Local art and antique dealers share a few appraising tips

Photo by: Josh Shortsleeve

  Almost 10 years ago, a woman walked into Kahn Fine Antiques in Chatham carrying a crumpled paper bag in her hand and with her daughter and granddaughter at her side. For Richard Kahn, the business’s owner and a longtime art collector and appraiser, this was not an unusual situation—until he saw what was in the bag.

The woman showed Kahn a powder horn that her grandfather had passed down to her. The horn, crafted of ox horn, was about 12 inches long, Kahn recalls, and engraved with images of ships, forts, and other symbols. “More importantly,” Kahn says, “it also showed the name of the owner, Timothy Bugbee, and the date, 1774.” For the woman, the item was not much more than a sweet family memento. “She really had no idea how much it was worth,” Kahn says. “She didn’t have a clue.” As it happened, the powder horn turned out to be a rare find in the folk art field.

“I immediately knew they had something,” says Kahn, who specializes in Americana items and antiques and maritime-themed works of art. He began his research into the history of the piece, browsing websites, and talking with other experts. Eventually, he determined a Connecticut soldier had used the horn during the 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill in the early stages of the Revolutionary War. “It was of immense historical importance,” Kahn says. “It’s like finding Custer’s gun at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.”

Originally taken on a consignment basis, Kahn eventually purchased the horn from the owner outright. Sold to a high-profile collector at auction in 2006, the piece fetched $45,000.

Photo by: Josh Shortsleeve

According to Kahn, this kind of scenario—when an untrained owner discovers that his or her antique or painting is a real-life treasure—while fascinating, is also unusual. “Probably 90 percent of items that people have in their homes are of sentimental value,” Kahn says, “things they inherited or picked up on vacation. Very few of those will end up on the auction block.”

Roy Mennell, who owns Bradford Trust Fine Art in Harwichport with his wife, Sheila, also encourages a healthy dose of skepticism for anyone casually assessing a piece of art. “Remember,” Mennell says, “when we watcha Antiques Roadshow, they have thousands of people come in. We the viewers don’t see the 99 percent of people who come in with something of little or no value.” Mennell, 80, has been buying, selling, and appraising art for more than 50 years. Today, he and his wife concentrate on coastal New England and Cape Cod art.

One thing Mennell says he has learned in his career is that people are often fooled by reproductions. “Most people aren’t that familiar [with art evaluation],” he says. For the beginner, both Mennell and Kahn suggest starting with the signature of the artist or sculptor, and conducting some online research.

Sometimes, Kahn adds, information can be gleaned from a framer’s sticker that may be affixed to the back of the piece. Another option, he says, is “to shortcut the process,” by sending photos of an item in question to an appraiser, or arranging to meet an appraiser in person. Roulette, rulett eller til og med rulette – Rulett spille casinonorske.com.

Photo by: Josh Shortsleeve

Appraisers like Kahn and Mennell often specialize in certain periods or styles. One local business that offers a wide variety of art and antiques—as well as appraisal expertise—is Robert C. Eldred Co. in East Dennis. Eldred’s has been owned and operated by the Eldred and Schofield families for three generations. As New England’s oldest established antiques and fine arts auction house, Eldred’s holds approximately 25 auctions each year featuring Americana, paintings, Asian art, European decorative art, maritime antiques, sporting art, and collectibles.

Eldred’s professionals also provide estate and insurance appraisal services for individuals, banks, trusts, and attorneys, supplying appropriate formal documentation for tax and accounting purposes.

Eldred’s and other appraisers often participate in art appraisal events in the area, many of which serve as fundraisers for different charities and organizations.

This summer, the Cahoon Museum of American Art will host one of these events—the “Third Annual Appraisal Day: Trash or Treasure.” The event is to be held Thursday, August 6, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the museum’s temporary home at 30 Bates Road in Mashpee Commons.

The event is a fundraiser to help bolster the museum’s capital campaign. All the needed funds have been raised for the renovation and new addition to the museum’s permanent quarters on Route 28 in Cotuit; the fundraiser will help cover the cost of operations. The museum, a circa-1782 Colonial Georgian home, is due to reopen to the public in April 2016.

At the event, professional appraisers from Eldred’s will be on hand to conduct appraisals; they are donating their time and expertise for the effort. The focus of this particular event, says museum director Richard Waterhouse, is the appraisal of art—not antiques. It is important to note, Waterhouse adds, that appraisals conducted at the event are verbal, rather than written, and therefore do not qualify as an insurance appraisal. The fee to have one item appraised is $15, or three items for $40.

“Pretty much anybody who needs something appraised comes,” Waterhouse says of the event. “Last year, we had everything from paintings, to sculpture, to postcard books.” For more information on this appraisal event, visit cahoonmuseum.org, or call (508) 428-7581.

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At Chatham’s Atlantic Workshop, Scott Feen transforms lobster pots, boat rudders, and pretty much anything else into custom furnishings and decorative pieces

Photo by: Josh Shortsleeve

Scott Feen hates to throw anything away. In fact, the West Yarmouth resident is so averse to waste that he spends a good part of his time rescuing items that others want to throw away. The founder and owner of Atlantic Workshop, Feen has built a thriving business salvaging everything from ships’ rudders to school lockers to lighting fixtures—and turning them into custom aesthetic and functional pieces for businesses and homes.

“There’s just a vast amount of resources that we throw out,” Feen says, “and the number one least-recycled item in the United States is household furnishings.”

Feen’s workshop in South Chatham’s Commerce Park is a massive, floor-to-ceiling hodgepodge of raw materials; it’s hard to know where to look. Boards of all sizes—some painted and some bare wood—are stacked on shelves. Wood crates on the floor are filled with fence pickets and water skis. The walls are hung with fishing nets and lobster pots. Outside, a massive storage container overflows with more wood, more furniture, more stuff.
While Feen collects items from a wide range of sources, his business focuses on pieces with coastal cachet. What might an old rudder become? A bench. Water skis? A headboard. What about lobster pots? Chandeliers! And what to create from shiny metal balls designed to divert lightning from the top of a Manhattan skyscraper? To be determined: “I envision them as the feet of something really cool,” he says.

Feen, who grew up in Central Massachusetts, caught the do-it-yourself bug while working in California as a sales manager for O’Reilly Media, a publisher that spreads the knowledge of innovators through books, e-books, online services, and conferences. In 2008, he moved back to Massachusetts to be closer to family and bought a home on Lewis Bay that had been in his family for three generations. He was in the process of reassessing his career when he saw a battered antique optometrist’s cabinet, the kind used to hold individual lenses, at a yard sale in Harwich. Something in the piece called to Feen—his dad was an optician in Springfield—and he bought it on impulse. After staring at the cabinet for a few months, he decided to turn it into a jewelry chest. He fixed it, felted the individual compartments, covered the outside with sailcloth, and sold it to a gallery in Chatham. The rest, as they say, is history.

Feen set up Atlantic Workshop in 2010 in the former carriage house of Chatham Bars Inn. Last fall, he moved his workshop into a larger space at Commerce Park to give himself more time and space to create. Now, he’s partnering with the owners of Bungalow, a home staging/high-end consignment store that recently moved to Chatham from Orleans, where a selection of his home furnishing and décor items are for sale.

Most of Feen’s work is custom; he estimates he spends about 20 percent of his time working for commercial customers and 80 percent working with homeowners. Sometimes those categories overlap.

Sandy Wycoff, the owner of Chatham Clothing Bar, a retail store on Main Street, is one client who displays Feen’s work in both her business and her home. Wycoff’s store is in a building that dates from the 1800s and still has its original tile floor and tin ceiling; the shop’s name is a nod to the building’s former life as a liquor store.
“It’s important to me to have fixtures that fit with the age of the building,” Wycoff says.

When Wycoff wanted to display wine glasses, Feen built her a cabinet out of old shutters. When she needed a movable clothing rack to hold men’s shirts and shorts, he crafted one out of metal pipe from an old blanket factory and used an antique door for a shelf on the bottom. When she wanted a steamer trunk for a front window display, Feen found an old silver one and polished it up. “I start with what my need is,” she says. “Then Scott runs with it.”

