George Forss and Donna Wyndbrandt have been together for some years. They both moved upstate to Cambridge, N.Y. in the 1980’s after his brilliant career as a landscape photographer in New York was upended. George opened an art gallery and Donna began a career as an artist. They are very much in love, and profoundly supportive of one another. Today I two shots of them at the art show, two views of them. I love them both, as individuals and as a couple.
Donna Wynbrandt is an artist who works with water color and ink. She was in the Farewell Pig Barn Art Gallery Show this weekend. She is the companion of legendary photographer George Forss. And she is a friend. She came to the farm this weekend to help hang her work and sell it and I asked her to pose for a portrait. She just looked regal in her red dress, strand of pearls and sun hat. We were fortunate to have her at the farm this weekend.
There was no better way to cap off the weekend than to hear Mary Kellogg read from her next book poems, which she is close to completing. “You are going to miss this place,” my friend George Forss kept telling me this weekend. I guess so. So many people told me how beautiful and wonderful a place it is. It is, it is. I’ve got to pause and have something to eat. My voice is shot. How lucky I was to have a day like this in my life. People gathered around the Pig Barn to hear three of wonderful Mary’s new poems. How gifted she is, what a perfect symbol of the spirit of encouragement that is the real heart of Bedlam Farm and will be the spirit of the New Bedlam Farm. To the people who came to share this today, thank you, thank you, thank you. I love you back.
We meant today as a farewell to Bedlam Farm. We are closing on the new house July 20. We will sell the farm shortly, it just seems clear to me. One of the highlights of the day for me was working with Red in front of the hundreds of people who showed up to see us work together. The training credit goes to Dr. Karen Thompson, who gave me the gift of Red, but he and I have worked very hard this week with sheep that have never worked with a dog and gave Red a tough time. He is focused, patient, brave and skilled.
People wanted to know everything about him – where he came from, what his story was, how he was trained. I told them I would work hard to keep Red’s working skills up, but I saw this week that he also loves being in the world, driving with me, hanging around with me. So I think his life is going to fill out a bit.
It was wonderful having him for the farewell Pig Barn Art Gallery Show. I cannot tell you proud I am of my wonderful wife, a brilliant artist, a skilled curator. She found great artists, pulled them together, organized a complex two day event – packaged photos and notecards, arranged for food, got help, figured out commissions. A woman told me today that I must be a wonderful man to have such a wonderful wife.
I just blushed.
The day was meant to be a farewell to Bedlam Farm, and it was that and more. Well over a thousand people came yesterday and today – we lost count this afternoon – and it was so wonderful to share our goodbye to Bedlam Farm with the many good people who came to share it, coming from Chicago, Florida, Oregon, Canada, Michigan, Ohio, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, Arizona and a dozen other states, including New York, Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont.
People came to see Maria and her gifted artists and to buy their work, and to see the farm. And Simon. Many came to see Lenore and looked for Mother and Minnie (who hid). Strut walked among the crowd puffing up his chest. Some people came to see me. But the rock star of the day was Red, who has touched the hearts and imaginations of so many people. He was mobbed all day, put on a stellar herding demonstration (I will do more of those). I was very proud to do the demo with him, we have been working hard all week and has convinced the sheep to do his bidding and showed off his spectacular outruns and razor-shop response to commands. I can do almost anything in the world with this dog. We have fused.
Red loves work, but he seems to love people all much. I think he needs to be a therapy dog.
Red was great with all kinds of people – kids, adults, men and women. There were big lines of people waiting for Red and for Simon and Lenore seemed to greet every single person, tail wagging. What a loving creature. She is exhausted, as it Red.
Red loves people and he draws them out in much the way Izzy did. I was shocked at people’s response to him. They just love him. He is already a famous dog, and this was surprising to me to see.
Rose loved work but disdained much cuddling, and Red loves work and he loves to be with people. Very powerful thing to see. He was with hundreds of people all weekend. I’ll write more about this weekend, which touched my soul and heart. There were many points of connection. George Forss and Donny Wyndbrandt (whose work was in the show) hung around all weekend and I love watching George work and love his company as well.
And I’ll put a photo up on Facebook and some photos on the blog as well..
