The Artful Mind December / January 2020

PROMOTING THE ARTS IN THE BERKSHIRES SINCE 1994

THE ARTFUL MIND December / January 2020

VIRGINIA BRADLEY Photograph by Tasja Keetman

“In Time” presents a conundrum: in time for what? A woman sleeps under a looming dark shape. Is she safe or threatened?

At her feet stands a younger woman raising an umbrella against the brilliant sun.

They appear contained within a world they can only partially see and imperfectly control, suggesting danger. Is there time to wake up?

To change course or break free?

In Time, 30 x 22, watercolor and collage

CAROLYN NEWBERGER Artist and Writer www.carolynnewberger.com

• 617. 877. 5672

The Berkshire Edge: theberkshireedge.com for recent essays and music / dance criticism

ELEANOR LORD

VISIT ELEANOR’S WEBISTE TO SEE MORE WWW. ELEANORLORD.COM

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Anna Oliver

THE ARTFUL MIND ARTZINE DECEMBER /JANUARY 2020 Beautiful Dreams This issue is dedicated to the memory of Bill Hilton (William M).

KENT MIKALSEN SCULPTOR INTERVIEW BY H. CANDEE ... 8

VIRGINIA BRADLEY PHOTOGRAPHY BY TASJA KEETMAN INTERVIEW BY H. CANDEE ... 18

JODY LAMPRO A BERKSHIRE STATE-OF-MIND INTERVIEW BY H. CANDEE PHOTOGRAPHY BY SAM BACKHAUS... 26

RICHARD BRITELL “Shark + Fish,” 36” x 36”, oil on canvas

annaoliver@earthlink.net

JASON AND HIS GRANDMOTHER

CH

6. / FICTION ...29

PURPOSEFUL MEMOIR AS A PATH TO A THRIVING FUTURE JENNIFER BROWDY, PHD... 30

Contributing Writer: Richard Britell Photographers: Edward Acker, Sam Backhaus, Tasja Keetman Publisher Harryet Candee Copy Editor

Marguerite Bride

Final Eyeballer: Jeff Bynack

Advertising and Graphic Design

Harryet Candee

CALENDAR LISTINGS and ADVERTISING RATES, please call 413 - 854 - 4400

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2 • DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020 THE ARTFUL MIND

MARK MELLINGER

JANET PUMPHREY FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY

Grandma's House

Frozen

Collage and acrylic on canvas 24 x 30"

100 North St Pittsfield Painting - Collage - Construction 914. 260. 7413 markmellingerart.com markmellinger680@gmail.com

www.janetPumphrey.com JHPumphrey@gmail.com

Snow Dusting 2019 8 x 8” Mixed Media on wood Panel

Ghetta Hirsch The First Snow oil on canvas 28 x 22”

website: ghetta-hirsch.squarespace.com instagram: @ghettahirschpaintings Text or call for STUDIO visits: 413. 281. 0626 THE ARTFUL MIND DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020 • 3

WINTER 2020 CALENDAR OF EVENTS ART 510 WARREN STREET GALLERY 510 WARREN STREET, HUDSON, NY 518-822-0510 510warrenstreetgallery@gmail.com /510warrenstreetgallery.com Fri & Sat 12 - 6, Sun 12 - 5 or by app Dec 6 - Dec 27: Ian Clyde, Return to Zebes IAN CLYDE: "RETURN TO ZEBES" aMUSE GALLERY 7 RAILROAD AVE, CHATHAM, NY • 518-392-1060 / WWW.AMUSECHATHAM.COM Dec 5 - Jan 5: ARTsMART, Artists’ reception Dec 7, 47pm BERKSHIRE SCHOOL 245 N. UNERMOUNTAIN RD, SHEFFIELD, MA • 413-229-8511 berkshireschool.org Nov 1 - Dec 21: Redacted Elements: The Paintings of Charles Thomas O’Neil CALDWELL GALLERY HUDSON 355 WARREN ST, HUDSON, NY • 800-331-1278 Easton Pribble, thru Dec 31.

CLARK ART INSTITUTE 225 SOUTH ST, WILLIAMSTOWN, MA WWW.CLARKART.EDU NOV 16 - FEB 9, 2020: TRAVELS ON PAPER FRONT STREET GALLERY 129 FRONT ST, HOUSATONIC, MA • 413-274-6607 Kate Knapp oils and watercolors and classes open to all.

THE HOTCHKISS SCHOOl 11 INTERLAKEN RD., LAKEVILLE, CT • 860 435-2591 |http://www.hotchkiss.org Thru Jan 12: Flat File: Works on Paper by Cleve Gray MARGUERITE BRIDE MARGEBRIDE-PAINTINGS.COM

New small works at the weekend Hand-Made Holiday Festival at the Stationary Factory in Dalton on Dec 7-8.

MASS MoCA 1040 MASSMOCA WAY, NORTH ADAMS, MA • 413-662-2111 Members Opening Reception Ledelle Moe Saturday, December 14, 5:30–7pm NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM 9 MASSACHUSETTS 183, STOCKBRIDGE, MA • 413-298-4100 Jan 29, 1-4pm: David Macaulay - The Making of Crossing on Time:Steam Engines, Fast Ships, and a Journey to the New World SCHANTZ GALLERIES CONTEMPORARY GLASS 3 ELM STREET, STOCKBRIDGE, MA • 413-298-3044 / schantzgalleries.com Glass artists through the year on display

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THE ARTFUL MIND

SIMON’S ROCK 84 ALFORD RD, GT BARRINGTON MA • 413-644-6400 F-BOMB, thru Dec 18 THOMAS COLE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE 218 SPring st, Catskill, NY • 518-943-7465 Thru Dec 15: Shi Guorui: Ab/Sense-Pre/Sense: Contemporary art exhibit THREE STONES GALLERY 10C MAIN ST, ROCKPORT MA THREESTONESGALLERY.COM Ghetta Hirsch now showing her outstanding art along with Betsy Silverman, Jonathan MacAdam and Emily Passman, and Emily Rose Maultsby WILLIAMS COLLEGE MUSEUM OF ART 15 LAWRENCE HALL DR #2, WILLIAMSTOWN, MA • 413-597-2429 Sense and Suggestion, thru Jan 26, 2020; Candle (from Earth into a Black Hole), thru Dec 15; The invisable enemy should not exist, Room Z, Northeast palace of Nimrud, thru April 19

MUSIC CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC POST OFFICE BOX 34, GREAT BARRINGTON, MA 01230.

MAHAIWE BOX OFFICE: 413-528-0100; WWW.MAHAWIE.ORG. CEWM: 800-843-0778; WEB: WWW.CEWM.ORG, CEWM E-MAIL: CEWMUSIC@AOL.COM Dec 14: 6pm: Great Strings: The Borromeo Quartet DEWEY HALL SHEFFIELD, MA Dec 12, 7:30: Tony Trischka: A Winters Night, acoustic, Holiday season; Dec 14, 7pm: Swing Dance; Dec 21, 7pm: Light Out of Darkness: A Winter Soul-stice Concert; Dec 28, 8pm, 7:30 lesson prior: Sheffield Contra Dance, Music by Kestrel GATEWAYS INN & RESTAURANT 51 WALKER ST., LENOX, MA • 413-637-2532 Dec 13, 7:30-10:30pm: Jeannie Laurin & John Sauer

EVENTS CLARK ART INSTITUTE 225 SOUTH ST, WILLIAMSTOWN, MA WWW.CLARKART.EDU / BERKSHIRECC.EDU/BNHC Looking and Lunching: From Cairo to the Clark, Decc 19, 12-1pm; Travels on Paper, thru Feb 9.

WORKSHOPS DEB KOFFMAN’S ARTSPACE 137 FRONT ST, HOUSATONIC, MA • 413-274-1201 Sat: 10:30-12:45 class meets. No experience in drawing necessary, just a willingness to look deeply and watch your mind. This class is conducted in silence. Adult class. $10, please & call to register. First Tuesday of every month CHURCH ON THE HILL ANNEX 55 Main St., Lenox, Massachusetts CHURCH ON THE HILL ANNEX |HTTPS://WWW.JENNIFERBROWDY.COM/ | LENOX Dec 8 - Jan 26, 2-4pm: The Alchemy of Purposeful Memoir, Jennifer Browdy: Dec 28: Join veteran teacher and award-winning memoirist Jennifer Browdy for a deep dive into personal history, with a special focus on the theme of "Seeking Community."

FILM OLD CHATHAM QUAKER MEETINGHOUSE 539 COUNTY ROUTE 13, OLD CHATHAM, NEW YORK Dec 7, 6-9pm: The River and The Wall CLARK ART INSTITUTE 225 SOUTH ST, WILLIAMSTOWN, MA 413-458-2303 / WWW.CLARKART.EDU/ Dec 8, 1-2:30: The Magic Flute; Dec 11, 6-7:30pm: Art & Politics Film Series:Nightcleamers

THEATRE

HELSINKI HUDSON 405 COLUMBIA ST, HUDSON NY Sun Dec 22, 8pm: Everett Bradley; Sat Dec 28, 9pm: The Suitcase Junket Carsie Blanton; Tues Dec 31, 9pm: The Felice Brothers; Sat Jan 18, 9pm: Bindlestiff Family Cirkus

GHENT PLAYHOUSE 6 TOWN HALL PLACE, GHENT, NEW YORK Ghent Playhouse • 518-392-6264 / ghentplayhouse.org Jan 31-Feb 16, 2020: Ghent The Chalk Garden

SPENCERTOWN ACADEMY ARTS CENTER 790 STATE RTE. 203, SPENCERTOWN, NEW YORK SPENCERTOWN ACADEMY ARTS CENTER |(518) 392-3693 |HTTP://SPENCERTOWNACADEMY.ORG | SPENCERTOWN December 14, 8-10pm: Geoff Muldaur

SHAKESPEARE & COMPANY 70 KEMBLE ST., LENOX, MASSACHUSETTS • 413-637-1199 shakespeare.org Dec 14 - Dec 15: Sense and Sensibility

THE MAHAIWE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER 14 CASTLE ST, GREAT BARRINGTON, MA • 413-528-0100 Dec 22, 1pm: Bolshoi Ballet in HD: The Nutcracker; Jan 11, 11:30am: Scott Eyerly’s Pre-Broadcast Opera Lecture: Berg Wozzeck; Jan 11, 1pm: Met Opera Live in HD: Berg’s Wozzeck; Jan 26, 1pm: Bolshoi Ballet in HD, Giselle;

Please send in your calendar listing the 10th of the month prior to publication artfulmind@yahoo.com

ISSUU.COM

THE ARTFUL MIND DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020 • 5

BLUE BIRCHES, 44” X 56” OIL ON CANVAS

KAREN LESAGE EXHIBIT IN MILLERTON, N Y KarenLeSage describes her work and life as “a dance between the seen and unseen.” Her paintings are currently on exhibit in Millerton, NY at Hendrick and Co., the historic former Saperstein’s building at 41 Main Street. The show runs from December 6- January 26, with a pubic reception on Saturday, December 7 from 4:00-6:00.

