Altered Books: Cranberry Red

The Marin Museum of Contemporary Art will be exhibiting artist's altered books from April 26th through May 21st in their galleries at Hamilton Field in Novato, California. The exhibit is a benefit for Marin MOCA and their programs. My submission is shown above - a very personal response to the challenge of altering a book and making art from it.

Cranberry Red was a novel written by Plymouth, Massachusetts newspaperman Edward B. Garside, Jr. Ted Garside was a good friend of my father, and during my childhood served as an inspiration to me - he was a real writer, and that was one of the things I aspired to do. His biggest career accomplishment was to review books, especially histories and biographies, for the New York Times. He wrote a column of “things that interest me” for the Old Colony Memorial, a weekly published every Thursday.

Ted was like a kindly, rather reticent "uncle" with a dry sense of humor. The book critics savaged Cranberry Red, and my dad said that he never got over it. He tried to show what life was like for the Cape Verde islanders who provided the hard labor for growing cranberries. The large local Portuguese immigrant community in southeastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod did not accept the Cape Verdeans.

They were dark-complexioned and their language was a distinct dialect. They were also ignored by the majority of the white population, and lived their lives in their own small communities surrounding the cranberry bogs. Garside had made many friends among the workers, and the book was sympathetic to their plight. But the tone of the times was not kind to an account of immigrant agricultural workers, especially dark-skinned.

Ted Garside’s book is no longer available and he never wrote another novel. However, the Cape Verdean population has assimilated into the population at large in the 70+ years since the book was written. The cranberry crop is still a major source of agricultural income for the area, and the distinctive "screen house" barns and bogs have survived, albeit in smaller numbers as development of new housing has encroached.

Home Town Notes

Fairfax, California lies twenty-five miles north and west of San Francisco, bisected by the Marin County-wide east west thoroughfare Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. Located in the geographic center of Marin County, the town has approximately 7,500 residents, and for many years has been known for its political independence and laid-back qualities. The icon of the town's center is the 1948 art deco Fairfax Theater which has added screens over the years to become on of the county's top first-run movie houses.

Fairfax is home to many unique businesses including the oldest natural foods market in Marin, Good Earth Natural Foods. Currently occupying its second location in thirty years, the market will expand to a new facility twice its present size in October 2011. Other businesses include art galleries, music stores, a famous ice cream spot, bakeries, restaurants and great bars featuring live music. I've lived in Fairfax since 1978, and my children grew up here enjoying the small town ambiance and comfortable atmosphere. We chose Fairfax as a place to live not knowing much about it, and have come to love it.

To the west is Taylor State Park, San Geronimo Valley, and Point Reyes National Seashore with the wonderful coastal hamlets of Inverness and Point Reyes Station only 40 minutes away by car. We're close to San Rafael, the Marin County seat, and about 45 minutes from San Francisco. We are situated in a series on conjoined canyons with hills covered with native live oak, redwood, and other indigenous varieties of flora and fauna. It's truly a unique place, and I truly think of it as my "home town". Come visit us some time . . . .

In The Wine Country

I'm very lucky to live less than an hour away from Northern California's Wine Country. The valleys of Sonoma and Napa produce some of the world's finest wines, and the planting of grapes has altered the natural landscape in myriad ways. One of my favorite areas is the Carneros District that spans the southern flanks of both Sonoma and Napa, bordered by San Pablo Bay. The wine produced by Bouchaine, Artesa, Etude and others ranges from chardonnay to especially wonderful pinot noir.

The landscape here is fascinating, with parallel rows of vines criss-crossing the rolling hills down to the bay. Different varietals require different row spacing and direction, so the patterns are like patchwork quilts. The winery buildings range from faux French castles to rustic redwood barns, and reflect many styles of vernacular and high style architecture.

Every season reveals different colors and patterns, from the heavy dark green leaves and grape bunches of harvest season to the pruned bare black trunks of winter to the bright green new growth of spring. Visiting wineries and enjoying the wines and surroundings is now a year round activity.

