Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Ghosts of the Hudson Valley

As part of the Henry Hudson Quadricentennial, the Artists of the Saugerties Artists Studio Tour are doing a public art project entitled: "Explore Saugerties: Artists Treasure Hunt." It was the result of some brainstorming between another member of the group, Gus Pedersen, and myself to have members of the Tour wreck our artistic will on 18"x18" boxes or frames that have been painted gold (hence the treasure aspect.) The theme of the works should be Hudson-related. My contribution was the idea to have the boxes/frames hidden at various locations around the township and have written clues to the whereabouts of the works for searchers to find them. I had assumed that being artists, all of us would seek out odd and unusual nooks and crannies of the township in which to put our treasures... well, a few of us have; the rest are putting their boxes in shops in the village- about as exciting and evocative as having an easter egg hunt at a mall...
Anyway, I have found a nice spot for my contribution- titled: Ghosts of the Hudson Valley.





Here is my clue:(I was going to have it translated into Old Dutch but that was pushing it a bit too far...)
I was a maid, then I was a wife.
We came to the New World
to start a new life.
But a new life took me
ere I was one and twenty;
my child, not I, walked this land of plenty.
From Aesculus' Crown I watch below
as iron wagons rush to and fro.
An argent stag for company I keep,
I wander in shadows, I dream,
yet I do not sleep.
(Please tread lightly, I share my prospect.
Others here too deserve your respect.)


(location: Chestnut Hill Cemetery, which for those not familiar with the area, is on a hill across from a place called New World Home Cooking, and it has a big silver stag statue there, and the major road between Saugerties and Woodstock runs below.)
I am in the process of putting together a page on the Art Tour website for the Treasure Hunt, the whole thing should be set up in the next week or two.
My own piece is two-sided and made of masonite and sheet acrylic. I have weatherproofed it to the best of my ability and who knows about vandalism- its a gamble but there you are...