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Jane Paradise

    VIGNETTES

    Art Leaves the Gallery for the Parlor

    At the Vorse house, paintings see anew amid traces of history

    By

    Gene Tartaglia recalls a 2022 exhibition of Salvatore Del Deo’s artwork at the Mary Heaton Vorse house as revelatory. “It kind of shook the art community up a bit,” he says. “It was a big responsibility to exhibit a local artist and have him seen in a very different way.”

    Rob DuToit’s painting The Raft in the parlor of the Mary Heaton Vorse house. (Photos by Chet Domitz)

    In recent years, the Provincetown Arts Society, which Tartaglia directs, has presented five exhibitions annually — many featuring local artists — at the Commercial Street home of journalist and labor activist Mary Heaton Vorse, who died in 1966. Exhibitions run throughout the year, including the off-season when many local galleries are closed. The current exhibition, “A Community Affair: PAGA at the Mary Heaton Vorse House,” is the largest yet. It includes 140 works by 40 artists from 14 galleries, all members of the Provincetown Art Gallery Association. This is PAGA’s second group show at the Vorse house.

    The west wall of the parlor with two watercolors by Joel Janowitz.

    The interior design of the house serves as the backdrop for the exhibitions. This is no white-box gallery or museum. Rather, the art exists in a domestic setting, where traces of history have been purposely retained in a meticulous renovation project that began in 2018. The past remains ever present in the peeling paint, exposed laths, and worn treads that bear the imprints of the house’s inhabitants. Ken Fulk, the interior designer responsible for transforming the house into an arts space after he purchased it from Vorse’s heirs, has further accentuated the historical and artistic feeling of the house with eclectic furnishings. “The art resonates in a way it doesn’t in a gallery,” says Tartaglia.

    The parlor is the largest room and one of many gathering spots. A hearth at the center divides the room. A Middle Eastern heptadecagon table and a multi-colored patchwork sofa are among the furnishings. Exposed beams overhead introduce a variety of textures to the space. Within this setting hang paintings by Joel Janowitz, Rob DuToit, and Joshua Meyer.

    As a curator, Tartaglia thinks about how the artwork will interact with the interior of the house. Janowitz’s two watercolors of pathways in the dunes flank a window. “This little pathway looks like it belongs on that wall,” says Tartaglia. “It looks like you’re heading outside, and you could get on the trail.”

    Nearby is a painting by DuToit of a lone raft in a pond, rendered in a loose Impressionist style. In the same corner is Polyphony by Joshua Meyer. Deftly painted with a palette knife, it is a portrait of a young man looking down contemplatively. The two paintings are in conversation with one another and their surroundings. The cool tones of the DuToit echo the color and patina of the wall behind it and the partially sanded door trim nearby. The texture of Meyer’s painting finds kinship in the roughness of the exposed wood on which it hangs.

    Joshua Meyer’s painting Polyphony at the Vorse house.

    Nooks and hidden corners lend themselves to close looking. Tartaglia talks of “vignettes,” which are groupings of several paintings or an interesting placement of one. You come across them as you meander throughout the house.

    In a corner bathroom, Tartaglia has hung a photo of a dune shack by Jane Paradise. The bathroom is a tight space, and the photograph is placed near a sink with a shaving mirror angled outward. “When you peek in, you not only see the piece of art, you see yourself looking at the art,” says Tartaglia. “It’s a special moment.”

    Jane Paradise’s photograph Looking Out Margo Gelb in a bathroom at the Vorse house.

    Several paintings ranging from historic to contemporary hang in “Mary’s Room,” which was once Vorse’s bedroom. A standout is a full-length female nude by Charles Hawthorne. The model’s demure pose and the painting’s placement in the upstairs bedroom reflect the modest mores of the period. Another bedroom features an abstract painting by gallerist and artist Mike Carroll. The width of this horizontal painting follows the length of the bed next to which it’s placed. The title, Pareidolia, refers to the tendency to look for meaning in visual stimuli when there is none. Could it apply to dreams?

    Mike Carroll’s painting Pareidolia in an upstairs bedroom.