I've been working on a new series of Carneros images to be published by ArtBrokers, Inc. The three illustrated here will join an earlier work, Carneros Winery Barn in a series of four prints. My thanks to David Coyle for his art direction and collaboration in bringing these images to life.

Back on the road again - Kind of. . . . .

It's been a year and a half since I sat down to write in my blog - during the fall of 2009 I spent three months in hospital and rehabilitation, and rejoined the artistic community about a year ago at this time. My life is very different now - because of chronic pain issues and a colostomy, my travel and endurance has been limited. I did manage a solo show in San Francisco at 555 California from January to March, and another at the Fairfax Library in April 2010.
I traveled to Rome and spent the month of June at my sister's home in my birthplace, Plymouth, Massachusetts, catching up with relatives and old friends. In July, I took part in Gallery Route One's Members' Show, and in August entered the Box Show, an annual fundraiser. My piece, The Blue Barn, was sold for the show's high bid of $700. I was elected Chair of the Artist Members and have spent much time and effort in that role.
In December and January I had my first solo exhibition in the Center Gallery, and exhibited 30 works, among them several new three-dimensional assemblages of vernacular buildings from around the country, selling a few. The response was very good, and I'm currently working on new pieces for the 2011 Members' Show at GRO. I've found much satisfaction in my involvement with the gallery - I've met many people who have become good friends, and I feel as if I'm contributing to something very worthwhile.
Through the help of my dear friend JoAnn Locktov, I was featured in three recent prominent design blogs:

Modenus.com: <http://www.modenus.com/blog/interiordesign/just-off-the-road-the-art-of-eric-engstrom> (Veronika Miller / Tim Bogan), Roaming By Design: <http://roamingbydesign.com/?p=1874>(Saxon Henry), and Architects+Artisans: <http://architectsandartisans.com/index.php/2011/02/mixed-media-from-the-blue-highways> (Mike Welton).

The response to all three blogs and to the show has been good. I feel as if my newish (3+) year career as a fine artist might at last be coming to some measure of success. Now I'm busy working on the "next step", contacting galleries and looking for new venues to show my work. Because of financial and health constraints, I'm traveling shorter distances, and have gone back to earlier images as the basis of new pieces. And I promise to write on my blog a bit more frequently.

Northern California Barns: Routes 1 and 128

The coastal California Route 1 and State Route 128 wind through some of the loveliest seaside and rural country in America. The field grasses of late summer have turned light yellow, and wave in the light breezes, providing a contrast to the dark wood or red paint and corrugated zinc roofs on farm and ranch buildings. The barns in Sonoma and Mendocino are for the most part connected to dairy farms, while those in the picturesque Anderson Valley are split equally between dairy and vineyard/orchard uses. Most barns were built in the early part of the twentieth century, and some have fallen into disrepair as land use changes. They still provide a sense of agricultural and vernacular architectural history, however, and are an integral part of what makes the area so beautiful and so intriguing.

The Box Show

Hangar, Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, New York

The annual Box Show will be on exhibit at Gallery Route One, 11101 State Highway One in Point Reyes Station, California from August 9th through September 13th. A public reception will be Sunday, August 9th from 3 pm to 5 pm at the Gallery. Each of the 100 artists invited to submit is provided with an unfinished pine box 7" x 14" x 5" with which to create an original art work. Please join us for this wonderful event!

The Box Show is the major fund-raiser each year for GRO's community outreach programs including Artists in The Schools and The Latino Photography Project. Visitors can submit bids on the art pieces in a silent auction format for the duration of the exhibit, and winners will be announced at the closing reception on Sunday, September 13th.

My piece, a mixed media construction, is titled "Hangar, Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, New York". Floyd Bennett Field was New York's original commercial airport, and many of the original 1930s hangars still remain. Some have been converted to new uses including a sports center, while others are abandoned and awaiting new uses. The site and buildings are now administered by the National Park Service.

New Mixed Media Art

American Vernacular Landscapes Revisited
Recent media art is currently on display as part of the Gallery Route One Members' Show 2009 at the gallery, 11101 State Highway One, Point Reyes, California through the month of July. The images include new versions of previously created images as well as new views of Sausalito, California and Plymouth, Massachusetts.