Florence Griswold Museum

"You see, I am stuffed, so I have no brains at all."

noreply@blogger.com (David Rau) — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 18:34:00 +0000

"When I was a boy," L. Frank Baum told a newspaper in 1904, "I was tremendously interested in scarecrows. They always seemed to my childish imagination as just about to wave their arms, straighten up and stalk across the field on their long legs. I lived on a farm, you know. It was natural then, that my first character in this animated life series was the Scarecrow..." (Michael Patrick Hearn, The Annotated Wizard of Oz)

Baum introduces his first Oz character with these words:

"There was a great cornfield beyond the fence, and not far away she saw a Scarecrow, placed high on a pole to keep the birds from the ripe corn ... Its head was a small sack stuffed with straw, with eyes, nose and mouth painted on it to represent a face. An old, pointed blue hat, that had belonged to some Munchkin, was perched on this head, and the rest of the figure was a blue suit of clothes, worn and faded, which had also been stuffed with straw. On the feet were some old boots with blue tops, such as every man wore in this country, and the figure was raised above the stalks of corn by means of the pole stuck up its back."

Fifteen years after the first book, the Scarecrow become the title character in Baum's The Scarecrow of Oz . The Scarecrow "type" seems to go through minor variations in the early years.

It's hard to imagine any other actor playing the part of the Scarecrow other than Ray Bolger. However, he was originally cast as the Tin Man. As fate would have it, the roles were switched prior to the production. Personally, I always felt a little bad for the Tin Man and Lion when Dorothy confesses to the scarecrpw, "I think I'll miss you most of all," before climbing into the balloon. Later I learned that MGM had a love interest plot between Dorothy and Hunk, the farmhand who became the scarecrow in Dorothy's dream, linking the two. Thank goodness someone had the brains to not go there.

Dorothy: Now which way do we go?

Scarecrow: Pardon me, this way is a very nice way.

Dorothy: Who said that?

[Toto barks at scarecrow]

Dorothy: Don't be silly, Toto. Scarecrows don't talk.

Scarecrow: [points other way] It's pleasant down that way, too.

Dorothy: That's funny. Wasn't he pointing the other way?

Scarecrow: [points both ways] Of course, some people do go both ways.

A more recent image (2008) of the Scarecrow for Marvel Comics by the creative team of Skottie Young and Eric Shanower.

For the Museum's Wee Faerie Village in the Land of Oz faerie Scarecrow, the illustrator took a walk on the wild side, literally. According to Miller, the scarecrow faerie "had the potential to go in so many different directions. But I knew he would be made out of garden detritus. I spent the most time wandering through the neighbor's garden thinking about this character. I brought a lot of stuff into the studio from the garden. Which helped on the rest of the character concepts too."

The final design paid homage to some of the earlier faerie illustrations using maple seedling for wings.

David D.J. Rau
Director of Education and Outreach

David D.J. Rau coordinates as well as participates in the Museum’s October creative endeavors. You can contact him at david@flogris.org.

"If I Were King of the Forest!"

noreply@blogger.com (David Rau) — Fri, 05 Jul 2013 18:26:00 +0000

The Cowardly Lion's song in the 1939 MGM film says it all: "Yeah, it's sad, believe me Missy / When you're born to be a sissy / Without the vim and verve ... I'm afraid there's no denyin' / I'm just a dandylion / A fate I don't deserve." Nevertheless, the character of the Cowardly Lion was placed on the cover of the original 1900 edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. On the cover the Lion is shown wearing the green spectacles required of all visitors who enter the dazzlingly brilliant Emerald City.

L. Frank Baum gives the Lion a dramatic entrance: "Just as he spoke there came from the forest a terrible roar, and the next moment a great Lion bounded into the road. With one blow of his paw he sent the Scarecrow spinning over and over to the edge of the road, and then he struck at the Tin Woodman with his sharp claws. But, to the Lion's surprise, he could make no impression on the tin, although the Woodman fell over in the road and lay still. Little Toto, now that he had an enemy to face, ran barking toward the Lion, and the great beast had opened his mouth to bite the dog, when Dorothy, fearing Toto would be killed, and heedless of danger, rushed forward and slapped the Lion upon his nose as hard as she could, while she cried out:

"Don't you dare to bite Toto! You ought to be ashamed of yourself, a big beast like you, to bite a poor little dog!"

"I didn't bite him," said the Lion, as he rubbed his nose with his paw where Dorothy had hit it.

"No, but you tried to," she retorted. "You are nothing but a big coward."

"I know it," said the Lion, hanging his head in shame. "I've always known it. But how can I help it?"

One of W. W. Denslow's images of the Lion seems to capture the exhausted creature's comments in the MGM movie when he explains to his new friends that he cannot fall asleep:

Cowardly Lion: Look at the circles under my eyes. I haven't slept in weeks!

Tin Woodsman: Why don't you try counting sheep?

Cowardly Lion: That doesn't do any good, I'm afraid of 'em.

Here's a few Lion images of the early Wizard of Oz stage productions.

Enter Bert Lahr, an actual Leo being born on August 13, 1895. Fresh from a theatrical career in burlesque and vaudeville, Lahr's vibrant portrayal of the Lion was a hit. His two singing solos in the movie might just balance his having to endure the heat the hot studio lights while wearing a heavy costume fashioned with real lion fur. Now, that's hot.

The image of the Cowardly Lion goes through myriad of manifestations in later books including his most recent homage as Brrr in Wicked author Gregory Maquire's A Lion Among Men.

For illustrator Aaron Miller, the task was to put faerie-esque wings onto the large furry Cowardly Lion. His solution was to imagine a fuzzy moth with wings detailed with lion paw markings. According to the illustrator regarding the Lion: "This was one of my favorites. I mixed the lion with a moth. Moths just have that fuzziness that was perfect for the lion character."

The first rendition was a tad scary until Aaron was able to provide the Cowardly Lion with some endearing eyes.

David D.J. Rau
Director of Education and Outreach

David D.J. Rau coordinates as well as participates in the Museum’s October creative endeavors. You can contact him at david@flogris.org.

"Why it's a man! A man made out of tin!"

noreply@blogger.com (David Rau) — Thu, 27 Jun 2013 20:38:00 +0000

This is how L. Frank Baum introduces the Tin Woodman:

"Just then another groan reached their ears, and the sound seemed to come from behind them. They turned and walked through the forest a few steps, when Dorothy discovered something shining in a ray of sunshine that fell between the trees. She ran to the place, and then stopped short, with a cry of surprise.

One of the big trees had been partly chopped through, and standing beside it, with an uplifted axe in his hands, was made entirely out of tin. His head and arms and legs were jointed upon his body, but he stood perfectly motionless, as if he could not stir at all."

The illustrator of the original publication, William Wallace Denslow, drew him like this.

This 1899 soap ad features a man made out of pots and pans. One theory behind the creation of the Tin Man was the author's earlier job as window dresser. He created a man out of washboiler, saucepans, and stovepipes parts and capped him with a funnel according to Michael Patrick Hearn.

According to Hearn, the biggest success for L. Frank Baum was taking the story from the page to the stage, and this happened as a vaudeville musical review as early as 1902.

When MGM was in production for the 1939 movie, Buddy Epsen, known to millions for his role as Jed Clampett in The Beverly Hillbillies, was cast as the Tin Man. Unfortunately he had a terrible reaction to the make-up and was replaced by Jack Haley.

