Red Dragon!

Red Dragon Boat Shed on the Delaware

Actually, there's no real dragon living along the Delaware River.  But the Red Dragon Canoe Club, housed within the stately Shipman Mansion, does indeed exist.  Organized more (much more, in fact) than one hundred years ago, the club continues to thrive, though amidst the challenges and transformations of the kind that affect many social organizations formed with a dedicated purpose in mind, in a previous and very different time.  For many years located on the Delaware River in Edgewater Park, more or less tucked within the geographical slot formed between Beverly and Burlington, the club has an active membership, provides regular local-interest programming for members, neighbors, and the general public, and perhaps most especially, has a wonderful collection of boats, paintings and prints, and other river-related artifacts commemorating the history of the organization and illustrating life along the river -- from the boater's perspective, for the most part.  Here is a description of the club, lifted directly from the home page of their website:

The venerable Red Dragon Canoe Club, founded in 1883, is one of the oldest boating clubs in the United States. Sailing, paddling, dinners and picnics round out an active social calendar, with something for the everyone in the family!

The Red Dragon is housed in the Shipman Mansion, a Second Empire style mansion dating from the Civil War. The Red Dragon Canoe Club is a member run, not for profit club. It is situated on six acres of beautiful waterfront in Edgewater Park, New Jersey.  

Racing Canoe on Display at the Red Dragon Canoe Club

For those interested in learning more, the Red Dragon's (the club, not the mythical beast) website can be found here.

The Shipman Mansion, Home of Red Dragon Canoe Club

I mentioned events and programming.  These can be explored on the club's website, but include an annual club Mess, an annual shad roast, music and speaker programs, and more.  The shad roast is schedules in spring, during the annual shad run up the Delaware.  I attended the club's shad roast this year, hanging out with members who built and tended the fire, and roasted the shad, and staying on for dinner later.

Roasting Shad at Red Dragon Canoe Club, 2015

For my purposes now, however, I want to touch very briefly on yet another feature of the Red Dragon -- the skill and creativity of its members.  Clubs like this seem to inspire new as well as established forms of artistic expression, or attract people with special interests, knowledge, and skills who then continue to do their work, but now focusing on the more specialized context offered by the club.  The Red Dragon Canoe Club is no exception.  There are skilled canoeists among the membership, some canoe builders and boat builders and boat restorers, a handful of artists and model builders, among others.  Ed Leaf, past commodore of the club, is a dedicated ship model builder with a vast and detailed knowledge of ships and ship models.  Among his many models is a passenger boat that at one time plied the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Burlington.  His work is finely and intricately detailed, and historically accurate.

Boat Model by Ed Leaf, Edgewater Park

      More later...

Back in the Blogger's Chair

Whew!  It's been a very long time since my last post to this blog -- way, way back in September 2014, in fact.  I confess to having an ambivalent relationship to blogging; while I enjoy writing and sharing ideas and fieldwork, I'd much rather actually be doing fieldwork than writing.  At this point in my work, it seems that that's my priority.  But beneath that simple preference, I sometimes wonder about the continuing relevance of blogs -- especially the lengthier posts that try to dig a little deeper -- in an era of targeted text messaging and tweeting, not to mention social media such as FaceBook and the posts of that sort, which tend to be highly personal.  It seems as though the more personal vehicles -- I'm thinking of StoryCorps, Moth Radio Hour, and First Person Arts among others -- tend to emphasize personal experience over communal experience.  Or as a colleague has expressed it, the various social media and related phenomena emphasize "me stories" rather than "we stories".  Based on my own experience, I'd say that fieldwork is pointedly about the latter, not the former.

Let me try to say what I mean in a different way that may be more appropriate in this context, in any case.  I recently wrote a short blurb about folk art for a local arts organization who are planning a workshop series on the traditional arts.  Here's part of what I wrote:

The stakes can be especially high for folk artists.  While their work may develop from a private motivation, it also implicates the artist’s community, whose collective understanding of history and tradition are absorbed into folk art, and find expression there. It follows that rather than indulge a personal aesthetic, folk artists mindfully incorporate recognizable materials, processes, and practices, which in turn situate their work within the public sphere they occupy with other community members.  This twinning of artist and community is an especially important feature of folk art, which suggests an abiding intimacy between making, using, and sharing.  

Having been involved with the traditional arts for a number of years, though working almost exclusively as a field folklorist, my understanding is that folklorists are wary, and perhaps also a bit weary, of efforts to "define" what folk art, or folklore in general, actually is, though of course, many still make the attempt, as I was asked to do in this case.      

