Joan Hopkins Coughlin’s Wellfleet home is perched on a hill overlooking Duck Creek, a subject she’s continually returned to in her paintings. By the door in her kitchen hangs a […]
Art
INTER-MEDIATE
Jeff Gibbons’s Root Balls, Tiny Chairs, and Talking Rocks
An artist conjures surreal worlds that evoke whimsy and worry
Inside his studio off Pearl Street, Jeff Gibbons is mulling over his latest work, Orion’s Belty Button. The earthen sculpture, a helmet-size hornbeam root ball, rests on a wooden pedestal, […]
LIFETIMES
Peter Hutchinson Through the Decades
The artist’s work, spanning more than 70 years, is a provocative meditation on nature
Peter Hutchinson stands in his studio flipping through photos from past projects. He turns a page, and there he is — tiptoeing around the caldera of a volcano, dropping crumbs […]
IN THE ARCHIVES
Notes From a Native Daughter
Margaret Mayo, the subject of a Henry Hensche portrait, wrote her own early history
On the first floor of the Provincetown Public Library, in the magazine section, is Henry Hensche’s Portrait of Margaret Mayo Expecting Motherhood. The woman’s eyes are pained and sad yet […]
ON THE EDGES
The Art of the Frame
Provincetown makers talk about an artwork’s ‘boundary with the world’
Beveled or square-edged, gold or chartreuse, deep-set or floater? Does a frame enhance a work of art? The frame is a statement, a declaration by the artist. Finding a suitable […]
IN THE STUDIO
Sheryl Jaffe Explores Life’s Interconnectedness
The artist’s vision encompasses her birth story and the DNA of banana leaves
Sheryl Jaffe’s studio in her Wellfleet home feels equal parts science laboratory, industrial workshop, and cabinet of curiosities. Objects that she has collected on walks line the shelves and ledges: […]
ART HISTORY
Clare Leighton’s Wellfleet Legacy
An engraver who brought light to our shores’ humble scenes
In her 1954 book about Cape Cod’s land and culture, Where Land Meets Sea, Clare Leighton describes herself as “a Britisher by birth” and a Cape Codder for a decade. […]
BIDDING
Deep Pockets and Egos: Behind the Scenes at Bakker
Advice on buying and selling art from Provincetown’s only auction house
There are 50 galleries listed on the Provincetown Office of Tourism’s website, and that list doesn’t include the walls of the town’s museums, artist studios, hotels, inns, and boutique shops […]
ARTISTS
Out From the Margins and Onto the Pedestal
David Pirro celebrates classical art and LGBTQ culture
As a child, David Pirro dreamed of being an artist. He then spent most of his adult life in a stable career in information technology. “I’m an ’80s gay,” he […]
EXHIBITION
Stephanie Vevers Is a Connoisseur of Her Family’s Art
Tony Vevers’s daughter guides a visitor through a memorable 1960 picnic
There is a certain protective haze that encircles our early memories. Sometimes it is hard to discern whether what we remember is accurate or if the memory has been overlaid […]
NEW YEAR'S CARD
2024: Looking Back and Looking Forward
Was everything better way back when? In the news pages of this end-of-year issue, we asked reporters to look closely at the towns they cover, delving into the sources of […]
PRISMATIC
Mike Sullivan Wears Many Masks
An artist in multiple disciplines moves inward for the winter
When you step into Mike Sullivan’s winter studio in the grand living room of the house he’s renting in Provincetown’s East End, three things hit you right away. The first […]
IN PROGRESS
Jenny Humphreys Gets Away With It
Inside the painter’s winter of whimsy
In the center of a melancholy Norwegian landscape — with its brown mountain, cold sky, and rows of huddled evergreens — stands a massive chicken foot. It looks extraterrestrial, exploding […]
CASTOFFS
The Scrap Heap Is His Palette
Terry Catalano’s graffiti-inspired assemblages are built to last
Terry Catalano moves one of his 50-pound found-wood sculptures across his Pearl Street apartment’s sunroom to make space for a six-foot Christmas tree, decorated with a collection of toys from […]
ARTISTS
Mark Adams Is Most at Home in the Dunes
Science and adventure color the artist’s vision of our place in the natural world
It was just after 5 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 5, 1977, when Mark Adams and four other firefighters from the National Forest Service spotted a lightning storm coming in off […]
