Inherent Problems in "Single-thread" Exhibitions?

Unfortunately I cant spare the time needed for monitoring construction and the last time I did a major build job, my construction management guy was an incompetent drunk. I need to be there and be on site. That wont happen for at least another 2 years.

The Eastport population is heavily leaning to the "from away" crowd. Its a town with a lot of artists who moved there and I know two geologists whove retired there and are doing research on the ST Croix fault swarm.

I always got a kick rom looking at T Eakins portraits (and those by his wife Susan) as being restitution for various slights against the "Mainline" Philly gentry. Eakins was always in some kind of trouble and several of his portraits that reside in Philly and in Wilmington are of those people who, later in his life, had conspired to have him removerd from the Art College for reasons of "moral turpitude". Eakins was a real rake and he enjoyed the company of many of his female students.

Ill have to review Sargent with a new frame of reference based on your reccomendations. Ive never really looked deeper into his portraits and form vignettes as anything but examples of " ommercials in virtuosity" You gotta admit that many of his gowned women get really close to almost Vermeerian or Velasquez styles. Ill now have to review the portraiture and expressions for a comparison to whose sporting them. Good advice, see theres always new ways of looking at old- school paint.

We have a small (4 works) by Susan McDowell Eakins and my wife has always been comparing SM Eakins works to Robt Henri and his crowd. We later found out that Henri and Susie had a few flings while Thomas was busy with his students at the Academy.
Great thing they didnt have Cable TV smut shows back then.

PS, we'd visit Blue Hill several times in the last few years and Ive always come away with the most spectacular shots of the Diorite and trappe dykes . SOmething to think about to keep you active in the winter. Try gold panning in the streams around the entire Mt Desert pluton. The streams that cut through the fracture zones and quartz veins, all carry some gold and its neat to find some. I always keep a small pan in my pack when I hike out past Meddybemps and Union (off the "Airline") . Ive come away with several ounces of the stuff and I always threaten to give it a s gifts to my grandkids (whenever I get grandkids). I had a jeweler craftsman in Camden (Me) make up a small nugget pendant for my wife and it is just as awesome a "natural" jewel that you could have.

Steams flowing into the major rivers and where they contact major "Granite type rocks" or trappe rocks.

Ya know, Im looking to buy a pair (or two) of snowshoes and I wonder if youve any experience or suggestions.
Were gonna go up to Eastport in Feb after I get back from a project I have going in Argentina /Chile. I was hoping to do some back country hiking and Ive never been good at gliding on the snowcrust (Im a little over 200 pounds so I need some decent shows. My wife (bless her) is a svelt 105 and I imagine that shed be no problem outfitting.

You've given me a whole lot to think about! Tomorrow, when I have time to write, I'll start with the snowshoes. I think you'd be really happy with certain of the new models.

Good morning, Farmerman
I hope that, on your way to Eastport, you'll consider a stop in Blue Hill. We have lots of room--the third floor, which has the best views of MDI, would be all yours, complete with two large bedrooms and a private bath--so we'd would be delighted to put you up for a night, rather than simply feed you. It would be great fun to chat in person. This is a serious invitation, so please keep us posted on your plans.
Snow shoes! The modern ones, made of light-but-strong metal alloy and strung with synthetic webbing, are a joy to use. Most of them come equipped with a hinged, toothed metal flap on the bottom of the shoe, which makes moving across icy snow much easier--and safer for the ankles. There even exist models with such long teeth that one may use them for ice-climbing, a sport that, frankly, doesn't call my name. The bear-paw design will support, in the proper size, a 200-pounder. As with any athletic equipment, one may pay anything for snowshoes--$19.95 (asking for trouble) to 499.95 (asking for a ripping off). I have found the moderately-priced (around $100 a pair) L.L. Bean models a good buy--and sturdy. Also, at Bean's, there is a customer rep one may talk with by phone, who can advise you on the best snowshoes for you size and usage. I find snow shoes much more fun than cross-country skis--especially for back-country. In winter, I weigh around 180, and I find show shoes highly maneuverable. At 105 pounds, your wife could probably stay atop the snow wearing modified badminton racquets; I don't think that fitting her will be problematic!
A small pan is immediately going into my light hiking pack. My wife would, most definitely, be thrilled with a nugget pendant. But, of course, I shall keep that possibility a secret, the same as I keep the size of my intended trout catch a secret when I go fly-fishing!
There is, apparently, still some gold on the Blue Hill peninsula--but it's no longer a commercial proposition. I may dip my pan in some remote streams here, but you are undoubtedly correct that MDI and the Meddybemps area are more likely areas.
Your avatar looks like Ulysses S. Grant. Is it Grant, or do you closely resemble him? A very interesting and accomplished fellow, Grant was. So, he drank a bit and raised a little hell? Most really interesting people do or have done so! He was a brilliant writer, on top of his other achievements. And I say this as a descendent of many Confederate officers.

I do resemble Grant in both manner and morphology.

I thank you for your kind invitation and I will at least try to stop by and say hello when we are travelling through. When we get the PM feature back, I can send you some more contact info.

