Vintage-inspired postcard from Daytrip Society, Kennebunkport, Maine
Last week we spent several glorious days in Maine, certainly one of our most favorite places. Still thinking about our time there, we feel compelled this week to share some of the spots that we tend to visit again and again. Of course at the top of our list are the magnificent rocky beaches — so unique to this great state, and quite indescribable, we feel, in words alone. You must experience those for yourself. When we’re not at the beach, however, we find we eat incredibly well (we have already posted on some exceptional Maine food here and here), we try to see some art, and we always manage to do a bit of shopping. Daytrip Society in Kennebunkport is one of the best curated and stylishly-arranged shops we know. Owned by two native Mainers who after a stint in New York City in the music industry were drawn back home, Daytrip Society features special items made in Maine, and those inspired by and for the woods, the sea, and nature at large. They also have a lovely collection of vintage books and pennants scattered about. But we’re really just skimming the surface here. A perfect balance of whimsy and really good design has definitely been achieved in this establishment. And they have a store for kids, Daytrip Jr., right around the corner! Best of all, Daytrip supports local nature conservation organizations including the Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge.
WHAT LED YOU TO BECOME AN ART CONSERVATOR AND WHAT DO YOU LOVE MOST ABOUT ART CONSERVATION?
When I was a kid I made meticulous drawings and paintings, and also loved science. I was pre-med as an undergraduate but majored in art history, while foraging a bit into architecture and fine art. Summer museum jobs with hands on experience–matting and hinging works on paper, doing condition reports for exhibitions, and installing artwork–really got me started. Also I had interesting experiences at the Dendrochronology Lab in the Classics/Archaeology Department at Cornell. They take core samples from ancient wood to measure tree growth rings to provide a dating method, accurate to the year, going back 10,000 years in the Aegean and Near East region, the cradle of so many civilizations. I studied art conservation and Italian in Florence for a year after college, completed some internships, and got into grad school at NYU Institute of Fine Arts, one of a handful of graduate programs for art conservation in the US. It was a thrill to be a conservator at archaeological sites in the Mediterranean for many summers during and after graduate school.
I love the gratification of making something whole, or legible, or returning a work to its original beauty. The best aspect of my job may be seeing the opportunity to save something thought to be utterly lost.
IT WOULD SEEM THAT ART CONSERVATION REQUIRES THE PERFECT BALANCE OF SCIENCE AND ART/CULTURAL HISTORY. IS THIS ACCURATE AND ARE YOU INCLINED MORE ONE WAY THAN ANOTHER?
Absolutely. Science, fine art/hand skills, and art history compliment each other in art conservation. At this point I do more hands on work than research…I guess that makes the artistic side more dominant, but also some degree of engineering is involved too.
THROUGHOUT YOUR CAREER YOU HAVE CONSERVED SOME MAJOR WORKS OF ART. DO YOU HAVE A SINGLE PIECE THAT YOU ARE MOST PROUD OF?
A few years ago I helped prepare for a show about Aphrodite that originated at the MFA Boston and traveled to Japan and the Getty Villa in California. With Aphrodite as the subject there was certainly beauty in the objects, and the glazed Greek and Roman ceramics were filled with great storytelling. I loved being around these objects and seeing how the curator developed her academic study using the wild narrative of this goddess of love and passion.
WHAT BRINGS YOU JOY?
I can’t wait to be on Mt. Desert Island, Maine in a few days. A perfect day includes a hike up the mountains where you get incredible 360° views of the islands and sea from the exposed granite ridges and summits, followed by a refreshing lake swim…there’s something magical about Echo Lake water. We’ve been going to MDI since our kids were very young, and the place has a history we add to and relive every year.
COMB OR BRUSH?
Fingers and comb.
DO YOU LIKE YOUR NAME?
You know, I guess I do! It’s good to have a relatively uncommon first name (despite Friendsand Bill Clinton). I changed my last name when I got married and Berry was initially hard to embrace, (my husband was not). Now I realize the alphabetical order advantage.
FINISH THIS SENTENCE: MY AGE IS…………….
…changing in October.
WHAT’S FOR DINNER TONIGHT?