The story of how the Tin Man came to be is included in the original Wizard of Oz narrative. He was born human, the son of a woodman. After falling in love with a Munchkin girl whose mother did not want her to marry. The woman convinced the Witch of the East to enchant the young man's axe. It began to chop of various parts of his body. The local tin-smith fashioned one body part after the other until he was completely metal. In his haste, the tin-smith forgot to include a heart. He soon lost all the love he had for the Munchkin maiden. The story is more fully told in the 12th book in the Oz series, The Tin Woodman of Oz in which we learn the young man's name is Nick Chopper.

The web if full of images of the Tin Man. This Steampunk version was created by Chaz Kemp. I also love the I (heart) Tin Man tee-shirt that is missing the heart.

So in thinking about our project, the illustrator Aaron Miller had to put on his thinking cap. This image of the Tin Man missing his funnel is by Ingvard the Terrible and is a perfect image for keeping an open mind.

Chicago illustrator Aaron Miller's task was complex. Not only did he have to re-think the Tin Man image for himself, despite the hundreds of Tin Man images already in existence, but he also had to conjure him as a faerie.

According to Miller, "He was inspired by some Christmas ornaments from when I was a kid. He's like a wind-up toy I guess. I wanted the idea to be that he needs a key to keep him wound rather than an oil can."

According to Miller, "He's made out of copper, tin, and aluminum I think. I'm pretty sure you can't mention iron. I think that's faerie kryptonite or something."

In making the faerie version, the wings were added and the traditional funnel needed to be swapped out for something more in scale with a faerie. Miller's thimble is the perfect solution.

Introducing the Tin Man Faerie for the Wee Faerie Village in the Land of Oz.

David D.J. Rau
Director of Education and Outreach

David D.J. Rau coordinates as well as participates in the Museum’s October creative endeavors. You can contact him at david@flogris.org.

For the Birds

noreply@blogger.com (David Rau) — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 13:05:00 +0000

We are still a few weeks away from unveiling some of Aaron Miller's terrific artwork for the Wee Faerie Village in the Land of Oz so I thought I'd share the images we commissioned back in 2011 for Of Feathers and Fairytales.

The concept was that Miss Florence began to read some of her favorite fairytales to her cats one sleepy afternoon in Old Lyme. After she finished reading stories of princes and castles and fair maidens she remarked aloud that the stories were "for the birds." That's when the cats began to listen more closely and began to dream about all those fairytale (and perhaps tasty) birds. This illustration is based on a painting by William Chadwick of Miss Florence sitting on her red sofa in the front parlor.

The first thing we needed for our avian adventure was a storybook castle for the birds.

Then came Prince Chirpin. That was our best play on "charming."

We had a contest to name the fair maiden, but in the end Princess Wrenivere seemed too perfect.

Lastly, we needed a little drama and magic in the castle and poof! Majicaw.

David D.J. Rau
Director of Education and Outreach

David D.J. Rau coordinates as well as participates in the Museum’s October creative endeavors. You can contact him at david@flogris.org.

Upcoming Blog Entries:

Illustrating the Museum's October Events
Meet the Museum’s New Fantasy Illustrator Aaron Miller
Just C’Oz: Other Creative Endeavors Inspired by Oz

In the Trees

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Kurtz Lansing) — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:04:00 +0000

Matthew Geller’s new sculpture, Anticipator, will combine bionic metal limbs with a tree from the Museum grounds. When snow was still falling (and falling) this winter, Facilities Manager Ted Gaffney and I considered the options with a tour of the grounds.

The Museum maintains an inventory of the trees
on our property, with notes about their health, care, and future management. Using the inventory, Ted and I identified several trees that are dead, and thus slated for removal at some point. We then sent a list of the trees along with pictures of each possibility to the artist. Matthew Geller needed a tree with a circumference that would allow it to support the metal limbs of his sculpture, but also one that would not be too thick or unstable when lying on its side.

The winner was star magnolia originally planted by Florence Griswold. It stood between her house and the Lyme Art Association. The tree recently died, perhaps due to damage from the sapsuckers that have made rows of small holes in the bark.

Star Magnolia planted by Miss Florence

Damaged bark

Although we regretted that the tree could not be saved, we liked the fact that a tree selected by Miss Florence could find new life in an artwork on a different part of her property. We think Miss Florence would have been delighted to see her tree incorporated into the sculpture, which will resemble an exotic hybrid not unlike the unusual plantings she sought out for placement on the grounds around her home.

In March, Geller came to asses the tree and make plans for how it should be cut to prepare it for his sculpture. Some limbs would need to be removed so that the trunk would lay flat on the ground. He also marked out an area near the river as the site for the sculpture.

Matthew Geller (left) evaluating the magnolia

Marking out the site of the final sculpture with flags and string

In late April, Lomas Tree Service came to cut the tree, with Museum staff and artist Matthew Geller looking on. Although they would normally cut the tree into pieces, they had to figure out how to fell the tree in one piece so that it would stay intact for use in the sculpture.

Removing unnecessary limbs

We held our breaths as the tree came down, and although some of the more rotten portions did crack off, the trunk survived its trip down to the ground.

After the fall

Lomas then used a crane to lift the tree into a truck, which drove it to our site for the sculpture. The trunk was gently lowered into place on the lawn near Marshfield, overlooking the Lieutenant River. In its current position, the misting branches will provide a screen through which to see the river—such a beloved motif for the Lyme Art Colony painters—in a new light.

Placing the tree on the lawn near the river

The trunk of Miss Florence’s magnolia has been resting in place, waiting for the arrival of its new bionic limbs from the foundry later this week. Matthew Geller will begin fitting the two together this weekend, the first step in bringing Anticipator to life!

Amy Kurtz Lansing

Curator

Anticipating Anticipator by Matthew Geller

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Kurtz Lansing) — Thu, 02 May 2013 19:30:00 +0000

As part of the Florence Griswold Museum’s Agora Project—an initiative funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services to make our grounds and gardens a community gathering place—we have commissioned a new, temporary outdoor sculpture. A noted sculptor in the field of public art, Matthew Geller has designed Anticipator, a work for the Museum grounds that combines a recycled tree trunk with three “bionic” limbs forged from Cor-ten steel. These perforated branches will emit colored light and mist through oversized flower “blossoms.” Playful, accessible, and unexpected, the sculpture offers elements of surprise that will encourage visitors to interact with it and each other, fostering a sense of community as they stroll the grounds. Anticipator will shape its environment in an almost animate way, introducing the elements of mist and light and eliciting feedback in return.

Woozy Blossom (Platanus nebulosus), 2010.
Katonah Museum of Art

Geller often incorporates mist into his works as a means of sparking conversation among viewers by subtly changing their surroundings. At FGM, the mist will transform the environment, influencing how visitors perceive light and air against the backdrop of the Lieutenant River, a subject of interest to the generations of artists who have painted in and around the Florence Griswold House. The sculpture’s futuristic combination of natural and artificial forms will play off our historic site—the tree trunk has been salvaged from the grounds and the exotic blooms recall Miss Florence’s interest in non-native species, many of which she planted around her house. A new biomechanical hybrid that is part plant and part machine, Anticipator will shape its environment in an almost animate way, introducing the elements of mist and light and eliciting feedback in return.

Anticipator arrives on June 8, with a day of fun family activities. Until then, check our website and Facebook for additional posts about the progress of the Anticipator project!

For more of Matthew Geller's work, check out his website: www.matthewgeller.com

Amy Kurtz Lansing

Curator

Florence Griswold Museum

Thumbnailing Thumthing Thpecial

noreply@blogger.com (David Rau) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:23:00 +0000

So exciting! Chicago illustrator Aaron Miller is now working on our Oz-inspired faerie art and, although I've only seen a few of his initial thumbnail sketches of the faerie scarecrow, faerie tin man, and faerie cowardly lion, I can say we are off to a great start. I'm only gonna share one little glimpse this week, but will reward your patience with some images for our previous endeavors.

