Congratulations to VFW Post 399!
For the 2nd year in a row, it’s earned All-American Post status.
The recognition, from the Veterans of Foreign Wars Department of Connecticut, honors the 106-year-old post’s commitment to serving veterans and the community.
All-American VFW posts demonstrate outstanding leadership, excellence in advancing the VFW’s core programs, meaningful service and sustained membership growth.
Post 399 quartermaster Phil Delgado calls the honor “a testament to the volunteers, members and partners who support our mission of serving veterans and our community.” To learn more about the Westport VFW, click here.
VFW Joseph J. Clinton Post 399.
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Ellen Harvey’s powerful, evocative works — dozens of “lost places,” from Ebbets Field and the Sutro Baths to the Remarkable Book Shop, Allen’s Clam House, the Cedar Brook Café and Bloodroot — formed the backdrop for an intriguing evening Thursday at MoCA\CT.
Harvey joined “06880” founder Dan Woog and Westport preservationist Ed Gerber in a wide-ranging discussion of the meaning of lost places, the importance of remembering them, and the meaning of absence.
Audience members participated avidly, recalling many parts of Westport’s past: restaurants like the Arrow, Ships and Big Top; stores like Klein’s, Selective Eye and Sally’s Place; Arnie’s Place, movie theaters and all of downtown, and much more.
From left: Ed Gerber, Dan Woog, Ellen Harvey … (Photo/Dave Matlow)
Each generation remembers the past differently, the panelists said, as they explored the meaning of memory, and the realities of the past and future.
Noting the inclusion of 4 local “lost places,” Harvey said, “I love that when this show travels next, it will bring a little piece of Westport with it.”
The program was sponsored by the CORA Foundation, the private foundation founded by philanthropist, travel business owner and advocate for culture and sustainability Robin Tauck.
CORA will sponsor 4 events in conjunction with the current MoCA exhibit, “Looking for History.” The next is Thursday, July 23 (6 p.m.)A : “Architectural Elegy: A Mourning Ritual for Lost Spaces.” Click here for details, and tickets.
… and Ellen Harvey, in front of her artwork. (Photo/Lewis Derogene)
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Also on Thursday: Nina Bentley was interviewed by fellow Westport artist Mark Yurkiw at the Westport Center for Senior Activities. Her humorously innovative exhibits of “typewriter art sculpture,” “Shoes” and “Marriage” is on display there throughout July.
Bentley, served as a Westport Arts Center board member, helped found the Westport Arts Collective, and is active with the Silvermine Guild Arts Center.
Nina Bentley and Mark Yurkiw. (Photo/Dave Matlow)
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On Thursday too, Eleish Van Breems Home hosted the most recent Westport Pride gathering.
Members of the LGBTQ community and allies enjoyed food from Nômade (across the street), and drinks from Black Bear Wine & Spirits.
The next social event is at Yuzu.
Westport Pride member, and friend. (Photo/Bethany Eppner)
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Many great scientists are also passionate musicians. (Far less often, the other way around).
On Tuesday (July 21, 8 p.m., Westport Observatory), Stephon Alexander will discuss “Cosmic Sound: the Emergence of Structure in the Universe.”
The director of the Center for Theoretical Physics and Innovation at Brown University revisits the interconnection between music, the evolution of astrophysics, and the origin of large scale structure in the universe.
He’ll explore new ways that music mirrors modern physics, like quantum mechanics, general relativity, and the physics of the early universe.
The talk will also be live-streamed on YouTube, shown as a Zoom webinar, and posted to the WAS YouTube channel afterward.
Dr. Stephon Alexander
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Yesterday’s Roundup included a photo of a sign from Turkey Hill Road South: Audrey Hepburn, warning drivers to “Slow Down.”
(Photo/Chris Grimm)
Pretty random, we thought. And quickly moved on.
Never underestimate the power — and knowledge — of “06880” readers.
Staples High School Class of 1971 graduate Bonnie Erickson soon sent a link to The New Journal, a Yale University publication.
It begins:
New Haveners have noticed, enjoyed, and sometimes stolen signs put up by artist Matthew Feiner. His most recent design is especially eye-catching: “SLOW DOWN,” it reads, over a stencil of Audrey Hepburn. The colors and stencils vary, but each sign features Hepburn in the center with her beehive haircut, staring straight at the viewer.
