Private Roads, Prophetic Turns

Expressions of Two Afternoons in Western Massachusetts

It takes too long to drive down the Housatonic from Cobble Bartholomew,
Ashley Falls to Sheffield, to Great Barrinngton to Canaan…to East Hill Road
Southfield, New Marlboro from New York City. It is a stone throw to any café on
Street 13 and Avenue 10 but I choose to escape to the “countryside” and culture
Of Western Massachusetts.

Private Roads, Prophetic Turns.

The double yellow road vanishes close to the first vacant Fire Station. As I have no
Mailbox and no tag the Fire Department is the best way to locate my tiny empire.
Before the General Store, it is not really random but logical when you understand the
Town, the terrain, the people and the territory.

My phone number is listed under my ex-husband’s name. In the wrong Town, the wrong name, Mill River. This
environmental dyslexia has encouraged me to think. It is not my fault this time. It protects me naturally from
extra suspects. But my next door neighbor
With 2,000 acres adjacent to State Protected Parks still intrudes into my back kitchen
Unannounced, uninvited, and walks into my house as if it is still hers. She acclaims
“yoo hoo”. Where is my privacy from here? Did it exist for past residents?
Poets, Musicians, Artists, INDIANS, Gentry.
Did they wan to work, meditate, undisturbed, did the town congregate like a coop and interfere in times?
Involved in daily ceremonies of the neighbors, the cultural institutions, the churches, and the libraries.

“Dog, go home” I scold. He yelps and leaves. Could I say that to Mrs. R when she
investigates my backyard.
Perrigrinates.
Private Roads do not exist.
Prophetic turns
rescind
extra pains only in my thoughts.
Reclaim our liberty here in the woods with our neighbors looking, still, over
Our shoulder.
How did the semi famous individuals do it here before me? What is this history?
Do we need a tea party? Can the artistic individual exist separate from society?
My thesis, my conclusion, will unfold as I pursue this project and investigate.
My towns, my neighbors, our history, the annals of New Marlboro, Mill River, Southfield,
Berkshire County and surrounding areas.

I see the mountain as a poem.

The river as a novel.
The tree is a paragraph.
The leaf an apostrophe.
A flower is the prayer. A branch could be a meditation.
The fields, the forest, the woods, beyond human understanding or horizons.
No boundaries, no breadth, no fences. No preconditions or punctuations.
But trial and error repetition, consistency, no formality.
Nature is a miracle. Not a mechanical achievement. Man is the caretaker to the restive, random fluency, fluidity,
without litigation or supervision. Beyond criticism or lawsuits, or locks or doors.
The rivers and sky are astronomical, magical portals to another side.
A mystery, a contemplation, the lakes, the ponds, the tributary, another mystery.
The lawn, man’s comprehension: of a prayer. Who wrote the song? The incantation, the message? Who
designed the sun, fog, rain, countryside, landscapes?

My project for the grant will be inspired by the land, the territory, my travels and research that started about 25
years ago, with a love affair with Western Massachusetts, where I spend much time now and have with my
family and friends as a respite and inspiration from my other travels.
I have been inspired by Edith Warton, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Gerald Malanga, Adrienne Rich,
Joyce Carol Oates, Will Barnett, who all were equally inspired by the same landscapes and spirits as the
Stockbridge Indians.

I intend to reread the writings of Melville, including his essay on art. I also plan to integrate the books on Celtic
and Indian culture of the territory. Indian New England Before The Mayflower, by Howard Russell, 1980, Press
of New England, The Moundbuilders, Ancient Peoples of Eastern North America, George Milner, 2004, Thames
and Hudson, Nature’s Way, Native Wisdom for Living in Balance Within The Earth, Ed McGan, Harper San
Francisco, 2004. I am also inspired by Jules Verne, whose ideas replicate some of my own even though they
are more international. Also the spirit of Rip Van Winkel, an individualist, as described by Melville and
Washington Irving of course.

I plan to paint a series based on these characters, portraits and photographs and research.
I then plan to exhibit them online through the Great Barrington hotspots as well as in my home at 815 Hotchkiss
Road, and at the Town Meeting Hall in New Marlborto and at the gallery of Sanford Smith in Great Barrington. I
an then do a lecture, presentation at will for the Berkshire Community College and Bard College as well as at my
home, in Great Barrington, and anywhere else needed. I will also show this in New York City at CVB Space and
internationally online.
I can publicize through online advertising, advertisements in Chronogram, The Berkshire Eagle, newsletters,
postcards, The Pulse Newspaper, Norfolk Now and anything else that the Sanford Smith gallery or The Towns of
Mill River or New Marlboro or the real estate firms or colleges recommend. It would cost that 2,500 for the online
and art supplies purchased locally at JWS in Great Barrington, the projector and the advertising.

The paintings will be entitled the following:

1.Private Roads, Prophetic Turns
2.Boundaries and Fences
3.Black Bear Cub Keeps His Distance
4.Tanglewood Tales for Now
5.Stockbridge Indian Summer
6.Housatonic Perrigrinations
7.Customs of The Country
8.Lilac Time as told to Melville through Washington Irving
9 Dog Go Home
10.Bartholomew Cobble Meditations
11.Buttermilk Falls As Seen By Jules Verne as in (Mysterious Island)

These paintings are touch stones and will be followed by a series of future works and will be complimented by
multimedia videos including my related poetry, photographs, paintings and music.