Project Elements Easthampton

A walk around the block

Project01027 — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 05:14:49 +0000

Seedling

Finally out to see some other work as well as make my own. Air has been underway but I am returning to it with gusto, collecting, making, changing.

I saw this show in NYC. Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg really pulled out everything for this installation. That Walker Art Center just keeps on giving.

In 2009, I put together this walking tour of weird but true stories about Easthampton. It is almost available in full and for download on soundcloud. Just in case you were looking for something to do.

Kewpie dolls, kids, and motorcycle riders

Project01027 — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:47:49 +0000

Kewpie Dolls were created in about 1909 just around the time that the Easthampton child laborers were photographed by Lewis Hine.

This is where I am going with this: Charbano, Charbanneau, Chebarro

I was selling work on Etsy but took it down. It was not fulfilling. However I was mentioned in the Dig Boston as having an etsy site, so I listed a new item.

Mail and kids

Project01027 — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 00:47:06 +0000

I have been scouring the child labor books and library of congress to find out more on child labor here in the Easthampton mills. I came across a photo of a four year old in Louisiana who in 1912 was put to work as oyster shucker when she wasn’t taking care of her mother’s other baby.

It’s a lot to take-in and try to envision the history of labor in our society especially in light of the wide-spread anti-corporate protesting and the continual lack of job growth in the US. With the evolution that so quickly transformed in the 20th century industrial era, it seems like we should have evolved even further. We have such good historical examples of problem solving in previous tough financial times such as the new deal. It seems so obvious that we need innovation and social responsibility and well so much more to revamp our corrupt systems.

Anyway these historical images and child-labor history seem relevant and are very much influencing air.

Also, Easthampton Alphabet postcards are up in the store.

V is for Valentine’s

Project01027 — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 22:11:37 +0000

The Easthampton Alphabet returned to Easthampton and an abbreviated version was seen at White Square Books. An even further abbreviated version will be up there for awhile. Some of my favorites are there– V, H, and L. V is the story of Claire Parsons and Shirley Tefft (6 1/2 and 7) who drowned in the lower mill pond on Valentine’s Day and in 1938. There was a documentary on the lower mill pond in which a sister of Claire Parsons tells the story of the drowning. She would later meet and marry a man who was working in the mills that day looking over the ice but did not see the incident. It painted the gruesomeness of the story as well as the clear picture of what Easthampton was on February of 1938 — a frigid mill town that was full of workers who had taken residence around the ponds that powered their work.

Thanks to Jackie D of C3 in Northampton did and interview with me on my Project Elements Eathampton project and more.

Easthampton Alphabet in Northampton

Project01027 — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 04:57:05 +0000

Don’t miss the Easthampton Alphabet in the Forbes Library’s Hosmer Gallery June 2-29.

For 1.5 years, Burns Maxey researched Easthampton history from 1898 – 2009 by sifting through microfiche of the Daily Hampshire Gazette at the Forbes. Maxey illustrated 26 of these stories and they became part of the project, Earth.

New…

Project01027 — Sat, 28 May 2011 19:58:08 +0000

New look and feel to the site.

If you are looking for older posts from the old site you can find them here.