The Village

One of my artworks/ creations is the village of Wooding’s Landing. Many years ago, when I lived across town from the Country cottage, my family lived in a house with a terraced hill in the backyard. At the top of that hill was a very large oak tree and a number of mountain laurel bushes. Around the foot of the tree was a clearing of grass and moss, I would look up at that mini-mountaintop clearing and think that if that where a real mountain, it would be a spectacular home site. So having access to a full wood-working shop, and being the dreamer that I am –the clearing soon sported a 2foot tall replica of Tara. 

It did not take long for the kid’s and I to decide that “Tara” was lonely and needed company, so the lower portion of the hill soon had a church and another house. Over the next few years the village grew and grew till the hill had over 60 buildings of various sizes and styles. 

When my marriage crumbled and I moved across town, the village moved too- by this time it filled the entire bed of my dad’s pickup truck! The collection sat forlornly on the edge   the yard as I settled back into my bachelor quarters and dealt with other matters. Among these being to transplant the heirloom plants from the house across town to the new bed that dad and I had prepped in the backyard. There just did not seem to really be a spot that fit the village, until the day we decided to clear the brush behind the shed.

Inspiration finally hit me! Instead of trying to spread out in a long line like the old site, I could group the buildings around a central green. After several weeks of digging, weeding and gravel laying, the village of Wooding’s landing was reborn. Now as I pull into my driveway, I can look down the slope to the backyard and see my little town laid out before me.  

Then along came Rob…….. Some things have changed for the village.

1)      I’m not in Beacon Falls anywhere near as much as I was before- so maintenance is not what is was before, and wooden boxes sitting on the ground need continual maintenance ,and

2)      Rob is a avid amateur photographer, and made the village the subject of one of his essays.   

As grandma Messner was fond of saying “Yea Gods”! I was seeing my creation thru new eyes. Rob got down on his hands and knees and took tons of pictures of the village as if he were actually walking thru it. A whole new look! This inspired a new series of paintings of the village – I enclose one here.

The village continues to evolve, often sitting waiting for me under a blanket of snow 

 Sometimes needing many repairs

But always waiting to give me a lift .

Hugs

David

The Rambling of the a Nomadic Designer

From The urban villa - Stamford CT 31^st January 2012

Today I start a new journey with this blog. My partner has urged me for some time to start this posting of my ‘ramblings” so here goes. Let me start by explaining the title, my week finds me dividing my time between “the Urban Villa” in Stamford Ct (population 122,643), and the country cottage in Beacon Falls CT (population 5866). This is a relatively new development in the life, until the day in January 2008 when I met my partner Rob, I had spent my entire life in sleepy little Beacon Falls never having lived more than 10 miles from the house than I grew up in. 

I never ever really went away to college, my degree in Interior Design comes from Paier college of art – a small art school located in Hamden & New Haven CT – both less than 20 miles away. Even when I was married and raising a family, we lived in either Naugatuck or back in Beacon Falls. In fact after my separation and eventual divorce, I moved back into my childhood home, which my parents and I had converted into a duplex. I figured that the rest of my life would be spent in Beacon Falls and was content. I came out of the closet, was making new friends and was fairly happy. 

 So little did I know that when I met rob that I would become “the Nomadic Designer”. The thing was rob has a condo in the Glenbrook section of Stamford and when I accepted a position running the Kitchen design department with a company in nearby Norwalk it became clear that commuting 45 minutes to an hour and a half each way (depending on traffic) would not be practical, so into the condo I moved.

However, this was still only a 2 bedroom condo with limited storage and it was already full of rob’s own lifetime accumulation’s, so much of my things stayed in Beacon Falls. The other component was that there was no spot for me to set up an easel. I have been painting since college and could not abandon that part of myself. So begin my nomadic existence. It varies week to week, but most weeks since I was off from my design job Sunday and Monday, I would head up to Beacon Falls: aka the Valley, sometime after church and come back on Tuesday morning in time for my staff meeting. 

Sounds like fun? Not always! Often I’m looking for something, only to realize that it is at the “other” house, oh well! I’ve gotten the point where most of my wardrobe is here in Stamford, with some things being left in Beacon Falls. The terms “Urban Villa” for the Condo and the “country Cottage” for the duplex started as a joke several years ago and just sort of grew on us. 

The last year and a half have brought many new challenges and changes to my life, both work and personal.2 years ago after some searching I found an interesting organization that I have become very involved in -  the Fairfield County artists Association . I am now their treasurer. Threw FCAA I participated in my first ever public art show last December and have been in several since, at one point summer being in 3 shows at the same time! I also thru chairing a show at the Lockwood-Matthews mansion museum in Norwalk have become an active volunteer at the mansion, leading tours on Fridays as one of the docents – I job that I love. If you have the opportunity to visit the mansion – it is a magnificent structure. 

Anyways folks , here’s my first posting- in future postings I’ll expound more on Design , my paintings , my travels between the two extremely different abodes and life in general as a Gay man trying to balance life between two homes and the Straight and gay worlds

Hugs

David