New Beginnings
Transplanting ourselves to western Massachusetts as Art Drop #14 comes to a close.
Since we last wrote to you, my oak tree friend and I no longer share our every day. There’s been a divergence in the timeline where our experiences overlap. I couldn’t tell you precisely how much bigger its acorns have grown, and I also can’t tell you if there is a red-tailed hawk perched on one of its branches right now, being mobbed by blue jays and grackles. Is there a gust of wind whipping through its hefty branches or is it still and quiet this afternoon?
I can’t tell you this because we are now two and a half hours away from that beautiful tree and its generous shade, which would be so welcome on these hot summer days. How I wish I could have packed it and taken it with us.
For those of you that are new here, we built a house in the Berkshires.
It took many years to find the land, many more years to plan and design and finally build and finish. For so long this house was always somewhere far into the future, until suddenly I was white-knuckling a U-Haul filled with our belongings up the NY Thruway.
Amazingly I am writing these words from our kitchen table in that very house. There is so much I want to share with you about this house, our meadow, the line of trees stitched together forming a wall beyond it, the dragonflies, the bluebirds, the fireflies, the toad I almost stepped on (twice) in the garden, but what’s the rush? I have to give myself some breathing room to settle in, to get comfortable. I don’t need to recount every little observation right this second as if I was briefly visiting and might never return. We live here now.
ART DROP #14
Due to the unforeseen (though really, we should have known) upheaval that is “moving house” as Tom says it, we’ve left the art drop open a bit longer than usual this month. Something had to give! We will officially be closing Art Drop #14 tomorrow (Saturday July 13) at midnight EST so if this print speaks to you, now’s the time.
White Oak Tree Friend
Tenafly, New Jersey, USA
by Diana Pappas
Prints of this photograph are only available through July 13, 2024, with no further production of this work for at least a year. To learn more about the paper, sizes, and pricing click the button below to visit the art drop page on our website.
What’s next from us? We will be back on August 1 with Art Drop #15, hopefully with clearer minds and less exhausted bodies. In the meantime we will be getting our studio cleaned up and setting up the systems necessary to make more time for creating in this amazing space. We can’t wait to show you.
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Congrats on the move. Let's plan to meet in Catskill - or your place - when you are all setup!
Congratulations on the move. You are now deep in the heart of the landscape of my American roots. While some of my family came to Boston in the tumultuous early days of that colony, still other branches travelled up the Hudson River. I look forward to hearing about your adventures.