A few years ago, we were working with a friend of Aaron's, Jeff Himmelman, who designed a series of scarecrow images for us, each based on a famous artist. Here's the mascot for Scarecrows at the Museum, our own Vincent Van Crow.

After Vincent, we urged Jeff to look to more modern artist and he offered us Jack the Dripper. Can you guess which artist he is suppose to be?

After nailing Jackson Pollock, he then turned to Frida Kahlo, or as we liked to call her, Frida Kahlcrow!

Other fun stuff was then added to really play up the scaring-of-the-crows aspect of the event.

David D.J. Rau

Director of Education and Outreach

David D.J. Rau coordinates as well as participates in the Museum’s October creative endeavors. You can contact him at david@flogris.org.

Upcoming Blog Entries:

Illustrating the Museum's October Events
Meet the Museum’s New Fantasy Illustrator Aaron Miller
Just C’Oz: Other Creative Endeavors Inspired by Oz

Inspired by Oz

noreply@blogger.com (David Rau) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 02:15:00 +0000

It's been a very busy week working with the artists who will be creating the mini-faerie installations, based on the 24 chapters in the original text of The Wizard of Oz this October at the Museum. Artists were asked to look over the chapters and pick their top three choices. Some even shared their early ideas and, let me tell you, we are in for a wonderful array of wee faerie creations inspired by Oz. So very excited. I plan to post the artists and their chapters in upcoming posts.

However, this week I was looking back at the first Wee Faerie Village, and I came across some of my own collage work that was inspired by the Museum's faeries. At the time I was working with historic tin-types to create collages. Eventually the faerie enchantment crept in and I started using maple seedlings as wings to transform these sober men of yesteryear into faeries. Ironically, considering our upcoming project, I called these works "Tin Men."

Seeing my work, a friend noticed a connection with another artist, Alex Gross, who paints over cabinet cards. A very talented artist, he transforms the sitter in the early photograph into heros, monsters, Xmen, and more. I went to his website recently and was delighted by this collection of Oz-inspired images. I immediately ordered his book which is filled with his mini masterpieces. I think his approach to the characters of Oz is clearly inspired--and what I would give to own that Wicked Witch of the West. Simply Oz-some. By the way, you can get more information about him at his website, alexgross.com. His book is available from Amazon.

In closing, I want to "thank you" for reading, and do feel free to send me link of other works of art you come across that are "inspired by Oz."

David D.J. Rau

Director of Education and Outreach

David D.J. Rau coordinates as well as participates in the Museum’s October creative endeavors. You can contact him at david@flogris.org.

Upcoming Blog Entries:

Illustrating the Museum's October Events
Meet the Museum’s New Fantasy Illustrator Aaron Miller
Just C’Oz: Other Creative Endeavors Inspired by Oz

A Little Creative Casting

noreply@blogger.com (David Rau) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 18:40:00 +0000

"But it wasn't a dream. It was a place. And you - and you - and you - and you were there." ~ Dorothy Gale

I remember watching The Wizard of Oz when I was young and having that "eureka" moment when I realized that the farmhands, Hunk, Zeke, and Hickory, were the same actors who played the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion. I think it took me a few more viewings to make the connection between Professor Marvel and Oz. After the realization, I wondered if Aunt Em and Uncle Henry had Ozian cameos -- I don't think so.

With this in mind, I thought it might be fun to recast the movie with people from the Florence Griswold Museum's core story of Miss Florence and the artists of Old Lyme. Of course our own Miss Florence could have made a wonderful Dorothy, especially in her younger years.

For the Scarecrow, I am casting Arthur Heming, the Canadian painter and illustrator. The Museum is currently featuring his work in the traveling exhibition Arthur Heming: Chronicler of the North which will be on view until June 2, 2013.

For the Tin Man I had to choose Childe Hassam, probably the most famous artist to come to Old Lyme to paint. We often show him in these black and white photographs standing outside the studio he used nestled in the fruit orchard. I can see him standing rusted-tin-man straight observing the landscape and planning his next great painting.

The painter Henry Ward Ranger, credited with founding the Lyme Art Colony, is best for the Cowardly Lion. Although a brave artist to start such a venture in the small village of Old Lyme, the body type and king-of-the-jungle-ness of Ranger seems to suit the Lion. Instead of the wagging tail, Ranger supposedly had a ring of cigar smoke ever-encircling his head. Puddum up! Puddum out!

As for Oz himself, I chose Willard Metcalf, partially based on their similar features. Not at all a humbug, Metcalf made Old Lyme famous with his painting of the front of Miss Florence's house titled May Night which won a great prize and was the first contemporary painting accessioned into the collection of The Corcoran Gallery of Art, the oldest in our nation's capitol. I'm glad somebody paid attention to that man behind the canvas.

David D.J. Rau

Director of Education and Outreach

David D.J. Rau coordinates as well as participates in the Museum’s October creative endeavors. You can contact him at david@flogris.org.

Upcoming Blog Entries:

Illustrating the Museum's October Events
Meet the Museum’s New Fantasy Illustrator Aaron Miller
Just C’Oz: Other Creative Endeavors Inspired by Oz

Image-ing Our Wee Faeries

noreply@blogger.com (David Rau) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 21:17:00 +0000

Back in 2009, when we embarked on the first Wee Faerie Village project, we envisioned printing a map for visitors that would aid them in finding their way around the Museum's campus. Likewise, it seemed appropriate to have some wee faerie images of our very own that we could use to advertise the upcoming event. We commissioned Jeff Himmelman, a young illustrator with experience drawing fantastical creatures and beings, especially for the mystical world of online gaming.

The collaborative creation process was a great deal of fun. After some initial conversation about the map and what kinds of faeries would best represent the project, Jeff got to work. One night, an email arrived with the words "faerie sketch" in the subject line--these emails most often arrived in the middle of the night, so this gives you an idea of when these enchanted creatures are conjured. Deep breath time: it's always a little nerve-wracking to open the attached image; you have no idea what you're going to see. Double click. Ahhhhhh! The first demo faerie was truly beautiful, but not quite the tone the Museum was hoping to set with families. Back to the drawing board--or, to be more accurate, to the computer and keyboard.

Not to worry. Jeff took the feedback in stride:

"Love the autumn leaves as wings."

"The dress of natural elements is inspired."

"She may be a bit too adult and perhaps a tad too stern for this project."

Days went by before the first sketch of Griswold appeared. He was a boy faerie who was just the right age with a playful and slightly devilish personality. Next came Florence. She was sweet and demur, but also a perfect muse for the Old Lyme artists. Yeah, we had our first pair of faeries.

I personally loved his tattered leaf wings and artistic weaponry. The small pencil tucked into his belt like a sword. Griswold holds the ink pen like a spear, the sheafs of blank paper readied for creativity. Jeff Himmelman was masterful in the details: the acorn beret, maple seedling upper wings, and the pair of pointed shoes. For Florence, he gave her a tiara of purple flowers and work belt strung with jars of pigments.

For the 2009 project, we planned to have both a girl and a boy faerie to represent the inhabitants of our Wee Faerie Village. However, as the process continued, it became apparent that a few more faeries were needed. Himmelman to the rescue!

He even created a wee faerie dog and wee faerie cat to welcome visitors to the Village--L. Frank Baum would have been thrilled since he believed in animal faeries.

Last year, we added to wee faerie family with a few more faerie characters. Another playful boy and impish girl, however, the creative process remained the same.

