Lilith Jones, muralist, in "the highest room of the tallest tower" and beyond

Photo by Ewa Rumprecht

Be prepared to be enchanted when you walk into "the highest room of the tallest tower" of the Cold Spring Harbor Library, actually the library has only one two-story tower, but what a tower it is!

You enter the brightly lit room; it is circular, arranged like a child size amphitheater with the floor and three steps / seats softened with a carpet; its ceiling is white, the walls are covered by a colorful, evolving scene, gently broken by the rhythm of windows overlooking the harbor area. The simple geometry is so charming, the size so comfortable that you immediately feel captivated.

See the muralist Lilith Jones add new elements to the July landscape scene. The voice recording is not the best, but if you can hear well enough, you will find Lilith's comments invaluable.



The room, in an impressive, new library building, designed by Beatty, Harvey & Associates, was designated as a story time room. The library director, Helen M. Crosson, wanted a mural in there. She commissioned the muralist, Lilith Jones of Huntington, who, with a long list of nature depicting murals in her portfolio, was a perfect choice.

The library, built on the state land, included a nature center. It was befitting that the mural should include the types of ecosystems surrounding the library. Tons of research went into identifying the topography, soil, moisture level, native plants and animals to be rendered in the mural. When it is completed it will present images of 250 species of local plants and animals.

Photo by Ewa Rumprecht

The mural is arranged to depict the scenes beyond the walls at the changing seasons: woodland with May bloomers, then an imaginary backyard scene with a humid June forest on the left changing into a drier, sandy hill with early July plants; freshwater pond with a mid summer picnic scene follows and extends into another, late August, panel with collected samples. The mural dips in the last panel to include underwater plants and animals, the friendly-looking seal, known to visit the area in October, steals the scene.

When children enter the room, they start exploring the room by running along the round wall. This is exactly the effect the creators have envisioned, the mural is made to be touched. Lilith used durable and safe paints and will coat the walls with a protective layer after the mural is completed to ensure it stays that way for a long time.

Maybe it would not be so bad being a princess locked up in this enchanted tower (perhaps with an access to the stacks and computers). If one were to kiss a frog to turn it into a prince, Lilith would probably know the right specie :).

Lilith's knowledge, talent and charisma are so great, that it's a miracle she is able to paint at all. Children come every few minutes, a lot of them know her from her art classes (she very seriously and with full conviction calls them artists). Adults drop in and chat with her. There is a constant string of admirers, myself included. I have been there five times within the last week or so.

Photo by Ewa Rumprecht

Lilith created murals in various other public and civic places - at the Harborfields Library in Greenlawn, at the Friends Academy in Locust Valley, at the Nature Conservancy in Cold Spring Harbor, or in the kids section of the Book Review in Huntington. She has also painted private rooms in houses of the nature loving folks - it could be an atrium, sun porch, kid's room. Some clients when moving asked Lilith to paint again at the new location. In a few instances she even painted an equivalent of a mural on canvas so that it can be easily relocated. She will recommends images for a particular location to better accommodate the architecture and the size of a room, type of wall, or light in the room changing at different times of day.

Her portfolio can be seen in her gallery.

Lilith has also illustrated two and co-authored one nature book for children: "Wacky Plant Cycles" by Valerie Wyatt and Lilith Jones and "You Don't Look Like Your Mother" by Aileen Lucia Fisher.

Photo by Ewa Rumprecht

Lilith was raised in Locust Valley. Since her childhood she was interested in drawing and in nature. She applied to an art school, transferred to Stony Brook to study biology. The anatomy drawing class brought her back to art. She had studied painting with Stephen Rettegi, Hungarian-American oil painter, for about a year and a half. She immersed herself in the world of great art by reviewing one art book after another in search for interesting ways of the artistic expression. Now she herself teaches painting in the Huntington School of Fine Arts in the high school portfolio program.

Lilith has a deep appreciation for nature, she spent a lot of time around it throughout her life. She not only lived with it but also followed her interest with a diligent study and continuous consultations with naturalists. She was known to erase an object from a mural when it was found out of its environment, for instance, a May flower which was depicted blooming in late August.

