#lookdeldia

Windows Into Winter Solstice

Photographer Louise Millmann took these portraits during our recent visit to the Merchants House Museum. They remind me of the mystery of the longest night of the year. 

I feel perfectly at home in the museum, the intact residence of 19th-century merchant Seabury Tredwell. The house is a vortex where time stops. 

Gladys Brings Color to Mothers Day

In 1992, my dear Mom Gladys was recovering from a stay in the hospital. She had been treated with the intent of augmenting her cognitive skills. The doctor recommended she keep herself occupied with making things.

I remember she told me on the phone soon after she had found patterns for mini pot holders, and was planning on making some to decorate a pretty denim Pepe Jeans shirt she had bought at JCPenney.

I was thrilled at the prospect of the shirt, and I connected with the idea of her making a shirt for me—a creative project we could share. I have always loved wearing garments people make or decorate.

Always on my mind were the figure-shaped pot holders I had seen during all the years growing up at Grandma’s and at my house: crocheted geese, turtles and clowns which I always stared at while being in the kitchen. Secretly, I yearned to be the perfect homemaker and be surrounded by these objects.

The shirt arrived in the mail a couple of months later and I would wear it everywhere, especially to the Penguin USA offices, where I worked at the time. It was a big hit, and through the years I would wear it, especially during road trips to the country with Paul (he called it “the country shirt”), and many years later to Breitenbush, where during a faerie gathering I wore it onstage to do a performance with Dominic. (He was wearing a matching one I have which Mom and Gloria embellished in 1999.)

Mom now brings color to a rainy Mothers Day weekend in Ocean Grove. Kelly, Henry and Van had been wearing variations of black, white and grey; I took their picture in the sun room. Van took my picture by the rare English Ivy in the backyard; I wore the embellished chambray shirt and a black bandanna we picked up at Target to evoke a Georgia O’Keeffe vibe. Van found the T-shirt with Mickey Mouse hands holding a rosary at the Goodwill in Neptune.