on her marten-skin hat — speeding around on the best snowmobile, with a new boat and truck and the Noatak cabin to get away to — pineapples and chutney on her table,

polypropylene long johns under her jeans, and fifty-year-old bush pilots sometimes piggybacking or tailgating each other up in the sky just to catch her eye. Yet she was a healer, if they got hurt. And Fred’s father was her ballast, telling her skin boat-and-walrus stories: how, if you killed one in a herd, others might surround and try to capsize you in revenge by hooking their tusks over the gunwales. Skin boats were more vulnerable to an attack by a polar bear in the water also, but their flexibility made them superior to the wooden kind for navigating among ice floes, bending with or riding over them.

Kotzebue’s cabdriver was its bootlegger, and he buzzed the doorbell with a liquor delivery this Sunday eve. His belly protruded parallel to the floor, but he was laughing because of the joke he’d pulled on a local braggart at the greasy spoon. Everybody knew him and he was boasting about all the women he’d fucked, until the cabbie interrupted: “Oh, I hope not her! I caught the clap from her last month!” Then went home, peeled the label off a bottle of aspirin, and sold it to him as leftover pills.

Everybody was worried, however, about the fate of an eighteen-year-old Inupiat boy from Point Hope named Amos, who had unscrewed the plates on his cell window and escaped from Kotzebue’s lockup two nights ago, stolen or “stolen” a friend’s loose snow machine, and headed at top speed straight northwest across the sea ice and corrugated shoreline toward the Eskimo hamlet of Kivalina, hours away. Villages like Sheshalek and Tikizat came first, and the pressure ridges of the ice, till, exhausting his gas, he abandoned the snowmobile and borrowed or stole a Honda three-wheeler in Kivalina to continue his hopeless flight northwest along the tumbled coast toward Point Hope, a village of less than five hundred souls, about as far again — where state troopers undoubtedly would be waiting for him. Confinement had terrified Amos, the Quaker missionaries and several nurses who had visited him said, and the last time he’d escaped, during warmer weather, he managed to elude capture for two precious weeks with the help of sympathizers. Now, though, the three-wheeler inevitably stalled in deep drifts short of Ipnot, and he must have been forced — no one knew — to flounder through the soft stuff inland for cover in the willows and hills and dig a “wolf hole” to survive Saturday night. Today, on Sunday, a police helicopter spotted the Honda, but not before the winds obscured any tracks leaving it. Since he didn’t come out of hiding to wave for help, people could assume he preferred dying under the snow to being caged up again. A mental patient once fled from the hospital in his pajamas and slippers, Martha said, running across the sea ice until a helicop-ter spotted and lassoed him. And a three-year-old boy had been blown away in a blizzard and whiteout from his backyard here in town, and not found for thirty-six hours, only a few yards out on the ice, but still so securely zipped in his snowsuit that his temperature was ninety-five degrees and okay.

Purchase at Bunch of Grapes Bookstore:

http://site.booksite.com/7205/showdetail/?isbn=9781611455038

f I CT I O N

Walruses and Whales

This excerpt of edward hoaglands “Alaskan Travels, far-flung Tales

of love and Adventure” is published courtesy of Arcade publishers.

published April 1, 2010.


Jessica pisano

so MucH of WHat I do as an artist is drawn from

nature. I am greatly inspired by my local landscape —

trees and seascapes are vital parts of my paintings.

The Tree is a symbol of life, growth and energy; and

the Sea, a symbol of awakening — it’s the symbolism of

these natural elements that I aim to portray in my work.

There is a calmness that a lot of people say they feel

when they look at my work. “Peaceful” and “meditative”

is a common response that I get.

The Island has shaped who I am as an artist. It’s a

community that fosters and encourages creativity, and I

was lucky to grow up with that support. I appreciate

and care for the Island’s environment that’s inspired me

for so many years. You’ll see a lot of windswept trees

within my tree-scape series. I’ve always found trees that

are shaped by the wind and sea to be so interesting.

You see a lot of those trees along the Vineyard shore line.

You’ll also see that many of my seascape paintings

have a foggy horizon line — a sight that I’ve seen countless

times on early morning ferry rides. I’ve traveled

quite a bit and have lived in many different places, but the

Vineyard will always be home.

I’m very interested in the concept of time and how

objects weather as they are exposed to the natural

elements. My focus is to establish a patina within my

work that is symbolic to the idea of time. To do this I use

acrylic, oil, silver and gold leaf as well as various subtle

textural materials to achieve a rich aged finish. I paint on

baltic birch wood panels, and complete the work with a

UV protective varnish.


>> Dragonfly Gallery: www.mvdragonfly.com Artist website: www.jessicapisano.com

Fog at the Breakers, oil and silver leaf on wood panel, 36 x 36"

Water’s Edge, oil and gold leaf on wood panel, 15 x 48"

When Day Falls to Dusk, oil and gold leaf on wood panel, 24 x 30"


I once heard that memory doesn’t develop in a child until three. But I remember this: sleeping in the crib with Franci, our faces turned to face each other. Sun shone in through the white curtains with the tiny yellow flowers

that Mother had embroidered. The light sluiced across Franci’s face, bathing her pink skin in yellow. I watched Franci sleep as if watching my own reflection in a mirror. Franci’s thumb was tucked tightly between my lips, and I was vaguely aware of the warm wet feeling of my own thumb in Franci’s mouth. A light wind ruffled the curtains. We slept, we breathed, our arms woven to share thumbs.