She found nature based murals to be a perfect medium for her where she can combine both her passions - art and nature. The collaborative effort involved in creating a mural appeals to her, as well.

Photo by
Ewa Rumprecht

She paints her murals in two different styles, with form depicted by patches of color, like the mural in Cold Spring Harbor Library, or with a form outlined in purple, black or brown, the latter producing lighter images. The selection of technique will depend on the theme, the feeling of the space, and, obviously, the budget.

Themes might be, as she calls them, whimsical and present imaginary figures, usually animals doing imaginary things, like elephants, mice and monkeys reading books in the Harborfields Library murals. Themes might be based on nature and then will be presented true to originals, like the mural at the Cold Spring Harbor Library.

All murals share the same challenges - a proportion of space or perspective and focus at different vantage points. Lilith solves the problems with a pragmatic approach which leaves the viewer not overpowered by the size or location of the murals but charmed by their welcoming and harmonious presence.

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Donna Ferrara, stoneware, function and beauty

Photo by Ewa Rumprecht

At the time when I first met Donna Ferrara I was still attempting, clumsily and ineffectively, to center a piece of clay on a rotating potter's wheel. Donna was throwing one pot after another, each one perfectly shaped. That was no accident. She had previously studied with Japanese potter Makoto Yabe at Clay Art Center in Allston, MA, and at the Radcliffe Pottery Center at Harvard. She joined Andrew Quient pottery studio in Glen Cove in mid 90's. After Andrew closed his studio and moved to Massachusetts, Donna worked at various other studios on the island and eventually opened her own in Sea Cliff.

Photo by Ewa Rumprecht

She creates her own works there, but also has a nicely sized group of students, 3-5 per session. She liked the idea of teaching even before, but when put to practice she found teaching very rewarding and inspiring. Some students are advanced, some come with an idea of making a particular piece, maybe a statue of a horse or a dish for some special occasion. There is no strict curriculum, every student is allowed to develop within own area of interest. Donna is there to offer guidance and to teach the technique appropriate for the chosen object.

Photo by Ewa Rumprecht

Donna's professional life before stoneware - she graduated from the School of Visual Arts, with a BFA in painting and printmaking, worked in needlepoint and textile design, was employed in visual display at Conrans - always revolved around creating things beautiful and functional. This carried on into her pottery. You take one of her pieces, it is nicely balanced, it feels right in your hand, it looks beautiful. You want to serve freshly rinsed, ripe peaches in one of her colanders; a hearty meal of pasta is even more inviting in a nice, deep bowl with an earthy feel to it.

Donna's work is ever evolving. She continuously experiments with new colors and shapes. Even the most sophisticated gourmand will settle for a new recipe, Donna will create a new serving dish to match her culinary fancy! This is true luxury and this is how many new shapes come about. Donna takes summers, when it is too hot to fire the kiln, to explore new glazes; she consults pottery magazines and researches formulae recommended by fellow potters.

Photo by Ewa Rumprecht

As with any experiments, some ideas work, some do not. I was half expecting her kitchen cupboards to be filled with the "rejects". I was wrong, she likes to use dishes that match her high functionality and beauty standards.

More information about Donna's work can be found on her website www.mapleleafpottery.com.

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Paean to a local library

Let this post be a paean to a local library.

If you visit your library every other day, and many patrons do, you already know what a great place it is! Not only can you find traditional printed materials, local archives, and multimedia, but also access numerous databases, learn a language, or reserve a free pass for a family trip to a museum. Yoga, crocheting, bridge, finger painting - whatever is your thing, you are sure to find similarly minded neighbors of yours who sign up for classes every day.

Check out your library's website to see the wealth of resources at your disposal. It is your tax money at work and it is a pleasure to see how well it serves you!

Some libraries provide a web tool allowing you to calculate how much you save by using the resources, this calculator is from the Locust Valley Library website. I have done my math and, though I was a very modest library user in recent months and chose to err on the conservative side, my savings came up to over $800 per year! Not bad at all. Think of a family of four!