Wycoff was so pleased with the work Feen did for her shop that she hired him to create a custom cabinet for liquor and glassware for her home. She started with the top of a curio cabinet she had bought at auction. Feen found a complementary base, then added shutter doors and slide-out shelves. “What started out as two completely unrelated pieces, he put together to create one big astounding piece,” she says. Wycoff was so happy with the result that her daughter and son-in law had Feen make a similar creation for them.

Just down the street from Chatham Clothing Bar, Mahi Gold Outfitters could not be more different in atmosphere. The store is sleek and contemporary, done in bright whites and teal blue. One of the highlights of the décor, says co-owner Rebecca Voelkel, is a set of awnings Feen built above the store’s faux bar area and dressing room “shed.” In typical Feen fashion, the work incorporates a sense of the company’s history.

Photo by: Josh Shortsleeve

In 2008, Voelkel, along with her husband and brother, started a business selling dresses out of their grandparents’ shed in Chatham. When they opened their Main Street store last year, the trio designed the dressing rooms to look like a shed. Feen crafted awnings in the store’s signature teal blue to hang above the dressing room “shed,” and he made a matching awning above the faux bar from the door of an actual shed that had to be removed from the property to build the current store.

Shoes at Mahi Gold are displayed on racks Feen made from wooden spools from electrical warehouses, whitewashed and wrapped with hemp rope for a nautical, contemporary look. Feen has already put his imprint on Mahi Gold’s new Edgartown store, too, where shoes are displayed on a pyramid of lobster traps. And for Voelkel’s home, he fashioned an ice bucket from a discarded porthole.

“These days you can go out and buy anything,” Voelkel says, “but when you’re buying something from Scott, it’s really one of a kind. And every time you look at it or walk by it, you’re going to appreciate that.”

A few years ago, Newton residents Mark and Liz White bought a house in Chatham and contacted Feen about some decorative items. “He’s been able to take some of our family antiques and preserve the old craftsmanship but make them more contemporary and usable,” Mark White says. One of those items was a hutch that had sentimental value but didn’t really fit in with the couple’s new kitchen. Feen painted the hutch and added fence pickets of different heights in contrasting paint. As a result, says White, “it went from the garage into the house.”

The Whites then gave Feen a bigger project: turn an antiquated garage into a rec room that teens would love. Feen was up to the challenge, creating a 20-foot-long seating and sleeping area with a drop-down sailor’s bunk. He raised the floor, insulated it, then coated it with Line-X, a product typically used for truck bed liners that can be washed with a garden hose. He used lobster pots and lights salvaged from a Wellesley College theater for lighting fixtures. “He knew what we were going for, and he anticipated what kids would want,” White says. “Now, these kids don’t want to even go into the house.”

Feen has earned a reputation as someone interested in saving pieces of history, particularly pieces of Chatham’s history. When Frank Messina, chairman of the Chatham Historical Commission and vice president of the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center, found he would have to demolish part of the interior of the former Nautilus Hotel on the center’s campus to bring it up to modern building safety codes, he says one person came to mind: Feen. “I found myself with a significant amount of historic materials—things I didn’t want to see go to the dump,” Messina says. Feen put Messina in touch with people who would reuse sinks, tubs, and fixtures. He also personally hauled away “truckloads” of timber, including hundred-year-old 8 x 8-inch, and even 12 x 12-inch, timber supports that had to be taken out to make way for an elevator shaft in the renovated building.

Contractors across the Cape are making a greater effort to salvage and reuse materials, Messina says, especially in high-end homes. In Chatham, when preservation efforts are unsuccessful and a historical structure is slated to be demolished, the town’s Historical Commission alerts all interested parties that significant architectural elements may be available for salvage.

But not too many pickers will turn those elements into pieces of functional art, such as the bench outside the Chatham Chamber of Commerce—which Feen crafted from beams he took out of the old Nautilus Hotel, along with a rudder salvaged from a Kennedy yacht, and an antique door from Chatham’s Lutheran Church.

Atlantic Workshop is at 239 Commerce Park North in South Chatham. For more information, visit atlanticworkshop.com, or call (508) 241-9675.

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Here’s a list of 90 days of Cape & Islands art gallery exhibits, receptions, and more!

August 1

BRIX Nantucket unveils “Palates and Palettes”

Visiting painter Deidre Tao’s new collection of Nantucket paintings, “Palates and Palettes”, will be displayed for the first time at a special wine tasting Saturday, August 1, from 4-6 p.m. at BRIX Nantucket Wine Shop, at 1 Windy Way.  A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Nantucket Conservation Foundation. For more information, call 508-228-9123, or visit BRIXwineshop.com.

August 1

Addison Art Gallery hosts “After Hopper” Reception

Celebrate the opening of Addison Art Gallery’s new exhibit, “After Hopper,” on Saturday, August 1, from 5 to 7 p.m. In the exhibit, the work of several local artists inspired by the late Edward Hopper and the places he painted, will be displayed on a rotating schedule through 2016. The gallery is at 43 South Orleans Road, Orleans. For more information, call 508-255-6200, or visit addisonart.com.

August 1-31

An up-close look at “Flowers and their Pollinators”

The Cape Cod Museum of Natural History on Route 6A in Brewster presents “Flowers and their Pollinators,” a collection of unique images by Cape Cod nature photographer and conservationist, Dr. Hans Rilling, from August 1 to August 31. View the exhibit free with the cost of museum admission; consider buzzing by the exhibit on Saturday, August 22—National Honey Bee Day. For more information, call the museum at 508-896-3867 ext. 133.

August 2

The Post Office Gallery displays what “Doesn’t Belong”

Choose for yourself what “Doesn’t Belong” at this unique—and uniquely titled—exhibit, the fourth installment of the gallery’s themed, juried exhibits, which take a look at the mind of the artist. An opening reception will be held Sunday, August 2, at 2 p.m., at The Post Office Gallery, 38 Shore Road in North Truro. For more information, call 508-487-3111, or visit PostOfficeGallery.com.

August 7 & 8

Sosebee Gallery hosts pastel artist Jeanne Rosier Smith

Celebrate the work of award-winning pastel artist Jeanne Rosier Smith on Nantucket. A reception will be held Friday, August 7, from 6 to 8 p.m., where Rosier Smith will be available to talk to visitors about the latest additions to her collection. The artist’s work captures the nature of the Cape and Islands through watercolor paintings, with a focus on Nantucket beaches and inspirations from her annual trip to France. On Saturday, August 8, Rosier Smith will give a painting demonstration from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. where guests can watch the artist go through her painting process and ask questions; the event is free, but registration is required. Sosebee Gallery is at 8 Washington Street, Nantucket. For more information and to register, call 508-228-0014, or visit sosebeestudio.com.

August 7

Take a glimpse of “Vintage and Contemporary Cape Cod”

In this exhibit at the Cortile Gallery, Cape Cod’s stunning scenery is depicted in works from 30 different artists who have attempted to capture both recognizable and more obscure scenes from across the peninsula. An opening reception will be held Friday, August 7, from 7 to 9 p.m., and the exhibit runs through September 1. The Cortile Gallery is at 230 Commercial Street, Provincetown. For more information, call 508-487-4200, or visit cortilegallery.com.

August 8

Tree’s Place Gallery to showcase “The Art of Patrick Kitson”

Artist Patrick Kitson brings his breathtaking paintings back to Tree’s Place Gallery this August. Come meet Kitson, who hails from Chester County, Pennsylvania, at the opening reception—Saturday, August 8, from 5 to 7 p.m.—and marvel at his remarkably realistic images of the sea. Kitson’s oil paintings will be on display from August 8-21. Tree’s Place Gallery is at 60 Route 6A in Orleans. For more information, call 508-255-1330, or visit treesplace.com.