Thanks too , for the snowshoe information. SO you use them alot ? I dont know anybody down here that even knows what theyre for. I like the idea of ice grabbers . One problem I had when I last used them in the ADirondacks was that I kept stepping on my own feet along the sides and Id trip myself once and awhile. I hope I can remember the lesssons learned. I guess Ill stop at Free[port the next time and get into a discussion to buy some shoes.
500 Bucks for snowshoes. What do we get for 500$ .

As for gold panning,keep your panning to the riffles nerest some big rocks in the stream. Lift the bigger rocks out of the water and scoop up the sand and sediment that was around the rocks. These big rocks serve as sediment traps and gold, becauise of its density, will get trapped in the margins of tghe flow field and you can more easily scoop it up. Blue Hill was a good gold panning spot in the past and, while you wont find thumb sized nuggets, you can find large grains and dust. Id known one prospector friend in North Carolina who made over a thousand dollars on weekends when he went panning. Hed keep all his dust in a pill vial and take it to a jeweler assayer. (Many states still have the fed tax on found gold, Im not sure Me is one of them)

You are right about the need to be on-site during construction, unless you have delegated your authority to a sober blood-relative who is a retired architect!
SM Eakins definitely hung out with a fast crowd, if Robert Henri and pals were involved. When I was young and still living in Washington, a good friend of ours was Ira Glackens (son of William). Ira and his wife, Nancy, had an extraordinary collection of paintings and drawings by the Ashcan School in their Georgetown house. I remember the Henris especially well: lots of flesh--and lots of good stories about how that flesh had been seduced into appearing on Henri's canvases. Distinctly bohemian life-style!
If you look at some Sargent portraits in which a child or children appear with their mother, you will notice pretty quickly that, in certain portraits, the kids come across as delightful and real, while mom is a golden ice-maiden with frost in her veins. When you have one of these paintings in front of you, then check the iconography of wealth--jewelry, dress materials, possessions. The thicker Sargent lays these on, the more likely the mother is being portrayed as a cold fish. The most sympathetic portraits of women done by Sargent are a group of single portraits of the sisters and parents in a Jewish family who befriended Sargent on a deep level. The feelings were mutual, and Sargent makes both parents and daughters glow with vitality and good will. You can imagine how some of the Main-liners from whom Sargent made so much commission money looked upon Jews. In Sargent's mind, the generous-hearted Jews were the real people!

I once attended a lecture by Ira Glackens on his collection of the "8". It was in MArtinsburg W Va and I believe he moved there in the 80's. He died in the 90's yes?. As I recall, Glackens was a trove of information about the haunts and habits of the group and their work. As I recall though, he was lecturing mostly on the work of Prendergast and its junction with some of the others like SHinn or Kuhns and their association with Thomas Anshusz
Maybe our SM Eakins painting is done with an Henri influence than that of her husband's. I dont know. I will have to get me some collections of figure and portrait works by Sargent and start looking at them more carefully

This is making me wonder where my book by Henri is..

If I remember, I've seen some of the "8" work at the Phillips Collection in DC and some at the Santa Barbara Museum.. don't know anything about SM Eakins or her work. One of my favorite paintings is T. Eakins' An Actress (however anatomically odd, or otherwise odd).

Or maybe I just adore shades of red or coral draping a person with attitude. I also strongly like Velasquez' Pope Innocent X.

Osso,
Isn't the Phillips an amazing small museum? So many good works, in addition to the single best Renoir in the country.
"An Actress" looks distorted to me, too! But Eakins, I'm pretty sure, gave her the correct anatomy, as that was his passion.
I don't remember The Eight at the Phillips. Could you kindly refresh my memory? Thanks.

Yes. Ira and Nancy had a house in Martinsburg, which my mother saw, but which I never did. I think Ira died in the 80's. He was a very amusing fellow--a good talker with an excellent memory. I recall his fascination with Prendergast, an enthusiasm I shared. Wish I could see a picture of your SM Eakins. Really interesting question you have: if her painting was influenced, by whom?

We went to the BARNES Museum to see the collection for one last time before they move the entire Barnes collection to the new museum that will be next to the Phila ARt Museum.

Im sure the new digs will be better for all the great works but, to see the paintings all hung like the original Salon, is always a treat. The "Castle" in which they are housed is a real trip also. Heres one of the most eclectic collections made in the lifetime of one man. Well worth the trips

Love this collection. To remember it as is, before it moves, I bought a disc that has all the collection, set up so that you can focus on a wall or a room or an individual work. It is a Corbis CD-ROM (002N-J01) titled A PASSION FOR ART: Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse, and Dr. Barnes. Highly recommend it.

They were selling it at the Barnes but we didnt purchase. I was given a short talk by a conservator friend who will be part of a "YTriage" team to try to save the several dozen canvases that have hung themselves into some permanent disfigurement. ALso the team will be cleaning the hundred years (almost) of crud from many of the paintings. They say that the effort will take several years and will involve the conservator teams from the Winterthur labs and U of PEnn and the pigment chem dept of the University of Delaware.