It feels impossible to be writing May 1 already. Didn’t April just start? The wind has been so cold I was wearing my down jacket working outside on Sunday. Still, it’s been a week of magnolias resplendent. And forsythia. Our Island spring may be chilly, but it is still beautiful and so very welcome. Peas are coming up. Onions. Greens of all manner. The soil feels warm. The color green in all its variations. If only the wind would die down.
I feel eager to start exploring my favorite painting spots, to pack up my gear and a sandwich and head out to paint somewhere, to admire the landscape unfolding around me. Or just to capture the woods softening, coloring up outside my windows. Driving by the Mill Pond yesterday I observed the still-rusty-orange skirt of shrubbery in the distance and the pale chartreuse of willow flowers following the tight catkins, a painterly combination.
I ran into Elaine and Dan Pace at Vineyard Gardens last week. Elaine told me about “watching” her son, Ryan, who ran his 21st Boston Marathon the day before. She and Dan were able to follow his progress on their computer with some sort of tracking program. Amazing. There was a brief glitch when all seemed to disappear, but it fortunately turned out to be their computer and not any disruption of the race or Ryan’s stopping. He completed the race in just over three hours. Well done.
If you know Jay Segal, he is quite the Renaissance man, capable in many disciplines. Besides being the man about whom most everyone I know says, “He saved my feet,” he is a designer of gait-correcting orthotics, a writer about body mechanics, a gardener of note, a writer of children’s books, and a writer/player/singer of songs. Wearing the latter hat, he told me about his latest coup, selling three songs to Viacom for MTV’s “Catfish” Season 3. You can hear instrumental versions 1 and 2 of “Hello,” and “Leaving,” both from his CD, “Extended Family.” Jay and his musical partners, Rick Bausman and Mark Cohen, are very excited and proud, justifiably so. “S’wonderful,” as George Gershwin wrote.
Wendy Weldon is exhibiting at the Chilmark Library this month, May 3–22, acrylics on canvas and mounted monotypes. Her work is an exploration of color and shape, manipulated and abstracted, of barns and Chilmark’s stone walls, of birds, animals, the world around her and us. More of her work can be seen at North Water Gallery and on her website: wendyweldon.com.
The Granary Gallery, although open the year-round, has been setting out ever-more enticing objects on their lawn and outdoor walls, signaling a new, springtime art energy. All of the local galleries seem to be on the path towards opening up and presenting new work. Allen and Lynne Whiting have bright red tulips and their sign announcing the Davis House Gallery. The Field Gallery will open soon. So will Kara Taylor. So will I. Nancy Shaw Cramer already has expanded hours and lots of new offerings; she will be open every day but Monday beginning May 1.
At the West Tisbury Library, Julia Mitchell’s tapestries will remain on display through the summer.
A Tween/Teen Advisory Group meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 5, at 3:30 pm. Librarians are looking for input and help to select new books, movies, and plan events for your age group, so come and speak up.
Also on Monday, May 5, at 7 pm, the Graphic Novel Book Club begins, led by Carolina Cooney. The book is available at the library’s circulation desk.
Weekly storytimes are reconvening in the new Children’s Room, beginning Thursday, May 8. Guest reader Nicole Cabot of Island Grown Schools will read and lead songs for young children. Mother Goose on the Loose for infants to three year olds resumes on Monday, May 5. Both story-times begin at 10:30 am.
The library is partnering with the Martha’s Vineyard Writers’ Residency on a new program called “Writers on Wednesdays.” Two readings are planned, May 7 and 14, 5 to 6 pm. The current group includes published novelists, poets, non-fiction writers, and short-story writers. All will be reading excerpts from their latest works. The residency program gives writers two to six weeks in a private hotel in Edgartown, nine writers at a time. There are two residencies — April 1 through May 15, and September 15 through October 31. What a fabulous sounding program. Time away to completely focus on one’s work, the company of fellow writers, rooms and dinners accounted for. I wish there was one for painters.
The wind seems to be picking up again. I hope we won’t need a fire again tonight.
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