Couple of Coffees

Tripping down memory lane

We're in the Hudson Valley this evening, after a nice drive down Route 9 and a back-in-time tour of Vassar College, my alma mater. It was fun to show Jonathan around campus and around the area. Although it was closed up for the summer, we were able to get into a few buildings and poke around. I felt a bit disoriented, since I haven't been back since graduation.

Last night we stayed in western Massachusetts with friends Aaron and Jenn, who are restoring a gorgeous old home that used to be their village's library. It's full of charm and personality, and Jenn and Aaron have done a great job with it. We were amazed by its character and its many interesting rooms. The four of us had dinner, long conversations and plenty of coffee this morning. Jenn likes hats, too! We met them earlier in the summer at Gary and Marisa's wedding, so it was fun to spend more time together.

On our way out to their slice of paradise, we toured the Clark art gallery in Williamstown, Mass. There's a fantastic exhibit right now about Sterling Clark, who the gallery is named for, and his brother Stephen, which pairs the works each purchased and compares and contrasts their artistic tastes. And if that wasn't interesting enough, the gallery did a community poll about which 50 works of art are the favorites of regular gallery-goers. Then they marked each one and added quotes explaining why the people chose that particular painting or statue. Many were from very knowledgable art curators or professors at Williams, and they added a human touch as well as some historical anecdotes to viewing the paintings. One was from a second-grader, too. The favorite piece in the gallery, by far, was John Singer Sargent's depiction of a woman in white smelling ambergris ("Fumee d'Ambre Gris").

Jonathan discovered an enjoyment of Renoir and Degas and reaffirmed his interest in Monet's work. I spent a lot of time reading all the interesting captions and looking at the side-by-side works that Stephen and Sterling chose. A few were purchased by one, then later by the other, so that was really interesting, too.

As if that wasn't enough art, we ventured south to Stockbridge to tour the Norman Rockwell museum. You can walk through his studio, which is the way he left it, and feel the original floorboards beneath your feet. Although Rockwell images are ingrained into the national consciousness, they're really powerful in person, even if you've seen the print a dozen or more times. It's striking. There was also a Remington exhibit there. And experts recently realized the "Breaking Home Ties" painting that was previously thought to be a Rockwell was actually a forgery done by Don Trachte, an artist and cartoonist, while the original was hung behind a wall in Trachte's home. The original was recovered and on exhibit there. You can read more about that story at this link.

Tomorrow morning we head to New jersey for the wedding. We had intended to get to that area tonight, but the sightseeing and a few delicious cups of coffee put us a little behind schedule. Which is all the more delicious.

posted by Laura the Writer @ 5:20 PM