Whenever someone asks me what it’s like to be a twin, this is the memory that comes back to me. The light refracting through the slats of the crib, the quiet swell of Franci’s body as it rose and fell in the same rhythm as my own, the milky scent of breath, our bodies wound securely together, two halves forming a whole. I always wished I could pluck the image from my mind like a slide and hold it up to the light.

“This is what it’s like,” I would say. “This is what it’s like.”

* * *

We were born twelve weeks early, our squirming two-pound bodies already grown tired of sharing such a small space. I started it, I’m sure, always eager, always needing to be first, not even born and already tired of sharing. I can picture myself, flexing my limbs, all two pounds and four ounces, arching my back in the warm cramped space of our mother’s womb, and deciding, Enough. I can see myself beginning the long descent into the world, like an animal burrowing through a tunnel, trying to find the light at the end.

And then I can picture Franci. Two pounds one ounce, and perfectly content to spend another three months curled up beside me.

Someone should have told me that there was no hurry. Things would be no different outside of that safe warm space that we shared. We would share tight spaces all our lives.

We weren’t ready. Oh, our bodies had formed. We had fingers and toes and hearts and lungs and kidneys. We had brains. But Franci wasn’t ready. And maybe I wasn’t ready either. Later, I would wonder if things would have been different if we had been allowed those extra three months, those three months that should have been ours.

I began the slow and awful labor, and then Franci had no choice but to follow, out into the cold and gaping world, the

white light of life already blinding. Oh, I was so certain that I was ready until I met that piercing white light, a harbinger of the White light that would follow me for so much of my life.

I was born six minutes before Franci, and I waited patiently for her to arrive. In our separate incubators, we drank oxygen, and plastic tubes were secured to our translucent skin with tape. I must have been so pleased to have my own bed, inches of empty space surrounding me, no elbows crammed into my face, no feet squashing my stomach. In those crucial minutes, I was surviving on my own, and I held on to that knowledge so many times later in life. But Franci’s heart was beating too fast, her breath coming in short and jagged gasps. Put me back, her body screamed. I’m not ready. Did I feel guilty then, for what I had started? I wonder if she ever forgave me for it.

It was one of the first stories I remember hearing from Mother. The rest of the story goes like this: Franci was dying. Or, not dying yet, but not coming into life, either. Her heart rate was too high, and she was having trouble breathing. I, meanwhile, was already thriving. In the two days after my birth, I put on an extra two ounces. Hearty Lottie, they all thought, ironically as we would discover later. But they didn’t know that then. And they didn’t know how to save Franci.

Then some bright nurse suggested putting her in the same incubator as me. They placed her at my side and immediately she calmed down. Her heart rate began to beat at a normal rate, and she started to breathe more regularly. And though I imagine I relished the unfamiliar feeling of all that space to myself, I also imagine that I felt more comfortable once Franci was beside me again. In our new shared bed, I coiled my body around Franci’s, encircling her in a cocooning embrace. There’s a picture of it in one of the musty yellow photo albums. Two tiny black-haired babies in only diapers, tubes stuck to our splayed legs and the one on the left curved around the one on the right, shielding the other baby from…what? From life? Not even two days old and I’d saved her life.

It was not until I was older that I wondered: Why would you repeat such a tale to children, a tale of failure and inability that was present at negative years? A tale so filled with power-lessness and dependency that it seemed innate. But Mother told the tale because she thought it explained our twinship, how close we were even then.

How different the rest of our lives turned out to be. In the end, Franci would be the one to save my life over and over again. And then one day, she couldn’t.

emily Cavanaugh — Mia The Nature of Nurturepolly hill and selective seedlings

Some might say that Polly Hill was Mother Nature personified. Her ability to nurture seedlings in latitudes that questioned and stretched their ability to

thrive, was matched only by her acceptance of the many plant failures that so readily accompanied her successes. She traveled extensively collecting seeds that she thought might do well on Martha’s Vineyard. Some of the various geneses that she introduced did flourish and still thrive on the island while others couldn’t adapt to the environmental variables and perished along the way. She had a Darwinian philosophy of plant survival of the fittest, and was fascinated to see if each new species could, left to its own resources, embrace its new non-native environment.

She loved sharing her gardens with visitors and did all she could to help the newly formed arbore-tum. Her passion, philosophy, and keen scientific research, was passed on to her staff, who benefited greatly from her guidance, and in turn shared their collective knowledge with the many rotating interns who worked summers and nine month stints in this unique horticulture world. Her tireless efforts and fearless acceptance of failure have left lasting impressions on all who have been exposed either directly or indirectly to her. Exposure to Polly’s legacy of curiosity, tenacity, stewardship and acceptance, lives on in the plants and people who have been touched by the powerful heart and hand of this remarkable woman.

f I CT I O N

The Beginning

>> Unofficial website: www.mvpcs.org/Home/teachers/junior_high-school/emily-cavanagh

“Mia” is an excerpt from emily’s Cavanagh’s novel, “Mother, Can you

hear Me?” It tells the story of estranged twin sisters, franci and lottie.

published courtesy of the author.

