An Honor and A Privilege

Every now and then I get a project to work on that is so delightful that I can’t believe they pay me to do these things. That is the case with the North Shore Arts Association’s Past-Present catalog. Not only did I get to design it but they also asked me to write the accompanying text and the article about it that will go in American Art Review Magazine. I am a lucky person to be able to do things like this and get paid for them.

The catalog is nearly finished and today we have the final (I hope) review. I think it is absolutely beautiful. But then I’m prejudiced. The covers are lovely and the inside is so chock full of amazing paintings and sculpture that it thrills me. It is exciting doing things like this because you get to work with the most wonderful, inventive, creative people.

The project was the brain-child of my dear friend Betty Lou Schlemm who has worked with me on it through the entire project. I have been happy to work with other terrific people too. Nancy Strisk, the wife of the late great artist Paul Strisik has been a wonderful help. She called me the other night and while we were talking she told me a wonderful story about her first meeting with Henry Gasser. There is nothing I like more than anecdotes about artists.

Daniel Altshuler has been a wonderful help in securing work by Charles Grafly, George Demetrios and Walker Hancock. I absolutely love the sculpture called “Pegasus and Warrior” by Hancock that Daniel helped us get for the exhibition. Daniel was Walker Hancock’s assistant for the last several years of his life and is a great sculptor in his own right. I expect to see more and more wonderful things from him in the years ahead.

And working with Don Mosher is always a treat. He and his artist wife Christine are treasures on the Cape Ann Art scene. I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Gordon Goetemann for his encyclopedic knowledge of American Art and for advising me as I worked on the article.

So the book will go to press next week and I will sleep for two days when it is gone. The artists whose works are featured in the book are: George Aarons, Albert Henry Atkins, Gifford Beal,N.A., Reynolds Beal, A.N. A., Cecilia Beaux,N.A., Theresa Bernstein, Alden Bryan, Mary Taylor Bryan,A.W.S., Gabrielle DeVeaux Clements, Jon Corbino,N.A., Paul Cornoyer,A.N.A., Howard A.Curtis, Roger W.Curtis , Will Rowland Davis, George Demetrios, Henry Gasser,Ken Gore, Charles Grafly, Gordon Grant, Emile Gruppe, Lilian Wescott Hale, Walker Hancock, Samuel hershey, Aldro Hibbard, Eric Hudson, Anna Hyatt Huntington, Mildred C. Jones, Max Kuehne, Anna Coleman Ladd, Philip Little, John Manship, Joseph Margulies, William Meyerowitz, Frederick J. Mulhaupt, William M. Paxton, Marguerite Pearson, Elizabeth Wentworth Roberts, Marian Williams Steele, W. Lester Stevens, Paul Strisik, Anthony Thieme, Frederick Judd Waugh, Katharine Lane Weems, John Whorf, Harry A. Vincent, and Stanley Woodward.

Coincidentally, I got to the proof copy of The Old Mermaid’s Tale this week too. It is also off to press. And next week I am a very happy book designer and author — happy, blessed and exhausted.

Thanks for reading.