In 2013, however, our Wee Faerie Village in the Land of Oz characters will most likely look different from the ones above. Firstly, Jeff Himmelman has turned over the creative reins to a friend, Aaron Miller, so the illustrator's personal vision and style will be new--more on Aaron in the upcoming weeks. Secondly, this year's characters will be informed by L. Frank Baum's original text whereas earlier characters were not based on anything too specific. And lastly, it's our goal at the Museum to push beyond what we've done and to create something excitingly new for the audiences who love to visit the Wee Faerie Village, and for them, we will work hard not to disappoint.

David D.J. Rau

Director of Education and Outreach

David D.J. Rau coordinates as well as participates in the Museum’s October creative endeavors. You can contact him at david@flogris.org.

Upcoming Blog Entries:

Illustrating the Museum's Non-Faerie Village Events
Meet the Museum’s New Fantasy Illustrator Aaron Miller
Just C’Oz: Other Creative Endeavors Inspired by Oz

"To Oz?" "To Oz!" Oz Park That Is

noreply@blogger.com (David Rau) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 17:32:00 +0000

Last week I spent a long weekend in the windy city of Chicago. It had been at least 20 years since my last visit, so I needed to study a map long and hard to get my bearings: big lake to the east, Frank Lloyd Wright architecture to the west, museums to the south, and what's that to the north? Oz Park. That's what my map said, so I started to walk, and walk, and walk, and then hailed a cab since it was so darn cold. I couldn't even bring myself to ask the cab driver to drop me at Oz Park, since I had no idea what we would find there, so I asked for an intersection a few blocks away and approached by foot.

It was charming. Opened in 1976, the small park was just over 13 acres and was built in a section of Lincoln Park to bring a bit of luster to a tarnishing part of the city. Turns out that L. Frank Baum lived just a few miles to the west in the 1890s, so the locals had an affinity for the man and his stories.

A statue of the Cowardly Lion (2001) by John Kearney (a Cranbrook-trained sculptor) greeted me as I approached from the south-east. Below the sculpture are yellow bricks marked with donor names. I decided to circumnavigate the park. My next stop was the Tin Man (1995), by the same artist, but this time created out of old car parts, the sculptor's signature medium.

From there I walked towards the center of the park and found the Scarecrow (2005) standing just inside a small fence that bordered The Emerald Garden. Next to nothing was in bloom, but I could imagine how pretty the small garden must be during the warmer months of the year. I walked past the children's play area, identified as Dorothy's Playlot to the north entrance to the park to find Dorothy and Toto (2007) atop their pedestal. Although the sculpture was cast in bronze, the shoes were patinated a bright ruby red.

Satisfied with my find, I decided to walk back to downtown to find that the Chicago River had been dyed a bright Emerald City green--oh yeah, it was also the weekend of St. Patrick's Day. Later that night, we met up with a real Chicagoan, Aaron Miller, a great artist who will be creating the artwork for our Wee Faerie Village in the Land of Oz, but that's for another blog entry.

David D.J. Rau

Director of Education and Outreach

David D.J. Rau coordinates as well as participates in the Museum’s October creative endeavors. You can contact him at david@flogris.org.

Upcoming Blog Entries:

Illustrating the Museum's October Events
Meet the Museum’s New Fantasy Illustrator Aaron Miller
Just C’Oz: Other Creative Endeavors Inspired by Oz

Prequel Sheds a Little Light on Original 1900 Text

noreply@blogger.com (David Rau) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 01:05:00 +0000

When I read "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" recently--admittedly for the first time--I was strangely bothered when it strayed from my version of the story, the one I knew from countless watchings of the 1939 over-the-rainbow version. I soon discovered that the MGM film omits whole chapters and characters. Indeed, one of the many reasons I was excited about the new movie "OZ, the Great and Powerful," was that it included aspects of L. Frank Baum's original 1900 text that did not make it onto my TV screen each spring.

This is important because the "Wee Faerie Village in the Land of Oz" is going to be based on the original 24 chapters, and thusly, many visitors who only know the story from the movie will be a bit lost when these seemingly new ideas show up in faerie-land. However, if visitors see the "new" movie, some of the "new" ideas won't seem too "new" come October.

One is China Girl, who in my humble opinion, stole the show. She is discovered by the Wizard and his flying monkey friend Finley in China Town. Yes, a whole town made out of china and porcelain, including the inhabitants. Sadly, the flying monkeys were sent by the witch to rough up the town and they did a considerable amount of damage. China Girl is the only survivor.

In the book, L. Frank Baum gives us the odd Chapter 20, "The Dainty China Country." It is into this fragile world that Dorothy and her friends find themselves after climbing a wall via a ladder fashioned by the Tin Man. At the bottom of the ladder they discover that they've entered a strange new land.

Baum writes: "Before them was a great stretch of country having a floor as smooth and shining and white as the bottom of a big platter. Scattered around were many houses made entirely of china and painted in the brightest colors. These houses were quite small, the biggest of them reaching only as high as Dorothy's waist. There were also pretty little barns, with china fences around them; and many cows and sheep and horses and pigs and chickens, all made of china, were standing about in groups."

Disney does a nice job of using the forms of real china, coffee pots and tea cups, to fashion a fantastical city. And in the same way that the Scarecrow is scared of fire, for obvious reasons, the inhabitants of this porcelain province are terrified of being knocked into or worst, knocked over.

Another shifting of the Ozian paradigm involves the poppy field. In the MGM film, as soon as our travelers see the Emerald City for the first time in the distance, they begin to run with wild abandon through a field of poppies to get there. The Wicked Witch of the West, angered by their progress, casts a spell using her mortar and pestle (why does magic smoke not rise from mine when I crush my dried spices?), that, in her words, “And now, my beauties, something with poison in it, I think. With poison in it, but attractive to the eye, and soothing to the smell. Poppies... Poppies. Poppies will put them to sleep. Sleeeeep. Now they'll sleeeeep!” The spell only works on Dorothy, Toto, and the Lion, and one by one they fall asleep amongst the beautiful blooms. The Tin Man begins to cry and the Scarecrow figures out (brainless though he is) that this is trick and they should call for help. Glinda to the rescue and a few waves of the wand bring on the spell-breaking snowflakes.

In Baum's text, Chapter 8 is titled "The Deadly Poppy Field." According to Baum, "...and soon they found themselves in the midst of a great meadow of poppies. Now it is well known that when there are many of these flowers together their odor is so powerful that anyone who breathes it falls asleep, and if the sleeper is not carried away from the scent of the flowers, he sleeps on and on forever."

The new movie uses the deadly scent of the flowers in a very clever way, and to the advantage of good, but in the spirit of not wanting to have to shout, "spoiler alert," I will leave it at that.

There are still a few more aspects of the book that are not in the popular films. The best way to discover them for yourself is to pick up a copy of the book or download it from Kindle or similar sites. Or, stop by The Shop at the Museum, where we have both the 100th Anniversary Edition with all the original artwork, or a new publication with stunning images by Michael Sieben.

David D.J. Rau

Director of Education and Outreach

David D.J. Rau coordinates as well as participates in the Museum’s October creative endeavors. You can contact him at david@flogris.org.

Upcoming Blog Entries:

Illustrating the Museum's October Events
Meet the Museum’s New Fantasy Illustrator Aaron Miller
Just C’Oz: Other Creative Endeavors Inspired by Oz

Enchanting Museum Education: The Wee Faerie Village at the Florence Griswold Museum

noreply@blogger.com (David Rau) — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 00:29:00 +0000

Museum Received an Honorable Mention (3rd Prize) in the American Alliance for Museum's 2010 Brooking Paper Competition on Creativity in Museums

This is an edited re-print of the white paper the Museum submitted to AAM after the success of the first Wee Faerie Village in 2009.