>> Contributor website: marniestantonart.blogspot.com Arboretum website: www.pollyhillarboretum.org

polly hill’s most famous tree comes from these primitive cone-like structure.

Card file containing information on seed success

and failure. Black is dead. Tan is live.

The big-leaf Magnolia, Magnolia macrophylla,

‘Julian hill.’

helesia fruit

By Marnie Stanton


sarah Gambito

when the nor’easter tore though our beach town. i was unaware that we were

a town to have a beach in. it’s worse for us living near water. that at once

self-referential. living together. we could be wiped away. a wind to lay down its

snub nose next to the sands of our cantina. the plastic bandings of our fold-out

chairs. once i wrote transcribed an interview with my grandmother. she talked

about cholera. about picking up individual grains of rice because everything

made a difference in those days. i wrote it phonetically. i wrote. i saw dat man.

my teacher told me that i was being disrespectful. it was insulting her by

not making it appear that she could speak without an accent. so i rewrote the

interview. i saw that man. as if it didn’t happen like that.

My dream was that the roller coaster was part of a movie that was being written

as it was being built and ridden. You would sit in these little boats. The ride

was that a god — a new one with a many consonants sounding — would blow

you up over the world, which was the movie. You thought you were keeping me

awake, that you were a nuisance. But I was thinking how beautiful to it was

to be gusted in these different ways. I had the motion of the ride which charmed

me greatly without the scenes of difficulty. The surprised party guests. The

moment of revelation. I was weak and trying on maria clara dresses. Grandmother

and Auntie Ruth worked there. They were straight-backed and spoke perfect

English. They argued with actresses about what dress to sell me. Nothing fit and

I felt no emotion. In fact, I didn’t even want to buy a dress. I just wanted a scarf.

A pretty inlaid scarf that said. I am Filipina. I am from the Philippines.

Girl

>> Author website: www.sarahgambito.com/about/

p O e T Ry


tHErE Is an EndlEss and EvEr-ExpandIng collection of remarkable work available for

public view on flickr, Yahoo’s photo-sharing website. The photographs of thousands of creative

people rest just below the digital surface, waiting for a key-stroke to bring them to light. I am inspired

and challenged by the work I’ve discovered there.

For nearly three years I’ve been building a series of composite photographs, using the square tags —

each a random segment of an image — that flickr assigns to every photo. Some of these pieces

were created as a response to poetry…some poems have been born in response to the photographs.

The resulting work has been shared on-line through flickr, social networking sites,

and a blog, but has, to this point, existed solely in digital format.

A new dimension was added to the project in 2012 when I joined forces with Martha’s Vineyard

artists Don McKillop, Susan Davy and Sam Low and Cape Cod artist Richard Koury. Using the

flickr tags for our own images I have built a new collection of composites and accompanying poems.

The work will be available exclusively through Dragonfly Fine Arts Gallery in Oak Bluffs.


susan savory — Two x Two x Dragonfly

>> Dragonfly Fine Arts Gallery: www.mvdragonfly.com

what remains

TOp lefT, ClOCKwIse Don McKillop, susan savory, susan savory, Don McKillop

dragged from sleep’s fat overcoat

TOp lefT, ClOCKwIse susan Davy, susan savory, susan savory, sam low

nesting boxes

TOp lefT, ClOCKwIse susan savory, sam low, sam low, sam low

nesting boxes

it all goes into boxes

(what’s left after yard sale and ebay)

then the boxes stack and wedge

into the echo chamber cargo hold

of the smallest truck

that u-haul has to offer

the door rolls down

thunks

latches

chairs and lamps and pots and pans

whisper to each other

back there in the dark

...again

like a turtle or a hermit crab

all folded into ourselves and hopeful

as the sun comes up

we go

driveway highway ferry

we arrive mid-day

unload unpack unfurl

into this new house by dark

books on shelves

paintings hung

truck goes back tomorrow

the boxes folded flat

beneath the bed


Vineyard Artisans Guide Find them at the Artisans Festivals.Aromatherapy/BotanicalsAndrea RogersOB · 508-693-8989www.vineyardartisans.com

Beth Ann SerusaSimply Soaps · WT

BlacksmithingJamie Rogers – Forging AheadOB · [email protected]

Book ArtsDaniel Waters, PrintmakerIndian Hill PressWT · 508-693-1551 www.indianhillpress.com

CeramicsHelayne R. CohenBirdsong CeramicsEdg. · 508-627-3846www.americanpotters.com

William O’Callaghan – MadpotterVH · [email protected]

Lisa Strachan – Fine PorcelainWT · 508-696-8770www.strachanporcelain.com

Candy ShwederUp Island PotteryChil. · 508-560-0324www.upislandpottery.com

Fiber Arts and Leather CraftsTom BarrettThe HirselEdg. · [email protected]

Johanna EricksonVH · 617-429-0614www.gladragsrugs.com

Brenda Evans – Totelly VineyardEdg. · 508-627-6628www.totellyvineyard.com

Sylvie Farrington – Sylvie Bags WT. · 774-563-8882www.sylviebags.com

Susan Handy – Skora Designs Edg. · 508-627-7947www.skoradesign.com

Whitney Moody Whitney Fiber ArtsWT · [email protected]

