LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

Provincetown Art Guide turns twenty. It seems a miracle! I think of sleeping on the old, worn sofa of the printer’s client room awaiting the next color approval in the days when the Heidelberg presses rolled all night, and desperate, sleep-deprived attempts to open the door of the wrong hotel room as occupants yelled profanities from the other side.

But mostly I recall the wonderful interview with painter Sal Del Deo and his wife, writer and historian Josephine Del Deo, followed by homemade grappa and hearty toasts. I think of Haynes Ownby, son of a Texas oilman, who studied with Hans Hofmann. Haynes wandered through town in a pith helmet to avoid the sun and shared with me his love for Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast and the music of Fellini’s film composer Nino Rota. Dear Richard Pepitone, a man who voraciously embraced life and art and made the best chicken parmesan I’ve ever had. Ray Nolin, for a time my studio neighbor, who liked to knock on my door and hand me things, most often monoprints. Then there was charming Greek-born Nassos Daphnis, well-known geometric abstractionist who belonged to a generation of men who still wore suits every day. I heard music when I first saw his large canvases at an Art Association show. And I could never leave out kind and philosophical Tom Antonelli, whose love of simple things, like the stark beauty in the shapes and colors of beach stones, was so refreshing.

There are too many great artists to remember in these limited pages. So we humbly offer a small sample of the larger whole—described in personal detail by friends and family. These individuals, like many others who made art on the Outer Cape, are a reminder that there are remarkable lives being created all around us. And each living artist has the potential to leave a lasting legacy in this land of otherworldly light and innovative inspiration. My thanks to all those who have helped me keep this guide alive. -Patricia Zur, Publisher