Category Archives: Excursions

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Bethlehem, NH – Establishing Community

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Establishing Community

 

BETHLEHEM, NH – Last Friday morning I drove 3 hours to a small rural community in Franconia National Park. Lately, New Hampshire has been in the news for the elections and the candidates who are running. The town of Franconia was also a prime spot on the campaign trail for many candidates who are running. For me, Bethlehem has as special significance as not only did I go to college in Bethlehem, PA, the famous Christmas and Steel City but I was invited to do a solo show in Bethlehem, NH. My first ever professional solo exhibition! I mean I exhibited my work in a local gift shop out near Northampton a couple of years ago, but that wasn’t nearly as professional. Coming from suburbia and city life experiencing a rural town was quite different. This trip taught me much about establishing community and bringing together what is left of a booming metropolitan. In the 1800s Bethlehem, NH was a booming metropolitan town boasting 20,000 as it was a top getaway destination for New Yokers. The town was situated right on the railroad which made an easy getaway. However after a fire that had destroyed much of the town’s hotels and establishments the town was left with 2500 people. The current residents have come together to establish a community of what was left of the town from the 1800s.

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Back in June 2015, I was invited to do a solo show at 42 Maple Contemporary Art Center one of three of the remaining art centers in the town. There is a historical theater there as well the brings in performances. Being used to city life, I embraced myself for a quiet evening in the town, but the opening happened to be on labor day weekend and the residents said the town ballooned. The attendees where a nice mix of old and young and overall a great experience. One of the neat things I learned about was WREN: Women’s Rural Entrepreneurial Network. A community of women who have come together to help bring a sense of community to the town. The organization started in Bethlehem, NH but has branched out to help other rural communities come together. If you haven’t been to New Hampshire or anywhere where it is rural, the residents are often very spread out and it is hard to sometimes form a community. I give a shoutout to my airbnb – Rob Macintosh in Benton, NH.

 

Getting There

I traveled to Bethlehem, NH by car and it took about 3 hrs from Boston. I stayed a nearby Airbnb that provided breakfast and was very comfortable. It was a great way to take a weekend trip. I chatted with my host about his photography and as we were in the same business he gave me some advice.

 

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Snapshot Gallery

Check out the gallery below to see the photographs from my trip!

 

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WORCESTER, MA – Gluten and Allergen Free Expo

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Gluten and Allergen Free Expo

WORCESTER, MA – Saturday I attended the Gluten and Allergen Free Expo. I was invited as a blogger to participate and network and cover the event. I’m not sure if this is coming from a non-gluten-free patient, but I found the event to be slightly disappointing. I am trying to translate some food items in my life because of my hypothyroid disease and found the information that I did get to be informative, but most of the booths are food-based which is great and all and was fun to taste the different gluten-free products out there. I was surprised by the quality of some of them and how some of them did taste like the ‘real thing’ (if you will). But there weren’t many informative booths. People I could actually come up and talk to without being swarmed by crowds of people wanting to taste the food. The people that were there where swamped with handing out samples, which made things to be very unapproachable. A few booths did have a spokesperson there but otherwise it was hard to network. Also definitely one of the smaller conventions I’ve been to. The Boston Travel Trade show was huge, but that was also more centered around sales and marketing so the people whom I wanted to talk to where right there. Here it was a bit different.

Regardless, I am glad I went as it did give me an eye-opener and how to approach switching gluten-based products to gluten-free ones. Below are a handful of pictures from the event.

Getting There

I travelled an hour by car from Northampton, MA to Worcester, MA. It is very close to Boston, MA as well as many other suburbs of Boston. Use the widget below to find a place to stay and you’ve got an interesting weekend trip for sure.

 

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Shelburne Falls, MA – The Bridge of Flowers

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Shelburne Falls, MA – Friday night I went to Shelburne Falls where they have a gem called The Bridge of Flowers. It is about 45 minutes from Northampton and while a small bridge, definitely worth a visit. From their website, “The Bridge of Flowers Committee was initiated by the Shelburne Falls Area Women’s Club in 1929. It is a 501 c 3 nonprofit and its gardeners and volunteer members work hard to keep the Bridge’s many flowers, plants, trees, shrubs and vines growing beautifully throughout the season“. The bridge is open from April to October with full bloom all season. It’s worth a visit for the nature inspired and those into Nature Photography. I went with another photographer and we enjoyed a nice walk down the bridge taking photos of the flowers there.

Plan your getaway to Shelburne Falls

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Bar Harbor, ME – A Taste of Blue

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Team K has taken on Bar Harbor! My intern went to Bar Harbor last week on a family vacation and I am here this week for one of my artist receptions; Pine Needles and Rose are being exhibited at the MDI Biological Laboratory through September. So far it’s been a dream and very reminiscent of my trip to Big Sur in 2013. The coast is just as dramatic. I left Boston at 7 am and arrived on Bar Harbor Rd at 11:45. I made a few stops along the way for food and bathroom breaks but otherwise the drive was very painless. It seemed shorter than I expected.