August 8

Munn Fine Arts hosts Oil Painting Demonstration

Strengthen your painting skills with a lesson from acclaimed oil painter Mike Rooney on Saturday, August 8, from 4 to 6 p.m. An impressionist painter from North Carolina, Rooney has exhibited his work in Virginia, Colorado, New York, and Carolina, and helps aspiring artists imbue their personality and lifestyle into their work. The demonstration is free and open to the public, and participants will have the opportunity to win a free oil painting. Munn Fine Arts is at 84 Route 6A in Orleans. For more information, call 508-247-0444, or visit munnfinearts.com.

August 8

Enjoy the “Summer Salon” at Collins Galleries

Enjoy an opening reception for gallery artists featuring oil, landscape, still life and figure paintings. The Saturday, August 8 event runs from 5 to 7 p.m. and is free and open to the public. This group exhibit is on display from August 8-21. Collins Galleries is at 12 West Road, Orleans. Learn more at collinsgalleries.com.
or call 508-255-1266.

August 8

Celebrating the work of Olivier Suire Verley

The Addison Art Gallery, 43 South Orleans Road, Orleans, exhibits the work of French artist and solar painter, Olivier Suire Verley, who is known for his use of color and masterly craftsmanship. An opening reception is held Saturday, August 8, from 5 to 7 p.m. Learn more at addisonart.com.

August 8, 9

Jozy Fine Art celebrates the work of Lynn Shaler

Throughout the summer, Jozy Fine Art celebrates the work of internationally collected artist, Lynn Shaler, who produces fine limited-edition etchings in Paris. Jozy Fine Art is Shaler’s exclusive representative on Cape Cod and the Islands. On Saturday, August 8, a reception will be held for the artist from 5-7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. On Sunday, August 9, from 2-3 p.m., Shaler will be on hand in the gallery to discuss her life in Paris and the techniques she uses to produce her exquisite work. The gallery is at 57 Route 6A in Orleans. For more information, call 508-348-9726, or visit jozyfineart.com.

August 8-28

Vistas—from Cornwall to the Cape

The Alice Mongeau Gallery & Studio, 12 West Road, Orleans, hosts “En Plein Air: Vistas,” a show featuring outdoor paintings the gallery owner completed of Cornwall, Tuscany, and Cape Cod. An American impressionist, Mongeau works on her nature paintings on site and has been doing so for more than three decades. Visit the exhibit on Saturdays in August, from 4 to 6 p.m., from August 1-29. For more information, call 508-246-7675, or visit alicemongeau.com.

August 14

Cape Cod Chat House Gallery to exhibit “Animal Spirits”

Jaime Elkins, an oil based artist, encapsulates the different moods and personalities of animals ranging from elephants to otters, and even dinosaurs in “Animal Spirits,” which runs from August 12 to September 12. An opening reception for the exhibit will be held Friday, August 14, from 5 to 7 p.m., at the Cape Cod Chat House, 593 Route 6A, Dennis. For more information, call 508-694-7187, or visit capecodchathouse.com.

August 15

Nickerson Art Gallery presents “As We See It”

View photographs and pastel works at this annual art show and reception for Nickerson Art Gallery owners Shareen Davis and Ginny Nickerson. This gallery is both traditional and contemporary, mirroring the partnership of Shareen Davis, a pastel painter, and Ginny Nickerson, a photographer. The exhibit runs from August 15-28, with an opening reception on Saturday, August 15, from 5 to 7 p.m. The gallery is at 618 Main Street, Chatham. For more information, call 508-945-0310, or visit nickersonartgallery.com.

August 15

“Meandering through Coastal New England and Ireland”

Gallery Antonia hosts a solo exhibit for Millis oil painter Sue Gilkey, featuring the artist’s stunning scenes from around New England and Ireland. The exhibit “There & Back Again” runs from August 15 to September 10 and an opening reception will be held Saturday, August 15, from 5 to 7 p.m. Gallery Antonia is at 578 Main Street, Chatham. For more information, call 508-469-4020, or visit galleryantonia.com.

August 15

Cape Cod Museum of Art Auction Gala

Join staff and supporters of the Cape Cod Museum of Art for cocktails, dinner, and more at “Starry, Starry Night Art Auction Gala.” Held Saturday, August 15, from 5:30 to 7 p.m., the event features silent and live auctions including original paintings, sculptures, and glass works from acclaimed regional artists. The museum is at 60 Hope Lane in Dennis. For more information, call 508-385-4477, or visit ccmoa.org.

August 15

See the work of Brooks, Witbeck at The Cove Gallery

The Cove Gallery, 15 Commercial Street, Wellfleet, exhibits the work of David Witbeck and Rob Brooks this month, with an opening reception held Saturday, August 15, from 6 to 8 P.M. Brooks, who trained at the Art Institute of Boston, uses chromatic values and contrasting shadows to depict both rural and urban scenes. A watercolor painter from Providence, Witbeck specializes in well-designed and enjoyable representations of the sea. For more information, call (508) 349-2530, or visit covegallery.com.

August 18

Arts Foundation to host annual benefit auction

The Arts Foundation of Cape Cod hosts a benefit auction and reception at the Orleans Waterfront Inn & Restaurant to celebrate the 26th Annual Cape Cod Five Pops in the Park Concert. Held Tuesday, August 18, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., the event features a silent and live auction and all proceeds will benefit the Arts Foundation. The Orleans Inn is at 3 Old Country Road, Orleans. For more information, call 508-362-0066, or visit popsinthepark.org.

August 18, 22

View images of Barnstable—Then and Now

An exhibit titled “Barnstable Then and Now” presented jointly by the Cape Cod Art Association and the Barnstable Historical Society will be on display during the Barnstable Village Summer Stroll Tuesday, August 18, from 4 to 6 p.m. The images can also be seen at the association’s headquarters at 3480 Main Street, Barnstable, from August 19 to 25. A reception for the exhibit will be held Saturday, August 22, from 6 to 8 p.m. To create the exhibit, local artists were invited to choose from various historical images of the village and interpret the scenes as they are today in the artists’ chosen medium. For more information, call (508) 362-2909, or visit capecodartassoc.org.

August 21

See the work of Sergio Roffo on Nantucket

Quidley & Company Fine Art will exhibit the work of Sergio Roffo from August 21 to 30, with an opening reception to be held Friday, August 21 from 6 to 8 p.m. Roffo’s traditional paintings of coastal landscapes are known to evoke a sense of calm. The gallery is at 26 Main Street on Nantucket. For more information, call 508-228-4300, or visit quidleyandco.com.

August 21

Rice Polak Gallery to exhibit the work of Robert Sherer

Robert Sherer is a well-known Cape Cod artist who crafts American Pyrographs, pieces of wood that are burned and stained to depict scenes; his work explores both male and female adolescence and sexuality. His exhibition at the Rice Polak Gallery, 430 Commercial Street, Provincetown, runs from August 20 to September 9. An opening reception will be held Friday, August 21 at 7 p.m. For more information, call 508-487-1052, or visit ricepolakgallery.com.

August 28

Steve Lyons Gallery to host “10 Under 30”

Discover new talent at this exhibit featuring the work of 10 emerging artists under the age of 30. Most of the painters are local and have been discovered by other young artists the gallery features. The one-day show is held Friday, August 28, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. The Steve Lyons Gallery is at 463 Main Street, Chatham. For more information, visit stevelyonsgallery.com.

September 4

Nantucket exhibit features the work of Ian Mood

Robert Foster Fine Art, 8 India Street, Nantucket, exhibits the work of Ian Mood from September 4 to 16. A native of England, Mood paints the boundless skies of Nantucket and is known for capturing a sense of vastness in his landscapes, seascapes, and urban paintings. An opening reception is held Friday, September 4, from 6 to 9 p.m. For more information, visit robertfosterfineart.com.

September 5

Photographs from a European sailing adventure

Meet photographers L. Robert Jasper and Lou Clark and hear the men discuss their adventures sailing down some of the most beautiful and storied rivers in Europe in “Fine Art Photography: Sailing the Danube, Main, and Rhine” at Jozy Fine Art, 57 Route 6A, Orleans. An opening reception is held Saturday, September 5, from 5 to 7 p.m. The exhibit runs through mid-September. For more information, call 508-348-9726, or visit jozyfineart.com.