Outfitted with sparkling pink wings, a feathered tiara, and a glittering tutu, the little girl stands beneath a canopy of golden autumn leaves holding her faerie village map in one hand and her cell phone in the other. “Listen mommy,” she says, tilting the cell phone towards her mother while peering into the fallen log decorated with tiny furniture, miniature paintings, and a teeny easel. “You have reached the studio of Luna, and I’m not here right now because it’s probably daylight and I prefer to work at night, by the light of the moon. But… if you stay on the line – I’ll let you in on a secret … Do you know the artist Childe Hassam? Well it was me – “moi” – who inspired his artistic talents and made him famous!”

While listening to Luna’s narrative, the girl and her mother scans the faerie dwelling made out of bark and shells and moss held together with beeswax in search of all the details Luna was describing, including the driftwood “spire” which echoed the steeple of Old Lyme’s Congregational Church that Hassam made famous in his paintings. After hearing Luna’s secret “magic” word, they begin their search for the next faerie dwelling.

This little girl and her mother were only two of a record-breaking 10,672 visitors (including an equal number of little boys and grown men) who toured the first-ever "Wee Faerie Village" at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut, during its three-week run in October of 2009. Nestled in the nooks and crannies of the Museum’s nearly 12 acres of historic gardens and grounds were over two dozen faerie dwellings, miniature habitats made out of natural or found materials and scaled for a winged faerie three inches tall or less.

The "Wee Faerie Village" project was designed to encourage visitors to explore, literally, every inch of the intimate campus as part of the Museum’s "Year of the American Landscape." This thematic approach underscored the interconnections of several major projects being coordinated by different departments at the Museum. The theme encompassed art exhibitions, the transformation of a historic barn into a landscape center, and the commissioning of "The Rambles," an original “stickwork” sculpture by North Carolina artist Patrick Dougherty. The finished sculpture, made of woven saplings, resembles a large-scale faerie castle, and served as inspiration for the smaller creations.

The idea for the Museum’s faerie village came from the annual Fairy House Garden Tour held in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and organized by children’s book author and faerie house aficionado, Tracy Kane. The Museum however, decided to link their faeries directly to the history of the Lyme Art Colony, indeed the core interpretive story of the institution. Instead of generic faeries per se, the Museum’s village would be inhabited by wee faerie muses who inspired the original painters of the art colony that stayed in the Griswold House when it operated as a boardinghouse for artists.

To create the faerie dwellings, the Museum contacted over forty individuals affiliated with the Museum to ask if they would be interested in donating their time and creativity for such a challenge. This list included several traditional artists, such as landscape painters and sculptors, but also featured people with diverse backgrounds, skills, and interests. The final roster included college professors, librarians, curators, architects, landscape designers, naturalists, children’s authors, interior decorators, docents, gardeners, and exhibition designers, each of whom would bring their own distinct twist to a faerie dwelling. The dwelling architects then selected one of the historic artists represented in the Museum’s collection before choosing a building site. For the most part, the faerie architects worked independently over the summer, constructing their houses and filling them with miniature furniture fashioned out of pebbles, acorns, and bark. They combed the nearby forest for moss, stumps, and fungi to create miniscule gardens, parapets, and pathways. Some created skinny ladders out of dried stalks and fences with pencils and twine. They arrived with loads of pinecones, shells, and stones, and installed their playful creations during the first week in October, only a few days before the village opened to the public. Indeed, several of the wayfinding signs were still being installed on the morning of the opening day when the first car arrived, followed by another, and another, and another.

To begin their enchanting adventure, visitors received a "Wee Faerie Village Map" and a ring-jingle – a simple bracelet of beads and bells. The bracelet served as a ticketing device, and its jingle was to warn the faeries of a visitor’s approach. Because the faerie event was geared towards families with children, many of whom the Museum anticipated being first-time visitors, this map provided a family-friendly introduction to the history of the site and the "Wee Faerie Village" in order to set the stage for their enchanted exploration.

Many families read this aloud to their children as they headed outside in search of the first faerie dwelling, while the children (as well as mom and dad!) shook their ring-jingles to warn the faeries that they were on their way. As part of the introduction, families learned about the availability of a cell phone tour in which the faeries would explain about their house and the artist they inspire.
The map listed the faerie dwellings along the route using faerie-sounding place names such as "Far Far Far Away" (located in the far corner of the property), "Marshymellows" (located on the banks of the salt marsh), and "Water Fall Downs" (located at a drop in the small babbling brook). It also listed the wee muses by their faerie names, such as Whisp, N, Rusty, or Tweed, witty monikers that were often wordplays on some aspect of the historic artist or their art. The faerie Hazel, for instance, was linked with Bruce Crane, a painter whose ethereal images were often veiled in a light mist or haze, and the faerie Moo worked for the artist William Henry Howe, who was famous for painting cows. Lastly, the map included the numbers for the Guide by Cell phone tour.

The range of artistic expression in the faerie dwellings was truly astounding. For instance, the faerie Harpa’s dwelling was conceived as a painter’s studio complete with easel and miniature canvases built in a cigar box outfitted with a trap door and a ladder made from harp strings. This was attached to the top of one of the columns of the Griswold House and best viewed through the upstairs gallery window looking out. This faerie’s artist had painted the portrait of Miss Florence playing her harp that hangs in the main hallway of the boardinghouse.

The dwelling built for the Moo used a cow’s skull attached to a large tree with baling twine. The eyes sockets were transformed into windows glazed with twigs and the translucent petals from a money plant. The mouth became the front door, complete with a small gateway and porch reached via a rope and stick ladder (Moo claimed to be big-boned and not always capable of flight). Because this faerie helped an artist known for his hundreds of paintings of cows, this domicile made a great deal of sense.
Indeed, the only thing missing in each of the magical creations were the actual faeries. It was believed that invisible faeries would best spark the imaginations of the visitors. Instead, the missing faeries could be experienced through their recorded faerie narrative via the cell phone tour. Most of these narratives began with why the faerie was away from their home and invited the listener to look more closely. The faeries enthusiastically explained the connections between their houses and the artists they inspired. They also suggested where in the Museum the listener could see the real works of art by the artists during their visit. For instance, when visitors found themselves at the small farmhouse shingled with pumpkin seeds in "Vegetable Valley," they could call the faerie and hear the following:

"Hello! My name is Iris, like the beautiful flowers in Miss Florence’s garden. Sorry I am not home right now. I’m out harvesting seeds. Please feel free to look around my house. You’ll notice my house is made of a box of artist’s pastels that I found on the bank of the Lieutenant River..."

The spirited narratives were written to give each faerie their own personality. Students a the Lyme-Old Lyme high school who were enrolled in a musical performance class recorded them. Indeed, the students' involvement in the faerie project became a point of pride for them as well as for their teachers, families, and friends. Interestingly, the combination of drama and technology made the faerie village "cool," even for a high school-aged audience.

By the end of the first frantic week, the Museum recalculated and quickly ordered 5,000 additional maps. By the second weekend, it was clear that faerie-mania had struck! Indeed, the faerie dust never settled for three weeks and the crowds kept growing. Cases of jingle bells were over-nighted to the Museum to meet demand. The ticket line filled the lobby and snaked out the door. Other town organizations offered up their parking lots to accommodate the overflow. Museum members worked tirelessly to direct traffic, explained cell phone tours, and assisted in popular hands-on craft projects. Staff and volunteers spent their evenings making hundreds of ring-jingle bracelets. The Museum’s shop reordered faerie-related magnets, puzzles, wings, dust (glitter in glass bottles), and books. The faerie magic was infectious: a professional photographer documented the dwellings gratis, a local chanteuse lead the Halloween parade, and the ice cream parlor in town offered cones of Huckle-Faerie ice cream.