This exhibit continues her signature style of large, atmospheric, nature-based canvases, which sell out shows (including her July 2019 exhibit at Ober Gallery in Kent, CT), have been featured in national publications and are collected internationally. She was represented by Sanford Smith Fine Art on Railroad Street in Great Barrington for many years where she garnered an enthusiastic following in the Berkshires. The exhibit also features a collection of painted-prints-on-canvas of her Supermoon series.

Based in Lakeville, CT, she studied at Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, lived in New York City for a decade, eventually moving to Litchfield County, CT in 2004.

Hendrick & Co. 41 Main Street, Millerton NY. Hours Fri, Sat, Sun 11-5 or by appointment karen@karenlesage.com More info: www.karenlesage.com

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THE ARTFUL MIND

JAANE DOE Jaane Doe announces the release of her new music single PAWNS...

The embryonic journey for this musical creation began in the Fall of 2017 and has now come to fruition! The theme of the piece is metamorphosis, transcendence and success through positive energy and hard work.

As chess players know, the PAWN can become a Queen if the strategy of the game is just right. This anthemic song begins with a beautiful piano prelude and builds into a compelling musical statement in the Folk Rock Genre. Written and produced by Jaane Doe, this is her first official release since BURNS LIKE FIRE in 2007.

“The work of an artist, whether visual or musical is a snapshot of where they are in time, and shares the perception of what is inside, and their vision of the world around them.” their vision of the world around them.”

Accompanying the music single is an enchanting music video captured in celluloid right here in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts currently being screened at various locations in the Tri-State area. Most recent showings have been August 4th, at the Historic Round Lake Auditorium in Round Lake NY and a also a screening event on Sunday, October 27 at Berkshire South Regional Community Center in Great Barrington. from 2 - 4 pm Free to the public.

Jaane Doe - for more information, and updates visit: www.jaanedoe.com, www.facebook.com/JaaneDoeMusic, https//issuu.com/theartfulmindartzine/docs/artful_mind_august_2019.

To hear the new music single: https://music.apple.com/gb/album/pawnssingle/1470816179 Or www.jaanedoe.hearnow.com To hear the Album BURNS LIKE FIRE: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/jaane

DESIGNS BY JENNIFER Awarded Best Of Houzz 2019 Designs by Jennifer Owen of Great Barrington, MA has won “Best Of Service Award” on Houzz®, the leading platform for home renovation and design. The boutique interior design studio was chosen by the more than 40 million monthly unique users that comprise the Houzz community from among more than 2.1 million active home building, remodeling and design industry professionals.

Congrats!

Recognized as a fabric guru with an eye for color, Jennifer has achieved accolades for her unique sense of style and vision. She has been featured on the cover of House to Home, Lifestyle Magazine of Fairfield County, featuring a home in Westport; East Coast Home Design Magazine; Shippan Designer Show House, (benefiting Stamford Museum and Nature Center); Weston Designer Show House benefiting Connecticut Humane Society. They feature her definitive style of design, transforming spaces to uplifting, functional environments, “simple elegance” at its best!

A native of the West Midlands England, Jennifer grew up with a mother who was a passionate knitter and a talented seamstress, with a love to decorate and a relish for fabrics and yarns. This led to many inspiring visits with her to the fabric market.

Hence Jennifer’s passion!

Her client base extends to Fairfield County, CT, Westchester County, New York City, Long Island, and Berkshire County. Jennifer has a showroom and office based on Railroad Street in Great Barrington, MA. Jennifer is a member of IDS (Interior Design Society), with extensive training in interior design, IDPC (Interior Design Protection Council), member of Better Business Bureau, Metropolitan Museum, NYC, Museum of Natural History, NYC, Museum of Modern Art, NYC, member of Berkshire Chamber of Commerce, member of Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, and a member of A Women’s Creation Circle in Berkshire County.

Designs by Jennifer, LLC - 6 Railroad Street, STE 17, Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Office: 413-528-5200; Cell: 203-253-3647; www.designsbyjenniferowen.com

THE ARTFUL MIND DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020 • 7

KENT MIKALSEN SCULPTOR Interview by Harryet Candee Seems like you have done a flip-flop over the past 15 years by going from sculpture to painting, then back to sculpture. How has it all transpired for you in that way? It wasn’t all by your choosing that this journey took place, correct?

Kent Mikalsen: For years I had a sculpture studio in a mill building in North Adams. I was making large scale, carved, abstract wood sculptures in a ‘minimalist’ style. It was an excellent place to work, qui-et, high ceilings, great light. Around fifteen years ago I had to vacate that space, ironically to accommodate new artists lofts. Having no prospects for another studio I closed up and put my tools and sculptures in storage. After an initial period of anger and despair about having my studio removed from my life I realized I had an opportunity to free myself from the tyranny and gravity of heavy stuff to explore the two dimensional world of painting. I had painted some in the past, but now I was committed 8 • DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020 THE ARTFUL MIND

to learning as much as I could about painting techniques and materials. The prospect of rapidly moving through different ideas was exciting to me and the lure of color was irresistible. So that is what I did. I greedily explored ideas, methods and materials, creating series after series of works in watercolour, pastels, graphite and acrylics. This ended a year ago when my studio in Pittsfield was closed and I, along with 20 other artists, found myself on the street. That’s when I decided it was time for me to make my way back to creating sculpture.

I find it so interesting how artists have the instinct to explore art in order to find out answers to life, existence, nature, and like you, the interest in what scientists, mystics and other artists think about physical existence. How has this become your focal point?

Kent: There is a very strong, and perhaps unac-

knowledged, connection between what artists, mystics and scientists do. They ask the questions we all want answers to. Who am I? Why am I here? What is the true nature of reality? Scientists work in a linear manner with logic, experiments and facts, while the artists’ approach is global, intuitive and receptive. Mystics employ both approaches to transcend physical reality by studying their own body, mind and consciousness. Whether aware or not we are all looking for the answers to these questions in our own way. For me as an artist, creating something that hasn’t existed before and being present in that process, seems to be the key to my eventual understanding of my purpose. For some it is gardening or child rearing or mathematics or fishing….. same.

Looking at your pastel series (2015), River, Ocean, Garden and Cosmos, what in particular has led you to creating this body of work? They

Kent Mikalsen: Digital Rendering and Installation Proposal

are all very beautiful with an Asian “splash” and rich color. Pastels are great fun and challenging.

Kent: My sketchbooks are filled with hundreds of spontaneous visual thoughts and these series of pastels are a collection of mostly unrelated sketches that I wanted to see in color. I spend a lot of time in the company of rivers and streams and in the woods here in our beautiful Berkshires. I observe the shape of water as it moves over rocks and the stream bed, I find the way things grow, flowers, trees, buds in the spring are particularly interesting. The sounds, smell and feel of the ocean is a fine sensory experience and the wheeling of galaxies defines ‘vastness’. All these things interest me and are resources for my art.

What were some of the thoughts that crossed your mind on reality as you created this series?

Kent: I would prefer to be totally without thought when I am working and just be present watching the work unfold. However, I am seldom totally thought free, so the best thing I can do is to allow the thoughts to pass through without sticking while another part of me creates the paint-ing, drawing, etc. Rather than focusing on thought, I focus on direct experience in the moment. I am not exactly a leaf falling into a bottomless thought free void when I am working, but it still is an amazing experience.

Do you think that viewers would easily pick up on your thoughts with their time spent taking in

your art? Is it at all obvious?

Kent: I sincerely hope not. To me art is meant to inspire us to go deeper into ourselves and uncover the depth of our own being. Observing art is not a second hand experience. Knowing the artist and what motivates him/her is helpful and meaningful, but in the end it is our own personal experience and understanding that counts.

What excites you about going back into the sculptural realm? And how will the original focus and theme develop? Will you steer it or will it steer you?

Kent: I am thrilled with the prospect of turning Continued on next page...

THE ARTFUL MIND DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020 • 9

Kent Mikalsen: Prototype- 1/2 Size Prototype and Process images

some of the ideas and drawings I have been creating over the last ten months into physical form. I am happy to be back with new ideas, and making sculpture again. Since January I have been laying the foundation for making large scale sculpture in the public realm. I am almost ready to launch this adventure and believe I have a solid business plan.

Still, I am not forgetting the adage “Man plans, God laughs”. Life pushes me around like a cloud in the wind, although sometimes I think I do, but I do not “steer it”. Unexpectedly, the struggle and suffering comes along with joy and wonder. It is a wild unpredictable ride. I try to do what I think I am supposed to do in this life and treat people with kindness and respect along the way, (if imperfectly, and sometimes badly).

Your sense of confidence clearly shows through your works of art, and they are beautiful. Your learning, education and experiencing life firsthand in the art world must have a big influence in todays work that you make, is that true? How has your formal education and other careers you’ve had help to benefit your art making?

Kent: The given is that everything we have done in our lives benefits what we next create. I have an MFA in sculpture with a minor in design, for years I taught architecture, art and design as an assistant professor in colleges and universities, while in NYC I created renderings for international architecture 10 • DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020 THE ARTFUL MIND

and design firms, I designed cities of the future for feature films, worked as supervising art director for an elite animation company and created concept art and models for theme parks. I met and worked with some extraordinary talented people creating extraordinary projects. What sticks with me most is not necessarily the scope of these creative endeavours or the skills I picked up along the way, but the dedication, cooperation and willingness to learn of the talented people I worked with. That is what benefits me most in my art making.

skill set. However, my ideal gallery would be a lot like a museum it that it would have both large and intimate spaces, 12’+ ceilings, high windows that allow natural light and a garden or open space to accomodate large sculpture. A gallery also needs to have adequate storage space and a private space to meet with buyers and artists. Wearing my designer hat I am thinking of many other essential details regarding space planning, so Harryet, let’s talk when you are ready to expand into your new galleries in Chelsea, Shanghai, Sydney, London and Madrid.

You spend a lot of your time at MassMoca, an amazing museum set out for showing many famous and not so famous artists, installations, studio spaces, theatre and performance as well as shops and restaurants and a park. You have a particular interest at MassMoca, so, what’s going on there for you?

Kent: I was working as the art director for KleiserWalczak and our studio was on the Mass MoCA campus in its early years. I made many friends and connections while there and remain an enthusiastic supporter. It is a fabulous place and we are fortunate to have it in our back yard.

Now you are working on sculptural pieces that are large scale, more complex than previous work, organic in style and of vibrant colors and durable polymers. How does it feel to move from the 2 D and preliminary sketches to physically intense three dimensional art?

Kent: Painting is etherial and poetic and I plan to continue with it. Sculpture is physical and real to me. I like creating a plan, a sketch, or technical drawing and translating it into three-dimensional form. It is like carpentry or plumbing because it comes with the satisfaction of making something that is concrete. I like being sweaty and dirty in the service of work well done. I like working with good tools that are appropriate for their function and using them to solve problems in space and form. I feel a respect and commonality with people who work in the trades. The sweat and the dirt are the

Did you ever want to have your own gallery?