Richard & Carol Tripp The Weavers’ CroftVH · 508-696-4989 [email protected]

GlassNan Bacon Design / Vineyard VasesOB · 508-693-1857www.nanbacondesign.com

Jeri Dantzig VH · 774-521-7229www.dantzigglass.com

Jamie Rogers – Stones of the EarthOB · [email protected]

Home Furnishings & AccentsKyle B. Carson – Wiggly WoodOB · [email protected]

Richard R. DumasWT · 774-521-9988John DuryeaEdg. · [email protected]

Larry Hepler Furniture MakerChil. · 508-645-2578www.lhepler.vineyard.net

Jo Maxwell – Vintage Elements WT · [email protected]

Michael Ferguson – M. T. DesignsEdg. · [email protected]

Andrea RogersOB · 508-693-8989www.vineyardartisans.com

Laura SilberDemolition Revival FurnitureWT · 508-696-8475www.demolitionrevival.com

Jewelry – BeadworkLorri Hart – LA Hart JewelryOB · 508-939-4056www.lahartjewelry.com

Andrea HartmanWT · [email protected]

Cynthia V. C. McGrathOriginal Cyn VH · www.originalcynjewelry.com

Stefanie Wolf DesignsOB · 508-560-5614 www.stefaniewolf.com

Sarah K. Young Vineyard Sky Bead DesignVH · 508-696-8700www.vineyardsky.com

Jewelry – Mixed Media / WampumLaura Artru DesignsVH · [email protected]

Mary Thomson MT Designs, Edg. · [email protected]

Jewelry – Metalsmithiing Ashley Medowski Saltwater Gallery VH · 508-696-8822

Cecilia Minnehan Cecilia Designs VH · 508-693-7413www.ceciliadesigns.carbonmade.com

Kenneth PillsworthPO Box 2767, VH · 508-693-1158www.kennethpillsworth.com

Jamie RogersStones of the EarthOB · [email protected]

Lucinda SheldonLucinda’s EnamelsPO Box 2315, OB · 508-696-7863 www.lucindasheldon.com

Diana Stewart, Goldsmith VH · 508-696-7585 [email protected]

Painting – Acrylic, Oil, WatercolorValentine Estabrook WT · 914-830-9288 [email protected]

James Streicher EvansVH · [email protected]

John Holladay VH · 508-696-5353

Ann M. Howes, AWS / NWSHowes WatercolorsWT · [email protected]

Brian Kirkpatrick OB · 860-235-6577www.bkfolkart.com

Lanny McDowell – Avian ArtWT · 508-627-0675www.ottgallerymv.com

Dan VanLandingham Fine ArtsVH · 508-627-0833www.danvanlandingham.com

Mark ZeenderVH · 508-693-3184www.markzeender.com

2D & 3D Mixed MediaRachel Paxton Chil. · 508-645-9393www.rachelpaxton.com

Beldan K. RadcliffeVH · 508-274-8706www.beldankradcliffe.com

Ashley Gilbert – LeeleedesignsEdg. · [email protected]

Photography LA Brown PhotographyOB · [email protected]

Debra M. Gaines Fine ArtEdg. · 508-627-9989www.debragaines.com

Nancy Noble Gardner PhotographyOB · 5o8-693-5481 www.floppypoppy.com

Benjamin McCormickUnder The SurfaceEdg. · 508-962-7748www.benmccormick.com

Lanny McDowell Avian ArtWT · 508-696-8826www.ottgallerymv.com

Janet Woodcock PhotographyVH · 508-693-0079www.janetwoodcock.com

NoveltyIngrid Goff-MaidoffChil. · 508-645-3476www.tendingjoy.com

Jannette VanderhoopIsland NaturalsWT · [email protected]

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Representing over 100 Island Artists & Artisans

the

Vine yard artisansf e s t i v a l s

TM

www.vineyardartisans.com To see the full list of artisans, and their work Brian Kirkpatrick Lucinda Sheldon

Lanny McDowell

Nan Bacon

LA Brown Photography

Candy Shweder

SundayS: June 12-October 2 ThurSdayS: July 7-August 25Grange Hall, State Rd., WT · 10 am – 2 pm each day

Rain or shine with Great Food and Free Parking

Labor Day Festival: Sept. 3 & 4 Columbus Day Festival: Oct. 9

Thanksgiving Festival: nov. 25 & 26 Holiday Festival: dec. 10

Martha’s Vineyard Arts & Ideas, June 2011 1

do you KnoW WHEn you’rE travElIng with your

children, you stop every few moments to count heads and

make sure everyone is still accounted for?

I realized the end of January that I had completely misplaced

one of my passions. Sometime in the past two decades,

I stopped paying attention to my love of drawing. I decided

the beginning of February to start doing one sketch a day,

at the end of the day, after my work and chores are done.