Moving on, in my last post I shared some thoughts about upcoming projects in FY 15 and beyond, and wrote the following:

Looking ahead, though too soon to discuss FY15 projects in detail, I can say that in addition to our continuing work with NJ350, we'll be back in the schools with another artist residency program, yet to be identified.  We've also begun planning for a larger initiative, with a possible focus on river-related culture and history, to be explored and presented through the rich array of artifacts and narratives associated with the Delaware River and tributary creeks.  Beyond that, and in keeping with past practice, I'll continue to do general fieldwork in the region, to identify traditional artists, explore local and community history, and document aspects of South Jersey history and culture. 

Since writing those words, I have indeed been conducting general fieldwork in the region, but all the while gradually narrowing the scope of that work to focus on what I now think of as the "waterways project", but which Perkins Center is tentatively calling "The Tides that Bind".  I began fieldwork on that project in FY15, and am devoting myself almost exclusively to that work during the current fiscal year, FY16, leading to an exhibit and related programming that's scheduled to open in June 2016.  In posts to follow soon on the heels of this one, I'll provide details, though meanwhile, I'll note that I've already covered some of this work in previous posts, especially "River Rats", "Flood Gates", and "Ray Miller's Root-head Decoy".  

Keep reading...

Plein Air Workshop near Rancocas Creek

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

The Folklife Center at Perkins Center for the Arts has launched into the new fiscal year, with plans for a variety of new and continuing projects.  I should explain that our annual work cycle is geared to the State of New Jersey's fiscal year, which begins each year on 1 July, and ends on 30 June.  This varies significantly, of course, from the standard calendar year, and thus we refer to our working year as "FY15", shorthand for "Fiscal Year 2015", which actually commenced on July 1st (rather than on January 1st) 2014. 

Looking back, FY14 was a productive year for the Folklife Center.  We participated in a statewide project with other folklife centers, funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, to place artists in residence at local schools, in order to expose students and the school community in general to traditional and community arts.  The team from Perkins Center worked at the Delair School in Pennsauken Township with collaborating artists Queen Nur, an African American storyteller and cultural activist, and Giovanna Robinson, a Panamanian dancer, singer, and educator.  Our work culminated in a program in the school auditorium, featuring original stories and an original dance and song cycle -- conceived, presented, and performed by participating students.  The audience (and the students themselves) loved it!

The Folklife Center also played an integral role in the development of an exhibit and related workshops which opened at Perkins-Collingswood in May.  "Found Artists: On Country Roads, Side Streets and Back Alleys of South Jersey" was titled after the book of the same name by guest curator Sally Willowbee.   In preparation for the exhibit, I interviewed the participating artists and developed exhibit panel texts based on those interviews (see previous posts on this blog for the panel texts and a selection of photographs).  The audio files from those interviews are now part of the Perkins Center Archive Files, a growing repository of images, sound recordings, and other documentation relating to the diverse cultural life of South Jersey.  Once the archive files are fully and properly set up, they will serve as an important resource for artists, educators, and residents of our region and state.

To round out FY14, the Folklife Center, in collaboration with the Jersey Shore Folklife Center at Tuckerton Seaport, contributed to "NJ350", a statewide program in celebration of New Jersey's 350th anniversary.  Working through the Main Street Program in Hammonton, who were leading the effort to celebrate the event in that city, I conducted fieldwork in the area, and with help from Linda Stanton of Lines on the Pines and Jersey Shore Folklife Center staff, identified and recruited traditional artists to the event, which was presented the last weekend of May.  During the current fiscal year, we expect to continue this work by providing cultural programming in support of NJ350 events scheduled for Mt. Holly, and possibly also Atlantic City.  I'll provide information and updates on these programs as they become available.

Looking ahead, though too soon to discuss FY15 projects in detail, I can say that in addition to our continuing work with NJ350, we'll be back in the schools with another artist residency program, yet to be identified.  We've also begun planning for a larger initiative, with a possible focus on river-related culture and history, to be explored and presented through the rich array of artifacts and narratives associated with the Delaware River and tributary creeks.  Beyond that, and in keeping with past practice, I'll continue to do general fieldwork in the region, to identify traditional artists, explore local and community history, and document aspects of South Jersey history and culture.  One possible locale for general fieldwork is the Hammonton area, in order to follow up on work begun there in FY14 and explore new opportunities there. This and other fieldwork may someday contribute to exhibit and program development, while also nourishing and sustaining the growing Perkins Center Archive Files.

That's all there is to report for now, but there's much more information to follow on these and other topics.  So please be sure to check this blog for updates!

Rear Range Lighthouse, Paulsboro, painting by Ray Miller

    



  

       

    

      

Elonzo "Smitty" Smith

Here's the Found Artists exhibit panel text that was developed for Elonzo "Smitty" Smith, along with a photograph taken by Sally Willowbee.

