It was Maria’s idea to invite Ed and Carol Gulley to see the Nick Cave exhibit at Mass MoCa in North Adams, Mass. These two run their dairy farm seven days a week, and each day is long and hard. It is rare for them to be able to take time off, but Maria has been something of a mentor to Ed, one artist to another, and Ed often talks with her about his ideas and the ways in which he executes them.

Ed and I have become friends, and I have encouraged him to launch a blog, the Bejosh Farm Journal, that is now very successful. He is selling more and more of his farm art there, especially his wind chimes and animal sculptures. Museums are not a regular part of Ed’s life, I suspect, but he was sure wide-eyed at Cave’s colorful work and use of forms and tools.

We both thought he might find the brilliant and very dramatic dance and sculptor artist Nick Cave interesting, Ed makes his chimes and farm sculptures out of the thousands of artifacts, tools and engine parts he has collected over the years, and are now filling three big  barns.

Ed loves farm, but he also loves making his art and is finding the time to do. Check out the Gulley’s blog, it is red host.

Watching Ed, he was taking everything in, he was dazzled by Cave, I think. We talked about his hosting his own art show on his farm during our October Open House, he volunteered to offer a tour of his dairy farm, it is better than Disney World there, I can testify to that.

It was lovely to see Mass MoCa with Carol and Ed we were there for about two hours and we were all a bit stunned by all the beautiful things we see. I have talked to a lot of people about creativity over the years, but never seen anyone open up to it the way Ed has, the gifted artist in him just came roaring out, he tries to be gruff and farmer-like, his work is sensitive and touching.

We just got another beautiful wind chime for our porch. I took this photo in the big exhibit hall at the Nick Cave exhibit  with the Petsval 58 lens, as difficult as it is to use, I  like the way it picks up color and blurs backgrounds. I like the way Ed stands out in the middle of it.