The ritual of drawing every evening has become a balm,

a meditation, a way for me to process the day and massage

something deep inside myself.

heather Goff — Daily Doodle

MARCH 23MARCH 22

MARCH 24

MARCH 25

APRIL 6

APRIL 7

APRIL 29

APRIL 12 APRIL 13

MARCH 26 MARCH 27

A RT I sT p O RT R A I T All images created with painter12

software and wacom Intuos tablet

>> Artist website: heathergoff.me

57Martha’s Vineyard Arts & Ideas Early Summer 201 2

This IssuePainting

LLOyD KELLy p. 12Christina Gallery: www.christina.comArtist website: www.lloydkelly.com

ANTOINNETTE NOBLE p. 20Gallery website: www.shawcramergallery.comArtist website: www.antoinettenoble.com

MARSTON CLOUGH p. 27Artist website: www.marstonclough.com

KENNETH VINCENT p. 38Gallery website: www.granarygallery.com

JESSICA PISANO p. 48Gallery website: www.mvdragonfly.comArtist website: www.jessicapisano.com

KETZ p. 30pIK NIK Art and Apparel Gallery: www.piknikmv.comArtist website: www.ketzweiler.com

PhotographySAM LOW pp. 3, 54

Artist website: www.samlow.com

DON MCKILLOP p.54Gallery website: www.mvdragonfly.com

SUSAN DAVy p.54Gallery website: www.mvdragonfly.com

SUSAN SAVORy pp. 3, 54Artist website: susansavory.wordpress.com/moleskine-exchange

IllustrationHEATHER GOFF p.53

Artist website: www.heathergoff.me

PoetryJORIE GRAHAM p. 19

Author website: www.joriegraham.com

SARAH GAMBITO p. 52Author website: www.sarahgambito.com/about

Sculpture/3DBARNEy ZEITZ p. 35

website: www.bzeitz.com

Non FictionLAURA WAINWRIGHT p. 37

publisher website: http://vineyardstories.com/book.php/21/Home-Bird

MARNIE STANTON p. 51Author website: www.marniestantonart.blogspot.com

SARAH DAS p. 40whoi website: www.whoi.edu/profile.do?id=sdas

FictionAMELIA SMITH p. 28

Author website: www.ameliasmith.net

EMILy CAVANAGH p. 50Unofficial website: www.mvpcs.org/Home/teachers/junior_high-school/emily-cavanagh

Previous IssuePainting

LESLIE BAKERArtist website: www.lbaker.comGallery website: www.shawcramergallery.com

TRAEGER DI PIETROArtist website: www.traegerdipietro.com

DOUG KENTArtist website: www.dougkentpaintings.com

MARIE-LOUISE ROUFFArtist website: www.mlrouff.comGallery website: www.shawcramergallery.com

LIZ TAFTArtist website: www.liztaft.com

DAN VANLANDINGHAMArtist website: www.danvanlandingham.comGallery website: www.mvdragonfly.com www.piknikmv.com

ROSE ABRAHAMSONArtist website: www.roseabrahamson.comGallery website: www.shawcramer.com

MAx DECKERArtist website: www.maxdecker.comGallery website: www.piknikmv.com

ANNE D. GRANDINArtist website: www.grandinart.com

CAROLINE HURLEyArtist website: www.carolinezhurley.comGallery website: www.piknikmv.com

CINDy KANEArtist website: www.cindykane.com

KARA TAyLORArtist website: www.karataylorart.com

ALLEN WHITINGArtist website: www.allenwhiting.comfacebook: find Allen-Whiting

REZ WILLIAMSArtist website: www.rezwilliams.com

PhotographyLyNN CHRISTOFFERS

facebook: find Lynn-Christoffers

ELI DAGOSTINOArtist website: www.photogenicpecan.comfacebook: find photogenicpecan

STEPHEN DIRADOArtist website: www.stephendirado.comfacebook: find Stephen Dirado

RAy EWINGArtist website: www.rayewing.com

VIVIAN EWINGArtist website: www.vivianewingportfolio.carbonmade.comfacebook: find viviandreadeleirene

GABRIELA HERMANArtist website: www.gabrielaherman.com

AARON SISKINDArtist website: www.aaronsiskind.org

ERIC PECKARfacebook: find Erik-Peckar

JEANNE CAMPBELLArtist website: www.jeannefineart.comGallery website: www.louisagould.com

ELIZABETH CECILArtist website: www.elizabethcecil.com

SALLy COHNArtist website: www.sallycohnphotography.com

GARy MIRANDOArtist website www.garymirandophotol.com

SAM HISERArtist website: www.hiserfotograf.com

TOVA KATZMANfacebook: find Tova-Katzman

NEAL RANTOULEArtist website www.nealrantoul.com

PoetryFANNy HOWE

Author website: poetryfoundation.org/bio/fanny-howe

JUSTEN AHRENfacebook: find Justen-Ahren

G.E. PATTERSONAuthor website: poets.org: search patterson

MICHAEL BURKARDAuthor website: burkard-michael.html

JULIE CARRAuthor website: www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/1612

DONALD NITCHIEfacebook: find Donald Nitchie

Fabric ArtsPAM FLAM

Artist website: www.pamflam.com

PAULETTE HAyESArtist website: vineyardvoice.org/paulette-hayes

JewelryJOAN LELACHEUR

facebook: find Joan-LeLacheur

KATE TAyLORArtist website: www.katetaylor.com

LUCINDA SHELDONArtist website: www.lucindasheldon.com

SculptureELISSA TURNBULL

Artist website: www.elissaturnbull.comfacebook: find elissa.turnbull

Collage, Fine Art PrintsPEGGy TURNER ZABLOTNy

email: [email protected] Gallery website: www.fieldgallery.com

Individual Artist GuideConnect with the artists in or who are mentioned in Martha’s vineyard Arts & Ideas:

Art Music Dance

Theater “Festivals Galleries Museums History Writers

Libraries Artisans

Performanc-es Lectures

Art Music Dance


Libraries Artisans


Arts Martha’s Vineyard is proud to besupported in part through the generosity of:

Increasing awareness of our Island’s

arts-rich community,

Stimulating and fostering development

of cultural initiatives,

Nurturing and leveraging resources

for arts and culture,

Supporting arts education in schools

and in the community.

