Swan's Island + Albers + Friends

Swan's Island was just perfect. And, we did use a few Josef Albers paintings as inspiration to get our creativity flowing. It was amazing just how much we saw our chosen Alber's palette on Swan's—even the pinks in the glow of the sunset and subtle shades of it in the sand. The coast of Maine is rich with light and texture. The water is salty and divine. The air is clear and crisp. Spending time with best friends who all have creative spirits is just the best. We are easily content and happy in this incredible place. It's as sweet as the years we've all spent together.

Of course, there are many things to stop and see along the way to Swan's Island. I traditionally stop in antique book barns. This time, I found an interesting book by Walter Sorell called The Duality of Vision about the urge of writer's to paint, and painter's to write, etc. The book includes a poem written by Josef Albers:

More -- or Less
Easy -- to know
that diamonds -- are expensive
good -- to learn
that rubies -- have depth
but more -- to see
that pebbles -- are miraculous

I love this little poem by Albers and found many miraculous pebbles and rocks on Swan's Island.

We gather all of our food on the mainland before we meet at the ferry in Bass Harbor, and then fill-in as we go at the small Carrying Place Market on the island. My favorite and a must stop on the way to Bass Harbor is Chase's Daily {vegetarian restaurant + farmer's market + café} in Belfast, Maine. The produce is brought in daily from the farm at 11 am and it's good to get there soon after that unless you have time to get there for a delicious breakfast or lunch. The mesclun mix is exotic, the chard and kale have the deepest hues of goodness, the purslane and arugula is fresh and crisp, and the charming buckets of flowers and baskets of herbs are full of beauty, and earthly love.

Wishing you a beautiful summer and I hope that you too, find a little time to get away from it all! oxo

Photos: My Dog-Eared Pages
Chase's Daily storefront photo, courtesy of a great blog about Maine called 2bnmaine

JOSEF ALBERS AND SUMMER ART

Josef Albers | Growing, Oil on Masonite 1940

This summer it's Josef Albers. Last summer it was mussel shells and fisherman's knots, the summer before that it was Alex Katz. In the summer, I try to find a couple of weeks where my pace of life slows down. In fact, I force it. And, this usually happens when I head to Maine to visit friends. Swan's Island is small and perfect. No shopping excursions, no fancy restaurants or bustling beaches. It's all about woodland walks to soft sandy coves, combing the rocks, picking blueberries and wildflowers, bike rides, cooking, and the major thing—aside from Scrabble or Bananagrams—is creating. Whether it's painting, sculpture, collecting, sketching, or photography, everyone has their thing.

Josef Albers | Homage to the Square {left to right} 1950, 1951 and 1955

In a completely organic way, I decide what might be my inspiration each year. Albers is it this year. And, the reason is simply color + shape. Swan's Island itself and all that I adventure to see on it, holds more of an organic shape—perhaps not as architectural as Alber's Homage to The Square series—but I will see islands of color, indeed.


Josef Albers | Related A. Oil on Canvas 1937 and Josef Albers | In Open Air. Oil on Masonite 1936



Last summer, we collected large bins of knots on the rocky shore and sorted them by color. We also participated in creating art from the burned pages of books salvaged from the Swan's Island Library fire that became part of a rebuilding, benefit exhibition called New Pages.



We were inspired by the large, sun-washed mussel shells that cover the rocky beach. Shown here glued to an interesting piece of driftwood... and below that, blocks of wood being assembled by my friend Jane in a Louise Nevelson sort of way.







The summer before that, I was inspired by an Alex Katz show at The Farnsworth and the loss of my oldest friend's mother. I made this little Katz-inspired collage titled, Nan.



The beach we comb is covered with perfectly smooth rocks from the pounding surf, and we paint a lot of them. It's a simple meditation to mix paint and cover a rock, and a summer tradition from as far back as I can remember. I will celebrate these days with my best friends and perhaps pay homage to Albers... a rock, a collage—we'll see!

All Josef Albers work is from the catalogue of an exhibition held at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1988.

SWAN'S ISLAND LIBRARY | NEW PAGES

Last summer, the day after we returned from our first trip to beautiful Swan's Island {Maine}, we received a call from our friend Jane that the Island's library had been destroyed by fire in the early morning hours, during an intense lightening storm. That was July 24, 2008. Fire and rescue teams responded to the call at 3:30 a.m., but found the fire had already engulfed the historic Swan's Island Library. The Swan's Island Educational Society inherited the old Atlantic Schoolhouse from Minna Geddes {widow of the poet Virgil Geddes} in 1990. In addition to over 12,000 volumes, the library was also home to over a century of historic records and photos, now lost.


Swan's Island Library Fire July 2008 courtesy of The WorkingWaterfront {left} Library now July 2009

When artist and island summer-resident Elizabeth Awalt drove over the next morning after hearing about the fire she saw something quite surreal... hundreds of scorched pages flying around. Only the edges were burned resembling pieces of toast or even tombstones but the center of the pages were intact. She started picking up the pages, from Jean de Brunoff's Babar, Edward Gorey, and more. She was deeply moved by these pages and remarked on how much a part of her own life these books had been. Elizabeth thought she might paint on some of them or give some to other Maine artists to paint. And, it's from that single thought that came one of the most beautiful ideas, New Pages — a benefit auction of unique works by noted Maine artists, created from the scorched pages Elizabeth recovered that day.


Swan's Island resident pages {top left} Elizabeth in her studio, poster for New Pages auction {right}

In addition to works by noted Maine artists, Elizabeth asked residents of Swan's Island to create pages and we were lucky to have seen them at her recent open studio. The emotions that fill you by looking at these incredible pages of art include a sense of sustainability and hope, the importance of community, and a pure love of books. Elizabeth's brilliant idea is more than helping people heal from this tragedy through art, its also the catalyst to raise actual dollars for rebuilding the library.


A breathtaking wall of Swan's Island residents pages {click to enlarge image}


pattern painted on a Felicia Lamport page {left} and a fun-loving creation on an Edward Gorey page {right}


simple design "Annie" on a page from The Colonist


another Gorey page {left} a simple sketch on a page of reflections of E.B. White & Anne Morrow Lindbergh {right}

Elizabeth asked us if we wanted to participate and we were honored to create our own New Pages that evening and deliver them to her studio the following morning.


Mark's hopeful branches page {left} and my page representing island permanence {right}


Larry's strong primal page {left} and Jane's sweet growing garden page {right}

Reconstruction will be costly but the library {a community landmark}, is extremely important to the Island's residents. This past winter, a newspaper ad for an architect brought 14 candidates to Swan's Island for interviews and a tour of the island's architecture. The board selected Bar Harbor architect Stewart Brecher. Support has come from many places including book drives in Rockland, Northeast Harbor and Lewiston. And, now the fundraising continues with the New Pages preview and auction events. If you can't make either event, please consider a donation. The people of Swan's Island would greatly appreciate it!



please click to donate


The Swan's Island Educational Society provides library and historical collection services for the community of Swan's Island.