Farmer’s market bounty! Tomatoes and basil, crisp cucumbers, sweet corn, roasted beets, melon…I think it’s time for lunch.
Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986), Starlight Night, Lake George, 1922 copyright Georgia O’Keeffe Museum/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
It’s certainly true that Georgia O’Keeffe is best known for her depictions of flowers and the American southwest. But my favorite O’Keeffe works have always been her paintings of New York City and those painted at Lake George, the latter of which relatively few have been included in exhibitions over the years. That is until now. I just last week visited Modern Nature: Georgia O’Keeffe and Lake George at the Hyde Collection in upstate New York. The entire show, the first of its kind, focuses on the large body of work O’Keeffe created at her husband’s — the great American photographer Alfred Stieglitz — family compound. From 1918 until 1934, O’Keeffe spent several months each year at the 36-acre Adirondack Mountain property on which she had a studio of her own. Her time spent there quite clearly served as a tremendous source of inspiration. It is also believed to have been essential in the development of her signature, modern style of abtracting nature. I so was pleased to see this very nice article that appeared this past Sunday in The New York Times about this noteworthy exhibition. If you can’t make it to the Hyde before it closes on September 15, perhaps you can see it at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum this fall/winter or the de Young Museum in San Francisco opening in February 2014. www.hydecollection.org
Over the weekend we headed out to Governors Island for Fête Paradiso — a most lovely festival of vintage French carnival rides, games and carousels. This is the first time these museum-quality, late-19th and early-20th century attractions have traveled to the United States — truly a rare treat for New York City and all that visit this magical fair. Installed in idyllic Nolan Park, we felt completely transported to Paris, helped of course by the delicious croque monsieur and pommes frites from Le Gamin, ice-cold rosé and delightful French music performed live in a repurposed circa 1930 carousel. Not to be missed. Fête Paradiso will be at Governors Island every weekend through September 29. https://www.feteparadiso.com/
As a gift for one of my most favorite people, I purchased a beautiful scarf from fashionABLE. Named after one of the strong, smart and brave women in Ethiopia who make these scarves, Etanesh, this scarf is a lovely grey with red stripes. Even better than I imagined. fashionABLE is a seriously ethical company that creates sustainable business in Africa by empowering and creating job opportunities for women at risk, many of them former sex workers. In doing so, fashionABLE is working to fight the many cycles of poverty and helping to develop productive members of society. Please take a look at their gorgeous range of scarves and the remarkable stories of the women who made each and every one. www.livefashionable.com
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Museum for a Small City Project, Interior perspective, 1941-43, copyright 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), collection Museum of Modern Art
A very nice exhibition opened last month at MoMA — Cut n’ Paste: From Architectural Assemblage to Collage City. The highlights for me were definitely the numerous Mies van der Rohe photocollages, so powerfully serene, so visionary and so great to see in person. I LOVE photocollage. Embraced by the Dadaists and the Surrealists, and clearly the most celebrated of architects, among so many others, this medium dates much further back than the early twentieth century. In fact, it dates to at least the Victorian era. In early 2010, I happened upon a truly fantastic and fantastical show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art entitled Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage. Organized by the Art Institute of Chicago, it featured previously unknown photocollages from fifteen different albums created by aristocratic women, amateur artists, in 1860s and 70s England. These works are universally superb and without question paved the way for one of the most important and influential artistic and aesthetic traditions. Cut n’ Paste: From Architectural Assemblage to Collage City is on view at MoMA through December 1, 2013. Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage by Elizabeth Siegel (The Art Institute of Chicago with Yale University Press, 2009)
In desperate need of a new wallet, I paid a visit to the Freitag store a couple of weeks ago on Bowery. If you don’t know it, Freitag is a fantastic Swiss company that has been making bags and “successories” from upcycled truck tarpaulins, seat belts, airbags and bicycle inner tubes since 1993. It was founded by the brothers Freitag, both graphic designers, out of the need for a messenger bag to keep their drawings safe and dry whilst traveling by bicycle throughout Zurich. Each piece is handcrafted in Switzerland and completely unique. I did find the wallet of my dreams, the Samantha — intelligently designed, responsibly made, and the most incredible shade of blue. Freitag, corner of Prince Street and Bowery, NYC, www.freitag.ch