How would you design it so that would make it your ideal setting?

Kent: Never had a desire to own a gallery. Not my

same, the main difference is functionality, their skills are useful while sculpture, although wonderful and inspiring, is not.

Can you explain to us some of the steps involved that it takes to make one of the sculptures, so that we do not underestimate the work involved, the work viewers rarely get to see.

Kent: Sure, but remember, although I might create smaller works for private clients, these new sculptures are large, expensive and site specific, so part of the process is first landing a commission. This involves studying the site for the new work and creating a design for a new sculpture that is perfect for it.

Once submitted I go through a selection process involving a committee whose members might include other artists, architects, municipal officers and members of a local arts commission. Finalists are then selected to present their ideas through models, illustrations and technical drawings. If selected I carve a full size core out of high density foam. When the carving is completed it is coated with a durable polymer surface and then painted with a primer, then auto lacquer and a UV protecting varnish. At some point during this process a structural steel skeleton is inserted with mounting brackets that are attached to the architecture during installation. Depending on the scale of the work I might rely on professional fabricators for some of the construction and installation.

Though open studios are quite popular now, would you be interested in being watched as you work?

Kent: I like having people in my studio, but not while I am working. To me making art is a personal and intimate process that requires focus and the space to access a part of myself that is deeper and more subtle than in my ordinary life.

Going from the gallery scene to the open studio is a good thing for our community for many reasons, such as the intimacy of getting to know the artist. It gives the Art experience greater depth and forms strong relationships. In your travels and experience, would you say this not just a trend, but a new way and option for artists to show work? Taking the middle man out of the equation has its pluses and minuses, you agree?

Kent: OK, yes and no on that. Opening studios to the public is great, and it makes a difference if a collector has a personal relationship with an artist. Although there is a growing preference for artists and collectors to deal directly with one another, galleries are still very relevant. Websites and social media marketing campaigns are becoming a more popular means of selling art and they give the artist more control over his/her career. Things are changing in

Kent Mikalsen: Digital Rendering and Installation Proposal

the very traditional gallery world and many galleries are becoming more enlightened about online sales, some even allow artists to access their client lists and to deal directly with them.

So right. Today’s art and fitting into the scene can be perplexing and challenging because of the internet. Much has changed. Artists will always have their art, but will they be competing more so and will the better artists not rise fairly then?

Kent: The internet has definitely made things more complicated, but it has enormously expanded opportunities for artists. I prefer not thinking of artists competing for opportunities, there are plenty of opportunities. It is more a matter of finding the ones that align with the work you produce. I try not to judge the work of other artists except to evaluate what they have done that I can learn from. Besides, every artist regardless of skill level, is having the same profound internal experience that Monet had

creating his water lilies. As an art educator my job was to teach skills and encourage enthusiasm for learning. How a student used those skills to express his/her internal life was and is beyond my ability to assess. Grading was mostly about evaluating a students dedication and enthusiasm. In a long run that is what will determine success.

Are you computer savvy and how much time do you need to get the marketing and promoting done for your work? You have a design background, that must come in handy for some things like web design?

Kent: I have a strong working knowledge with certain areas of Photoshop. It is a broad and deep program and I use those parts of it that apply to my work. Building a portfolio-type website is pretty easy these days, but it is necessary for me to have a web person who gets under the hood when I need Continued on next page...

THE ARTFUL MIND DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020 • 11

My mother was a refined educated woman from an aristocratic Florentine family, my father was a rough merchant seaman from Norway who received his education from the ocean and from the seaports around the world. How they got together is a great story for another time. My brother and I grew up playing organized baseball together until we were nineteen, sports and art were a big part of my childhood. We both took vocational drafting in high school and that knowledge has served us both later in our careers. He became an Urban and regional planner and I bounced around in art, architecture, education and design.

Was classical music always playing in the background? Did you learn to play a musical instrument? Tell us about other creative studies you have been engaged with from childhood to now.

Kent: Playing music with other musicians has to be an incredible joy. I tried to learn to play the guitar, but had to let it go as art making was a higher priority. Choices. The sound track for my life growing up was rock and roll, especially the kind that you could dance to. These days jazz is the most compelling. It has the intelligence and spontaneity that I associate with creating abstract art, especially painting. The most significant creative influence to my art, and life, has been my yoga and meditation practice. I see things more clearly and have and have a deeper awareness of the beauty I see around me. I am most grateful for this gift and hope my art is a true expression of that gratitude.

Kent Mikalsen: Earlier Sculpture- “There are Fires, There is Laughter”, Maple and Cottonwood, 108 X 72 X60”, 2001

technical help. Marketing and promoting go way beyond just having a web-site. For artists it is important to connect with people and be generous with your time. They want to know who you are and why you have chosen to spend so much of your life doing what you do. They want to know about the person behind that painting that brings so much beauty and inspiration to their lives. It is not just marketing, it is about living a full and productive life. As artists we need to get out there and participate in the human experience as much as possible, we are all in this together.

Going back to your studio time, tell us what completely excites and exhilarates you?

Kent: Opening the door to my studio and walking in with an idea that wants to be realized.

12 • DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020 THE ARTFUL MIND

Do you ever bring into play childhood memories in your art? Anything from the past?

Kent: In a sense everything from my past is right there when I am working. However, the forms I work with are mostly abstract rather than narrative so I don’t reference representational imagery. It is a more spontaneous process that I watch, rather than consciously initiate.

Where did you grow up?

Kent: I was born in NYC, moved to Florida when I was twelve, Four years after graduate school I moved to Pennsylvania and lived in an ashram for ten years, then I moved back to NYC lived in the Chelsea Hotel on 23rd Street for a few years, then moved to the Berkshires in 1993. I have been here ever since.

Of all your commercial art and design work, what has taken you mentally ‘off to another realm’? Cartoon illustration may be one, possibly because your using one tool, graphite, pencil, and its not so demanding, and allows the imagination to be more fluid. Perhaps.

Thoughts?

Kent: You are absolutely right about graphite and the pencil being the tool that most immediately connects the hand to the heart and the imagination. For me a sketchbook and an HB pencil are always nearby. I have dozens of sketchbooks in my closet that are filled with drawings and I often refer to them. Drawing is an essential skill for initiating, developing, recording and presenting ideas. It is a visual language that complements and expands our written/spoken language. I believe drawing is for everyone regardless of one’s perceived level of talent.

I wrote and taught a course for non-artists called “Drawing as a Second Language”. It explores the many drawing techniques that can be used in ordinary life to magnify our communication skills. I also created a similar course for design professionals.

Some day perhaps, a book.

Wondering, how do you generally work with and decide upon when it comes to either all black and white or all color for one piece of art you are to create? Must you work in color? Or even if it is considered black and white, there are a million colors you are still having to deal with?

Kent: A conversation about color and light can be approached from many directions scientific, psychological, aesthetic, emotional even practical. For me as an artist color and form are the most important means of expressing my inner life through art. Color

Kent Mikalsen: Digital model

especially affects my being in ways that are beyond my ability to understand or adequately express verbally. In science the relationship of color and light have been quantified through re-search and countless studies. One example is how color can identify the makeup of distant stars through spectography or or consider how color can alter psychological states.

This is also true about the relationship of form (mass) and energy. Consider the quandary physicists ponder about the nature of physical reality when the substance of matter changes from particles to waves on a molecular level. Throughout history there is a very interesting connection between art and science regarding the relationship of light to color and matter to form. Both of these subjects lead to questions about the substance of physical reality. Regarding light, consider Monet’s paintings or James Turrell’s light structures currently at Mass MoCA. Regarding mass, even now the nature of gravity has not revealed itself to scientists while artists such as the Cubists have been fracturing the spatial planes that define physical form and artists like Alexander Calder have been denying gravity as an accepted reality.

Back to your question about how I decide about choosing black and white or color for a project I am working on. This gets to the heart of a problem I am

presently dealing with. Years ago when I was creating those large wood sculptures there was really only one color, wood, the emphasis was entirely on form. The addition of color could easily break up those beautiful simple forms, so I was OK with leaving color out of the equation. Now I am wanting to introduce color to my sculptures without visually breaking up these more complex shapes. It is very challenging to derive that perfect balance. An interesting adventure awaits.

What plans do you now have in terms of where you will exhibiting your art? Will you be looking for venues for all your work, or just your latest sculpture?

Kent: I will be competing for commissions for my large works in the public sector and seeking private commissions for my smaller works through traditional channels such as galleries. Although I am presently focused on three dimensional work I will continue developing my online presence to sell my paintings and prints. If you are interested in seeing more of my paintings, sculptures and drawings you can visit my Art website; www.kentmikalsen.com If you are interested in seeing examples of my work in architecture, film, animation and entertainment

design visit my Design website: www.kentmikalsenstudio.com I am available via Email: www.kentmikalsen@gmail.com Final question. What does it mean to be an artist today?

Kent: Same as its always been, art is a means to explore and evolve as a human being. And for me it is a way to express joy and gratitude for the opportunity to live on this challenging and beautiful planet.

Thank you, Kent!

Kent Mikalsen kentmikalsen@gmail.com kentmikalsen.com M

THE ARTFUL MIND DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020 • 13

WINTER BRIGHT, OIL ON COLD WAX RENDITION, 10 X 10”

GHETTA HIRSCH CHAIRS, PASTEL ON CARDBOARD, 4 X 5” AND 3 X 5”

MARK MELLINGER I live in two separate worlds. One verbal and one visual. What they have in common is an attitude of pushing into the unknown; of allowing unconscious elements to take form within consciousness. I couldn’t live without both.

Art came first, but after a while I began to feel self-indulgent and isolated. I wanted to address problems of mans’ impact on the environment. I went through careers in art, photography, carpentry, ecology and microbiology before landing in psychology at 30. 10 years ago, when we found a loft in Pittsfield, I returned to my first love, art. It’s not like riding a bicycle. I had to start from scratch. I feel I’m just now catching up to where I left off 50 years ago.

I’m not satisfied with a piece for a long time. I’ll put it away and work on something else. I’ll look at it upside down and in a mirror, trying to get a handle on what’s wrong. It’s a very solitary meditation. I might gesso over everything except some small bits that are working; then start over from those. The viewer completes the process. It’s a collaboration.

It’s a thrill when someone “gets” a piece, but I’m OK when they don’t. The connection with the viewer should be as rare and special as marriage. www.markmellingerart.com markmellinger680@gmail.com

I have returned to our Berkshires and witnessed early the first snow of November. After the beach scenes I have been painting in Europe, I marvel at the complexity of our surrounding landscapes.

Each morning the view is different as it is influenced not only by the light but by the changing temperature and its effect on nature. Atlantic beaches in comparison are similar in vegetation and the temperate climate does not influence color and texture the same way. I love the richer painting challenges in New England.

Here is “Winter Bright”, a 10”X10” oil and cold wax rendition of our mountains. The atmospheric veil surrounding Greylock adds mystery and vibrating tones to the painting and accentuate the perception of a colder morning.