September 5-7

Focus Gallery to showcase the work of Bryant Austin

Focus Gallery in Chatham is currently exhibiting the work of renowned photographer Bryant Austin this month. Austin is known throughout the world for his photographs of whales, and through his images he attempts to raise awareness of the dangers these massive animals are currently facing. A reception will be held Saturday, September 5, from 4 to 8 p.m. Austin will also be signing books in the gallery on September 6 and 7, from 12 to 6 p.m. Focus Gallery is at 595 Main Street, Chatham. For more information, call 508-348-1493, or visit thefocusgalleries.com.

September 19

Music, artwork, a bog walk and more!

Stroll through a beautiful property owned by the Harwich Conservation Trust and watch as members of the Guild of Harwich Artists paint the surroundings. The event—the Wildlands Music & Art Stroll—is held Saturday, September 19, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Bank Street Bog on Bank Street in Harwichport. During the event, local musicians perform a variety of music including jazz, classical, and folk. For more information, call 774-237-0667, or visit harwichconservationtrust.org.

September 19

PAAM’s Annual Consignment Auction

This annual event, held Saturday, September 19 at 7 p.m., features 101 works from deceased Provincetown and Cape Cod artists. The auction is held at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM), at 460 Commercial Street, Provincetown, and is open to the public. For more information, call 508-487-1750, or visit paam.org.

October 2

View “Land, Sea & Sky” at Miller White Fine Arts

This exhibit features landscapes and seascapes in different artistic mediums from local, national, and international artists. The exhibit runs October 2 to 30, with an opening reception held Friday, October 2, from 5 to 7 p.m. Miller White Fine Arts is at 708 Route 134 in South Dennis. For more information, call 508-385-6932, or visit millerwhitefinearts.com.

October 9

The Larkin Gallery exhibits the work of Ellen Leggett

A former resident of Provincetown, Ellen Leggett brings her colorful artwork back to town after a long absence. Leggett is known for her townscapes and landscapes painted with warm colors. An opening reception will be held Friday, October 9 at 7 p.m. The Larkin Gallery is at 405 Commercial Street, Provincetown. For more information, call 508-487-6111, or visit larkingallery.com.

October 10

Gallery Artrio unveils “Turn, Turn, Turn”

See the changing colors and scenery of fall reflected in artwork by a few local artists at Gallery Artrio. The exhibit runs from October 2 to 31, with an opening reception held Saturday, October 10 from 5 to 7 p.m. Gallery Artrio is at 50 Pearl Street in Hyannis. For more information, call 508-827-4909, or visit galleryartrio.com.

Through October 11

Gaa Gallery to host several upcoming exhibits

Wellfleet’s Gaa Gallery, 230b Main Street, Wellfleet, hosts several exhibits in the coming weeks. From August 12 to 30, the gallery showcases “Between the Worlds,” the unique work of Martin Manning, an artist who lives and works in Germany. His work ranges from anime-inspired work to paintings of gnomes set in unexpected places. From September 5 to October 11, the gallery showcases the work of Yael Ben-Zion, a New York-based photographer raised in Israel. Many of her photo projects are inspired by her life, including themes such as intermarriage and normalcy. Also, Sophia Hamaan will display her artwork in a show titled “Studies,” from September 5 to October 11. Generated in a photo laboratory, her images are black and white and cover an array of topics, from honey to a boxing ring. For more information, call 508-214-0281, or visit gaa-gallery.com.

Through October 13

Nantucket’s Dane Gallery celebrates 20-year anniversary

See masterpieces from renowned glass artist William Morris and his talented team, at the Dane Gallery, 28 Centre Street, Nantucket. Born in California, Morris has developed his own style of glassblowing. His work, inspired by ancient civilizations around the world, can be deceiving as some of his pieces look like ancient wood or stone but are really blown glass. The exhibit runs through October 13. For more information, call 508-228-7779, or visit danegallery.com.

October 16

Falmouth Artist Guild presents “The Art of Conservation”

From Wednesday, September 30 to Monday, October 26, the Falmouth Artists Guild presents an exhibit celebrating The 300 Committee Land Trust’s 30th anniversary this year. Founded with the goal of purchasing 300 acres in Falmouth to be conserved for public open space to commemorate the town’s tercentennial in 1986, the committee has continued on and in the past three decades has bought, or helped the town of Falmouth buy, some 2,300 acres—all of which is open for public use today. An opening reception will be held Friday, October 16, from 4 to 6 p.m., at the Falmouth Artists Guild, 137 Gifford Street, Falmouth. For more information, call 508-540-1142, or visit falmouthart.org.

October 23

Yarmouth Art Guild to host fall juried art show & reception

The Yarmouth Art Guild hosts its Fall Juried Art Show (2015) & Reception Friday, October 23, from 4 to 7 p.m. The event is held at 307 Old Main Street, South Yarmouth. For more information, call 508-394-4500, or visit yarmouthartguild.org.

Through December

Struna Galleries exhibits “A Family Affair”

Enjoy new paintings, giclee reproductions and original copper plate engravings from Timothy Jon Struna at his daughter Heather’s Struna Galleries in Chatham. Also on display are a new series of Heather’s engravings and historical fiction novels written by her mother, Barbara Eppich Struna. Currently on display, the exhibit runs through December. Struna Galleries is at 458 Main Street in Chatham. For more information, call 508-945-5713, or visit strunagalleries.com.

Year-round

See scrimshaw work on Nantucket

The Scrimshander Gallery, 38 Centre Street, Nantucket, displays antique and contemporary scrimshaw, with scrimshaw work done in-house by artist/owner Michael J. Vienneau. Learn more at
scrimshandergallery.com.

The post Cape Cod art gallery events—August 1 to October 30 appeared first on Cape Cod LIFE.

The Eastham Painters Guild heads outdoors to capture nature on the canvas

Photo by: Dan Cutrona

Of all the members of the Eastham Painters Guild, Robin Wessman might look the most like “a painter”—or at least a bohemian version thereof. He wears old jeans and a paint-flecked fleece; he even has some paint specks on his neck. A resident of Eastham, Wessman, 62, enjoys working with oil and the process involved in his craft. “Painting takes you to a different place,” he says. “[Once you get] bit by the bug, it stays with you.”

Photo by: Dan Cutrona

Since 1980, the Eastham Painters Guild has served as a gathering point for locals with the shared passion of painting. The guild consists of 15 permanent members, most of whom live in Eastham. An active group, the guild meets for en plein air sessions once or twice a week at Fort Hill, First Encounter Beach, and other scenic spots around Eastham as well as at locations in Orleans and Wellfleet.

On a warm Wednesday morning in June, Cape Cod LIFE dropped in on the guild’s painting session at Nauset Light. The dozen or so artists spread out around a grassy field that looked more August-burnt than June-green, easels sprouting like the dandelions they shared the field with. To capture the best light, the painters began their day early, before 8 a.m.

Willow Shire, 67, is the guild’s president. During the two-hours-plus session, she divides her time between the following activities: guiding, encouraging, painting, laughing, telling stories, introducing people, and smiling. Humble and self-effacing, she offers warm encouragement to her fellow painters.

A member of the guild since 2000, Shire says she began painting about 15 years ago when she came to the realization that life is finite. She felt she was not being mindful enough and maybe letting important things slip by. “There are only so many lilac seasons [still to come],” she says. Art, she adds, is a way to connect to, hold on to, or capture that slipping-away feeling. “I look at everything differently now—more intensely,” says Shire. “It’s about being aware, paying attention to the natural world.”

Photo by: Dan Cutrona

On the day of our visit most of the painters set up facing the lighthouse’s red and white tower, but not June Havens. While most of the group is scattered around the lighthouse at various angles and depths, Havens, a botanical artist, is off in her own corner of the Nauset Beach parking lot, painting pink beach plum flowers on green vines. The flowers she paints are beautiful—fully realized and loaded with rich detail. She attempts to capture their essence in her work.

Havens, 78, is a gardener turned painter. When her knees were no longer game for all the bending demanded by gardening, she picked up a paintbrush. She has always been artistic, though. Even before she started painting, she recalls filling any available scrap of paper in her house—from napkins to old newspapers—with sketches and drawings.