The general attendance for the "Wee Faerie Village" was up 662% over the same three-week period of the prior year. For the entire event, including the special evening tours and school group visits, the Museum tracked a total of 10,672 ticketed visitors to the village, just under 20% of the total Museum attendance for the whole year. Moreover, many of the faerie village visitors returned to the Museum after it closed to enjoy late-fall programming and holiday activities, exceeding all year-end attendance projections.

Despite the surge in attendance numbers, however, the real indicator for the success was the overwhelming positive feedback from our visitors, young and old alike, during the experience, all of who seemed to hover several inches off the ground with faerie-induced enthusiasm. Many stayed for hours and even made their own faerie house out of found pinecones and sticks in "Beyond the Beyond," a special woodsy area designated for this activity. Indeed, each day scores of new houses appeared, playful evidence of the impact the faeries were having on the families. One young visitor named Miranda echoed the reaction of many when she wrote in the comment book: “The fairy houses were amazing!” To that her friend Sarah added: “They make me want to build one when I go home.”

David D.J. Rau is the Director of Education and Outreach at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut.

Faeries and Wizards and Art, Oh My! The Not-So-Crazy Logic Behind this Creative Mashup

noreply@blogger.com (David Rau) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:42:00 +0000

When I came up with the notion to blend the classic “Wizard of Oz” with our own beloved "Wee Faerie Village" it just seemed like a good idea. Since then, however, I’ve read the original book (I think for the very first time) and spent some quality time with a wonderful publication, “The Annotated Wizard of Oz” (2000) by Baum scholar Michael Patrick Hearn. Turns out that there are many more connections between the classic story and faeries in general.

First off, in his April of 1900 “Introduction” to the book, L. Frank Baum writes: “The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts that all other human creations. Yet the old-time fairy tale having served for generations, may now be classed as ‘historical’ in the children’s library… [The book] aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heart-aches and nightmares are left out.”

In Chapter XI, “The Wonderful Emerald City of Oz,” Dorothy and her comrades are called before the great and terrible Oz individually, and he appears to each in a different guise. To Dorothy on the first day, he appears as a giant head. On the second day, it is the scarecrow’s turn to experience a one-on-one with the Wizard. The story goes like this: “So the Scarecrow followed him and was admitted into the great Throne Room, where he saw, sitting in the emerald throne, a most lovely lady. She was dressed in green silk gauze and wore upon her flowing green locks a crown of jewels. Growing from her shoulders were wings, gorgeous in color and so light that they fluttered if the slightest breath of air reach them.” The Wizard appears to the Scarecrow as a faerie! Although the faerie wings are in the text, Hearn points out in his notes that illustrator of the original book, the very talented W. W. Denslow, chooses to omit the wings in his illustration of the beautiful woman.

Another interesting allusion to faeries in the book are the Winged Monkeys. In the book, the band of Winged Monkeys are to grant three commands of whoever is the current owner of the Golden Cap. This cap passes in the story from the Wicked Witch of the West, to Dorothy, and lastly to Glinda, the Good Witch. According to Hearn, Baum writes other stories that feature animals as faeries. Baum states: “Why should not the animals have their Fairies, as well as mortals?” in his “Animal Fairy Tales” (1905). “Why should their tales not interest us as those concerning the Fairies of our own race?” Hmmm? So are the winged monkeys meant to be animal faeries?

In 1911, Baum publishes The Sea Faeries. This story concerns another female lead character who is magically transformed into a mermaid and enjoys an underwater adventure with the sea faeries before returning home, safe and on dry land. Again, “no place like home.” Although these watery fairies are very different from the winged ones above water, it is interesting that Baum continues to write stories that concern the larger notion of “fairies.”

As we move forward with this exciting project, I’m sure even more interesting coincidences between the wee faeries and Oz will emerge.

David D.J. Rau

Director of Education & Outreach

David D.J. Rau coordinates as well as participates in the Museum’s October creative endeavors. You can contact him at david@flogris.org.

Upcoming Blog Entries:

Sharing the Booking Prize White Paper "Wee Faerie Village"
Illustrating the Museum's October Events
Meet the Museum’s New Fantasy Illustrator Aaron Miller
Just C’Oz: Other Creative Endeavors Inspired by Oz

We’re Off to See the Wizard

noreply@blogger.com (David Rau) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 20:42:00 +0000

Boy Faerie Illustration by Jeff Himmelman

Imagine a tiny yellow brick road winding its way across the oh-so pretty grounds of the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut. That’s right, this year’s October event will combine both the enchantment of our wee faeries and the story of The Wizard of Oz. In much the same manner as our previous creative outdoor endeavors, visitors will be able to travel around the museum grounds to discover a faerie-scaled version of Baum’s original 24 chapters: from the twisty Kansas cyclone to colorful village of Munchkinland, through the dark woods and colorful poppy fields, to the Emerald City and Wicked Witch’s castle, and home to again. The original novel even contains a few more surprises and characters that were not included in the iconic 1939 MGM movie.

Believe it or not, this year marks the Museum’s fifth “October” event that presents an imaginative display of artist-made objects based on a creative theme at the Museum.

It all started in 2009 with Wee Faerie Village and the Lyme Art Colony where the faeries who lived in little houses around Miss Florence’s boardinghouse were meant to be the artistic muses to the original 1910 artists who traveled to Old Lyme to capture its natural beauty in paint. For this creative endeavor the Museum contacted artists, both local and not-so-local, to choose a historic artist and a location on the grounds where they installed a dwelling for that painter’s faerie-muse. For three weeks in October, the grounds were bustling with activity as the faeries attracted record crowds numbering over 10,000. In fact, our first faerie village was awarded an honorable mention (one of the top three prizes) by the American Alliance of Museum's Brooking Paper on Creativity in Museums in 2010.

Faerie House by Renée Wilson, 2009

The faeries were followed in 2010 with Scarecrows at the Museum, a display of nearly three-dozen full-size scarecrows, each based on a famous artist from around the world. From Picass-crow and Marc Strawgall to Frank Lloyd Fright and Vincent van Crow, the grounds were strewn with the straw-filled famous. Many of the original faerie artists responded to our caw-for-action and participated in the second outdoor event. Others chose to take a year off, and this allowed the Museum to invite other artists and designers to get creatively involved.

Marc Strawgall by gail mally-mack, 2010

By 2011, the outdoor event was an established tradition and the participating artists looked to classic stories and fairy tales for inspiration and then re-imagined them in the form of birdhouses. Of Feathers and Fairytales: Enchanted Birdhouses at the Museum presented dozens of imaginative birdhouses, some hanging from trees while others were suspended on tall ladders or poles. For nearly a month the event changed the migration patterns of our visitors as they all flocked to Old Lyme that October.

Fairy Tale Birdhouse by Laurel Friedmann, 2011

And just last year, we returned to our wee faerie roots and presented Wee Faerie Village in the Land of Picture Making. For this sequel, the collection of 33 miniature dwellings were designed to be the homes of the faeries in charge of key aspects of nature that inspired the landscape paintings created by the artists who stayed with Miss Florence. The wee ones that looked after the trees, flowers, rivers, and more, each had a wonderfully realized miniature home nestled somewhere in the nooks and crannies of the Museum’s 11-acres—one even in the river! The public response—despite the winds of Hurricane Sandy and early winter storm Athena—was greater than any other year. Our visitors, both young and old, raved about the wee faerie village and promised to return whenever we offered up the faeries again. We decided not to make them wait too long.

