This wonderful message painted on the wall of M & C, Amherst, NH—It reminds me of the importance of a sunny personality like Greg at M & C, who takes the time to recognize folks and even recall their stories. Recalling and sharing stories is what it’s all about!
A few days ago, two special people showed up to a book event at Toadstool Peterborough. A woodworker named Wayne took time away from this workshop to come to Toadstool Bookshop because though he has lived by his hands and working wood, he has always admired the intricacies of carving a fiddle. He was kind and warm-hearted and a pleasure to talk with—and a great listener!
Then an unexpected fellow from half way round the world—documentary and animation filmmaker Dennis Tupicoff all the way from Melbourne, Australia!—a MacDowell Fellow! Peterborough, NH, is home to the very first artist colony in America, envisioned by composer Edward MacDowell but made a reality after his death by his wife Marian. MacDowell bestows the priceless blessing of uninterrupted time on forty artists at a time year round—each sequestered in their own cabin on 300 acres just outside downtown Peterborough—a few steps away, a walk to Toadstool—but a world away for anyone trying to follow a creative thread to a new idea or a new creation. See: www.macdowellcolony.org
And each field has its own joy and nemesis. Dennis shared that the same prejudices against innovation that Carleen Hutchins faced in the violin world occur in the world of filmmaking where some filmmakers keep rigid rules—animation must always be hand-drawn, not by computer—or try to draw a defined, hard line between animation and documentary while Dennis merges them together. What a new insight! Instead of so many “talking heads” in the average documentary, why NOT give the discussion new life by adding imagery? So often photographs do not exist about a topic—but the imagination is limitless! Check out his website: www.dennistupicoff.com
How do we make something “REAL”? What makes something REAL? Connection makes things REAL like Lee Jones, Editor of Art and Science Journal, out of Toronto, expresses it in her TEDTalk about “Wonder—the intersection of art and science.” See www.artandsciencejournal.com
At Barnes & Noble, Manchester, one table, twenty books, ten sold in two hours because of stories—sharing people’s life trails. American Luthier makes one woman recall the “tuning shop up on Squam Lake when I go to visit my friend in Holderness!” Another buys it for her book group—sight unseen—because she knows the author can come visit! A psychotherapist / minister is intrigued by the healing power of music. Another woman recalls her own manuscript—twenty drafts over as many years—and celebrates the completion and publication of another’s book. Another wants the book for her violinist daughter.
I relax into the vivid imagery of the Walter Tandy Murch “Violin” painting that graces the cover—a specially commissioned work that first appeared on the cover of Scientific American Magazine in November 1962—to accompany the breakout article “Physics of Violins” that put Hutchins on the map in the violin world. Murch painted an actual experiment that Hutchins had set up in her basement. When a cover is this vivid, no words are necessary! Portrait artist Winslow Myers of Bristol, ME, is working steadfastly on a monography biography about Murch due out next year. See: www.winslowmyers.com
The velveteen rabbit knew all about “REAL”—REAL is connecting, and sharing and even in the worst of times, when the ego is most bruised, the rabbit’s mantra is worth gold—“You can’t be ugly except to those who don’t understand.”