A member of the guild since 1994, Havens concedes she “did it backwards,” painting first and taking art classes later. Joining the guild and painting flowers were just natural extensions of what she had already been doing.

To Havens, plants and light are inspirations. She loves to take plants home and tear them apart to see how they are put together—to unlock the mysteries of their creation and inform her art. She is amazed at how tulips and snapdragons, for example, continue to turn to follow the light even after they have been cut and placed in a jar; the flowers are always trying to reach, to grow. Similarly, Havens says she is always trying to develop her painting skill. “I’m always learning, always learning,” she says. “It’s a wonderful way to spend your retirement.”

Photo by: Dan Cutrona

Another painter, Susan Sagona, was working on a watercolor during our visit. Participating as a guest of the guild, the 70-year-old enjoys painting and the feeling she gets working on her canvas. “It absorbs you completely,” Sagona says. “It comes from a different part of your consciousness.” She adds that painting outdoors, especially with fast-drying watercolors, which are less forgiving of mistakes than oil, has taught her a few things. Among them: “I have learned to work faster,” she says.

Mary Anne Tessier, 79, likes working on pet portraits the most, but on this day she dutifully worked to capture Nauset Light. One of the few guild members not from Eastham, Tessier lives in Yarmouthport and is the former owner of Derbyfield Kennel in Harwich. Tessier says she likes “to play with colors. And if it’s not right, you can paint right over it.” Failing even that, she jokes that if the piece is deemed “unredeemable,” she simply throws it out. “There’s the basket,” she says.

En plein air painting—from the French, literally “in the open air”—dates from the mid-19th century when new paint tubes, like our modern tubes of toothpaste, allowed painters, who previously had to custom-mix their paints in complex arrangements of powders, dies and emollients, greater flexibility to interact with their surroundings and get out of stuffy studios and into the wild.

A professional in the telecommunications industry, Robin Wessman graduated from Southeastern Massachusetts University (now known as U-Mass Dartmouth) with an art degree. Though he doesn’t work full-time as an artist, his schedule affords him plenty of time to paint. Nearly every morning, he wakes up at 5 a.m. to squeeze in a couple of painting hours before work, often returning to the easel again in the evening.

Photo by: Dan Cutrona

Wessman enjoys painting outdoors, working, as he puts it, “right from life.” He talks about becoming so absorbed in his work that he loses track of his immediate surroundings, like the time he was engrossed in a painting in Chatham and felt something at his pants leg. Tiny rabbits were crawling over his feet as he worked.

Photo by: Dan Cutrona

On the day of our visit, Wessman worked out a rough sketch of the lighthouse on his canvas. He planned to return to the studio later to work on the values: altering light and dark to create distance and atmosphere. Wessman, whose work hangs in galleries in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, paints seven days a week. “This is,” he says, “what I like to do.”

Members of the guild sell their work every Thursday and Friday in summer at the School House Museum, located across from the National Seashore’s Salt Pond Visitor Center on Route 6 in Eastham. The guild concludes its 2015 season with a show at Eastham Town Hall on Sunday, September 13 during Windmill Weekend.

For all of the hard work these painters put in—and all the artwork they produce—the guild members enjoy themselves and what they are doing. They are friends, they’re involved in each other’s lives and often gather for potluck dinners at The Shire—Willow Shire’s place, that is.

The leader of the guild, Shire, is ebullient, warm and kind. Though she was born in Maine and lived outside Boston for many years, she says she has always loved Cape Cod. She bought property on the Cape in the 1980s, and in 1993 she built a house just a few steps from a location beloved by her family: First Encounter Beach. She moved to Eastham full time in 2000.

Shire’s own work is oil-based. She likes the ability to go over a painting a few times, and if that still doesn’t result in a winner, “that’s when I get out my orbital sander,” she says. Since she only paints directly on wooden panels, she will simply grind the piece down and start again from scratch.

But Shire’s charm and energy are endemic of this group. Regardless of age or activity one would be hard pressed to find a livelier and more focused and dedicated group of individuals. To a painter, the members of the Eastham Painters Guild are enthusiastic about life and color, about air and wind and sea.

For more information about the Eastham Painters Guild, visit easthampaintersguild.com, or call 508-255-8411.

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Monahan Jewelers of Harwich celebrates 200 years in business

Photo by: Josh Shortsleeve

Situated among a lineup of traditional looking stores and eateries on Harwichport’s vibrant Main Street (Route 28), one shop may appear slightly out of place. Built circa 1850, the rustic, wood-paneled building at 540 Main Street evokes the past—and a sense of nostalgia; visitors and customers who walk through the front door may soon feel they’re being transported back in time.

Inside, a feeling or sense of history is apparent, if not palpable. Hundreds of photos, paintings, letters, and other trinkets cover the store’s walls and display cases, each memento helping to illuminate the rich history of a business—and a family.

For more than 30 years, this Harwich location has been home to Monahan & Co. Fine Jewelers, but the company’s history goes back much farther than that. This year, the company, which was founded in Worcester during the early 19th century before relocating to Cape Cod in 1980, celebrates its 200th anniversary.

Photo by: Josh Shortsleeve

“There’s not a store like it in America,” says Michael O’Neill Monahan, the company’s owner and chairman. “It’s a treasure.” For Michael, who has run the business since 1962, the company is his family’s legacy, and he feels a great sense of pride in helping to carry it on.

Unlike pristine and clutter-free jewelry stores one may find in the mall, Monahan’s features jam-packed display cases, jewelry-covered countertops, and endless memorabilia hither and yon. “We realize we’re like a museum,” Michael says, “but we are a store that does business, and the product—people are so happy when they get it from us.”

Open from mid-May through December, Monahan’s sells original, custom pieces, including bracelets and necklaces, as well as fashion jewelry and one-of-a-kind estate pieces such as a tantalizing tanzanite ring that changes color in the light. The company also does repair work, and offers jewelry in a wide price range, from $15 to $500,000. “Anybody, anywhere that wants to buy real top-notch jewelry can come here and get anything they want,” Michael says.

Involved with the business since he was about 10 years old, Michael says the key to pleasing customers is simple: provide quality, personal service. “It’s so easy to be nice to people,” he says. “Just ask people where they’re from, and you’ll start talking.” Whether customers are coming in to have a piece of jewelry fixed or to have a ring sized, Michael says he and his staff enjoy getting to know the customers and making personal connections. “This,” he says, “is their jewelry store. People feel like they are members of the family.” And while Michael is happy to be on Cape Cod, he does look back fondly on the company’s first 165 years  . . . in Worcester.

The Monahan’s story begins with Michael’s great-great-grandfather, Jeremiah Monahan (1776-1856), who established a watchmaking and jewelry repair business at the corner of Myrtle and Main Streets in Worcester in 1815. A native of Dublin, Ireland, Jeremiah came to America to build a new life. According to Michael, Worcester’s Protestant Yankees—who under most circumstances at that time would have wanted nothing to do with an Irishman—accepted his ancestor because he provided them with goods and services that had previously required a 45-mile journey to Boston to find.

Photo by: Josh Shortsleeve

The business would eventually be passed down to Jeremiah’s son, Patrick (1825-1912); then to Patrick’s son, Charles (1868-1948); and Charles’ son, Robert (1910-1995), who is Michael Monahan’s father. Born in 1940, Michael took ownership of the store at the age of 22. While his seven brothers and sisters also worked at the store when they were young, Michael is the last to stick with the business.

In 1958, the city of Worcester razed the building that housed Monahan’s as part of a city redevelopment initiative—the site later became home to what remains today a Registry of Motor Vehicles—and the jewelry business moved across the street, remaining there until 1979.

That year, Michael was vacationing with family in Harwich when he discovered the building at 540 Main Street was on the market. In the mid to late 1800s, the building was owned by Henry Kelley and served as a ship supply and coal and lumber store; in the 1900s, the building was a hardware store owned by the Eldridge family.