Enjoy and visit my webpage or my studio to view more of my work. I continue to exhibit at The Front Street Gallery in Housatonic and Three Stones Gallery in Concord and Rockport MA. I will also open my studio for painting demonstrations at 11 and 1pm on November 30th to raise money for The Berkshires Immigrant Center. Please come!

Ghetta Hirsch - ghetta-hirsch.squarespace.com, Ghettagh@aol.com, (413) 884-6049 or (413) 281-0626, Instagram @ghettahirschpaintings

“There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into sun.”

—Pablo Picasso

14 •THE ARFUL MIND DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020

PHOTOGRAPH BY CLAUDIA d’ALESSANDRO

CLAUDIA d’ALESSANDRO Truly the season of fire and ice, winter has descended on the Berkshires. The russet, ochre and red of autumn have been replaced by winter's blue, brown, and gold, crowned with white, as the lush Berkshire flora sleeps beneath our feet.

Winter reminds us of an endless life circle: challenging us to endure long nights and tantalizing us with cool sun, while changing by the moment at any given time. It is with great joy that I try to catch and preserve as many of those moments as I can, through my lens.

Like John Burroughs, “I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.” Through my lens, I can capture moments otherwise gone in an instant -- in prints on canvas, aluminum and photo paper -- and keep close the scenes of the beauty and mystery that exist all around.

The Berkshires provides a changing, moving and exciting palette with a seasonal and topographical backdrop that has made this region a destination for generations of people seeking a beautiful place just to 'be.'

Since 1965 I have been a 'been, gone, and now back' resident here (back completely since 1993) and I have come to realize that there is no place that I would rather be. In hills and streams, lakes and brooks, valleys and woods, and from the tops of our mountains, there is everything I need to soothe my spirits and enliven my soul. And there is little that I enjoy as much as catching a tiny bit of that beauty and preserving it for all to see.

To order prints, calendars, or to enquire about pricing, including special pricing for Artful Mind Readers, email me.

Cheers to us all for a peaceful and healthful winter.

Claudia Dalessandro – Email: cdalessandro26@gmail.com; website: https://www.dalessandrophotography.com; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cdalessandrophotography/and on Instagram: dalessandronatura

JENNIFER PAZIENZA

GNARLED TREE, PHOTOGRAPH EYE OF THE TIGER, 23 X18”

CAROLYN NEWBERGER

SNOW ON SNOW, PHOTOGRAPH

JANET PUMPHREY WWW.JANETPUMPHREY.COM Janet Pumphrey began her photography explorations after college with a dark room in her closet and a short-lived plan to sell photographs from a kiosk in the French Quarter in New Orleans. For the next thirty years, she continued to photograph as she practiced law and raised her two daughters in Lenox, Massachusetts. Her hobby became serious with her first digital camera and first early version of Photoshop in 2004. Her photographs have been shown at The Artful Mind Gallery in Lenox, L’Atelier Berkshires in Great Barrington, the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Sohn Fine Arts in Lenox, the St. Francis Gallery in Lee, and other galleries and venues.

Pumphrey has studied with such esteemed photographers as Fran Forman (Photoshop), Valda Bailey (in-camera multiple exposure), Sebastian Michaels (Photoshop), Hazel Meredith (textures and overlays), and Mollie Isaacs.

Pumphrey photographs have been published in the British Nikon publication, Nphoto, The Artful Mind, the New York Times, and the Berkshire Eagle. Many of her photographs appear in the book Come Photograph: the Berkshires.

While photography is a representational medium, Pumphrey moves beyond the inherent realism in traditional photography to see the world in a new and more creative way. She appreciates the ability to manipulate photographs through the artistic imagery available both in-camera and post-processing, turning what was a realistic photograph into a creative, often abstract work of art. Her favorite subjects have always been people, street photography, cityscapes, and landscapes.

A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College with a doctorate in clinical and developmental psychology from Harvard University, Carolyn Newberger is an artist, child psychologist, writer and musician (flute and jazz washboard). Her deep concerns for people and their lives drive her work. Her drawings, paintings and collage have achieved recognition and awards in juried and solo exhibitions.

As a psychologist, Carolyn developed an influential theory of parental consciousness that continues to frame family studies and efforts to prevent child abuse. Her research and teaching at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital, and her ability clearly and soundly to address such subjects as parental discipline, sexual abuse, and domestic violence, attract respect and notice by clinicians and media alike. Called often as an expert on television news, she appeared twice on the Oprah Winfrey show and has published widely in both the scientific and popular press.

Now residing in Lenox, Massachusetts, Carolyn is a trustee of Eighteen Degrees (formerly Berkshire Children and Families), the major social service agency in Western Massachusetts, where she helped found an El Sistema-inspired program of social justice through music for children in underserved neighborhoods. Additionally, she writes and illustrates essays and music and dance reviews for The Berkshire Edge, an online newspaper of arts and ideas in Western Massachusetts and is currently working on a book about her discoveries in the forest with her small dog, Lily.

Carolyn’s artwork has received numerous awards, including Watercolor Artist Magazine, the Danforth Museum of Art, the Cambridge Art Association, and the New England Watercolor Society.

She has widely exhibited in solo and group shows in New England and beyond. A signature member of the New England Watercolor Society, her work is represented by Galatea Fine Art in Boston, MA and the Artful Mind Gallery in the Berkshires. To see more of her work as well as professional and personal publications please visit her website.

Carolyn Newberger - www.carolynnewberger.com.

New Brunswick artist Jennifer Pazienza released a new series of 27 small oil paintings on stretched canvas sized 8 x 8 inches that celebrate her 27 years of painting on Keswick Ridge. Seen in their entirety, 24 x 72 inches, 27 Squares echoes the extreme horizontal format of her early days of painting on the Ridge. The grid hints at her Sicilian heritage and past tile work. The individual squares signal her present painting practice and foreshadow what is to come in her November through December 2020 solo show, Embracing the Square: Love Poems from the Ridge at Moncton’s historic Capitol Theatre Art Gallery.

“For as long as I can remember the stuff of the natural world has been my go-to place for personal and artistic refuge, reflection and renewal. Especially on Keswick Ridge, as the end of one year gives way to the next.” Now open to all, in the weeks before the release, subscribers to her Art Studio Newsletter previewed the new work on a private, password access only webpage designed by the artist at www.jenniferpazienza.com, 27 Squares.

27 Squares were seen live Sunday December 1, between 12 and 5pm during Jennifer’s inaugural seasonal celebration and sale at her Keswick Ridge, New Brunswick studio along with a select group of other small, medium and large paintings. Child and dog friendly, the artist served homemade biscotti and hot apple cider.

Jennifer Pazienza is a Keswick Ridge, New Brunswick artist with over 40 years of experience making art, 30 of them in Canada. She is known for her largescale lyrical oil paintings made from her home studio on Keswick Ridge, where she lives with her husband and their dog Mela. Jennifer has exhibited in Canada, the US, and Italy. Her work is held in Public and Corporate Collections in Canada and in numerous private collections throughout the US, Canada, the UK and Italy. Since 2014, she has exhibited her work in the Berkshires and has been a regular contributor to The Artful Mind. To learn more about her paintings, or for inquiries please email the artist.

Jennifer Pazienza - jennpazienza@gmail.com; website: http://jenniferpazienza.com/ and Instagram: @jenniferpazienza; artist video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb9WOTpLfI 4

“Art reaches its greatest peak when devoid of self-consciousness.

Freedom discovers man the moment he loses concern over what impression he is making or about to make.” ~Bruce Lee

THE ARTFUL MIND DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020 • 15

ELIXIR

MEANING IN THE FOREST 2 BY BRUCE PANOCK

aMUSE GALLERY ARTSMART Seasons Greetings! December 5, 2019 through January 5, 2020, aMuse Gallery will be presenting their annual holiday show, ARTsMART, featuring the work of 30 talented local artists. Please join us for a festive artist reception on Saturday December 7, from 4-7pm.

In the spirit of the holidays, the artists are offering their work at special prices and all items will be immediately available upon purchase. Given the wide range of subject matter and varying styles in this show, there will be something of interest for everyone ...including fine art, wearable art and unusual objects d’art. Whether you are just interested in meeting the artists and viewing their wonderful work...or if you are looking for unique artful holiday gift ideas at reasonable prices, be sure to stop by and join the celebration!

Participating artists include Stephanie Anderson, Carl Berg, Michael Bufi, Harryet Candee, Danica Cantrell, Mollie Dash, Mary Anne Davis, Peter Dellert, Elizabeth DiPalma, Jerry Freedner, Pat Frik, Karen Hummel, Kathryn Kosto, Laurie Miles, Wendy Nooney, Bruce Panock, Janice Patterson, Rick Patterson, Rene Samuels, Jody Schoenfeld, Charles Schweigert, Robin Schmitt, Gerald Seligman, Kate Stigdon, Maurine Sutter, Bettina Van De Water, Neal Warshaw, Ellie Waxman and Joanne Yeaton. aMuse Gallery will be taking a winter break following the ARTsMART exhibition and will reopen in early spring. Exact dates will be posted on the website. aMuse Gallery - 7 Railroad Avenue, Chatham, New York; 518-392-1060. Hours: Thursday thru Saturday 11-5 and Sunday 12-4 (Also open December 23 and December 24).

Email: amusechatham@gmail.com; Website: https://www.amusechatham.com

RED LION INN AT CHRISTMAS, WATERCOLOR

MARGUERITE BRIDE ORIGINAL WATERCOLORS Marguerite Bride will be exhibiting new small works at the weekend Hand-Made Holiday Festival at the Stationary Factory in Dalton on Dec 78. Painting small and fast has not been one of Bride’s characteristics; she is usually slow, deliberate and very detailed. This new venture has resulted in many looser and fun paintings. Most are matted to 11x14 and are very reasonably priced for the holidays.

Where else can you catch Bride’s work? A new selection of small matted originals (village scenes – all seasons), cards and fine art reproductions are available in the gift shop at Hancock Shaker Village.

Also, LOCAL, a lovely high-end craft and art gallery in Lenox (across from Chocolate Springs) carries framed originals, and matted reproductions and cards by the artist. Fine art repros and note cards of Berkshire images and others by the artist are also available at the Red Lion Inn Gift Shop (Stockbridge), Lenox Print & Mercantile (Lenox), and also directly from the artist.

Are you thinking of an “artful” gift for that special someone for the holidays? A gift certificate for a commissioned painting is always delightful… especially when the recipient gets to work directly with the artist. Most popular…siblings getting together and providing their parents with a house portrait. That is always a treasured gift and fun as well.

Small group lessons in watercolor technique will resume in January. Email the artist for more information. Limited openings.

Marguerite Bride – 413-841-1659 or 413-4427718; margebride-paintings.com; margebride@aol.com; Facebook: Marguerite Bride Watercolors.

”Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution.

Give us what you’ve got.” ~Steven Pressfield

16 •THE ARFUL MIND DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020

It is mid-November as I write this for the December/January issue of The Artful Mind. The snow falling down all day has provided the perfect backdrop for anticipating the winter months. Just a reminder that ELIXIR will be open for the Holiday Stroll in Great Barrington December 14 until 8pm.