Photo by Ewa Rumprecht

Let us look at one library in particular, the Harborfields Library. It serves villages of Greenlawn and Centerport, which at the time of 2000 US Census had combined population of 18,732 between Greenlawn at 13,286 and Centerport at 5,446. The library was started in 1970'ies in a converted school house now substantially expanded to accommodate the growing needs with grace and comfort.

Carol Albano, Director
Ryan Athanas, Assistant Director
Photo by Ewa Rumprecht

Carol Albano, Director, and Ryan Athanas, Assistant Director, are the very professional, energetic, and cheerful duo at the helm of the Harborfields Library. With 80 staff members, 28 of them full time, they manage to run such a great library, a community center really, that even real estate agents mention it to the prospective buyers in the area! The library also happens to have a great location, just at the center of Greenlawn, within an easy walking distance from the high school, the post office, the train station, and shops.

The library has a good fortune to attract readers of all age groups, including the one statistically most resistant to printed word. Many a parent may have a problem getting junior to do anything brainy, let alone visit a library. The Harborfields Library has thriving young adult programs. The library provides an Xbox and computers, the usual draw, but it must the genius loci that keeps young people coming back.

14,476 registered card holders visited the library 415,782 times and perused 315,156 books and other materials in 2009, that's roughly 22 transactions per year per reader, 1 every two weeks or so. This does not include the 1,049 programs attended by 27,975 participants in that year. Since most of the programs are run by the in-house staff, the librarians are quite busy there.

The Harborfields Library is able to provide all these services thanks to a generous support of the community; the library budget was never voted down in its 40-year existence. The library is also blessed with a very active and progressive thinking group of supporters - Friends of the Harborfields Public Library who are behind various projects making a visit to the library such a rewarding experience.

Mural by Lilith Jones
Photo by Ewa Rumprecht

Mural by Lilith Jones
Photo by Ewa Rumprecht

Mural by Lilith Jones
Photo by Ewa Rumprecht

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Alan Henriksen, photographer

Last Sunday, I met with photographer Alan Henriksen at the Planting Fields Arboretum for a working photo shoot session. Alan took a series of photos of plants pushing against the stained and whitewashed glass of the main greenhouse. Most visitors go inside the greenhouse and photograph objects within; it takes a photographer's eye to see a potential for great photos from the outside looking in.

We have here a short video of Alan taking the first shots of the session, a warm-up as he called it.

Photo by Alan Henriksen

The image on the right is the first photo taken in the video. You can see stains on the glass and plants inside of the greenhouse. The overall effect resembles an underwater photograph. I guess, this is not how you have envisioned the end result of the take. It was a surprise to me, too. Made me look again and think. And admire.

The combination of natural and man made objects, frequently photographed through windows, are a recurring theme in Alan's latest work. The objects and the reflections in the glass give an interesting sense of space. Check out Alan's website www.alanhenriksen.com to see his portfolio of varied themes, subjects, and locations. The Sunday photos will be making their way there shortly. Alan is also considering submitting them to a photo competition.

Becoming a photographer, Alan's way

Forest Reflections
Acadia, Maine, 2010
Photo by Alan Henriksen

Alan Henriksen, a Long Island native, comes from a seafaring stock. His grandfather, Henrik, still holds the world record for Atlantic salmon. Alan's father, Hans, who served as an engineer in the Norwegian navy during World War II, was also an expert fisherman. He married and started a family in the US following WWII. Alan grew up exposed to Long Island's forests and its surrounding sea. His family's homes in Massapequa Park and, later on, Oakdale were adjacent to large nature preserves, which he explored extensively. The family also went on frequent fishing trips, either in the family boat or on occasional outings to Montauk, where they would practice surf fishing in the afternoon and evening, camp overnight on the beach, and continue fishing the following morning. These experiences, on land and water, became a great inspiration for his work.