With business in Worcester declining, Michael says it was time for a change and he decided to buy the building, relocating both his business and his home to Cape Cod. “My grandfather [Charles] always said, ‘Go where you think there might be business’,” Michael recalls. “I loved the Cape, and I thought that Harwichport should have a new store.”

Photo by: Josh Shortsleeve

The company moved into its new home in 1980, and Michael renamed the business Monahan & Co. Fine Jewelers. Since goldsmith Neal Waters joined the company in 1977, Michael says the business has expanded to offer even finer jewelry. “He is extremely talented,” Michael says of Waters, who doubles as the company’s president. “He has made tremendous pieces for many people all over the United States.”

Over the years—in Harwich and previously, Worcester—endless customers have made their way to Monahan’s, and that list has included dozens of celebrities, sports figures, and politicians. Notable clients include Frank Sinatra, Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Shirley Temple, Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, David Bowie, Demi Moore, George Clooney, and Johnny Depp.

Rolling Stones’ front man Mick Jagger has visited the shop as well, and an autographed self-portrait the singer gave to Monahan’s hangs on the wall. “He’s wiggling all the time, even like the way he is on stage,” Michael says of Jagger. “He’s just a wonderful guy.”

Browsing through the store, visitors will find a variety of one-of-a-kind memorabilia. Among the photographs on display is a circa-1845 image of Patrick Monahan holding Claddagh rings made by his father, Jeremiah, and a circa-1900 photo of Charles Monahan with customers in the Worcester shop. A photo from 1883 shows Charles, at 15, donning his first business suit—a reward from his father for selling his first diamond.

A framed picture of Pope Francis hangs on one wall with a personal message written on the back. “I bless the Monahan Family and the longevity of your family business—200 years!,” Pope Francis wrote. “I’ll pray for another 100!” Michael and Neal met the Pope while attending one of his masses in Italy in 2013. “He just happened to say hello,” Waters recalls. The Pope later sent the picture as a gift.

Then, there’s the letter from John F. Kennedy to Michael, dated May 21, 1960. The note was a grateful response to Monahan, who had written Kennedy to congratulate him on his win over Hubert Humphrey in West Virginia’s Democratic primary. Receiving that letter meant a lot to Michael, who had campaigned for the candidate.

Photo by: Josh Shortsleeve

“My three idols growing up were Knute Rockne—the Notre Dame coach—Ted Williams, and JFK,” he says, adding that he had the opportunity to caddy for the future president at the Hyannisport Golf Club’s caddy camp from 1953 to 1958. “He was a terrible golfer but a wonderful personality,” Michael says. “He was always joking, always fun.” During the 1960s, Michael says JFK and Jackie visited the Worcester store to purchase a Claddagh ring for the President’s mother, Rose.

Visitors to Monahan’s will also enjoy the “1815 Room.” Located in the back, where the original owner, Kelley, once stored coal and lumber, the space is practically a store unto itself; there are three display cases, regal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, and several clocks on the wall.

Photo by: Josh Shortsleeve

The room also displays a vintage cash register from Harwich’s once and great Belmont Hotel—and a mahogany desk that serves as the centerpiece of a game that’s been played in Monahan’s for the past decade. Visitors are asked, “Whose desk was it?” and can weigh in on the side of former Speaker of the House and Harwich resident, Tip O’Neil, or former Boston Mayor, James Michael Curley. Votes are cast in a pre-1900 voting machine that originally belonged to the Town of Harwich. “People argue about it,” Michael says of the desk—and the vote. “It gives them something to talk about.” During a visit in May, the tally stood at 19,364 votes in favor of O’Neil, 19,359 for Curley.

The 1815 Room also displays a number of items that are not for sale, including an 18-karat gold miniature pocket watch from the 1700s, which still functions today. According to Michael, the watch was once encircled with 88 tiny diamonds, but Jeremiah—the company’s founder—had removed 22 of the jewels to help pay for his crossing to America, and another 22 to set up shop in Worcester. Customers can also find a ring engraved with the letter ‘S,’ which Michael says Jeremiah made for a prostitute named Lily B. Streeter who never returned for it. Lastly, there’s a shillelagh, which Michael says dates back 1,000 years; Jeremiah kept the weapon nearby for protection.

Contacted to offer their thoughts on Monahan’s, two Harwich business people shared their thoughts on the company. “We’re extremely proud of them for being in business as long as they have been,” says Cyndi Williams, Harwich Chamber of Commerce’s director of member services.

Photo by: Josh Shortsleeve

“They have a store that’s got a real neighborhood feel,” adds Guy Winialski, who owns The Mason Jar deli next door. “It’s a piece of the community.” Winialski says Monahan’s longevity speaks to both the company’s dedication and the loyalty the community has shown to the store and its staff.

The sentiment is mutual. Every year, Monahan’s donates pallets of soup to the local food pantry and helps support 50 to 100 charities, including the Knights of Columbus, the Jimmy Fund, Harwich Public Schools athletics, and more. “You’ve got to give back to your community,” Michael says, “because they have given to you. And that’s the tradition all the way back to Jeremiah. The company’s founders always gave to the community—and the community always came back.”

“The Cape is a wonderful place to live,” Michael adds. “The customers are wonderful, everybody’s happy in the retail business, consumers are happy on the Cape. It’s just a great experience to run the store on Cape Cod. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.”

While he’s thrilled the business has reached the two-century mark, Michael says he’s looking toward the future. He hopes his daughter, Kara, the company’s vice-president; her daughter, Corin; and business partner Neal Waters will help carry on the business for the next century.

Monahan & Co. Fine Jewelers is at 540 Main Street in Harwichport. For more information, visit monahanjewelers.com, or call 508-432-3302.

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Sandwich resident spreads the word about healthy eating habits

Photo by: Jennifer Dow

Twelve years ago, Dorothy Torrey was not in a good place. She was depressed—and had been for several years. She was overweight and out of shape, and, as she recalls, “at the bottom of the well.” Then came more bad news: cancer.

Her diagnosis came as a wake-up call, and Torrey did not take the message lying down. However, when her doctors prescribed chemotherapy, radiation, drugs, and a lumpectomy, she chose another route, believing the cancer-killing radiation also kills part of the body at the same time. At the suggestion of a friend, Torrey took a close look at her diet and began to make some dramatic changes. She began to drink green shakes loaded with vegetables, fruits and water; soon, she gave up cheese and other dairy products, and for the most part, chicken, fish, and beef. She supplemented her meals with leafy greens, nuts, fruit, and quinoa. As quickly as she changed her diet, her life began to change—and the results were profound.

Interviewed at her home in Sandwich earlier this summer, the svelte and spritely 73-year-old offered her own dramatic news to report. “I have not had one sick day,” Torrey says, “since my cancer diagnosis [in 2003]. I didn’t look at cancer like a death sentence. I looked at it as a gift to find what was out of balance in my life.”

One of the biggest factors affecting that balance, she says, is one’s daily diet. After adopting her alkalized lifestyle over a decade ago, Torrey says she quickly lost ten pounds without even trying. “Since then,” she adds, “I’ve never had to worry about calories. There’s been a transformation in me, and I love what’s happened.”

Torrey says it was not that difficult to make the changes. “The easiest thing I can do is control the food I’m putting in my body,” she says. “Food was easy, but it’s not just the food. It’s your emotions, spirituality, and attitude.”

Today, Torrey buys organic products and eats most of her food “raw” or uncooked. For breakfast, she might have a smoothie with kale, parsley, avocado, cucumbers, lime, and ginger. To sweeten things up, she might add one-half of an apple. For a fruitier version, she adds blueberries and strawberries to the mix, but holds off on bananas and sugary fruits like peaches, pineapple, and cantaloupe.

For dinner, she eats veggie burgers made from almonds or fiber-rich quinoa. Naturally, she loves salads as well as almonds and pumpkin and sesame seeds. She drinks a ton of water, enjoys almond milk ice cream, and occasionally she’ll allow herself some goat’s milk yogurt.

