Welcome to a collaboration from the Granary Gallery family of art galleries on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, including the Field Gallery and North Water Gallery.
artifactsmv is devoted to sharing studio stories from and about the talented artists we represent. In this fast-moving digital age when distractions abound, we're in awe of their discipline and dedication.
Making art takes time. We invite you to take a moment to learn about the artists and what feeds their creative spirits.
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Standing high on the bluff
rising over Stonewall Beach
on the island of Martha’s Vineyard
where centuries of wind and waves
have been chiseling the shoreline back
further with each blow
after stormy blow
Where generations of Langmuir hands
have moved that dotted line of great white rocks signaling safety in the moonlight
pulling them back and then
further back again
On that grassy sandy ledge
that has listened to my heart
taken the measure of my Muses
rounded off my edges
and holds all I know of love
Here on this edge
of all that I hold sacred
I plant my soul
holding tightly to my flags
and signaling HOME.
I am home.
Painter Traeger di Pietro’s virtual dinner with Einstein and Oprah, and other star figures from modern history.
“I return to where the clouds, fields, and beach call to me. It’s as if these elements and places are a part of my soul.”
“There are two pivotable books of my youth, which shaped my life as an artist. The first was The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, whose spirited unconventionality was utterly liberating to me.”
“Art is good for you. But it’s not spinach. Its purpose is not to make you healthier or wiser — although that could happen along the way. The reason to nourish a relationship with art is the same as the reason for bonding with other people: to feel more fully human.” -Daniel McDermon
To Frances McGuire, each painting is a palimpsest of emotion—but not necessarily narrative—expressed without judgment or expectation. The visual equivalent of, “I’m just saying.”
Thomas Hart Benton on his self-portrait: “This is a study from the mirror images of an old artist, ‘Grandaddy Benton,’ as all the kids call me. I had a belly when I did it, but after building a stone retaining wall, 65 feet long and in some places 10 feet high, on our place in Martha's Vineyard, I got rid of it. It hasn't come back.”
Painter Kate Salenfriend’s hosts an imagined evening of conversation and creativity on a Napa Vineyard.
It’s about finding oneself in the right place at the right time. With a camera.