There are around 240 Audrey Hepburn signs made by Feiner in Connecticut. She glares from street signs near Feiner’s studio in West Haven, near his girlfriend’s place in Hamden, around bike routes, and across downtown New Haven.
“They’re a bright spot on the urban landscape,” Feiner proudly remarked. “They’re a calling card from an artist that says ‘cars slow down, everybody slow down, take an assessment of your life.’”
When asked how long ago he started making the signs, Feiner’s tall scruffy face smirked, and responded in his slightly raspy voice. “I guess the question really is, how long ago did I start admitting that they were mine?”
Click here to read the full story.
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The mother-daughter team of Niki Ketchman and Karen Kallins present their first exhibition together.
It’s on view weekdays (9 a.m. to 3 p.m.) at the Weston Senior Center. A reception is set for Thursday, July 23 (6 to 8 p.m.).
Ketchman is showing “Resinations,” mixed-media works created with resin and found materials. Kallins exhibits her “Submerged” series, combining botanicals, water and flowing inks to blur the line between photography and painting.
Though working in different mediums, both share a love of color, texture, movement and organic forms, creating a cohesive exhibition.
The family’s roots in Westport go back nearly 50 years.
“Resinations” (Niki Ketchman)
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In today’s “Westport … Naturally” feature photo, a mother leads her little one across the street to Pizza Lyfe … or perhaps the new ice cream spot, Sweet Lyfe.
(Photo/Stacey Henske)
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And finally … Happy National Woodie Wagon Day!
(“06880” is “where Westport meets the world.” Audrey Hepburn, Surf City, lost places, the universe — you’ll find them all here. If you enjoy this hyper-local blog, please click here to support us. Thanks!)
“Lost Places”
One of the directors of MoCA\CT wanted me to include on their website my memories of when I worked at Max’s Art Supplies for 29 years. Unfortunately, I could not find the link so I could not include my 29 years of memories of working there with Shirley Mellor, Nina Royce, Rita Englebart, and many other employees over the years as well as the many, many artists that I had come to know very well and considered friends. The monthly revolving front window displays that Nina and I worked on all those years, the many parties that Shirley threw for birthday’s and some parties she threw just for whatever (with one party being a bachelor party for Richard Hodgins III who used to work there), all of the joking around and crazy antics, the many back breaking truck deliveries that made the aisles hardly passable for a few days until everything was logged in and stocked, snowstorms that blocked the front and back doors until we shoveled them out, the old sooty coal furnace in the basement that was converted to oil, are just some of the countless memories I have, even before and after I started and ran the picture framing department there in 1994 and successfully ran it until Max’s (we) closed in August of 2014. Three months before Max’s closed, Nina’s and my daily routine consisted of helping customers and walking around with a screw gun and hammer breaking down all of the fixtures and making dump runs, all while I was finishing up the framing that was brought in. Those three months, as I look back, were three months of a very slow grieving process. For several years after Max’s closed, it was almost on a nightly basis I had vivid dreams of Max’s and Shirley and Nina working there in an almost empty shell of what was once the most popular art supply store in all of Connecticut and the surrounding area. After I accepted the framing manger position at Rockwell in Westport, Shirley would often times stop in to see me and to see how I was doing and to make sure I was ok. I had dreams of Shirley and my last dream of her was after she had passed away. I was working and heard the front door open (the bell that hangs on the front door at Rockwell is the same bell that hung on the front door at Max’s). I came out to see who it was but Shirley had gone down the closed off hallway. I went back and I saw her and she was crying. I held her and asked why she was crying and she said she was so sorry that things turned out the way they did. I held her as she cried and the dream ended. That was the last dream I had of her.
My memories of Max’s carry deeply and it was because of Shirley’s decision to open a framing shop after knowing that I had framing experience, and me going through two bottles of Tums later, that I am who I am now and where I have come in my professional picture framing career.
If you would like to experience a memory of Max’s, stop in to Rockwell and you can see and hear the bronze bell that greeted the many thousands of customers who walked through the doors at Max’s Art Supplies over the 59 years it was open.
I remember Max, too. Nice man!