Alan began photographing in 1958, at the age of nine, with a Kodak Brownie camera. In 1959 he received a small darkroom kit as a Christmas present. The kit included a package of print-out paper, which produced a visible image upon exposure to sunlight, and the trays and chemicals to tone the print and make it permanent.

During his high school years a review of a book of Civil War photographs led Alan to the Sayville Library, where he wandered into the photography section and chanced upon "The Picture History of Photography" by Peter Pollack; Edward Weston's pepper was the first photograph he saw. That moment was an epiphany - Alan decided that photography was the path he would follow. Using savings from his newspaper delivery job, Alan bought his neighbor's camera and darkroom equipment. Later, as editor of the high school yearbook and vice-president of the school's camera club, he had access to a well-equipped darkroom, where he spent many hours improving his printing skills.

In 1966, at age 17, one of Alan's photographs, of a clump of pokeberries against a tree stump, was accepted into the Northwest International Exhibition in Washington state.

Mirror Lake
Yosemite, 1970
Photo by Alan Henriksen

The following year Alan began a correspondence with Ansel Adams, who became his mentor. In 1970, after three years of phone conversations and mail exchanges with Adams, Alan attended the Ansel Adams Yosemite Workshop, where he met Adams in person. Many years later, one of Alan's photos from this trip was accepted into the Yosemite Renaissance Exhibition, which toured California, starting at the Yosemite National Park Museum.

From 1974 to 1983 Alan was employed at Agfa-Gevaert's photo paper manufacturing plant in Shoreham, Long Island. He worked primarily as a sensitometrist, someone who is expert in determining the way in which photographic paper responds to light. This led to Alan's collaboration in the late 70's with Adams, along with photographers David Vestal and Paul Caponigro, on Popular Photography Magazine's project to develop better photo paper. In the late 80's Alan put his knowledge of sensitometry to use by authoring ZoneCalc, a software implementation of Ansel Adams' Zone System of exposure and development, which was marketed by Maine Photographic Resource.

Fast forward some years and technological advances. Though fully equipped to photograph and print using multiple film-based formats, Alan now photographs mostly with a digital camera, and has extended his output to include not only black and white, but also color.

Windows Bar Harbor, Maine 2008 Photo by Alan Henriksen	Boards and Tarp Searsport, Maine 2010 Photo by Alan Henriksen	Doors and Reflections Bar Harbor, Maine 2008 Photo by Alan Henriksen

In addition to the portfolio, Alan's website, www.alanhenriksen.com, also contains a list of the exhibits and publications. His work has received recognition from major photography magazines and has found its place in serious private collections.

Make sure you read Dean Brierly's excellent interview Alan Henriksen: Contrapuntal Vision.

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Portrait in guitar by Scott MacDonald

Photo by Ewa Rumprecht

Jolanta and I visited luthier Scott MacDonald, owner of the S.B. MacDonald Custom Instruments in Huntington.

Scott builds fewer than a dozen new guitars a year, but when he does, he creates a new being. The new instrument is more than just a bunch of precisely cut wood or metal pieces masterfully glued together, it becomes a reflection and a part of the owner.

Scott attempts to find out as much as possible about the player's musical preferences, the shape, strength and size of the musician's hand, his or her technique and the energy level. This allows him to craft an instrument that performs beautifully in the hands of its owner. It does not hurt, either, that the instrument looks stunning, from its shape to its color and decoration. These are also a reflection of the owner's personality.

The finished product is a result of hard labor and a long dialog between Scott and the musician. It may take up to 24 months between the initial contact and the time the ecstatic owner leaves the shop with a guitar under his arm.

We have asked to have a "portrait in guitar", as I called it, painted of one of us. Since I had a background in music, we have worked on a hypothetical guitar for me. I fancied a strong, rich blues sound and some red accents. We have settled on a black electric guitar with a mother ladybug on the body and baby ladybugs walking all over the neck.

Scott built his first banjo in a college dorm. Some years later he returned to lutherie by first putting together a guitar from a kit, then by trying his hand on building an instrument from scratch. His father still owns this memento. Scott now runs a successful studio where in addition to creating custom ones he repairs all types of fretted instruments - guitars, banjos, ukuleles, mandolins, even lutes. The list of his clients is extensive, with about half of them local.