    Downstairs, at the building’s east entrance, is Bailey Bob Bailey’s GLOW. The symmetry of its composition and its stacked forms both complement and contrast with the books and structure of the shelves behind it.

    Bailey Bob Bailey’s painting GLOW at the east entrance of the house.

    The exhibitions at the Vorse house are one part of the Provincetown Arts Society’s mission to serve as “a conduit and collaborator with all of the existing arts organizations” in Provincetown, says Tartaglia. The society also hosts short-term artist residencies, fundraising events, film screenings, dinners, and lectures.

    In curating exhibitions, Tartaglia selects what he likes. Although he has no curatorial training, he has an instinct for what works. He visits galleries without preconceived ideas, he says, and then chooses work he’ll feel confident hanging. He also considers sales. He feels that if he loves a piece, someone else might love it, too — perhaps enough to take it home. “Artists need to be seen,” he says. “But they also need to sell their art.”

    Nude Model by Charles Hawthorne. (Photo courtesy Bakker Gallery)

    This would be a different exhibition at a different venue. Its uniqueness is due in part to the inclusion of artists connected to this town, with its notable history that reaches far beyond the Cape. But the house itself also provides an atmosphere of intimacy that encourages closeness to both artwork and other people. It’s all very personal, informal, and quirky — in other words, it feels very much like Provincetown

    In Situ

    The event: “PAGA at the Mary Heaton Vorse House”
    The time: Fridays 5-7 p.m. and Saturdays 11 a.m.-3 p.m. through May 18
    The place: Provincetown Arts Society at the Mary Heaton Vorse house, 466 Commercial St.
    The cost: Free

    IMAGE AND MEMORY

    Life in the Dunes Through Jane Paradise’s Eyes

    The photographer’s story of Provincetown’s dune shacks in pictures and the words of those who love them

    By

    The 19 dune shacks in the Peaked Hill Bars Historic District of the Cape Cod National Seashore might be the most famous Outer Cape landmarks that many people have never actually seen.

    They’re visible in the distance on dune tours to Race Point. If you have the stamina, you can hike to them from the trail at the end of Snail Road. They are unforgettable to anyone who has been fortunate enough to stay in one, whether through a residency or family connection or good luck in the lotteries held by the Provincetown Community Compact and the Peaked Hill Trust that allocate a handful of reservations every year. For most of us, though, they remain inaccessible.

    Kemp-Tasha shack. “My shack standing in the middle/ Of all this, in the midmost/ Of the leagues of sand, of the long, rolling leagues,/ Next door to heaven and close on the gates of sunset,/ The opening doors of dawn:/ I’ve got what few have, I’ve got the life I want!” —Harry Kemp

    The dune shacks have fascinated photographer Jane Paradise for more than 15 years. Her new book, The Dune Shacks of Provincetown, brings them into sharper focus and in more detail than they have ever been depicted before — while still preserving the magical quality that has captivated imaginations for the past century.

    Paradise says she examined “probably thousands” of photographs to select the nearly 200 in her book. They include not only exterior and interior photographs of the shacks themselves but also views of the landscape that surrounds them through the seasons and in every type of weather.

    The images are paired with quotations from the artists, writers, poets, naturalists, and Outer Cape residents whose families have owned and loved their dune shacks for generations.

    C-Scape shack. “It was the peace and rest for which I have been longing, rest more exquisite perhaps than we shall ever know together again.” —Hazel Hawthorne

    “It’s really a cultural history of Provincetown and the people who have stayed in the shacks over the years,” Paradise says.

    She designed the book in collaboration with New York-based artist Joanne Dugan, and they paid careful attention to detail. In researching the material to accompany the photos, Paradise says, she created a spreadsheet to collect hundreds of anecdotes, observations, and musings about the dune shacks and the Outer Cape.

    The quotations constitute a veritable who’s who of luminaries with connections to Provincetown and Truro: “Notable visitors to these windswept shores include Mary Oliver, Norman Mailer, Eugene O’Neill, Anne Patchett, Edmund Wilson, E.E. Cummings, Jackson Pollock, Tennessee Williams, and Jack Kerouac, who wrote part of On the Road here,” writes Paradise in her foreword.