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Due to the anticipated cloudy weather tomorrow, I decided to do most of the scenic sightseeing today through drives.

Unfortunately for me it was $25 a vehicle to get into the parks of the popular places; sand beach, etc. but I was content driving along the coast. There are a few free entrances to the Wild Gardens, etc. that I will be making a visit to tomorrow before my reception. I ate at Bar Harbor Beerworks and had their mussels which were amazing! I then did a little shopping and pick up blueberry incense and jam and a couple of postcards.

 

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Harwich, MA – Cape Cod Lavender Farm

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A couple of weekends ago, my family and I went to the Cape Cod Lavender Farm in Harwich, MA. Unfortunately we were a bit early to see everything in bloom, but the fragrance was so strong it was still pleasant to walk around and enjoy. I had seen the CCLF on instagram and been following them for awhile, so it was nice to finally check them out and see local Cape Cod farmers! Below are some pics from that excursion.

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Stonington, CT – A Day in the Life of…

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Tuesday of this past week, a colleague and fellow entrepreneur invited me to be her assistant for a cover shoot for a luxury magazine that she is building. The team she built was coming from New York to Stonington, CT. She had booked a mansion that was on the market (which was actually right across from Taylor Swift’s!), an up and coming pop star – Kristine Elezaj for a cover girl (who made iHeartRadio’s Top 20 Rising Star competition), fashion designers; Carmen Marcvalvo, Bibhu Mohapatra and Slyvio Kovacic. It was a great day for a shoot.

I woke up very early on Thursday for the cover shoot and drove to my colleague’s house. Then we drove to Stonington, CT for the day. 13533150_3145000224227_2026566947744880184_n

 

We had gorgeous weather for the shoot and it was fun to meet and network with like-minded individuals and creatives. Sometimes if you are not living in New York or LA it’s hard to network with the right crowd. I don’t have any connections in the creative industry in New York so it was great for me to network with these people but also to have this experience. I hope something will come out of it! FullSizeRender

As an assistant of my colleague, I got to help out with the little things; a main job was to hold the reflectors for the different looks and shoots, but also to take behind the scenes pics and other miscellaneous things. I’d love to do more things like this. It’s a nice balance of contributing and being a part of a major production. Maybe something I can add to my repertoire of my visual marketing brand.

The biggest surprise and fun of it all was literally the day after the shoot, I woke up to find my instagram feed from the people I’ve followed from the shoot flooded with press buzzing about it! The photos were featured on Enquirer, OK, Star and Radar magazines.

 

Check out my behind the scenes short:

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Wellfleet, MA Artist Talk: Janet Echelman

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Wednesday afternoon, I drove down to my family’s summer home in Eastham to attend an artist talk in Wellfleet later that evening. The artist – Janet Echelman, who I have admired since junior year of college when I wrote a paper about her work comparing it to a 1960s artist. Ever since then, her work has amazed me. When I came down to the reception for Truro – in July, I picked up a Provincetown Art Gallery guide and saw in the back a list of events and saw that Janet Echelman was speaking in Wellfleet. I am very glad I got to attend her talk as she spoke more about her process and journey as an artist. It was refreshing to hear her background as she thought she’d never break into the art world as a traditional artist and it got me thinking about my work and journey. It also impressed me how each design of hers, while the final outcome is the same style and technique and design she has fabricated, the original concept and research is different each time and tailored to each commission/city.

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Bethlehem, NH

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photoLast Week I went to Bethlehem, NH to pick up 3 pieces of artwork from The Bees Knees show. I wish I was in the country so I could’ve attended the reception because it sounded pretty cool. They had a honey tasting and the President of the Bee association came to the reception. The center tried to sell a piece to a well known photographer in the area because he was impressed with the work but it didn’t go through. 🙁 Anyway, I chatted with one of the members there and took pics of the gallery because they invited me to do a solo show next September! I’m excited for it and will probably make a weekend out of it. This ride was the prettiest ride ever to pick up artwork… a drive through the green mountains in June with the flowers blooming and fields of color… September should provide lots of foliage and inspiration for the show. 🙂

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Writing: A Search for Gold Turned Into Finding Paper

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I went into Florence last Saturday to do some research and shopping. My host told me about the Orto Botanical which is a botanical garden. This place was interesting in that they labeled everything in the gardens so I was able to put a name to face on some of the plants I have been working with here.