His instruments have a crisp, full and warm sound. You can find some recordings plus photos of the instruments on Scott's very informative website www.customguitars.com. His Scott's Guitar Blog is a must for a professional.

Scott can be reached at 631.421.9056.



Also listen to Scott show his own ukulele in this YouTube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7DUp9jnBrU.

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Eric Marten, fiddler

Eric Marten, violinist, music teacher and historian, delighted the visitors of a school house (c. 1845, from Manhasset) at the Old Bethpage Village Restoration with traditional tunes on this swelteringly hot Independence Day.

Eric played one of four 19th century violins in the possession of the Village. This violin/fiddle differed from a modern day instrument in a number of ways - sheep gut strings produced milder, richer, less metallic sound, the violin had no chin rest and no fine tuners. It was tuned differently from the standard GDAE and its pitch was lower than modern A-440. 

The simple tunes were charming, warm, and catching. It was not difficult to imagine dancers moving gently to the rhythm. If not for the fact that we wanted to preserve the gravitas of the place, were eager to hear more music and more information (and were very hot), we would have danced ourselves, right there, in the small, one room school house.

Eric Marten is the music historian at the museum. He has extensive knowledge of period tunes and instruments. Over the years he has been involved in the works of The Long Island Traditional Music Association (LITMA), where he currently conducts Young Musicians Fiddle Instruction Series workshops, The Barnburners, The Long Island Fiddlemonic Orchestra, The "No Frills" Contradance Orchestra, and various school fiddle clubs on Long Island.

If you need information about traditional tunes, period instruments at the Village, or just want to play music, contact Eric at 1.516.359.3801.



In the following video, Eric plays the fiddle while his wife plays limberjack, a wooden instrument.





More fiddle music performed by Eric can be found on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZLLzOipqdY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIdPnUqGxu0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-_M_k5kx5s

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Nassau County's Photo Archive Center at Old Bethpage Village Restoration

Photo by Ewa Rumprecht

If you have attended the same church every Sunday for the last 20 years, you may have wondered, how did your church look 100 years ago; who would be your neighbor on the bench, whose more or less ample bottoms polished the pew on which you are sitting now, whose kids carved their initials in the soft wood, how were the members of the congregation dressed, what hats were they wearing, did they look prosperous? Answers to these and to many other questions are waiting quietly at the photo archives administered by the Nassau County's Photo Archive Center at the Old Bethpage Village Restoration.

There are researchers, family members delving into their family tree, book authors, historians, organizations celebrating anniversaries of their activies, whose inquiries constitute the bulk of requests for the many images in the archive.

Of the 250,000 images in the archive, 14,000 are catalogued in an electronic format for an easy retrieval. George William Fisher oversees the project from his office/lab at the Restoration. He is a walking font of information on the Long Island photographers, photo techniques, history and industry of Long Island (he is an avid collector of Long Island soda, beer, mineral water, and medicine bottles). He is perfectly suited for his job or rather passion also for another reason, he has years of experience digitizing and archiving data, from human resource files to county records.

One of the current projects at the center is cataloguing the collection of about 4,000 images by Mattie Edwards Hewitt, a landscape and architectural photographer, from Richard Averill Smith's bequest to Nassau County. Hewitt was a very talented photographer who captured numerous architectural treasures of Long Island. Since she published extensively during her lifetime, her photos of Long Island mansions and grounds brought many landscaping ideas to middle class and thus shaped many a neighborhood on the island.

Archives include works by other major Long Island photographers noted for their historical or artistic merit: Henry Otto Korten, John Drennan,William Pickering, Rachel and Lydia Hicks, George Dradford Brainard, and the already mentioned Richard Averill Smith.

Photo Archive Center is located at the Old Bethpage Village Restoration, 1303 Round Swamp Road, Old Bethpage, NY 11804. Tours and visits, by appointment only, can be arranged by calling 516.572.8410.

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