On the other hand, she does not drink soda or coffee, the latter of which, she says, is 1,000 times as acidic as water. On a rare occasion, she will have ice cream or a cheeseburger, but she says she doesn’t crave these foods. “It is toxic food—believe me,” she says. “I don’t want to have a cheeseburger for nothing.”

Though this regimen may seem extreme, don’t tell Torrey; she enjoys her food and doesn’t feel she’s missing out. “I don’t miss the other food,” she says. “Food has changed so much with the antibiotics. I don’t want to do myself harm anymore. It’s not that I can’t have it, I don’t want it.”

She offered a unique analogy. Humans are accustomed to washing the outside of the body, but when do they clean the inside? When a fish tank gets dirty, fish become sluggish, Torrey says. That’s a sign that the water in the tank needs to be changed, or cleaned. Now, consider the body. “I have cleaned the inside environment,” she says.

Photo by: Jennifer Dow

Years ago, Torrey—whose mother-in-law and sisters Eleanor and Regina all died from cancer—says she asked God that if he wanted her to tell others about the benefits of green drinks and foods, to send her those people. And, she says, he has.

Describing herself as an alkaline lifestyle catalyst and coach, today Torrey enthusiastically organizes and hosts health-related workshops and potluck meals at her home, and has scheduled seminars at the Dan’l Webster Inn and the Barnstable Council on Aging. One such event will take place at St. Mary’s Parish in Barnstable on Friday, September 25, at 7 p.m. That night, Steve Blake, a physician from Hawaii, will give a presentation titled “Reversing Diabetes.” Tickets cost $15.

Torrey is also writing a book on laser breast cancer surgery, which she describes as an option, not an alternative. In February of this year, Torrey underwent this procedure and experienced very little pain—and was out having lunch an hour later.

What is her goal with these various endeavors? “Helping people become awake, aware and alive,” Torrey says. “People don’t know how good it feels to feel so good. Healthy is not ‘denying myself’. It looks good on me. It’s freedom. It allows me to do what I want to do.”

To learn more about Dorothy Torrey and her seminars, visit pathtovibranthealth.com.

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Looking west, this late April view of Chappaquiddick (1) and at a distance the Martha’s Vineyard mainland (2), shows Norton Point Beach (3) once again attached to Chappy at Wasque Point (4). A breach in the barrier beach had existed from the Patriots’ Day storm in 2007 through April 2, 2015. Photograph by Paul Rifkin

In April of 2007, a powerful storm on Patriots’ Day caused a break near the center of Norton Point Beach, a barrier beach that runs along the southeastern tip of Martha’s Vineyard dividing Katama Bay from the Atlantic. With this breach in the two-and-one-half mile beach, Chappaquiddick became entirely severed from the Vineyard.

Since that 2007 storm, the break—which at its widest measured nearly a quarter-mile across—continually migrated to the east, and caused a variety of problems in Vineyard waterways. “The break at Norton Beach affected the whole of Katama Bay and the inner harbor,” says Charlie Blair, Edgartown’s harbormaster. “The current ran up to three knots.” Blair likened the inner harbor at the time to Woods Hole Passage, a fast-moving and potentially treacherous waterway off Falmouth that most ships avoid.

In the storm’s immediate aftermath, the On Time ferry, which regularly transports passengers the 527 feet between Chappy and Edgartown, found itself being continually swept southward to the Edgartown Yacht Club—some 500 feet—as it attempted to make its way across the channel. To remedy this, the ferry owner had to install a stronger engine to withstand the new, stronger current.

Over the years, the effects levied on the coastline were even more dramatic. The beach at Wasque Point—Chappaquiddick’s south-easternmost tip—and the nearby swan pond were washed away, and stairs and boardwalks leading to the beach were destroyed or swept into the ocean. The powerful currents from the breach also unearthed a few things that had long been hidden or buried. “Divers were finding 150-year-old bottles lying on the bottom in plain sight,” Blair recalls.

After nearly eight years, however, the breach is no more! On April 2, 2015, the breach, which had migrated all the way to Wasque, became completely closed as the Norton Point Beach reattached to Chappaquiddick. By the end of the month, vehicles were once again allowed to travel over the beach from Chappy to Edgartown—with a required permit.

A view of the breach in late spring 2007. 1. Edgartown, 2. Edgartown Harbor, 3. On Time Ferry, 4. Norton Point Beach, 5. Katama Bay, 6. Vineyard Sound, 7. Atlantic Ocean, 8. Chappaquiddick, 9. Wasque Point | Photograph by Michael Berwind

Britt Raubenheimer, a scientist specializing in applied ocean physics and engineering at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), commented on the dramatic geologic change. “It was very interesting to see how fast the barrier grew after the closing, changing from being always open to being closed even at the highest tides-—in just a day. The speed of sand piling up has been seen before, and was expected, but remains amazing to me.”

This scenario may seem an anomaly, but a quick study of the Vineyard’s geological history reveals that this break in the beach has occurred several times in the past 150 years, continually linking and separating Chappaquiddick from the main island. According to Tom Dunlop, who has written about the breach for Martha’s Vineyard Magazine and just published a book on the Chappy Ferry (see p. 120), the earliest recorded breach took place in 1856. A map of the Vineyard from 1892 shows a considerable breach, and additional maps and postcards from the past century show the beach in various states. The coastline has been changing—constantly.

What is it about Norton Point that inspires this continuous cycle of barrier beach breaks—and subsequent restorations? Raubenheimer offers a simple answer. “The tides in Vineyard Sound (the waters on the north and western sides of the Vineyard, which flow into Edgartown Harbor) are very different from the Atlantic Ocean tides (to the south of the island where Norton Point Beach is located),” she says. “They are three hours apart meaning that one side of the barrier beach has higher water on it than the other.” This higher water flows “downhill” from north to south, or south to north, depending on the tides, causing the beach to erode—and eventually breach.

Raubenheimer adds that breaches can occur—and then widen—at a rapid clip. She recalls an experiment where an artificial breach was created and due to currents in the area it widened to five times its initial dimensions within an hour’s time.

Another question to ponder is how the breach healed itself. Steve Elgar, another WHOI scientist who has been studying the breach with Raubenheimer since 2011, offers a response. “It all comes down to friction,” Elgar says. “After the initial breach, the currents going into Katama Bay were faster than those coming out.”

This situation, Elgar says, may have resulted in sand being deposited in the breach, rather than being swept out to sea in faster currents.

Though the two scientists understand this process, neither Elgar nor Raubenheimer are sure exactly where that sand came from. It could have come from shoals in the bay or from offshore shoals, they speculated, or from sand being moved along Norton Point Beach from further down the shore.

Finally, the question many in the area are now asking is how long will it be until Norton Point Beach is breached again? “It could be another 30 years—or it could be a year or two,” Raubenheimer says. “It all depends on the tides and the weather.”

Christopher Setterlund is a freelancer writer from South Yarmouth.

The post The Changing Shape of the Cape & Islands: Edgartown, Chappaquiddick and the breach—and restoration—of Norton Point Beach appeared first on Cape Cod LIFE.

Cape Cod singer has been busy since her successful run on American Idol

Photo by: Kelly Cronin Bicknell

When Siobhan Magnus sang her way into millions of Americans’ homes and hearts during Season 9 of American Idol in 2010, the nation and the world sat up and paid attention. A 2008 graduate of Barnstable High School, Magnus wowed viewers—and the show’s judges—with her big voice, unique look, and decidedly humble personality. Singing powerful renditions of the Rolling Stones’ “Paint it Black,” Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition,” and various other tunes, the Cape Cod resident made it all the way to the final six contestants on the show before being eliminated, a vote that may have played a role in causing Idol’s ratings to plummet that season.

Like many contestants who are not ultimately crowned “the American Idol,” Magnus has continued on in the music industry, and is making a name for herself by performing solo shows and singing with groups like Hanson and Boston. The Yarmouthport resident released her first album in 2012 and is currently working on her second. She has also added another item to her growing resume: small business owner.

In a recent interview with Cape Cod LIFE, Magnus discussed some of the unique experiences she’s had since her time on American Idol came to an end five years ago. She also talked about how she came to love music in the first place, what she’s learned, and what she’s planning next.