 

 

For shopping, I wanted to bring some things back that I hadn’t brought back when I was younger… and couldn’t afford…   I did some research about gold before hand as my parents gave me some spending money for the trip and wanted to take a look and see if there was something I could afford. I read of a place called Oro Due “Firenze” that had decent prices and selections and it was near the bridge. But it ended up being too far for me since I stopped at a couple of places along the way, had lunch in San Macro Piazza and I ended up stopping by some stores along the way.

 

 

It started to pour while I was heading towards the other botanical garden my host recommended and decided to just hit the stores. I darted in and around the merchants trying to sell you umbrellas or ponchos (didn’t need one more thing to carry thank you very much and welcomed the cool rain) and darted into a store unknowingly that it was one I wanted to go to – Sigma … best known for the leather books and journals. I picked up and felt the journals available…. they were decent prices and some even discounted. When shopping I am cautious about the space in my luggage since I don’t have much left. Instead of a larger journal I had been fondling I took home a quill with the florentine fleur di lis on it in the turquoise color that is my home office color… and darted back out. On the way I had already stopped by Il Papiro a store of marbled paper made in Italy. I bought some clippings, a pencil holder and stickers with my initial on it.

 

 

On the way to Sigma, I passed a few gold shops and decided to poke my head in. A few were busy especially the ones that have been in existence for awhile. I spoke with a salesperson and he gave me some knowledge about buying gold in Italy. Unfortunately some of the styles that were available I didn’t particularly care for, as they didn’t look like you dropped 150 euros on it if you know what I mean… I appreciated the design but it was definitely a tourist trap as it had a reproduction of the florino (the coin of the florence empire) on it… a thin band for 150 euros!! No thanks. I found a design I liked in another shop, but it was a bit more than what I was willing to pay for and not to mention that rings have a higher potential to be lost…

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Writing: Of Loss…

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I went on a walk today. Not too far away, just in the general area. One of the other artists here told me about an abandoned church that was not too far down the road. Having a vague interest in abandoned buildings I was intrigued. Since I didn’t have anything planned today, today was a good day to do some walking.

 

 

I ended up almost missing the church because the original path was overgrown with grass and pine needles and dirt. I started my way back up the road until I spotted a overgrown stone stair case and thought that was peculiar, but also thought it was kind of religious looking. I walked up the stairs and down a path that had grapes growing on either side of the pathway. I followed the pathway all the way up into a wooded area and a small towering church came into view. I had found it!

 

 

There was two stone benches attached to the church outside and I decided to take a break and cool off a bit. It was very peaceful as it sat back from the road a bit and you could barely hear the traffic that drove by. I got up and walked over to the front of the church. Unfortunately the doors were bolted shut so I couldn’t go in but I noticed some roses growing out of the masonry work of the church and snapped a few photos.

 

 

While I was sitting down, I thought about recently how people were leaving the Catholic faith in droves and here is an abandoned church. I thought about my own spirituality and concluded that they weren’t necessarily leaving religion altogether, but perhaps leaving organized religion and focusing on a more personal journey.

 

 

The above image was taken just before I walked down the pathway. My artwork is hugely centered around place/the environment as well as loss. At the beginning of this residency, I ran across an article from Orion Magazine by British author Robert MacFarlane and fell in love with the way he spoke about landscape. How his interest in landscape came from something called “landspeak”… describing one’s surroundings using singular words and sometimes phrases. He also mentioned the botanist, Oliver Rackham and wrote this passage about Rackham’s book, In the History of the Countryside.

 

 

“[…], the great botanist Oliver Rackham describes four ways in which “landscape is lost”: through the loss of beauty, the loss of freedom, the loss of wildlife and vegetation, and the loss of meaning. I admire the way that aesthetics, human experience, ecology, and semantics are given parity in his list. Of these losses the last is hardest to measure.”

 

 

It was interesting to me that this botanist saw that landscape is lost and he describes this loss through beauty, freedom, wildlife and vegetation and meaning. It made me think of my own healing journey from the loss of my job, a close friendship and relationship and more all in the span of two years. It was as if I was loosing myself and regenerating a new self from going through this pain and healing. I am certainly a different person than I was two years ago. I love the above image as it captures the sense of loss I think that MacFarlane was speaking about. Things change and move around and things get lost in the process. I have felt that this residency was the pinnacle of a turning point in my life. I had nothing but work and sleep for 6-9 months and I made enough money to take a month off and live in Italy to work on my artwork. I definitely sense change is coming and something new will come out of this loss. I had been thinking a lot about this close friendship whom I lost this past year and I definitely caught myself missing him.

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Florenza with Love

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Monday and Tuesday of this week I worked with the film crew in Florenza. Tuesday I made an appearance in the movie… Monday I worked behind the scenes and most of my free time earlier this week was taken up by them. It was awesome working on a movie in a different culture and the story is interesting as well. Click the above image to see more photos on the K Glyphics facebook page.