Artists have sought the company of others forever… One such notable Saratoga Springs colony, Yaddo, formed in 1926, boasts over 6,000 artists to have passed through, from Langston Hughes to Truman Capote. Google ‘Writer’s Retreats’ and pages and pages of such rejuvenating programs appear, including Vermont Studio Center; my time there enabled me to move my scattered chapters into a complete novel. These short stints of concentrated writing time often catapult one from a small group of supportive peers with whom you share your work, to a greater determination to carry on.
Monthly Archives: August 2011
Hats Make the Moment
Hats, hats, and more hats…! With designer Philip Treacy’s hats adorning the royals at the Royal Wedding as well as many of the mannequins at Alexander McQueen’s record-breaking retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, hats are what this summer is about. Although I am a fair-skinned gal and my dermatologist (and my colorist as well!) chide me mercilessly to stay away from the sun, wearing a hat because it dresses up an otherwise ordinary summer event is reason enough.
Ode to Place
In summer we find ourselves driving along the sandy roads of our past. The creep of time and population alter these places that call us home: dirt roads are now paved and dotted with new development, shopping malls replace the row of two-room cabins, old homes torn down for duplexes, but despite these changes you go back. Those of us lucky enough to descend from a large sprawling brood, lucky enough to remember when the whole sea-side town part of that extended family, yearn to see what remains of the the old haunts, to hear the old familial laugh, to glean from the next generation of faces those same big eyes or jaw line you knew way back when you tooled around with your gang of cousins going from beach to kitchen to beach to ice cream stand.
Nine Cent Girl 