Excursions: My Summer Vacation

In July I decided to take a vacation in order to rest up for the 50th anniversary exhibition for the Roswell Artist-in-Residency Program we'll be installing in September. It had occurred to me that I hadn't been home for a New England summer in three years, so I booked myself a ticket to Portland and headed back east for a week of family, friends and fun.

For the first couple of days I was in Maine with my parents. One of the things I miss most about the East Coast is its cool, salty air, so we made a point of spending time at the beach. The shores here are known for their rugged character, less sandy beaches and more jagged rocks. It's not the sort of beach I'd recommend lounging on, but rather for exploration. Whether you're scanning the pebbly sand for beach glass or shells, comparing different types of seaweed, or pawing through tide pools in search of tiny crabs, there's always something to discover here.

Later that day, my folks took me to one of their favorite walking trails, a meandering path that takes you along forests, ponds and creeks. The lily pads were just coming into bloom, and we could see muskrats and the occasional fish jumping from the languid water. It's hard to believe all this beautiful nature exists within a few miles of Maine's largest city.

I especially liked seeing all of the ferns, which I thought would make for fantastic cyanotypes. What can I say, I'm always thinking of art projects.

Later in the week, we took an excursion to Vermont to see one of my good friends in Shelburne. As readers may recall, Shelburne was where I lived and worked before coming to Roswell; I had actually started this blog there. I only lived there for two years, but those two years were full of fun, professionally and personally. As much as I loved the job though, my position was a contract one, so I was never going to stay there permanently anyway.

I hadn't been back to Shelburne since I left, so there was a lot of anticipation during the drive up. How would I feel being back here? Would I still feel the same sense of satisfaction and contentment?

Yes, I would. 

New Mexico may be known as the Land of Enchantment, but for me personally, that title belongs to Vermont. Don't get me wrong, New Mexico is a beautiful state, and I completely understand why so many people ave fallen in love with it over the years. For me though, Vermont is the place where I feel entranced. I've always likened the feeling I get there to the Island of the Lotus Eaters.

I spent a great deal of time down at Shelburne Farms, located along the shores of Lake Champlain. As Frederick Law Olmsted's last commission, it's designed to be photogenic at every angle, but what landscape hasn't been modified by humans over the last several millennia?

I also revisited Shelburne Museum for the first time in four years. It's a quirky as ever, but there have also been some good changes since I left, not least of which the completion of the Pizzagalli Center for Art and Education. No place should ever remain static, so it's nice to see that Shelburne has moved forward like everybody else.

I won't deny that I still miss Vermont, but I don't live in the past either, and so I was off to visit my sister in her new house.

After Vermont we drove down to Dover, New Hampshire, where my sister lives. It's an old mill town that has experienced a bit of urban revival over the last twenty years or so, and has become a rather nice place to live with lots of restaurants, independently-owned shops, and parks. It's actually the town where I was born, though I've been told it was a bit rougher around the edges then.
  

Among the highlights of my visit was an impromptu visit my sister and I made to the Woodman Museum (my sister's idea rather than mine, actually). Opened in 1916, this gem of a place boasts four historic buildings and a collection of New Hampshire history encompassing art, military artifacts, and old-school taxidermy. We both learned a lot about Dover's history, and saw a lot of cool stuff to boot. If you get the chance to visit, you should definitely check it out.

After a fun-filled weekend, I had lunch with an aunt and uncle before heading back to my parents, as they live close to the airport. Before sending me off, we all had a lobster dinner at home, because what else are you going to do in Maine?

I did plenty of sketching during the trip, but since I had spilled water on my sketchbook, I used the sketching app on my phone. Having lived in a dry climate for several years, I'd forgotten that things don't dry so quickly in humid environments. The first scene is of Lake Champlain and the Green Mountains edging it, as I've been wanting to do a color linocut of it for years. The second is of clams my sister had gotten for a pasta dish, and the green tomatoes were from her garden.

After such a marvelous time with friends and family in beautiful, history-filled places, it was a little difficult coming back to Roswell. As always though, when I come back from a wonderful excursion and start to feel wistful, I remember the closing lines of one of my favorite childhood books, The Phantom Tollbooth:

"Well, I would like to make another trip, but I really don't know when I'll have the time. There's just so much to do right here!"

Image courtesy of http://thephantomtollbooth.wikia.com/wiki/The_Phantom_Tollbooth_(book)