Wee Faerie Farm by Sandra Bender Fromson, 2012

The Museum’s Wee Faerie Village in the Land of Oz will be a month-long outdoor event running from October 4 to November 3, 2013. The village will feature imaginative faerie-scaled scenes from the chapters of Baum’s 1900 classic—the same year the first artists came to stay with Miss Florence in her boardinghouse in Old Lyme.

It’s fun to imagine that one of those generous artists might have picked up the charming soon-to-be bestseller as a gift for Miss Florence on their way out of the city that first summer. Nevertheless, Oz will appear in Old Lyme this year, and if Dorothy knew of our plans she might just change her closing sentence from And oh, Aunt Em! I’m so glad to be at home again! to And oh, Aunt Em! There’s no place like the Home of American Impressionism!

David D.J. Rau

Director of Education & Outreach

David D.J. Rau coordinates as well as participates in the Museum’s October creative endeavors. You can contact him at david@flogris.org.

Upcoming Blog Entries:

Faeries and Wizards and Art, Oh My!
The Not-So-Crazy Logic Behind this Creative Mashup
Meet the Museum’s New Fantasy Illustrator Aaron Miller
Looking to Disney for the next Chapter in Oz
Just C’Oz: Other Creative Endeavors Inspired by Oz

In Depth Isms 2

noreply@blogger.com (Tammi Flynn) — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 20:02:00 +0000

George M. Bruestle, Light and Shadows

While predominantly a painter of landscapes, George Bruestle could be more accurately described as a painter of sunlight. The intensity with which he renders light as if falls on rocks, fields, and foliage makes his small and intimate landscapes radiate. Light and Shadows is rare in Bruestle’s oeuvre for its large size, making his characteristic loose paint handling seem even more expressionistic by its scale. Bruestle’s trademark juxtaposition of light and dark comes through in the contrast of sun bleached rocks and white fencing against the darker wooded recesses and cast shadows of the canvas. The ripple and swell of the ground recalls the geological upheaval that took place as glaciers deposited these rocks across the region.

Bruestle moved with his family to the village of Hamburg, just north of Old Lyme in 1905, after visiting the area year after year. Although not directly involved with the group residing at Florence Griswold’s boarding house, many colony artists lived in the countryside outside of town, including Robert Vonnoh, Eugene Higgins, and Oscar Fehrer. Bruestle was one of the earliest painters to come to the region and one of the first to introduce an Impressionist style to the colony there. His son Bertram also trained as an artist and carried on a family tradition of painting the Connecticut landscape.

In Depth Isms

noreply@blogger.com (Tammi Flynn) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 20:33:00 +0000

The current exhibition, ...isms: Unlocking Art's Mysteries, is drawing to a close. Assistant Curator Amanda Burdan, who left in April to take a position at the Brandywine River Museum, shared her thoughts about some of the paintings on view. Over the next week we will post her insightful articles.

Frederic E. Church, A Catskill Landsape, ca. 1858

Included in the current exhibition in a section entitled, “Romanticism,” the work of Frederic Church might be more readily associated with the term “Hudson River School.” Not a bricks-and-mortar school, but a style of painting, the Hudson River School artists were known for their great attention to detail, rendering minute details of grass, leaves, or rocks to advertise both their observational skills and their technical prowess. The “Romantic” aspect of this kind of painting can be found in the subject matter, usually a natural scene of great, awe-inspiring beauty that emphasized the sublime aspects of the world.

During a period when Church was sought out out exalted views of volcanoes, terrifying icebergs, and exotic rainforests for his paintings, A Catskill Landscape may seem a tame subject. When Church visited the Catskills with his new bride in 1860, the area was already a fashionable resort. Sightseeing tourists enjoyed “sunrising,” gathering early in the morning to meditate on the panoramic view from hilltop vantage points Church’s treatment of the scene accentuates the dramatic aspects of the wild foliage and distant mountains by lighting them with a blazing atmospheric effect. His scientific study of nature helped Church achieve a likeness so convincing that viewers thrilled to be transported to his wild locales, even if they were as close to home as the Catskills.

A Star is Planted

noreply@blogger.com (ted gaffney) — Fri, 04 May 2012 21:46:00 +0000

On 01 May, 2012, Sheila Wertheimer, the Museum’s Garden Historian, planted a new tree on the grounds. It is called a Star Magnolia “Dr. Merrill”. It is a multi-stemmed cultivar, and appears quite different from the Star Magnolia that Miss Florence planted on the property back in the 1920’s. That tree had been located in the woods between the House and the Lyme Art Association until it succumbed to the elements two years ago. The new tree was planted near the west end of the Huntley Brown House gardens on the spot where the Black Scotch Pine once grew two years ago. Jeff, the Director, was very fond of that tree before it died, calling it his favorite tree on the property. We felt it was time to put another beautiful and distinctive tree in its place. Jerry LaFevre and Brian Renshaw, two of Sheila’s indispensible assistants, ably helped transport and plant the new magnolia.

Here’s to wishing it many long and happy years with us!

the Museum gets a New (for us) Truck!

noreply@blogger.com (ted gaffney) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 18:06:00 +0000

Thanks to all the generous “Raise Your Bid” contributions from our 2011 Annual Fund-Raiser Auction, the Museum has managed to procure a new (for us) pick-up truck. It is a 2004 Ranger Green F-250 Extended Cab Ford that we found at Saybrook Ford. We also bought a brand-new plow that we attached to the front-end in the event of snow. I daresay, we had only one opportunity this season to test it out before spring descended upon us. Nonetheless, the truck will come in very handy this season for removing garden debris, as well as transporting near and sundry all year long as the museum’ s busy calendar dictates; whether it is in support of Faire Village projects, or moving pedestals and platforms for gallery exhibits, or hauling trash after the Mid-summer and Annual Auction Event.

Thank you all again for your generous support.

Historical Garden Gets Rejuvenated

noreply@blogger.com (ted gaffney) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 17:50:00 +0000

This spring, 2012, Miss Florence’s Historical Garden received a new soaker hose irrigation system as well as a complete replacement of the board edging the flowerbeds.

Maxim Irrigation installed the New Soaker Hose System in December 2011. It replaces the older “pop-up” heads system with a much more efficient water–saving system that consists of a series of soaker hoses buried in parallel rows among the flora.

The garden cedar board edging was in great need of replacement and Ted Gaffney, the Facilities Manager, found a ready source of sassafras boards from Michael Taylor of Clarkson Falls, CT. Mr. Taylor felled, sawed and dried the timber in his curing shed. Sassafras wood is known for its resistant properties to wood rot. The board edging was cut to size and installed by Randy Robinson of Total Landscape with the help of his assistant Pat Jones. Sheila Wertheimer, our Lead Gardener, recommended that we use metal corner devices with metal connectors to tie the boards together. These were obtained from Gardener’s Supply Co. of Burlington, VT.

Come see the Historic Garden! It only gets better with age!

ism of the week - week 6

noreply@blogger.com (Tammi Flynn) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 18:52:00 +0000

Each week during our current exhibition, ...isms: Unlocking Art's Mysteries, we will post deeper insight into one of the paintings on view. Past the credit line, past the exhibition label, Assistant Curator Amanda Burdan shares her thoughts:

This image of a laborer was one of several portraits of working class men and women Walker Evans made on a trip to Cuba in 1933. Commissioned to photograph Machado-era Cuba for Carleton Beals’ book The Crime of Cuba, Evans went about his assignment without a specific political agenda. In later years he insisted he had not read the manuscript for the book prior to his trip and went with an open mind to photograph Cuba and its people as he experienced them. A mix of tight portraits, like this one, and scenes capturing both the streets of Havana and the surrounding villages, the resulting portfolio of thirty-one images has since become more widely known than the book they illustrated.