Enjoy a complimentary tea with your order.

ELIXIR is excited to announce some of our upcoming offerings: In January we will begin again our Sunday Afternoon Salon Series. Join us for a delicious afternoon teatime meal followed by an inspirational presentation by some of the most interesting people in our community speaking on topics such as holistic health, climate change, journaling, writing, local nature & lore, music, art, poetry, spirituality, literature.

We will also be offering our Silent Zen Mindfulness Meal Mondays & Fridays 8 - 8:45am. Unless we visit a monastery or an ashram, we rarely have the opportunity to sit communally in silent, mindful, reverence & reflection over a consciously prepared meal.

A perfect way to start and end the week.

The intuitive recognition of the instant, thus reality, is the highest act of wisdom… TD Suzuki We will launch our CSPF (Community Supported Prepared Foods) program as well. Purchase a season’s share, receive a list of offered foods, email us your order Monday for pick up Friday. Have delicious organic foods on hand when you are too busy to cook and/or to serve your weekend guests. We are also happy to make special orders for you, including birthday cakes :) Make a reservation for your Private Dinner or Afternoon Tea Party here at ELIXIR. We will help you plan your event and menu for a minimum of 6 and up to 20 guests. Think of us for birthdays, showers, anniversaries, graduations or any other intimate gathering.

We are always offering our 21 Day Restorative Cleanse - the next one will begin January 6. Are you ready for transformation? Call for your consultation and to reserve your space.

Our regular hours are Friday, Saturday, Sunday, & Monday 10am - 4pm. Serving: mid-morning tea menu 10am - 12pm; luncheon menu noon - 2pm; afternoon teatime menu 2pm - 4pm. Sundays enjoy our breakfast menu all day.

We cordially invite you into our cozy, magical space for a steaming pot of tea or a frothy hot chocolate and a sampling of our naturally sweetened baked goods, or to enjoy one of our delicious internationally inspired main meals, full of life & vitality…either way, prepare yourself for the Elixir experience :) We consciously & lovingly prepare, from scratch, all of our food, using only the highest quality, freshest, organic ingredients!!

Elixir - Contact us at organictearoom@gmail.com; 413-644-8999; www.elixirgb.com; Facebook elixir; Instagram: elixirtearoom.

Jennifer e Pazi z enza

Photograph by Tasja Keetman

VIRGINIA BRADLEY Interview by Harryet Candee

I enjoyed visiting your studio and I am grateful to Joe Goodwin for introducing us. How long have you been living here? How did you discover the Berkshires?

Virginia Bradley: Yes, a big thanks to Joe Goodwin.

He is a very interesting painter. It was great to have you visit the studio and hear your insightful comments about what I do.

We moved to the Berkshires from Center City Philadelphia in May of 2017. We left a noisy fourstory town house without a speck of grass and moved into a beautiful and quiet 3.5-acre property just north of Great Barrington.

We have winter studios in a small fishing village in the southwest corner of Puerto Rico. We became acquainted with two artist couples in Puerto Rico about five years ago and they introduced us to the Berkshires and the Hudson Valley. After looking at about 80 houses in the Hudson Valley over two years, we were fortunate to land in an 1894 renovated barn. The house had been on the market for 18 • DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020 THE ARTFUL MIND

Photography of Artist by Tasja Keetman

five years. It took the vision of two crazy artists who fell in love with the property for it to finally sell.

Ours is an unusual upside-down house that needed updating. We first saw the property after a huge snowstorm in March and made an offer contingent on selling our house in Philadelphia within two weeks, which we were able to do, and here we are.

Has your art changed since living here? What has living here given you?

Virginia: Previously, I have lived in Pennsylvania, California, Florida, Texas, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Delaware. For the first time I feel like I have finally found my genuine home in the Berkshires. Life here has led to a calm that translates into studio contemplation.

I would say being immersed in the natural world of the Berkshires has enabled landscape to become an unconscious departure point for abstraction. The thin layers of oil washes in the paintings refer to water, the richness of the air and the unknown. One

of my favorite Magical Realism writers is Gabriel Garcia Marquez; I love how you can feel the lush magnetic air in his writing and story-telling. The Berkshires have the same lush air, which I try to embed in my painting.

Another shift in the work is a full-time commitment to painting and a studio life. After teaching at the university level for 36 years, it is a pleasure to be able to dedicate my time to painting. As I look back, I wonder how I managed to get any studio work accomplished with the hectic life and time schedule of academia.

What have you fancied in particular about the Berkshires?

Virginia: First of all, the extremely interesting people. Everyone seems to have arrived here with captivating and varied histories. And of course, the beautiful landscape as well as all the cultural activities. Jacob’s Pillow is our favorite summer activity.

It’s amazing to have the most sophisticated dance

Virginia Bradley, Landing 4, 40 “x 36”, oil on canvas, 2019

festival in country at our doorstep.

Has it been fun and interesting finding friends you can network and share in art discussions with here?

Virginia: Participating in the Open Studios sponsored by the Guild of Berkshire Artists has introduced our work and studio to many visual art admirers. We shared our studios with figurative sculptor William Casper. The result was great dialogue, festive afternoons and new friends. We are organizing an evening art salon on contemporary abstraction featuring four painters for May 2020.

In other ways my studio life has become more reclusive since moving to Berkshires. After spending years talking about art in the classroom and on campus, I’m more interested in dedicating my time to researching and making the work rather than talking.

Karen Dolmanisth (a Western Massachusetts painter and installation artist) is someone I respect and am friendly with. Karen and I have far ranging conver-

sations about process, art and life. And of course, ongoing dialogue with Chris is a stimulus.

Your studio is beautiful, full of natural light. What was important for you when you ran down the list of needs for a studio?

Virginia: Building the studio was our first priority upon moving to Great Barrington. After a couple of false starts we broke ground in October of 2017. The building was finished in June 2018. The studio is an 1800 square foot metal structure. Chris and I have separate studio spaces in the building.

We had a long list of needs. My top priorities were floor space to pour paintings and wall space to edit the work. The one thing we did splurge on was the wall material. The whole studio is lined with ¾ inch plywood, which I am thankful for every time I drive a nail into the wall. We went with a metal building to make the cost manageable, but constructing something this large is very much like building a house

from scratch, lots of details.

As I look at your art, I see there is so much more than brush work involved. It’s almost hard to call you a painter, more like an alchemist, or scientist.

It’s pouring, shifting, making layers, waiting, repeating processes in order to create your desired tension and endlessness of colors in atmospheric mists and shapes. What makes you feel a finished piece of art has become successful? Complete?

Gallery worthy?

Virginia: I think of myself as a maker and an experimenter as much as I do an artist. And yes, I am interested in the relationship between science and art.

I am not an expert in alchemy, but I have a longstanding interest in it as it relates to my studio practice.

During Medieval and Renaissance periods, the alchemists endeavored to produce prima material, the base material for the creation of gold, as well as Continued on next page...

THE ARTFUL MIND DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020 • 19

Virginia Bradley, Long Pond 8, oil /resin on stretched silk, 5’x4’, 2018

searching for personal enlightenment and contemplation. The alchemist’s work in the laboratory was thought to purify chemicals as well the artist them self. The 16th and 17th century engravings of Michael Maier, a German physician, alchemist and artist are amazing examples of the alchemical principals. There is a long tradition of artists’ use of alchemy in the 20th and 21st centuries. Sigmar Polke, Leonora Carrington, Roni Horn, Max Ernst, Anish Kapoor, Joseph Beuys and Anselm Kiefer are some of my alchemical heroes.

Last week I viewed the work of English painter Rachel Howard at Blaine Southern in Chelsea. Her paintings use alchemy to explore the slippage between chaos and control. Matthias Meyer’s exhibition “Silent Water” at Danese Corey was also of particular interest. His work is an alchemical synthesis of representation and the abstract.

Alchemical investigations with materials and mediums are constant ingredients in my studio/laboratory. The studio becomes the athanor or an oven for the interaction of diverse materials, painting me20 • DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020 THE ARTFUL MIND

diums and paint to coalesce into realized images.

The process is intuitive and improvisational. I try to work in equilibrium with a painting rather than control the process and destination. Decisions are often spontaneous and risk is constantly waiting to be engaged. The Surrealist’s practice of “chance and order” also directs the path of a work. The “chance” is the pouring of the paint and experimenting with mediums. The “order” comes into play when the work is placed on the wall and edited through drawing, painting and sanding onto and into the surface.

These steps are often repeated during the evolution of a work.

In the Puerto Rico studio, the sun becomes an alchemical agent that transforms the oil pours on archival duralar film (www.virginiabradley.com/playa-santa-works-onpaper/). While the work dries in 95-degree sun, the oil paint coagulates and leaves unusual residues.

This process is sometimes replicated up to fifty times.

I begin a series by working on several pieces at

the same time, I move from one work to another as they dry. At some point, I start to concentrate on a single work and stay with it until I am satisfied with the outcome.

How do I know when a work is finished?

Virginia: If I have to ask - then I know it’s not finished.

What surfaces do you like to work on? Do you choose one kind over another because of the materials and process? What goes best with what process?

Virginia: Last spring, I started to work on canvas after a hiatus of about 25 years. I was working on birch panels and more recently on stretched silk and archival film. The support structure changes in relationship to where the painting process leads. The birch panels were perfect for large-scale mixed media paintings that could fit together modularly.

The newer canvas works are lighter and easier to manipulate and to direct the flow of thin oil pours.

Virginia Bradley:Yellowstone 11, mixed media on wood panel, 14”x 11”, 2019

What part of the art process for you is the most challenging?

Virginia: The entirety of painting is complex and challenging. I still learn something new about the process every time I enter the studio. Patience is another demand. The pours are not static until they are 100 percent dry. Sometimes an ephemeral pour transforms into a disaster an hour later. I don’t take myself very seriously, but I do take the making of my artwork seriously. For me, painting is about continually arriving at new destinations.

I’m looking at Long Pond #8: The colors, Virginia, are deep and alive! I may even imagine you have created colors that never existed before!

How do you get such color? It almost seems like this series contains an inner visualization technique for creating good karma.

Virginia: The French Surrealist painter Yves Tanguy came to mind as the form of #8 emerged. The biomorphic forms refer to Surrealist landscape painting.

Some of my paintings do enter the Surrealist realm.

Maybe that’s why “inner visualization techniques” came to you.

Agnes Martin always compared painting to “slaying the dragon”. Long Pond #8 was a beast to develop and slay. There are probably 20 different paintings under the final rendition. It was one of four pieces I worked on when we first moved into the studio and is a transitional work. The color atmosphere is created by the thin oil pours layered upon one another. It’s often difficult to go backwards and decipher how I got to a particular palette or color.

Sometimes I think I need to make my own version of a color recipe book.