Arts Martha’s Vineyard supports

and promotes arts and culture on

Martha’s Vineyard by:

Arts and Culture CollaborativeMartha’s Vineyard

artsmarthasvineyard.org


Your Gateway

To Arts and Culture

on Martha’s Vineyard

Email: [email protected]




(Take a picture of this code with

your mobile phone.)

Or you can go to:

Visit our web site to sign up for our newsletter, for event calendars and more information about arts and culture.

Martha's Vineyard has a long and

illustrious history of attracting and

inspiring artists

The abundance of talented artists

attracts visitors from all over the world,

helps sustain our local economy and

strengthens our reputation as a year

round arts and culture destination.

Visual Arts Music

Dance Film Theater

Festivals Galleries

Museums History

Writers Libraries

Artisans Lectures

Performances

Workshops

Art Music Dance


Libraries Artisans


Art Music Dance


Libraries Artisans


Art Music Dance


Libraries Artisans

















Your Gateway

To Arts and Culture







your mobile phone.)

Or you can go to:




inspiring artists






Visual Arts Music

Dance Film Theater

Festivals Galleries

Museums History

Writers Libraries

Artisans Lectures

Performances

Workshops

Art Music Dance


Libraries Artisans


Martha’s Vineyard Chamber of CommercePO Box 1698, Vineyard Haven, MA800.505.4815 www.mvy.com

Art Music Dance


Libraries Artisans


Art Music Dance


Libraries Artisans

















Your Gateway

To Arts and Culture







your mobile phone.)

Or you can go to:




inspiring artists






Visual Arts Music

Dance Film Theater

Festivals Galleries

Museums History

Writers Libraries

Artisans Lectures

Performances

Workshops

Art Music Dance


Libraries Artisans


Art Music Dance


Libraries Artisans


Art Music Dance


Libraries Artisans

















Your Gateway

To Arts and Culture







your mobile phone.)

Or you can go to:




inspiring artists






Visual Arts Music

Dance Film Theater

Festivals Galleries

Museums History

Writers Libraries

Artisans Lectures

Performances

Workshops

Art Music Dance


Libraries Artisans



Art Music Dance


Libraries Artisans


Art Music Dance


Libraries Artisans

















Your Gateway

To Arts and Culture







your mobile phone.)

Or you can go to:




inspiring artists






Visual Arts Music

Dance Film Theater

Festivals Galleries

Museums History

Writers Libraries

Artisans Lectures

Performances

Workshops

Art Music Dance


Libraries Artisans


Art Music Dance


Libraries Artisans


Art Music Dance


Libraries Artisans

















Your Gateway

To Arts and Culture







your mobile phone.)

Or you can go to:




inspiring artists






Visual Arts Music

Dance Film Theater

Festivals Galleries

Museums History

Writers Libraries

Artisans Lectures

Performances

Workshops

Art Music Dance


Libraries Artisans



Art Music Dance


Libraries Artisans


Art Music Dance


Libraries Artisans

















Your Gateway

To Arts and Culture







your mobile phone.)

Or you can go to:




inspiring artists






Visual Arts Music

Dance Film Theater

Festivals Galleries

Museums History

Writers Libraries

Artisans Lectures

Performances

Workshops

Art Music Dance


Libraries Artisans


Art Music Dance


Libraries Artisans


Art Music Dance


Libraries Artisans

















Your Gateway

To Arts and Culture







your mobile phone.)

Or you can go to:




