Driving Dutchess ArtEast

I spent most of the weekend driving around Dutchess County visiting artists on the Dutchess ArtEast Tour who had visited me the the weekend before. It was a whirlwind.

I was on a schedule, packing too many people into too short a time. But. I was driving with top down, heat on, hat, gloves and a scarf. The sun was in and out. Leaves were golden, falling. I drove by rushing streams and crumbling farms. Tiny box houses and mansions. Mini malls and country stores.

I am always happiest in a car, happier still when driving. (When I was a baby, my father took me on drives around Manhattan when I cried. The movement soothes me still.)  I often get my best ideas while driving. Insights into the work I’m doing or where I am going with it wash over me.

Getting to see other artists’ work, their studios, their homes, too, is an augury in itself. It’s different from going to galleries and museums. The difference perhaps between seeing a diorama at the Met, and walking the woods. One sees not just the work but the subtext of it. The potter’s wheel, the view out the window, the close quarters or expansive spaces. We take in their worlds, somewhat unconsciously, perhaps, in a glimpse. We even perhaps retrace the steps of their lives, walking with them through the universe, as we turn up their driveways, and walk in the doors of their private spaces.

We connect not just in conversation, but in similarities seen at the edges: found bird nests and childrens’ toys, dragonflies, petals and pods, placed just so on a windowsill or in a sacred corner. We see it, too in the work. Not always literally, but in the shadows and gestures.

I gave myself these days off from photosnapping and took it all in without document. For a virtual glimpse, you can still visit dutchessarteast.com and click around the websites. Then, put the weekends on your calendar for next year. And keep your eyes out for any opportunities to visit artist studios wherever you live.

May your days be filled with the Magic Medicine of long country drives into the at once unknown and familiar.