Long Pond #8 is an example of the process dictating changing materials. The structure is on stretched silk with rabbit skin glue. The silk was used for transparency, as water was an ongoing theme in the series. After finishing #8 it was clear the silk wasn’t necessary anymore because of the heavy use of oil paint. I then moved to canvas for the next works.

I am a fan of Yellowstone # 11. Well, actually all of them, but #11 more so. Please explain this series.

Virginia: The Yellowstone Series (www.virginiabradley.com/yellowstone-series/ )is inspired by the Fountain Paint Pots in the Gibbon Geyser Basin at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

Thermal features in the basin include over 50 springs, geysers, vents and mud pots. The Yellowstone paintings depart from photographs I took at the Basin after the first snow had fallen in late October. The very cold nights were contrasted with warm days and created a rich and steamy world to investigate. The larger works refer to the mystic world of the geyser steam and smaller works relate an intimate view of the Paint Pots. #11 is one of the smaller detailed works (11”x14”).

The behavior of the thermal activity changes in relationship to seasons of the year and the amount of subterranean water. Half of the approximately 1000 geysers in the world are located in Yellowstone Continued on next page...

THE ARTFUL MIND DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020 • 21

Virginia Bradley, Soudan 3, oil on stretched silk, 30”x22”, 2015

National Park. Climate change is having an adverse effect on the geysers. The Yellowstone geysers are fed by Madison River. The water flow of the river has dropped by 15 percent in recent years due to climate change. Less rainfall leads to less pressure on the geyser reservoirs, which mean fewer eruptions.

Eventually the geysers could disappear. Already the duration of time between geyser eruptions has increased.

The ephemeral nature of the Yellowstone blue paintings speaks to breathing and the suspension of time. The works are reminiscent of my favorite passage from Agnes Martin’s book “Writings SCHRIFTEN”: The ocean is deathless The islands rise and die Quietly come, quietly go A silent swaying breath I wish the idea of time would drain out of my cells and leave me quiet even on this shore.

Just curious, what determines the prices for each panel, since they do have a range.

22 •THE ARTFUL MIND DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020

Angus en Herba, mixed media on birch panel with inlaid steel and silkscreen, 8’x6’, 2010

The price points of the paintings are based on what my paintings have sold for previously and on the size of the piece. Right now, I am establishing my practice in the Berkshires and building relationships directly with art consultants and interior designers.

Individuals are also welcome to arrange studio visits. I was with a gallery in Philadelphia that unfortunately closed.

Images of animals are seen in your art work.

What period of time were these your focus?

Virginia: From about 2001-2015, my practice focused on mixed media painting utilizing natural history imagery and environmental topics. In the Natural Histories Series (www.virginiabradley.com/natural-histories-series/ ), I was interested in merging animal imagery as represented in natural history with the present. I am intrigued by the “instinct” or “sixth sense” that animals possess, as well as their primordial sense of purity and beauty. An animal’s innate instinct for survival correlates to the intuitive process that is active in my painting.

The Jeopardy Series (www.virginiabradley.com/jeopardy-series/ ) ex-

plores imagery found at the Zoological Society of London library in this new body of mixed media painting. Imagery ranging from the menagerie at the Tower of London paired with Anne Boleyn and Jane Grey to contemporary imagery of the Okapi addressing endangered species emerge in these layered works. Imagery is printed, drawn and sanded, paint is poured, surfaces are waxed and carved to form hide-like tapestries on khadi paper and birch panel.

The use of printmaking and mixed media in the earlier works create a dialogue between the printed image, the natural handmade mark and the alchemy of disparate materials. This combination serves to question the history, origin, meaning and authenticity of the image.

In 2015, I relocated to a new studio in Philadelphia’s Italian Market. Through a natural progression my practice moved to abstraction. The Soudan Series was the bridge to abstraction and is based on recent geological findings in the Soudan Iron Mine in Tower, Minnesota. The ancient waters in the mine host organisms that formed 2.7 billion years ago and the water is similar to the water found on Mars (www.virginiabradley.com/soudan-series/).

Photograph of Virginia in studio

by Tasja Keetman

The abstract work is comprised of thin layers of poured oil paint and does not use representation imagery or silkscreen. I am trying to erase the evidence of my hand in the abstract works, while the juxtaposition of hand work with the printed was a vital part of the earlier works.

Looking back to when you sold your first piece of art, did it excite you?

Virginia: I haven’t thought about this in years, but I remembered the first painting I sold was to the administrative assistant in the Art Department at University of Miami. It was a work that was recognized in the annual student juried art exhibition at the Lowe Art Museum; the sale validated my efforts.

You have many experiences with selling your art.

Has there been one or more important thing you have learned about being an artist that you continually remind yourself to follow?

Virginia: An artist produces artwork because one needs to; the process is more important than any sale. The making of the work is my identity.

stract work, as much as I would like to.

What would be one challenge you face on this amazing road to artistic enlightenment?

Virginia: Acquiring self-knowledge and all the complications of every-day living.

While you were an art professor at University of Delaware, what did you enjoy about teaching?

Virginia: Most of all I enjoyed the students and their artistic development through the use of new processes and critical thinking. Large-scale mixedmedia drawing was my favorite class to teach.

And, have you decided whether you like working on small or large sized canvases? How do you decide which to use?

Virginia: The research behind the start of a series dictates the size of the works. I prefer larger works as they demand more physical action and the scale envelops the viewer. My process does acknowledge both action and color field painting. The small works often fill pauses between larger ones. The earlier mixed media paintings were often 8’x 9’ or larger. I haven’t jumped to that size point in the ab-

Did you make any breakthrough discoveries while teaching regarding your own art?

Virginia: Over the years of teaching my work evolved through experimentation, research and travel. The biggest factor was having a steady paycheck that allowed me freedom for artistic exploration. I was never overly concerned with selling work while in academia. I exhibited at many alternative spaces and completed Percent for Art Projects for the State of Minnesota.

Continued on next page...

THE ARTFUL MIND DECEMBER / JANUARY • 23

Virginia Bradley, Landing 1, 16”x20”, oil on silk, 2019

What do you remember that you repeatedly told your students about art that they must never or always be mindful of?

Virginia: Negative space. I am big on students acknowledging and working the negative space and the whole surface of a painting. My favorite story is when I had a previous student stop me at an art opening and tell me he thinks of me every time he puts the pepperoni over the whole surface of a pizza. Also, students should avoid the Masterpiece Syndrome; they should experiment!

Part of your life was spent living in London. Tell us about your time there. And this was where you met Chris, your husband. How did you first meet each other? Was it love at first sight? Was it Art at first sight?

Virginia: In 2003 I moved from Minneapolis to the University of Delaware to be a Professor of Art and Department Chair. Chris and I met at Fundación Valparaíso in Almeria, Spain in July of 2004. I arrived a few days late and was introduced to six other artist fellows. I remembered thinking they didn’t seem too engaging and I would accomplish plenty of work in the next month. Later that day an 24 • DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020 THE ARTFUL MIND

Englishman parted the beaded curtain to my studio door and asked if I would like to go swimming.

That was the beginning of our relationship, founded on a shared love of swimming and painting. And no, I didn’t get much work done that month!

We were married six months later next to a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve at my sister’s house in Shelburne, Vermont. Chris emigrated from Notting Hill; we lived in Wilmington and moved to Center City Philadelphia after I finished my term as Department Chair. We spend a lot of time in England as Chris has three adult children and grandchildren in London. But I do have a longer history with England as I collaborated with English Artist Paul Clifford from 1987 until about 2002. You can read about our collaboration at www.virginiabradley.com/land-of-milk-andhoney/.

I am wondering, since you are both artists, do you critique each other’s art? How does that work?

Virginia: We try to keep our practices and visual voices independent of one another. Although our studios are next to one another, we are respectful of

each other’s time and space. We only comment on each other’s work when asked. With that said we spend much of our time discussing all forms of art and culture.

How do you see the next five years, while enjoying life, to be like for you and Chris and with art?

Virginia: We are planning on painting, swimming, reading and traveling for inspiration. Chris has never experienced the Southwest United States so we are planning a trip there next spring. Most of all we want to enjoy our friends and life in the Berkshires.

Thank you Virginia!

For further information see www.virginiabradley.com or contact Virginia at virgbradley57@gmail.com Instagram #virginiabradleyart M

FRONT ST. GALLERY

Painting by Kate Knapp Block Island

Painting classes on Monday and Wednesday mornings 10-1pm at the studio in Housatonic and Thursday mornings 10am - 1pm out in the field.

Also available for private critiques. Open to all. Please come paint with us!

Gallery hours: Open by chance and by appointment anytime 413. 274. 6607 (gallery) 413. 429. 7141 (cell) 413. 528. 9546 (home) www.kateknappartist.com

Front Street, Housatonic, MA

THE ARTFUL MIND DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020 • 25

JODY LAMPRO A Berkshire State-of-Mind Interview by Harryet Candee

Jody, you are just a Berkshire boy! You’ve been around and have seen a lot as our community has grown since you were a kid. Tell me about where you grew up and a little about your family, please?

Jody Lampro: Thank you for inviting me over, Harryet,..I grew up in Washington MA. on a beautiful farm with my parents Trish and Fran, brothers Chip and Jim and a beautiful and talented sister named Kathy who is also a writer and singer that I remain in with almost every day. Kathy and I have recorded some great songs together that really need to be revisited, just for the sake of hearing them.”Empty room” is amazing!

There were always a lot of records in the house.

One state of the art stereo that everybody was into listening to. Whatever was being played, we were together. A lot listening to Rock-n-roll, blues, country blues, folk, crooner stuff, Polish, Cuban, and I liked it all.

Looking back, can you describe how the Berkshires used to be during some of your most favor26 • DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020 THE ARTFUL MIND

Photographs by Sam Backhaus

ite and least favorite years?

Jody: I didn’t have “least favorite years”, life has been a little off balance at times as I’m sure it is for most earthlings, but I’ve mostly kept my head up and march on.

Jody, you are a very creative individual. Music, poetry, what else? Tell us about your musical endeavors please?

Jody: My music endeavors (aside from spinning records NON-STOP) started when my oldest brother Chip got me playing a couple of chords on guitar when I was six or seven. That was followed by my best friend Lucy teaching me two songs on piano.

Then Ry Cooder’s first record came out and I had to have a mandolin! I played two songs off of that album at ‘Show and Tell’ for my 7th grade class mates who were very supportive. From there, I booked a gig for next year at the local “teen canteen”, the band consisted of my best friends: Tommy on snare drum, Billy on trumpet and yours truly on mandolin and vocal, performing four songs from the first and second Ry Cooder albums— twice.

How does your life parallel and fit like a glove in the Berkshires, in particular, how does it all mesh with your life in the Becket area?

Well I’m not quite sure how I fit in the area other than having “yankee ingenuity” that I learned from Dad, that it’s good to help people out whenever their whatever isn’t working right— mostly car and minibike issues are what I specialized in as well as making music compilations for people who only listened to hit radio, because, according to me, they had no idea what they were missing by only listening to the same old songs over and over, day in and day out.

So I saw it as my civic duty to educate my friends a little more with some music they might never hear.