At 25, Magnus is a little wiser and more seasoned since her stint on Idol. After she was eliminated from the show, Magnus made a number of media appearances including stops on The Ellen Degeneres Show, Late Night with David Letterman, and The Wendy Williams Show. “All of the interviews were fun,” she recalls, “but I was so tired when I was doing them. I would do interviews in the mornings and afternoons—some in Los Angeles and then some in New York.”

Following the show’s conclusion that year—Lee DeWyze was named American Idol—Magnus and several other Idol finalists performed as a group in concerts across the country that summer. The schedule was busy to say the least. “Touring was ridiculous,” Magnus says. “Before that tour, I had only performed locally with a band in high school, musical theater, and drama club. My biggest live audience was 1,400 people. While touring with Idol, we were performing for 8,000 to 14,000 people a night, and doing four to five shows a week for months.” The tour began with two weeks of rehearsals in California, followed by a road trip of 44 show dates in July and August. The tour made stops in venues in more than 20 states. “We even did a show in Canada,” she says

Photo by: Jaguar PS

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Photo by: Kamal Asar

The work was exhausting, says Magnus, but also enjoyable. “We [the 2010 finalists, and some parents and guardians] were crowded into these buses and bussed across the country. It was hard, but I liked it. It’s not for everybody, but really fun. Getting to see almost the entire country was amazing, and it definitely made me appreciate home much more.”

When the tour was completed, Magnus returned home, continuing to sing at several local venues, including the Cape Cod Melody Tent and the Yarmouth Cultural Center. Opportunities continued to arise for her that year, and Magnus had the chance to perform with her favorite childhood band, the three-brother trio, Hanson. “One of the coolest things that ever happened to me was meeting Hanson and getting to perform with them,” she says. “I’m a huge fan. I was so emotional! It was a surprise show. They picked a song for me, called ‘Weird’,” she says with a laugh. “Before I met them, I had seen them in concert in Boston and I always said that if I got to meet them one day, it was going to be special. And it was. They were really kind.”

Magnus recorded her debut album, Moonbaby, with Nashville-based Pacific International Music in 2012. The title comes from a poem the singer wrote during the Idol tour. “I had been writing some poetry and reading some poems from my favorite author, Francesca Lia Block,” she recalls. “It was my first time back on the East Coast in a long time. There was a great smell, a great feeling . . . and my poem was about that feeling. [Moonbaby] was the word I thought of to explain how I felt.” The album features 10 original songs penned by Magnus and others, and one cover.

For a brief period in 2013, Magnus headlined a band, Doubtful Guest, which featured several members of bands popular in the 1990s including Tony Fredianelli of Third Eye Blind and Peter Klett of Candlebox. The band performed two shows before breaking up due to logistical issues. Magnus says she hopes the group will reunite in the future.

Last year—2014—was particularly busy for Magnus. For starters, Jung Ho Pak, conductor of The Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra, called on her to perform with the orchestra as a guest vocalist at the Cape Cod Canal’s centennial celebration at Buzzards Bay Park in July. During the event, Magnus performed Patti Page’s song, “Old Cape Cod” as well as an emotional rendition of the Irish classic, “Danny Boy,” which she sang in tribute to her father, Alan N. Magnus, who died in 2013. Magnus says her father’s passing has impacted her more than anything she has ever been through.

Magnus sang with the symphony again at its Holiday Celebration at the Barnstable High Performing Arts Center in December. “I loved singing with the symphony,” she says. “I felt like a Disney princess! I got to dress really nice. My grandparents loved it.”

The year 2014 also brought what Siobhan describes as the invitation of a lifetime: she was asked to perform with Boston, on the famous group’s “Heaven on Earth Tour.” What began as an interim guest singer’s role for six shows expanded into an incredible 50-date touring schedule. “Performing with Boston was so fun,” Magnus says. “It was so different from touring with Idol. I didn’t have to do any press, didn’t have to do interviews, and ate whatever I wanted! My uncle—bassist Tracy Ferrie—is in the band, so he watched out for me.” She added that Tom Scholz, Boston’s songwriter, organist, guitarist and the band’s last remaining original member, mentored her and offered a lot of good advice.

Magnus traveled with the group to shows across the United States and even to Japan, where they played before large, enthusiastic crowds in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka. “It was so great to be in Japan,” she says. “The fans there were cool. The hard-core fans came to all the shows.” Magnus says she was particularly impressed when the audiences sang “ . . . in the streets of Hyannis . . .”, lyrics from the group’s 1976 tune “Rock and Roll Band.”

Being raised on Cape Cod—just a few miles from those very streets—provided Magnus with an appreciation of many diverse musical genres, including rock, pop, blues, and soul, all of which are represented in her music today. “I grew up in Marstons Mills, one of six kids,” Magnus says. “My grandparents always made sure we were submersed in the arts. With them, I always listened to classical music. They enjoy that I work with swing bands.” Though she never took private voice lessons, Magnus says she had a wonderful chorus teacher for three years at Barnstable High in Sean Landers.

The singer also credits her father, who worked as a musician, with her training. “I’ve been singing since I was little,” Magnus says. “My dad taught me how to breathe and how to keep my posture. My parents were very supportive. I began drama club when I was 8, had my first solo when I was 9, and continued with it through high school.” In all, she performed in more than 50 drama club productions with Barnstable High including “Wonderland—The Musical,” “Twelfth Night,” and “Beauty and the Beast.” Though she took part in the club’s summer theater, most of the shows she performed in were during the school year. “In winter on Cape Cod,” she says, “all we really had was drama club.” She adds that her leading role as Mabel in “Pirates of Penzance” still remains the biggest challenge she has faced as a singer. 

Photo by: Kelly Cronin Bicknell

“I love theater and I love acting” Magnus says. “I have no idea if I’m any good at it, but I love it.” In recent years, she has been approached about a few acting roles, but she has yet to find anything that has interested her. Note to directors out there: if you’re shooting a horror film, Magnus is interested.

Magnus says her mother, Colleen, has always been an encouraging force for her and her siblings. “My mom is a free, creative spirit,” she says. “She is a bookworm. She has encouraged reading throughout our lives.”

In addition to music, Magnus has branched out in another direction in recent years, and today she is the owner of a small retail business that sells jewelry, vintage clothing, records, and more at the Antiques Center of Cape Cod in Dennis. The space is fittingly named Moonbaby Boutique. “It’s just a little thrift booth with a selection of hand-picked clothing, for now,” she says. The Antiques Center handles product sales for vendors, like Magnus, and splits the profits. “My plan is to make accessories and jewelry, as well as customized clothing,” Magnus says. “I would love to own my own store on the Cape one day.”

While she ventures intro entrepreneurship, Magnus’ music career continues to reflect a diverse musical style. She is working on new projects and honing her skill at songwriting. “I usually write lyrics alone or when I’m in a writing session,” she says. “I’m writing with my older brother, Joseph, as well, which we have never tried. So, I’m hoping that the next year sees another original album from me!”

“I have a handful of new songs that I’m hoping to record better versions of, and release them within the next year, including one I co-wrote called ‘Widow’s Walk’ that I performed with the Cape Symphony last fall for Barnstable’s 375th anniversary, and we are currently working on a recorded version for release. It’s a Cape Cod ghost story song,” she says. “I am also doing some recording-session work where I’m a hired gun, singing backup vocals and duets for other performer’s records.”

She also continues to perform in shows across the Cape. On Sunday, August 23, Magnus will sing numbers from the Great American Songbook in a special Ella & Frank show at the Ocean Edge Resort in Brewster. Additional shows include dates at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod on Saturdays, August 29 and October 31.

What does Magnus think of her success—and her prospects? “I’m proud and excited,” she says, “and I’m glad, so far, to make a career out of what I do. It’s very important for me to strive to do what makes me happy.”

To learn more about Magnus, follow her on Twitter at @SiobhanMagnusAI. In addition, her website, smagnus.com, features upcoming performance dates, news, and a free mobile app.

Ann Luongo is a freelance writer from Plymouth whose work has appeared in several print and online publications.

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