at The Norman Rockwell Museum:
ReViewed: Artists' Books Inspired by The Berkshire Review
an exhibition of original works in book form created in response to essays and poetry featured in the 2003 edition of the Berkshire Review.

I used the title only of each written work as a starting point for my visualization. Without reading the pieces I let my pencil tell my version of the story. I want to thank the authors for lending me their dream worlds—or at least the titles thereof—with which I could start a weaving of my own. If their written worlds and my pictures are of even approximately the same landscape, more amazement. If not, then they become like distant brothers and sisters joined, if not at the hip, then at the toe or eyebrow, or perhaps by a postcard from a distant time and place. We were all there, after all, having a great time and wishing we were there, too!

I had four pieces in the exhibition. Click on the image for larger version.

The Poor Boys' House

Story by Sheila Barry

A View from the Woods

Story by Judith Bruder

Spaces

Story by Elizabeth Ring

Toll Taker 47

Poem by Joe Manning

The only thing between us and the Bay Bridge
was Toll Taker 47.
That's what it said on his badge.

He peered in the window and said,
"You've got a beautiful wife."
And she said, "I'm not his wife,
not yet anyway."
And 47 pointed at me and said,
"What are you waiting for?"
And I said, "My change,
so we can get across that bridge."

And 47 turned around
and pulled out a stack of bills and said,
"Here's 300 bucks,
go get her a ring,
compliments of the State of California."

And I said,
"I can't take the money."
And she said, "Oh yes you can,"
and reached across my lap and grabbed the cash.

And we felt like Bonnie and Clyde
in an old black jalopy,
as we left Toll Taker 47 in a cloud of dust
and disappeared over the bay.

Norman Rockwell Museum, June 21, 2004: At the precise moment that Sarah and Jeremy—my daughter and her boyfriend—were racing across the Bay Bridge in Oakland, California several years ago, artist Douglass Truth might have been mixing paint colors, or cleaning his brushes, or just staring at a blank canvas. Or he might have been doing something entirely unpainterly, like riding an exercise bike, sleeping, or shopping at the outlets at Lee. But I am standing here and viewing his surprising and captivating painting, and I think I know exactly what he was doing during that momentous occasion.

Mr. Truth was sitting in his car waiting to cross that same bridge, and wondering, like I do right now, how the car that preceded him managed to disappear so quickly. After all, the gate hasn't even been lowered back down yet and the light is still green; yet the phantom vehicle is apparently already across the bay and over the sunny golden hills to the west. And what Mr. Truth must have regarded as a surreal event, that "cloud of dust" in its wake has settled on the pavement in the form of the words, "BYE BYE," and two undecipherable lines farther on that just might be, "TOLL TAKER 47."

Having only the sketchiest of details about the incident from daughter Sarah in a casual phone conversation, I must thank Mr. Truth for allowing me to be a witness to my daughter's serendipitous encounter. And thanks also to Toll Taker 47 for inspiring two marriages: Sarah and Jeremy on February 28, 2003, at the Alameda County Courthouse; and the artistic marriage of Joe Manning and Douglass Truth on June 21, 2004, at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

You can contact The Berkshire Review at PO Box 120, Lenox Dale, MA 01242

All are 16" x 20" acrylic on canvas, and framed as shown above.
I would consider selling the whole lot together, or sell them individually for $450 each. Email me for more info.