Then, Chip and I started hosting band jams. Brother Jim would play too, (he was great on bass!) but didn’t stay long, he wanted to make a living.(LOL!!!)

It took Chip and I a while, but we eventually did pretty good in the rock and roll scene of Berkshire county and beyond.

Who can you tell us about that is a local aside from you that would make people understand the

Jody Lampro in the wild Berkshire woods Photograph by Sam Backhaus

roots of Berkshire life?

Jody: My brother-in-law Pete Adams! The sounds that come out of that steel guitar—hook you immediately! I would say, with all confidence, that people who’ve heard him “feel the real roots” from him no matter where they are. We became friends immediately upon meeting each other and shared the same side of the stage, and sense of humor, for years and the tones of our voices singing harmony together made a rich sound— not a common thing. Pete got me hired into the Cobble Mt. Band a couple years back (equal to making it big!) to cover bass guitar duties in place of Chris Tuttle (God rest his soul) for a couple of reunions. Chris taught me some important lessons directly and indirectly about how bass guitar is to be played and sound before I even played bass, so, while listening to the others play, they would lay down a groove, and have the sound dialed in just right to please the audience first— and if your going to go out on the town, (playing an improvised section in the song, usually using many notes) make it back home, or else for a second or dreadfully more, the whole band will sound like you just hit the building your playing in! Thus, Berkshire living at it’s best.

What is tradition for you that is only found in the Berkshires?

Jody: Stopping in at Dream Away Lodge to see what’s going on. I’ve been going there since 1966.

My family’s favorite place to eat out back then.

Mama Maria Frasca was just awesome! Her whole family was awesome as well. The food was beyond delicious! Daniel does a great job maintaining the authenticity and feel of the place which i really appreciate because it is stepping back in time for me, i mean all the chairs in the bar are in the same place!

The same bulbs don’t work in those cubes on the bar face,..it’s home away from home undisturbed,..

To add, Jody, Dream Away Lodge served family style, at big long tables. Supposedly big old cars were buried all over the backyard. Our mutual friend, Rob Gorden took me there as a ‘get to know the Berkshire’s cool spots’ outing. Thank you, Rob! ... Jody, tell us about the musicians you presently work with?

Jody: This question is tough. This answer could be a large book! I have a bunch of musician friends that I stay in touch with regularly because we are friends.

My sister Kathy, Pete Adams, Mike Dermody, Dan Lambert, Tommy Filiault, Steve Sears, Mark Hoover, Everybody in the Becket church band. (big list!) There are so many other fine people, I couldn’t possibly name them all, it would take up the rest of the interview.

(Laughing) How would you describe your personality, and what makes your clock tick?

Jody: I like to be alone and music owns me.

What is your favorite season?

Jody: There is something in the air during the fall season that feeds me creatively, leaving me most inspired to write during this time. It’s been consistent for many cycles.

Can you share with us some song words you have written? Dig out something you love, tell us about it and why these words have significance.

Jody: (Yes!! Get down on it!!) Ok—, “I had a funny feeling you weren’t a cowgirl, but you look real good playing the part, I’m free, are you after the party, and do you have any room in your heart”.

This is the first verse to the first song I ever wrote that only took me an hour to compose. Most of the others take days, weeks, months to complete. The imagery was very clear to me, as the inspiration for this song appeared as I was driving home from a gig in beautiful New York—it all came to me— key, melody, mood. I remembered all the words and I played it for my two sons, Dylan and Dalton that night on piano at their bed time. They liked it. They were only one and three, but they both were captivated by the fact that I just made this song up. They grew up to be very dedicated and serious musicians.

Together they tour America and Canada, playing festivals, clubs, garages and basements, Godspeed you two! And, this song was written in the fall season. Continued on next page...

THE ARTFUL MIND DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020 • 27

Jody Lampro, Stockbridge Photograph by Sam Backhaus

Can you tell us a local story that most people would not know about?

Jody: Uh, hmmm, my Mom and I were driving down i-95, three years ago, destination Florida, when I decided to tell her about my dream to write and star in a variety show. She thought it to be a great idea and joined right in on the writing fun, and left me laughing my ass off! Clever girl, that Trish.

What advice would you give to city people on how to survive in the Berkshires?

Jody: I’m not really sure. Maybe wave to the cows when they see ‘em, and be careful when approaching a llama. They’re in that field for a reason, and you don’t want to find out the hard way why that is. Respect the animals and be nice to the locals.

Were you friends with Arlo Guthrie? Tell us something about that time period and the music scene.

Jody: I got a job at Rising Son Records at the same time the Burns sisters, Annie, Marie and Jeannie were hired there. We became good friends and stayed in touch with each other through the past ten years and still get together three or four times a year and play a couple gigs. Much fun and talent those three girls. Regarding the music scene, that is a bit ill; My friends Jim, John, Dan and myself had a lot of fun 28 • DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020 THE ARTFUL MIND

playing mostly private parties for a half a dozen plus years, and then we started moving back into the club scene. We noticed that things were certainly changing. Many places were closing their doors due to a lack of funds, 50k and up, to afford the now mandated “sprinkler system.” A club needs to have one built or else they will close down. Berkshire county night clubs were hit very hard concerning this new law.

What musical instruments do you play?

Jody: I play bass, drums, harmonica and enough guitar and piano. I play these days, mostly with Tommy Filiault, Mark Hoover, Steve Sears and Klon Koehler, the group is called “The Stationery Blues Band”. We play traditional blues numbers in the traditional style as well as our own songs and choice covers. Tommy and I finish writing each others songs at times and have a vast amount of mutual trust in this department.

“Never stop searching”… What comes to your mind when this is said.

Jody: Don’t give up on yourself no matter what.

would be nice.

Is it easy to go with the flow and ebb of this beautiful Berkshires?

Jody: Absolutely! I truly love it here. Just don’t forget anything from the grocery market especially during a snow storm, it’s a long way back from any store What would we do without music and art and life in the Berkshires! Your thoughts? Your life is complete, yes? What is missing?

Jody: Berkshire county has many artists. Artists that write, paint, dance, draw, play music, recite poetry, construct masterpieces out of anything including junk, build houses, cars, motorcycles, take photographs, the list is huge! A true artist doesn’t need an audience but loves to have one, so support your local artists—there is something for everyone here.

Give us your favorite take on life, and, where do you do your best thinking?

Jody: Life is about giving of oneself. My best thinking is done while I’m not idle.

Thank you, Jody!

What is it you want out of life?

Jody: A good solid connection with family and friends. A gig here and there, once or twice a month

M

have told Bluto that the bicycle was useless, but I didn’t want to stick my nose into his business.

This took all day long but I didn’t do even one hour's worth of work, all I did the entire day was sit in the truck looking out the window, or wander around in the junk stores looking at one broken thing after another.

Coffee pots without handles, clocks with hands missing, radios with no knobs, rusty spoons, twisted forks, chipped plates, books with no covers.

I looked at all that stuff, while two men with half their teeth missing sat at a broken desk talking about things I could not understand, even though I could hear every word.

Jason And His Grandmother CHAPTER 6 The Higher Laws RICHARD BRITELL I thought when we got to Genesee Street we would turn right and head for Clinton but we turned left instead and drove downtown. At Eagle Street we turned right, drove three blocks and parked in front of a store that sold second-hand furniture. We got out of the truck and went into the store without a word of explanation.

About twenty minutes later we drove to another similar establishment on Jay Street. Bluto made about six stops like that, going into one store after another, as if he was delivering a route. After about an hour of these visits he returned to the first store, where we again stayed about an hour.

What these stops at various establishments were about I had no idea. The businesses did not seem to be engaged in any actual activity. One business was a grocery store named Rosa’s, about the size of a poor person’s bedroom, complete with a sheet substituting for a door to the bathroom. While Bluto talked to the owner I picked up a box of Rice Krispies from a shelf to find that the top of the box was coated with dust. All of the shops had one thing in common, an absence of any sign of business.

How was I going to explain this aspect of my new job to my Mother and Father? What would they think about it? Drugs? Mafia collection of lottery payments?

Gambling? No, I decided to say nothing about it, and besides no money changed hands, it seemed to be strictly social. Bluto was visiting with his friends all of whom seemed to be engaged in inexplicable small time business ventures. Nevertheless, I began to suspect that Bluto was involved in something illegal, but what it could be I couldn’t guess.

After the socializing we finally drove to Clinton. In Clinton Bluto parked in the driveway of an old house a little way out of the village. It had one of those trap doors into the cellar and my job was to carry out a whole lot of broken dirt colored stuff and put it into the truck. Bluto didn’t help; he went into the main part of the house and stood in the middle of the living room looking at books and magazines There was nobody home. Bluto could have loaded the truck himself; he didn’t need me at all. After the truck was loaded we drove to the dump and dumped everything out except for a dresser and a bicycle. I could

The question arises, why would Bluto hire me to help him and spend the entire day driving around, and pay me to do something he could have done himself without any trouble? To explain about working for Bluto by telling you what I did wouldn’t make any sense at all, because on the days I worked for him I did almost nothing.

What I was doing, and what I was paid for was to be Bluto’s audience, and listen to him talk. Bluto liked to talk all day long. But talk is not the right word; lecture is a more accurate description. Bluto didn’t even give a lecture; because sometimes he would get so worked up he would shout and bang the steering wheel with his fist.

Have you ever see those newsreels of Hitler shouting, throwing his arms around, all in a sweat in front of millions of people? Now picture that same Hitler giving the same speech to one small boy in a little room. And why?

Well some people are like that I suppose.

Bluto did not have a family. He did not have any sort captive audience, but he had an unquenchable desire to educate someone; to pass on his storehouse of disjointed theories and conjectures that took up space and substituted for facts in his brain.

If I am going to tell you about working for Bluto, I am going to have to tell you about the things he lectured me about. That first day, when I was trying to get back seated on the soda box in the truck, Bluto was lecturing me about falling down.

“That’s a law of physics,” he was telling me. “It’s called inertia. Inertia is where a thing is moving, and once it is moving it tends to keep moving. And things that aren’t moving, things that are standing still, are going to want to keep standing still. You probably think that you were falling down and rolling to the back of the truck when actually, what was really happening, was that you were staying in one place, and the truck was moving away from you. And see now, right here, I’m turning onto Court Street like this, and you keep going right on down Genesee Street. That’s why you have to grab hold of the dash like that.”

On Court Street he stopped behind a Pepsi-Cola truck. Who could possibly have anything to say about a Pepsi-Cola truck? Bluto had a lot to say about the truck, and about the Pepsi Company in general. Bluto hated the Pepsi-Cola Company. He was the first person I had ever met in my life that hated the Pepsi company to such an extent that he got angry, and red in the face over it.

He said that there should be a law against a company that would make a drink on purpose that the entire point of the drink was to rot a person’s teeth. “Let’s say that you go into a restaurant and you want to get a sandwich,” he said. “You look at the menu and the first item is ‘Rock Sandwich,’ made with bread, cheese, salami and rocks. Would you order that, a rock sandwich, or would you pick something else? You get your sandwich, you start eating, and there is a rock in the sandwich and you chip your tooth on it.”

