Secrets of Jacques Tati

Richard Tatischeff Schiel McDonald, grandson of Jacques Tati, writes a long letter to Roger Ebert about the real story behind his grandfather's script of The Illusionist and how this new animated film misrepresents history and brings more pain to the family:

The Secrets of Jacques Tati

Drew Barrymore's grandmother in 1923

Dolores Costello, Ziegfeld girl, by Alfred Cheney Johnston, ca. 1923
Originally uploaded by …trialsanderrors

My Neighborhood

Yesterday I went out for a hike and saw a white wild turkey all by his lonesome walking up the hill. I really wished I had my camera. Well, today, I took my camera and managed to take some close-ups of flowers around my neighborhood. You can see the raindrops on them. Everything is lush and overgrown around here from all the rain. In fact, it's been rather like winter for the past week. Enjoyed a fire in the fireplace last night.The pink peonies are heavenly, aren't they? But, alas, no white wild turkey to be found today.

The Art of Amy Crehore

1883 Circus in Vermont

Photo courtesy Shelburne Museum
Colchester, Vermont, 1991- the removal of siding revealed five beautiful circus posters pasted onto the boards beneath the siding of a house. The posters were mounted on the house when a circus came to town in 1883, and they remained hidden for the next 108 years. The home owners, Gladys and Harold Degree, donated the posters to the Shelburne Museum, boards and all.
The newly conserved posters will be one of the centerpieces of Shelburne Museum’s new exhibit, "Circus Day in America", (May 16 through October 24)
Shelburne Museum
(Rt. 7, Vermont)
Have a look at these fascinating images:
Flickr set Shelburne- preserving the posters
Read Story: Northeast Document Conservation Center website

Thanks, Tom!

The Art of Amy Crehore

Girl on a Miniature Horse and a Clown-child (Crehore)

Background detail of "The Angel at Gossamer Creek"painting by Amy Crehore 2010 (direct scan)

Background detail of "The Waiting Pool" painting by Amy Crehore 2010 (direct scan)

Here's just a glimpse of my two new paintings. They have lots of layers of paint. I am waiting for the weather to clear before I can take slides of the completed paintings. Then I will scan the slides for you. "The Waiting Pool" has 10 figures in it. I allowed myself to work on them for as long as I wanted to and they took me... a long time! I scanned these small details directly from the paintings.

The Art of Amy Crehore

She Demons

Mrs. Crehore is Mentioned in Shaw's Civil War Letter

I knew we had ancestors in Milton, MA (Benjamin Crehore -maker of the first pianos in America). In the film "Glory", Matthew Broderick plays Col. Robert Gould Shaw, white commander of the black 54th Massachusetts Regiment during the Civil War. In a letter written by the real Col. Shaw to his mother on May 17, 1863, he indicates that he is staying with a "Mrs. Crehore" in Readville, MA which is very close to Milton.

Blue Eyed Child of Fortune is a a book of letters by Shaw.(shown above-amazon) I came across a few of these letters on Written in Glory , a website with letters by the soldiers of the 54th Regiment. A letter by Shaw to his sister states- " Will you please tell Mrs. Crehore to expect us on Tuesday? No matter whether she wants us or not, we are coming."

1863, Readville, MA

This is so interesting! There are 3 letters mentioning Mrs. Crehore on this website.

The Art of Amy Crehore