Decorated Fence

William Smith a.k.a. “Smitty” was born in rural South Carolina but came to Shiloh as a teenager, a member of the migrant farmworker labor stream, cutting asparagus on local farms.  Eventually settling in Bridgeton, Smitty found work driving a truck for a medical supply company, staying with that job until he retired.  Sitting in the shop of a local welder, Smitty was captivated by the welding process, and by the possibility of making artful things out of mundane objects.  Never content to live within established frameworks, Smitty began exploring the hospital dumps along his route, salvaging discarded materials, converting some into art, some into practical objects which could be sold out of his yard to passersby, to supplement his income.  He never took up welding, but with an imagination activated by early exposure to National Geographic magazine, Smitty developed a passion for art and art making, which dovetailed with an abiding need to be different.  Always the outsider, ever the dreamer and schemer, and gifted with a ripping sense of style, Smitty is the classic artistic persona.  Entrepreneurial and artistic impulses live side by side in him, sometimes coalescing into opposing forces, as when a neighbor complains about the “junk” in Smitty’s yard; sometimes generating mild discomfort at home with his decorative reconfiguring of the family property.               

Sally Willowbee

Here's the Found Artist exhibit text that was developed for Sally Willowbee, along with some photographs that were provided by Sally.

Woman Lamp

Born in Iowa farm country and later moving to South Jersey as a child, Sally Willowbee participated in household chores from an early age, leading to a lifelong process of making and fixing things, given a boost when she attended Quaker boarding school as a teenager.  Art was daily fare at that school, feeding Sally’s burgeoning imagination.  She soon began making things and giving them away, but true awakening began to dawn only after she moved to California and participated in the Women’s Building -- a project of Judy Chicago and other feminist artists -- which broadened her concept of art-making, and kindled sparks of self-identification as an artist.  Along the way, Sally undertook a series of journeys – to California, to New Zealand, to the Florida Keys – which became journeys of renewal and reorientation, and strengthened her commitment to travel as an integral part of the life process.  Transforming a chicken coop into a home using recycled materials, making a career as a woodworker, working with an array of found objects and salvaged materials, Sally gradually morphed into a true artist.  Exploring the many connections between the useful and the beautiful, she uses coconut shells, gourds, and colanders; hobby horses, Barbie dolls, and Red Tape, to make art.  Traveling locally, Sally discovered abundant riches close to home, in the hinterlands of South Jersey.  Her discoveries, coupled with her own work, demonstrate the significance of a public art made with recycled materials, culminating in this exhibit and accompanying book.        

Bottle Tree

Anne Shelton

Here's the Found Artists exhibit panel text developed for Anne Shelton. 

Anne Shelton made a career teaching in Woodstown, retiring after twenty six years, dreaming of making her own art.  Attracted to painting, she read about a woman in California who decorated greeting cards with dryer lint.  Fascinated, Anne began exploring, and was soon collecting lint and building a file of reference images.  By trial and error she developed a unique method of “painting” – using lint rather than resins.  Nowadays her materials are abundant and cheap, but they’re produced by a mysterious process, the dryer magically selecting and concentrating hidden colors in the fabric -- a beautiful sage-like green, a delicate shade of orange, a gentle aquamarine.  Unraveling the lint, Anne detects latent forms and images already present there; inspired by colors that speak to her, she’s continually drawn into the process of discovery and invention.  Expressive as well as suggestive, dryer lint has found a capable partner in Anne, who contributes creative vision and artistry, resolving details of proportion and perspective as she works through her process.  Supported by the images in her files, Anne delivers canvases that touch the visual, the sensual, and ultimately the spiritual realms.  Hands roving the delicate fabric, she weaves evocative tableaux that open onto another world.                 

Palace of Depression

Here's the Found Artists exhibit text panel that was developed for the Palace of Depression in Vineland, along with some photographs taken on site.

George Draynor was a drifter who lost three fortunes in disasters and downturns, before winding up in Vineland.  He purchased seven acres of land sight unseen – which turned out to be a junkyard situated on a swamp.  Undaunted -- and encouraged by visiting angels – the eccentric Draynor began his notorious building project, which collapsed into ruin after his death.  Reputed to be an epicenter of healing for Native Americans, and later adapted by Europeans to their own health-restoring practices, the site has been reclaimed by two local men, Kevin Kirchner, former building inspector for the city of Vineland, and Jeffrey Tirante, Vineland native and practicing artist.  Kirchner and Tirante, with volunteer labor and donated funding, are rebuilding the Palace and developing the site into a city park.  Fascinated by the odd uniqueness of the original, they’re working from that model towards a new version that will be up to code and handicap accessible.  Meanwhile, they’re carefully reproducing Draynor’s sinuous walls, divagating ramps, minarets and spires, and swinging turtle-shell entrance door.  And they’re embedding found objects – bottles, glass, bricks, pottery, car parts, found-objects in general – into the fabric of the building, just as Draynor had done.  Thanks to the myriad of materials used, the walls glisten in the sun and shimmer evocatively after a rain, a goad to the imagination and tribute to the persistence of two generations of inspired builders.   

Palace in Progress

Up and Down Ramps