Rescue me

“Menagerie of Marvels: Paintings by Eleanor Hubbard,” in the Community Gallery at the M.V. Museum through Jan. 17, offers art that will delight your eye and warm your heart. Entering the show, we are greeted by bright portraits of animals in appealing colors, each looking at us with an endearing countenance. From lamb to kitten, to turtle, to flying squirrel, each has a moving rescue story — a chance encounter with the right person at the right time saved their life. 

Hubbard, a full-time Islander, has loved art for as long as she can remember: “I had a great interest in looking at images from the beginning, and in how to make them myself. My mother and father were also extraordinarily compassionate people. My father was more active in the rescue department, and my mother, of course, would take care of whatever he had brought in. Rescuing was just a normal part of life. And I could draw them.”

Hubbard first intentionally began painting rescued animals after saving Magnus the Magnificent in 1973. Young boys were stoning the dog, justifying their actions by saying, “He’s just an old street dog.” With his endearing countenance, we see why Hubbard adopted what turned out to be an 8-month-old pup, and enjoyed him for 19 years.

Hubbard pours her heart into her paintings. For instance, each portrait of José the ox is tender, revealing his soulful eyes. His story begins when a Vineyard restaurant manager bought a young José for veal, but ended up raising him as a pet. A few years later, a much larger José tangled with the law when he escaped, frightening tourists, who called the police. Ordered to settle José on a farm, his rescuer placed a newspaper ad seeking a safe home. By chance, Hubbard saw the ad and offered to take José to live on her ¼-acre plot. Told he needed 100 acres, she happened to have friends who had just bought such a farm in Lenox, which began José’s long career as Hubbard’s model, inspiring a giant pyramid constructed from many individual images of the bovine.

Hubbard says, “I chose the triangle, a symbol of transformation, to celebrate the mystery of his life and his 5,987 extra days. Within the triangle are identical ox cutouts, each colored differently, just as each of José’s additional days was experienced differently, each a unique gift with no explanation but compassion.”

When you think of rescued animals, a lobster might not immediately jump to mind. But the story behind Madam Prufrock tells a different tale. Hubbard depicts this lobster in rich strokes of paint, each one a different color, so the lobster becomes a jigsaw puzzle of intense hues. Madam Prufrock comes from a tradition that began in 1979. A friend of Hubbard’s planned to host a Lobster Newburg dinner and asked her if she’d like a lobster as a birthday gift. Accepting the offer, the artist and her friend acquired two female lobsters loaded with eggs from a Menemsha fish market. Hubbard surprised her friend by releasing her lobster, which moved the friend to do the same, and a birthday rescue-and-release tradition was born.

Lucky, the bright yellow canary with a regal garland of orchids, has a remarkable story. The bird flew through a thunderstorm down one of Philadelphia’s busiest streets through the open door of a beauty salon. When it collapsed on the floor, clients thought the bird was dead. Fortunately, the owner, who had worked for a famous canary breeder in Tokyo, knew the way to save the avian was feeding it a bit of cake. Once recovered, Lucky perched in the orchid-filled window, attracting new customers into the shop, making the coincidence lucky for the bird and owner alike. “It’s one of those stories,” says Hubbard, “that you can’t make up. You can never imagine it, but serendipitously it did happen.”

The exhibition curator, Donna Hassler, writes in her introductory panel to the show, “Hubbard’s commitment to animals extends beyond the studio. In 2018, she created ‘Hubbard’s Cupboard,’ a community fund that helps Islanders with veterinary care for their pets through the Martha’s Vineyard Animal Shelter.” Hassler hopes visitors resonate with the humanitarian aspect of the exhibit, citing “the idea of caring for animals in the wild that need help and need to be adopted to continue their lives.”

Hubbard says, “I’m fascinated by the marvels that exist in everyday, ordinary life. When you pay attention and listen to what’s going on, you can hear some of them.” She continues, “The show’s underlying theme came together by serendipity. I’ve had so many serendipitous moments, and so have all these animals. To me, that is how we are all connected.” Speaking about the animals in her artwork, Hubbard notes, “They are ushering in the renewed era of compassion. That’s extremely important. These all existed because someone reached out a hand.”

“Menagerie of Marvels: Paintings by Eleanor Hubbard” is on view at the M.V. Museum through Jan. 17.