This assignment predates Evans’ work for the Farm Security Administration, but also foreshadows the kind of imagery he, and other so-called “information specialists” working for the United States government, would gather throughout the Depression. Evans’ respectful approach to this coal dock worker trained him for documenting the impoverished conditions of sharecroppers and tenant farmers in this country only a few years later. Evans allows the man’s tanned and leathery skin and bristly beard to narrate the story of the long hours he spent toiling in the Cuban summer sun. In many ways, he does the same in his later photographs of sharecroppers who appear hard-working and noble despite their tattered clothing and dirty faces.

Walker Evans
Dockworker, Havana, 1933

Gelatin silver print

Florence Griswold Museum

ism of the week - week 5

noreply@blogger.com (Tammi Flynn) — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 12:11:00 +0000

Although Samuel F.B. Morse made a name for himself as the inventor of the telegraph, his early career as a painter and photographer is far less known. While studying art abroad in London, a remark in a letter to his parents in 1811 foreshadowed his future successes, as he wrote: “I wish that in an instant I could communicate the information, but three thousand miles are not passed over in an instant and we must wait four long weeks before we can hear from each other.”

His ambition to be a painter of great American historical subjects, or at least of landscape paintings, met with disappointment when he realized that it was portraiture which truly drove the American art market so early in the nineteenth century. In this respect his mother proved correct when she wrote to him in 1814 saying: “You must not expect to paint anything in this country for which you receive any money to support youself but portraits.” Even in what Morse thought of as the lowly realm of portraiture, he made a good living with commissions of the highest rank, including Presidents James Monroe and John Adams as well as John Hancock and General Lafayette.

The subject of this portrait is less stately and well known. Louisa Walter Bishop Hughes was a well-educated New Haven woman who attended Miss Pierce’s Litchfield Academy from 1818 to 1820. It is likely that this portrait was made around the time she attended the school, perhaps as part of her debut in society. She appears youthful in the portrait, lacking the elaborate fashions and hairstyles Morse often imaged for married women.

Late in her life Louisa recorded her thoughts and sorrows in journals, which have been preserved. After a particularly difficult period, she began a new journal, writing: “I can scarcely make up my mind to begin a new book—I look back upon the past and the eager hope with which I began the last—the change is great. I have drank deep of the bitter cup of Death. My treasures have been taken from me. The record of my life is a record of the graves’ solitary occupants—no, let me say of the inhabitants of heaven. Though I am even bereft of my first born, I will believe God has wounded me in love to them, and for myself, His will, not mine, be done.” Louisa’s mournful lament brings to mind Morse’s first message on his new telegraph in 1844: the fateful question, “What hath God Wrought?”

Samuel F. B. Morse (1791–1892)

Louisa W.B. Hughes

Oil on wood
Florence Griswold Museum

Gift of The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company

ism of the week - week 4

noreply@blogger.com (Tammi Flynn) — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:55:00 +0000

Elmer MacRae’s Still Life with Magnolias is among the newest paintings in the Florence Griswold Museum’s collection. This modern looking painting may seem like a surprising choice for the collection given that MacRae is an important Impressionist from the Cos Cob art colony. He is, perhaps, even more important to the overall history of American art for the work he did as a member of the American Association of Painters and Sculptors, the group that organized and mounted the 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art, better known as the Armory Show. That pivotal exhibition helped to introduce American audiences to a broad range of the modern styles coming out of Europe. MacRae submitted Impressionist styled works to that exhibition, but soon after came under the influence of the twentieth-century Europeans, updating his style.

This still life, painted two years after the Armory Show moves away from the sketch-like images of his Impressionist years, substituting in bold brush strokes to represent the vase, flowers, and especially the patterned background. MacRae takes a step toward Modernism with the abstract qualities of the work—a radical move for a young American at the time, but he may appear to our eyes to remain conservative in his choice of subject matter. In fact, Modernists like Paul Cézanne and Pablo Picasso embraced the simple still life as a vehicle for their more groundbreaking experiments in style.

Elmer Livingston MacRae (1875–1953)

Still Life with Magnolias, 1915

Oil on canvas
Florence Griswold Museum

Museum purchase

ism of the week - week 3

noreply@blogger.com (Tammi Flynn) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 14:29:00 +0000

Instrumental in many ways to the establishment of abstract art in the United States, Harry Holtzman is best remembered today for his close friendship with and writing about Piet Mondrian. Holtzman’s colleague, the abstract artist Burgoyne Diller, proved pivotal to his future as an artist. Diller introduced Holtzman to the Gallatin Collection at New York University where Holtzman first encountered Mondrian’s work. Though he had not seen Mondrian’s paintings before, Holtzman had been working in a similar geometric style. Intrigued to the point of obsession, Holtzman traveled to Paris in 1934, intent on meeting Mondrian.

By 1934 Mondrian had firmly established his Neo-Plasticism, an entirely abstract style made up—in its ultimate form—strictly of horizontal and vertical lines and primary colors. Mondrian was beginning to experiment with three-dimensional interpretations of his iconic style. The two men shared theories of art and parted as friends when Holtzman returned to the United States the following spring.

Holtzman continued to be active in the New York art world, teaching classes at European modernist Hans Hoffman’s school. He, along with other advanced artists of the period founded the American Abstract Artists group in 1937, to further the cause of abstraction in this country. During the Depression Holtzman also worked as an administrator for the mural painting division of the Federal Art Program, a branch of the Works Progress Administration. In 1940, Holtzman sponsored Mondrian’s immigration to the United States, supporting the artist through the last four years of his life. Mondrian passed away, naming Holtzman as the sole heir to his estate, the administration of which consumed much of his time. The lifelong project of publishing Mondrian’s complete writings only came to fruition months before Holtzman’s death in 1987.

A recent acquisition to the Museum's collection---
Harry Holtzman (1912–1987)
Red, Orange, Green and Yellow
Oil on canvas
Florence Griswold Museum
Museum purchase, Alice Talcott Enders Purchase Fund

ism of the Week - week 2

noreply@blogger.com (Tammi Flynn) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 19:34:00 +0000

In the first week of our Winter Studies class we talked about the peculiar case of “Luminism,” an “ism” that was invented a century after the Luminist painters worked. One of the paintings in the Luminist section of the current exhibition is John F. Kensett’s Fort Dumpling, although this particular work, like many others in the exhibition, might have been comfortably situated in other sections of the exhibition. Kensett is typically known as a Hudson River School painter, creating landscapes that romanticized American scenery. Hudson River School artists were highly skilled technicians who rendered their paintings with a high degree of finish and detail. Other Hudson River School paintings appear in the “Romanticism” section of the exhibition.

The Luminist painters were noted for their somewhat “quieter” scenes that lacked the drama and bravado of the Hudson River School works. Luminists also painted with virtuoso brushwork and crystalline details, but their compositions frequently felt simplified, or even empty. Fort Dumpling gives us a vast expanse of sky and sea along with the silhouette of the hilltop fort. Although the nominal subject is the fort, the glowing sunset helps us understand how the Luminist movement acquired its name.

Kensett’s Fort Dumpling would have been equally at home in the “Historicism” section of the exhibition. The fort itself is an interesting landmark that stands at the entrance to Narragansett Bay in Jamestown, Rhode Island. A strategic location for control of the Bay, the fort was occupied by American, French, and British troops during the American Revolution. By the time Kensett painted it, nearly a hundred years after the British evacuated Newport, the site was a romantic reminder of the bygone Revolutionary era.

John Frederick Kensett (1818–1872)

Fort Dumpling, ca. 1871

Oil on canvas
Florence Griswold Museum

Gift of The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company