    “I feel more myself here than anywhere else.” —Zehra Khan

    But there are many less familiar names as well. “It was important to convey the cultural history of the back shore while not neglecting stories of local families, who sometimes feel forgotten with all the emphasis on the artists and writers who have stayed in the shacks,” says Paradise. “That’s why there’s an essay by Mildred Champlin, who’s in her 90s now. She’s had a dune shack with her family since the 1950s. Her essay is about what it’s like to really live out there in the dunes.”

    For Champlin, each structure has its own character, developed over generations. “We’re lucky enough to spend months and years experiencing the wonderful environment, the reward for the dues we pay in hard work,” she writes. “Each shack is distinct from the others, reflecting the minds, imaginations, and personalities of the people who worked so hard on them.”

    Margo-Gelb shack. “It was just the sort of the natural place to go to start the rest of our lives together.” —Paul Champlin

    In his introduction, Michael Mailer describes the annual ritual of moving into one of the shacks with his mother and brother. The journey from their home on the east end of Commercial Street to the dunes took on an epic quality:

    “Every summer, usually in June, my mother would book a week in either of the dune shacks, Euphoria or Thalassa, owned by Hazel Hawthorne … We would then pack up and load our week’s worth of supplies into a friend’s four-wheel-drive truck and embark on our journey across the dunes to get to our shack. Often the shortest route was dicey, for it involved traversing the highest of the sand dunes that only the sturdiest of trucks with enough speed could mount. I felt as if I were Lawrence of Arabia crossing the great and impenetrable Nefud Desert.”

    “It’s all just beach and ocean. That’s it.” —Rob Costa

    The range of observations — from the pragmatic to the poetic — creates a book that is more than just a visual chronicle: it falls between a collective memoir and a kaleidoscopic portrait of a community.

    “I like to think of our community as a tapestry, with the families and individuals as the warp, some long threads, stretching back over a half century, some a bit shorter, but just as important in the overall pattern,” writes Champlin. “The weft is the associated way of life that we have had in common, raising our families, creating beautiful things, working hard at the tough problems we all face in the unique landscape.”

    “Never saw anything like it and perhaps will never see it again.” —Frank DiGirolamo

    In the end, Paradise’s project conveys the reassuring continuity of the shacks, which have survived decades of harsh weather, occasional neglect, and outside change. The seemingly ephemeral structures have become still points in the turning world that is Provincetown and the Outer Cape.

    “The shacks will outlive us,” writes Paradise. “They have so far. We must believe that.”

    Jane Paradise’s The Dune Shacks of Provincetown will be published by Schiffer Publishing on Dec. 6, 2022.

    Past and Present Exhibits at PAAM

    By

    “The Napi and Helen Van Dereck Collection: Part II” is on view at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, 460 Commercial St. from Friday, January 22nd through May 23rd. Curated by PAAM CEO Christine McCarthy, it features more than 40 works of Provincetown art.

    “Napi passed away on Christmas Day, 2019 and this exhibition is the second installment as we honor his legacy and his keen eye, as well as the depth of this important collection,” writes McCarthy in the exhibit announcement. “Every picture has a story — the scenes of town represent ‘the way it used to was.’ ”

    Artists include Gerrit Beneker, Nancy Maybin Ferguson, Blanche Lazzell, Bruce McKain, Ross Moffett, Pauline Palmer, Kathi Smith, and George Yater.

    While you’re at PAAM, don’t miss the Members’ Juried Exhibition, on view through April 11. Featured artists include Cid Bolduc, Jo Hay, Robert Henry, Megan Hinton, Grace Hopkins, Sheryl Jaffe, Deb Mell, Jane Paradise, Anna Poor, Kurt Reynolds, Siân Robertson, Lew Schwartz, Joe Trepiccione, Rowan Wielblad, and others.

     

    Jane Paradise and Cathleen Daley at Alden Gallery

    By

    The Alden Gallery at 423 Commercial St. in Provincetown is presenting an exhibit of new work by photographer Jane Paradise, “Eat. Drink. Provincetown.” and painter Cathleen Daley, “The Influence of Drawing.” The show will open on Friday, September 11th, and be on view through September 24th. The gallery is open Thursday through Monday, noon to 5 p.m. and by appointment.

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