inspiring artists






Visual Arts Music

Dance Film Theater

Festivals Galleries

Museums History

Writers Libraries

Artisans Lectures

Performances

Workshops

Art Music Dance


Libraries Artisans



Featherstone Flea & Fine Arts

Market

Musical MondaysOutdoor Music

June 18 - August 20 • 6:30 - 8:00 pm

Featherstone Center for the Arts

30 Featherstone LaneOak Bluffs, MA 02557

508.693.1850www.featherstoneart.org

Gallery ShowsClasses for Children and Adults

Summer Art CampSummer Festival of Poetry

Nan

cy K

ings

ley

featherstonecenter for the arts

Tuesdays June 26 - August 289:30 am - 2:00 pm

West Chop Light Anne Grandin


ALISON SHAW GALLERy

88 Dukes County Ave. Oak Bluffs, MA, 02557 508 696 7429www.alisonshaw.com

ANDREW MOORE

11 Martha’s park Road pO Box 1533 Oak Bluffs, MA, 02557508 693 8548www.agmoore.com

BEADNIKS

14 Church streetvineyard haven, MA, 02568508 693 7650www.beadniks.com/marthasvineyardtwitter: @BeadniksMV

CARLIN GALLERy

3 south water streetedgartown, MA, 02539508 627 3073

CECILIA DESIGNS

11 Beach Road extvineyard haven, MA, 02568508 693 7413on facebook find: Cecilia-Designs

CHILMARK POTTERy

145 field view lanewest Tisbury, MA, 02575508 693 6476

CHRISTINA GALLERy

32 North water streetpO Box 40edgartown, MA, 02539508 627 8794www.christina.com

CLAUDIA JEWELERS

51 Main streetedgartown, MA, 02539508 693 5456www.claudiamv.com

COUSEN ROSE GALLERy

71 Circuit AveOak Bluffs, MA, 02557508 693 6656www.cousenrose.com

CRAFTWORKS

42 Circuit AvenueOak Bluffs, MA, 02557508 693 7463www.craftworksgallery.com

DAVIS HOUSE / ALLEN WHITING

985 state Roadwest Tisbury, MA, 02575508 693 4691www.allenwhiting.com

DOUG KENT PAINTINGS

490 Indian hill Roadwest Tisbury, MA, 02575508 696 9606www.dougkentpaintings.com

DRAGONFLy GALLERy

91 Dukes County AveOak Bluffs, MA, 02557508 693 8877www.mvdragonfly.com

EDGARTOWN ART GALLERy

19 summer streetedgartown, MA, 02539508 627 6227

EDGARTOWN SCRIMSHAW GALLERy

43 Main streetedgartown, MA, 02539508 627 9439

EISENHAUER GALLERy

38 N. water stpO Box 1930edgartown, MA, 02539508 627 7003www.eisenhauergallery.comon facebook find: Eisenhauer-Gallery

FEATHERSTONE CENTER FOR THE ARTS

30 featherstone laneOak Bluffs, MA, 02557508 693 1850www.featherstoneart.orgon facebook find: Featherstone-Center-for-the Artstwitter: @FeatherstoneArT

FIELD GALLERy

1050 state RoadpO Box 790west Tisbury, MA, 02575508 693 5595www.fieldgallery.comon facebook find: The-Field-Gallery

FOUR GENERATIONS ART GALLERy

5 village Courtvineyard haven, MA, 02568508 693 5501www.fourgenerationsart.com

HERMINE MEREL SMITH FINE ART

548 edgartown Roadwest Tisbury, MA, 02575508 693 7719

ISLAND ART GALLERy

Kennedy studios Custom framing66 Main street – pO Box 4657vineyard haven, MA 02568508 693 3948www.kennedystudiosmv.comemail: [email protected]

KARA TAyLOR FINE ART

19 Main streetvineyard haven, MA, 02568508 693 7799www.karataylorart.comon facebook find: kara-taylor-fine-art

KEVIN BUTLER

Dock streetedgartown, MA, 02539508 627 3977www.kevinbutlergallery.com

LINE ART GALLERy

pO Box 3035west Tisbury, MA, 02575508 693 4869www.lineartgallery.com

LOUISA GOULD GALLERy

54 Main streetvineyard haven, MA, 02568508 693 7373www.louisagould.comon facebook find: Louisa-Gouldtwitter: @GouldGallery

MARTHA’S VINEyARD GLASSWORKS

683 state Roadwest Tisbury, MA, 02575508 693 6026www.mvglassworks.comon facebook find: Marthas-Vineyard-Glassworks

NORTH WATER GALLERy

27 North water streetedgartown, MA, 02539508 627 6002www.northwatergallery.comon facebook find: North-Water-Gallery

OLD SCULPIN GALLERy

58 Dock streetedgartown, MA, 02539608 627 4881www.oldsculpingallery.org

Island Gallery Guidevisit and support our local galleries. They sustain artists and art markets.

OTT GALLERy

1000 state Rd.pO Box 35west TisburyMA, 02575608 696 8826www.ottgallerymv.com

PENUMBRA PHOTOGRAPHS

33 North summer streetedgartown, MA, 02568508 627 9002

PIK NIK

99 Dukes County AveOak Bluffs, MA, 02557508 693 1366www.piknikmv.com

SALTWATER GALLERy

367 lamberts Cover Roadvineyard haven, MA, 02568508 696 8822

SEA WORTHy GALLERy

34 Beach Roadvineyard haven, MA, 02568508 693 0153www.seaworthygallerymv.com

SHAW CRAMER GALLERy

56 Main streetvineyard haven, MA, 02568 508 696 7323www.shawcramergallery.com

STARK JEWELERS

53 Main streetvineyard haven, MA, 02568888 227 8275www.cbstark.comon facebook find: CB-Stark-Jewelers

THE BRIGISH COLLECTION

34 south pond Roadvineyard haven , MA, 02568508 696 3109www.brigish.comon facebook find: Alan-Brigish twitter: @Brigish

THE GRANARy GALLERy

636 Old County Roadwest Tisbury, MA, 02575508 693 0455www.granarygallery.comon facebook find: The-Granary-Gallery

TWO BOATS GALLERy

11 perkins AveOak Bluffs, MA, 02557508 693 4368www.twoboatsgallery.com

VINEyARD ARTISANS FESTIVALS

1059 state RdpO Box 774Oak Bluffs, MA, 02557508 693 8989www.vineyardartisans.comon facebook find: The-Vineyard-Artisan-Festivalstwitter: @MVArtisans

WILLOUGHBy FINE ART GALLERy

12 North water stedgartown, MA, 02539508 627 3369www.willoughbyfineartgallery.com

LA BrownPhotography

Discovering a simple Truth that leaves a Lasting Impression. TM

www.labphoto.com

508 627 1977

[email protected]

twitter@redlab

Sumner Z. Silverman, PhD.Licensed Psychologist

Issues of Creativity, Productivity& Quality of Life

508.693.7481

40 Years Experience


Martha’s Vineyard

A network of health

care providers &

community members

promoting health &

wellbeing through

mind, body & spirit

since 1995.