I will stop here and say that I actually have a chipped front tooth and Bluto must have noticed it, and I suppose that is the reason why he was giving me the rock sandwich illustration in his lecture.

That was the way Bluto would explain things to me, by asking obvious questions that could have only one answer. But even though these questions could have only one answer Bluto would sit staring at me with his mouth agape and not go on with his lecture until I had answered his rhetorical question. Even though he knew the exact words I would have to say, when I would say, “yes,” he would roar out “no” and bang his fist on the steering wheel. Then he would proceed with his lecture but substituting the Pepsi-Cola Company for the rock sandwich.

Bluto did have a point about this business of the Pepsi-Cola Company being like food with gravel mixed in. My second-grade teacher had once asked us to bring to class teeth we lost and she tied them to strings and hung them in a glass of soda. The next day the teeth were brown, and at the end of the week they were gone, all that was left was the string.

The Coca-Cola didn’t eat up the string for some reason, just the teeth. The dark brown color on the teeth was very impressive to a seven year old but we imagined that you could just wash it off, but imagine out surprise when the teeth got smaller and smaller, and then disappeared altogether.

When Bluto said that soda destroyed a person's teeth he was correct, but he didn’t stop there. Bluto’s ideas about the soda had a radical, even a revolutionary aspect, and sometimes, from his argument about soda I could picture his desire to see the overthrow of the government, the onset of anarchy and the coming of the end of the world.

In the Sunoco station on Eagle Street Bluto stopped to buy gas and while we were there he bought both of us a soda from the machine in the office. While we were drinking these sodas he continued his lecture about the evils of the Coca-Cola, and the Pepsi-Cola companies.

“You see the problem is the economic system in this country,” Bluto was saying in the Sunoco station, the one where the guy who runs it has no memory because of being injured in the war. The gas-station owner’s name was Sal, and he was outside washing the windows of Bluto’s truck. We were in the office. Sal kept a baseball bat next to his cash register.

The baseball bat functioned like my chipped tooth in that Bluto started talking about smashing up the soda machine because he happened to notice the bat. Nevertheless, I knew Bluto hardly at all, so when he picked up the bat I was not certain what was coming next. But he replaced the bat before Sal came back into the office.

Bluto’s idea was this, in a nutshell. A sensible and intelligent person would be obligated, if he had any feelings of right and wrong, to vandalize and smash up soda machines at every opportunity.

The God given right to destroy the machines should be protected by law. The fact that the police protect the machines was a perfect example of how our government and its judicial system was created upside down, protecting criminals, and punishing people who were doing the right thing.

“There are higher laws,” Bluto said, “and one is obliged to obey them if one has any self-respect. Just don’t ever let yourself get caught obeying the higher laws.”

RICHARD BRITELL: FROM THE BLOG NO CURE FOR THE MEDIEVAL MIND

THE ARTFUL MIND DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020 • 29

Photograph by Christina Lane

Purposeful Memoir as a Path to a Thriving Future

By Jennifer Browdy, PhD In these trying times, many of us are asking ourselves: What can I do to make the world a little better? How can I contribute my talents and gifts for the good of all? What is the best use of my precious time?

As I worked on my memoir, What I Forgot…and Why I Remembered, I asked myself these questions repeatedly, and in the end I came to a clear and powerful answer. I wrote in the conclusion to the memoir: “The psychologist Kaethe Weingarten says that hope is a verb—and it assumes its most powerful form in the first person plural. I want to spend the rest of my life out in the forests and fields of Gaia, and in circles of thoughtful people, doing hope together: overcoming fear, moving beyond silence, and creating for ourselves and our descendants the once and future heaven on Earth that we forgot, a long time ago, and must remember now.”

Through writing my memoir, I realized that my way of “doing hope” was through teaching: sharing my knowledge, convening and facilitating groups of people, and offering thought-provoking entry points for writing and conversation.

And so I embarked on what I’ve come to call “the elemental journey of purposeful memoir,” which is also the title of my award-winning memoir writer’s guide.

I’ve offered memoir workshops in all kinds of locations in the U.S. and Canada—from college classrooms to conference halls, from church parlors to wilderness lodges. I invite participants to try out my elemental framework for thinking about our life journeys, using the four elements (Earth, Water, Fire and Air) as an organizing principle. We explore the ways our personal experience has been set into the political and planetary landscapes of our time and place, thinking deeply about how our life experiences (including 30 • DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020 THE ARTFUL MIND

being might it be hiding? And what emerges? A force from some mysterious place tugs at us, pulling up memories, ideas, feelings from both past and present, colliding. This brings me to life! This feels like love.”

Purposeful Memoir as a Contemplative Practice

our family histories and ancestry) have culminated in this potent present moment, which can serve as a springboard into the more positive future we can envision, co-create and live into.

No matter the setting or the group, the impact is unmistakable: people get an incredible charge from discovering their purpose through writing memoir, as well as through the deep listening and facilitated sharing of workshop participants.

As one workshop participant put it, “I'm a little in love with this writing workshop—the leader, Jennifer, so engaging, generous and encouraging. And the women so earnest, intent on digging into their psyches to meet the questions of the day. Where does inspiration come from, in what secret places in our

As I’ve brought purposeful memoir to hundreds of people over the past few years, my conviction has grown stronger: this inner work is essential, in order for us to be grounded enough to take effective action in the world. We must understand where we are now, as individuals, as a society, and as a planet, in order to envision and work towards the thriving future we yearn for.

While the process of purposeful memoir is wonderfully productive for someone who aspires to publish a memoir, it is also an invaluable contemplative process for anyone and everyone. It’s a structured way of looking back over the full complexity of your life experience, not as a form of navel-gazing, but as a way of offering the accumulated wisdom of your life experience for the benefit of others.

Purposeful memoir, as one memoirist observed, “offers so many opportunities to engage in writing and deepen my own practice, commitment and desire to be published in service to others.”

Saluting the Positive and Transmuting the Negative The transformative potential of this contemplative journey is emphasized in my new series of workshops, “The Alchemy of Purposeful Memoir,” meeting monthly on Sunday afternoons in Lenox, MA from December 2019 through May 2020.

I’ve noticed that when people think about their life stories, they tend to focus on some of the more neg-

Workshop on Mt. Greylock Photograph by JB

ative aspects of their life experience. Sometimes they get stuck in a dark place of memory that keeps them from going further.

In my Alchemy workshop series, we start from positive qualities or emotions that we desire in our lives: confidence, health, community, resilience, and so on. We explore uplifting moments in our lives when we’ve felt these qualities, before considering more somber moments.

And then comes the magic, when we liberate ourselves for a moment from the fact of memoir to explore the “what if?” potential of fiction. We give ourselves permission to rewrite a scene of struggle from our lives, with the goal of transmuting that negative experience into the “philosopher’s stone” of understanding, producing a valuable lesson that can guide us as we move on into the future.

Given the pressures of life in our current moment, which all of us feel to varying degrees, I’ve realized that it’s important to find ways to keep our spirits up.

We can’t be of help to others if we are downhearted ourselves. In my Alchemy workshops, we write in a conscious, forward-looking way, saluting the positive and transmuting the negative in our life experience in order to cheer ourselves on in the practice of purposeful memoir: offering our life stories in the hope that our experience can be of benefit to others.

dominant force in the Anthropocene simply to wreck the Earth and subside into extinction.

The present moment, difficult as it is, provides extraordinary opportunities for learning and growth. We are being called to remember that we humans cannot survive without the healthy functioning of all other parts of the Gaian system, from the pollinators in the air and the microbes in the soil to the clean waters of our rivers, aquifers and oceans, and the plants that make our oxygen.

Remembering these deep interconnections is part of the process I call “aligning the personal, political and planetary”: seeing how our fundamental values as individuals have been aligned—or not—with the ways we’ve lived our lives in community, including in the larger Earth community of which we are an integral part.

As one purposeful memoirist noted, “In the past I’ve felt like my spiritual practice, my interest in memoir writing and my political/climate essays and activism were all on separate tracks, but I feel them steadily converging, energizing and informing one another.” The discoveries that come from this inquiry can be startling, prompting new ways of understanding the past and a new dedication to the essential work of co-creating the future in our communities.

An Invitation to Embark on the Journey of Purposeful Memoir

Heeding Gaia’s Call These days, climate disruption and the Sixth Great Extinction are serving as powerful reminders that we humans are out of alignment with the natural world, and must reinvent our relationship with the planet in order to survive and thrive. Here too, I’ve found that purposeful memoir has a role to play, giving us productive pathways into understanding our historical role on the planet as individuals and societies, as well as portals through which to envision a more harmonious future.

For me, there is also a spiritual dimension to this work: I write my way towards a greater understanding of the human calling on the planet. What are we here for? I don’t believe we have emerged as the

If you are feeling the call to take stock of your life—whether or not you have the intention to ultimately publish a memoir—you are warmly invited to explore the contemplative practice of purposeful memoir. Writing for as little as 10 minutes a day can make a difference in how you understand your life purpose, bringing you greater clarity about what you have to offer the world.

I have many opportunities coming up, including monthly in-person workshops in the Berkshires; summer writing retreats in Findhorn, Scotland and Nova Scotia, Canada; a six-week online course; and my new coaching program for 2020, “Write Your Memoir in a Year.”

For those who already have a manuscript in draft,

I offer expert developmental editing and manuscript review, as well as the publishing services of Green Fire Press, of which I’m the co-publisher. Subscribers to my newsletter receive free monthly doses of inspiration: Writing Life blog posts, writing prompts, and short video pep talks.

The truth is: your story matters. You will benefit from exploring your life journey more deeply through the practice of purposeful memoir, and if you decide to offer your insights to the world in published form, others will benefit too.

As we salute the positive and transmute the negative in our life stories, our spirits brighten, and we are able to offer ourselves in a stronger, more resilient way to the future-oriented work of bringing our communities and our world into balance.

What could be more important than that?

Jennifer Browdy, Ph.D. has taught literature, writing and media arts at the college level for more than 30 years and is currently chair of the Languages and Literature Division at Bard College at Simon’s Rock.

Her memoir, What I Forgot ...And Why I Remembered was a finalist for the 2018 International Book Awards. Her writer’s guide, The Elemental Journey of Purposeful Memoir, won a 2017 Nautilus Silver Award. She provides coaching and manuscript review for authors in fiction and nonfiction, and offers memoir workshops nationally and internationally, including at Kripalu, Bioneers, and Findhorn, Scotland (in May 2020). As publisher of Green Fire Press, she recently published Nature, Culture & the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership, by Bioneers cofounder Nina Simons (Nautilus Gold Medal, 2018), and Wisdom Lessons: Spirited Guidance from an Ojibwe Great-Grandmother, by Native American activist Mary Lyons. She is also the editor of the online magazine Fired Up! Creative Expression for Challenging Times.

Find out more at JenniferBrowdy.com.

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