Kinney Road Farmscape, showing at Gardenworks Saturday. Won a red ribbon.

  I was lucky at the Washington County Fair Photography Contest, winning a First Place Blue Ribbon for my Chickens Portrait, and a Second Place Ribbon for one of my Kinney Road Farmscapes, above. The judge was kind enough not only to give me a prize but to leave me a note that provoked an interesting discussion with Maria and some of my friends. The judge wrote “beautiful picture. Wide angle distortion of barn adds to interest and composition. However – lack of detail in farm implements creates void in flow. Beautifully printed!” The last was a compliment to Image Loft in Manchester which does a wonderful printing job. The photos are going to the Redux Art and Antique Gallery in Dorset, Vt. for showing and sale after the Gardenworks exhibit this week.
  What was interesting about the judge’s comments was that I go to great lengths to leave farm implements out of my farmscapes. I crawled all over the field in the above photo to get the tractor out of the shot.
  I always go for big sky, loneliness because, to me, it evokes the isolation and struggle of the family farm, and the implements, to me, add clutter and distract from the point of the photo.
  Farmscapes are, to me, emotional photos because I know of the losing struggle of these farmers to survive in a corporate world. Their way of life is perishing right under them. In a few years there may not be enough family farms to fill up a county fair.
  In fact, I might have titled this photo:” Farm Void.” Maria, who was trained as a fine artist (I was trained as a college dropout) says it is quite natural for a County Fair Photography Contest to want to see farm implements – tractors, rakes, hayers, feeders – but I have to say that to me they suggest a facade that masks the drama of the farm, and of photographing the farm.
   I love discussions like this, and I am nothing but grateful to the judge for the ribbon and for his/her comments. Next year, I wonder if I will look for implements to flesh out the farmscape photos. I doubt it. Well, maybe one or two.
 But I get his point too. I think the void works for me here.

    In less than two weeks, Lenore and/or Izzy and I will be at the Monson Free Library, Monson, Mass., at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, September 10, to help the library that Hope Bodwell, it’s director calls the “best little library ever.” She wrote to me a couple of months ago seeking help for her hard-pressed library, and a stop there became part of the Boston book tour, which will also include the Barnes& Noble in Framingham the night before.
  The Monson visit is turning out to be one of the highlights of the “Soul Of A Dog” book tour. There are posters up in libraries all over Massachusetts, and I can’t think of a better way to use a book tour than to thump up support for libraries, under siege all over the country by budget cutters. Make a point. We need libraries as well as banks.
  Libraries are precious, necessary and fragile. A country that tosses them aside will shame itself and damage its soul. If you can, come to the Monson Free Library on September and help this library out. Oh, the book reading may be interesting also. I will talk, sign books and take questions.
 From my e-mail, I can tell you the Monson Free Library is much loved and appreciated.

Paintings by Ray Smith, my photos arriving at Gardenworks. Izzy, my soulmate, watching over.

August 31, 2009 – Tomorrow, we begin setting up for the “Art and Soul” show at Gardenworks, Salem, N.Y., (518 854-3250). First to arrive are Ray Smith’s wonderful oil paintings of farm and Vermont landscapes and other scenes. My photos, fresh from the County Fair, are behind. Also exhibiting at the show are Corinna Aldrich, and her photographs, Maria Heinric, showing her quilts, Mary Kellogg reading from her new volume of poetry, Christopher Smith showing his art. I will be reading from and talking about “Soul Of A Dog,” and signing books, and Gardenworks will be offering its classy offerings: gourmet cheese, cider donuts, pies, muffins, produce. You can also pick your own blueberries and raspberries from the fields around Gardenworks, so come early if you wish to do that.
  I love reading from Gardenworks room big barn space upstairs. It is an evocative space, and I have been speaking there ever since I came to the farm.
  The art will be all around us.
  Saturday, 2 p.m., Gardenworks, 1056 Route 30/West Hebron Road, Salem, N.Y., 12865.