We actively envision

and engage in the

development of an

integrated, holistic

health and wellness

system for all Islanders.

Please join theconversation at:

mvwholehealth.org

Whole Health Alliance

Anne D. Grandin

By appointment 508-603-0416

www.grandinart.com | [email protected]

SUMMER SHOWSJuly 1 – 18

Reception July 1, 4 – 6pmCopley Society Artists

from Boston at Featherstone Center for the Arts

Barnes Road, Oak Bluffs

September 9 and 10The Old Sculpin Gallery

Dock Street, Edgartown, MA

August 18 – 25 Featherstone Center for the Arts

Open studio tour

mvyogabarn.com

Moment to Moment

Mind Body Awareness

Our 31st Summer Season!985 State Road ~ West Tisbury

View original oil paintings of Martha’s Vineyardand Bequia in the historic home of the artist.

Open Weekends, 1-6pm, or by appointment

508 693 4691www.allenwhiting.com

Davis House GalleryBurning Day, 2012 – 30” x 50" 0il on canvas


For a full list of artisans, and to see their work, visit www.vineyardartisans.com

theVine yard artisans

F E S T I V A L S

TM

Representing over 120 Island Artists & Artisans

Andrea RogersBOTANICALS

James EvansPAINTING

Richard & Carol TrippWEAVING

Libby EllisBOOK ARTS

Washington LedesmaCERAMICS

Andrea HartmanJEWELRY

2012 SeasonSUMMER FESTIVALS

SUNDAYS: June 10-September 30 THURSDAYS: July 5-August 30

Grange Hall, State Rd., WT · 10 am – 2 pm each dayRain or shine with Great Food and Free Parking

Labor Day Festival: Sept. 1 & 2 Columbus Day Festival: Oct. 7

Thanksgiving Festival: Nov. 23 & 24 Holiday Festival: Dec. 8

PIKNIK Art & Apparel

LEFT TOM STEPHENSBELOW KETZ WEILER

NOW ALSO IN EDGARTOWN, 11 WINTER STREET

MICHAEL HUNTER ProPrietor /Curator PIKNIKmv.com

EDGARTOWN – 11 Winter Street 508.627.1066OAK BLUFFS 99 DukeS County ave., 508.693.1366

support Arts & Ideas Advertisers

Thank you for supporting the Arts on Martha’s Vineyard.

Please support our advertisers.

TheMartha’sVineyardFilm

Festival

www.tmvff.org

SCREENIN

G & DISC

USSION

CIRCUS FUN & F

ILMS

Arrive ear

ly and enj

oy dinner

at Henry’s!

at the HAR

BOR VIEW

in

EDGARTOWN

8 PMFEAT

URE FILM

!

D INNER & LIVE MUSIC

8 PM

7 PM

5 PMat the

Chilmark Com

munity

Center

allen whitingpage 63

christina galleryInside Front Cover

granary gallerypage 7

the martha’s vineyard film festival

Inside Back Cover

sumner z. silverman phd page 60

anne d. grandin page 63

dragonfly fine arts gallery

page 1

jeri dantzig page 58

north water gallery page 9

the vineyard artisans festivals

page 62

arts martha’s vineyardpage 59

featherstone center for the arts

page 58

lisa brown photographypage 61

piknik art & apparel

page 63

whole health alliance page 62

bunch of grapes bookstore Back Cover

field gallery page 9

louisa gould gallery page 61

shaw cramer gallery page 61

yoga barn page 62

allenwhiting.com508.693.9537

christina.com508.627.8794

granarygallery.com508.693.0455

tmvff.org508.645.9599

sumnersilverman.com617.354.4297

grandinart.com508.693.0416

mvdragonfly.com508.693.8877

dantzigglass.com508.696.0874

northwatergallery.com508.627.6002

vineyardartisans.com


featherstoneart.org508.693.1850

laphoto.com508.693.9728

piknikmv.com508.693.1366

mvwholehealth.org508.693.4691

bunchofgrapes.com508.693.2291

fieldgallery.com508.693.5595

louisagould.com508.693.7373

shawcramergallery.com508.696.7323

mvyogabarn.com


Where greatliterature lives.

35 Main Street • Vineyard Haven • 508.693.2291 • bunchofgrapes.com

Place: NewPoems

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Fall From Grace

AGoodH

ardLook

Rules of Civility

Interventions

TheFresh

&Green

Table

TheLightBetweenOceans

Night Watch

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BOG-MV ARTS & Ideas 12 2:Layout 1 5/2/12 9:31 AM Page 1

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Arts & Ideas Magazine — June 2012