Red Square quilt, from the “Art and Soul” exhibit at Gardenworks. Maria Heinrich

  September 4, 2009 – Just came from Gardenworks to check on the Art Soul show and get a Moses Melon, some freshly picked blueberries and raspberries, organic spinach, peaches and Vermont cheese.  There are also flowers,  fresh pies from the bakery and Brigitte’s already famous muffins, cookies and cider donuts.
  Meg says the phone is ringing off the hook with people calling about the exhibit – Art and Soul – now up at Gardenworks (518 854-3250) in Salem,N.Y., and the “Soul Of A Dog” talk/reading tomorrow at 2 p.m. The weather looks great. I will be reading from the book and taking questions about it.
  I’m happy to pass along the good news that three paintings have already sold. That’s neat. I strongly suspect there will be more.  This show is, I think, impressive. It speaks not only to creativity and to diverse story telling, but to the growth, encouragement and evolution of the artists. Maria and I were shocked when we stood and looked at the totality of the work.
   A few years ago, some of us came together at Gardenworks for an art show,  and it seems as if that was a different world. Perhaps it was.

  Mary Kellogg will be reading poems from her new book “Whistling Woman,” Corinna Aldrich will be showing her photographs, and I have put up five of mine. Ray Smith and Christopher Smith are showing their striking and powerful paintings. Maria Heinrich is showing and selling three of her quilts (and some potholders, I gather).   And Gardenworks will be selling its very classy stuff. The fields are ripe with big raspberries if anyone wishes to pick them. I have given a reading at Gardenworks ever since I came here in 2003. It’s an important ritual for me, a measure of time and space and this year feels better than any other year.

  I think one of the many reasons I came to Bedlam Farm was to seek and offer encouragement for my work, including the photographs that wanted to come out into the world. I found it, and whenever possible, I have tried to return the favor. One of the many blessings of this striving was Maria, who moved into the Studio Barn to work on her art. We became friends, then much more.
 We both have reveled in the growth and talent of Mary Kellogg, who hid her poetry from the world for many years, and who is now cranking out her touching, elegaic work. Mary’s poems are like lost works of art, suddenly discovered and brought to the world.
   Corinna Aldrich is a friend and neighbor, a hybrid farmgirl/artist who loves cows, and tirelessly and effortlessly takes beautiful photos and captures the farm landscape as well as anyone. Her work drew a first place ribbon at the Washington County Fair last week.
  Christopher Smith is a young artist whose work explodes with color and emotion. Ray Smith is a talented artist whose work evokes many different and classic schools of landscape painting.
  We are a community of encouragement. We love and support one another. We are all telling our stories, in our own way.
  Come by if you can. Gardenworks is located at 1055 Route 30/West Hebron Road, Salem, N.Y., 12865.