This started out as a simple dream of making homemade wine. It turned into an exploration I never expected. My first taste of dandelion wine was disappointing. One of my cousins used to make it every year and it always tasted like pure rot-gut. It wasn't until I met a 70-year-old Italian in Montreal's Little... Continue Reading →
"What did you do during the pandemic?" As an artist, the expected answer was that I had plenty of time to create new art. Or work on my film. I did neither. Instead, I made wine. Most will agree that 2020 was the year from hell for everyone except Jeff Bezos. Mine actually started... Continue Reading →
Even though we are still self-isolating, there is a certain adjustment to this COVID lifestyle thrust upon us by this coronavirus pandemic. It involves Beauty.
In ancient tribal cultures, “art” was created primarily for ceremonial purposes. A sculpture or vessel might be carved out of wood, and after years of participation in prayers over a smoking fire, and coming in contact with organic materials such as plant resin and animal fat, a deep ebony patina is achieved – not out... Continue Reading →
[Today's photo for Day 5 of the 365 Days Project is Serena Kovalosky working in her "outside" studio.] After spending 18 years in the corporate world, I traded power suits for paint-spattered jeans and stuffy board rooms for an airy artist's studio. This next reason why I love being an artist may have more to... Continue Reading →
[Today's featured artwork for Day 4 of the 365 Days Project is by Leslie Parke] Curiosity. This hallmark of the Artist Mind is the most entertaining - to me, anyway - although I do have to rein it in sometimes in certain social situations. #4 – The Artist Mind has the curiosity of a small... Continue Reading →
[Today's featured artwork for Day 3 of the 365 Days Project is by Kesha Bruce] Ditch the rules. I had plans, but I should have known. For this project, I had decided that I would write one affirmation per day as I arose each morning for the next 365 days. But every time one would... Continue Reading →
[Today's featured artwork for Day 2 of the 365 Days Project is by Serena Kovalosky] The sculptural piece pictured above is one of mine. It was a departure from my usual work, which made it a challenge to create and raised all sorts of doubts about my validity as an artist. What started off as... Continue Reading →
[Today's featured artwork for Day 1 of the 365 Days Project is by Rick Hunt] After I wrote yesterday’s post, I started doubting the validity and purpose of the “365 Days project. But when I woke up this morning and wrote down the first of what will be 365 affirmations, I felt profoundly connected to... Continue Reading →
I wasn’t going to make a New Year’s Resolution this year. Over the decades, I’ve already attempted the obvious ones – where I’ll lose weight, make my first million, find the love of my life, quit my day job, become an artist. (I did manage to achieve the last two, and the rest…..well, they’re still... Continue Reading →
Dining in my neck of the woods can be an adventure. Sure, there are extraordinary restaurants and delightful cafés scattered throughout back roads and rural villages of upstate New York and Vermont, but once the leaves fall off the trees and a brisk chill fills the air, an annual tradition draws people from miles around:... Continue Reading →
Man has been creating “art” long before the arrival of museums and galleries. Primitive art had a spiritual purpose rather than an intellectual or a commercial agenda and the best examples of this are the 20,000-year-old cave paintings in Lascaux, France which carry an ancient energy and a symbolism that still resonates in today’s computer-driven... Continue Reading →
I grew up on John Wayne movies and “spaghetti westerns,” where the Hollywood version of the relationship between American cowboys and Native Americans was more than slightly skewed. As a child, the game of “Cowboys and Indians” was a popular one in our neighborhood, with “cowboys” shooting their “guns” at the “Indians” who responded in... Continue Reading →
Léa Rivière is an extraordinary painter. When I had my studio in Montreal’s St-Henri district, Léa occupied the studio directly below mine. We became good friends almost immediately, sharing stories and philosophical views over late-night dinners. We rarely talked about our work specifically, our conversations tended to focus mostly on the business of art. It’s... Continue Reading →
Previous posts: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V 29 hours awake. Another full day of firekeeping ahead. The intermittent waves of sleepiness I had been experiencing have now turned into a constant struggle to keep my eyes open. Rick, on the other hand, isn’t showing any signs of fatigue as we... Continue Reading →
Previous posts: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV Our third night visitor arrives with a two-year-old in her arms. She’s a young mother, staying with her husband and son in one of the tents in the park. She settles by the fire with the child in her lap and I detect a slight... Continue Reading →
To read previous posts, click: Part I, Part II or Part III I recognize her from the Pow Wow. Our first night visitor arrives as Rick, Carolyn and I are sitting outside the fire circle, continuing our discussion on firekeeping and the teachings of The Old Ways. Rick had told me that people often... Continue Reading →
To read previous posts, click: Part I or Part II It is now daylight and the settlement is coming alive in preparation for the first day of the Pow Wow. Rick’s wife, Carolyn, emerges from their tent and we enjoy an early morning chai tea to wake us up and warm our bones. Carolyn is... Continue Reading →
To read the beginning of the story, click: Part I 4:30AM. It is still dark when I arrive at the pow wow site to meet firekeeper Rick Hunt for the dawn ceremony. Tents, tipis and campers are arranged in a large circle around the perimeter of the park and I walk quietly through the settlement... Continue Reading →
At the very edge of the Adirondack Mountains, the rural village of Whitehall, New York provides an extraordinary setting for an annual Intertribal Pow Wow. Native Americans from New England and beyond gather in the park by the canal and set up camp for a weekend of dancing, drumming, seeing old friends and meeting new... Continue Reading →
A Cheese for Truck Drivers It’s not about the cheese. Some time ago, I overheard a conversation in a Vermont country store about a special cheese that is produced – and sold – only in Vermont. A variety of excellent, locally-produced cheeses abound in the Green Mountain State, but this particular one caught my attention... Continue Reading →
