On March 31 and the morning of April 1, I had the great honor of hosting the team from Chronicle5 in my studio. It all began with a humble “form” that the producer filled out on my website and found its way into my email in early March. I was a bit suspicious that this was just too good to be true – but it was the real deal. Lucky for me, they decided to focus on Gloucester and I was the first person with whom they spoke. I did my best to recommend a wide variety of Gloucester’s interesting places and people with interesting stories. But they had done their research and to their credit, they are fabulous as digging up the great stuff.
And so, how to prepare for this? Honestly, they really did not give me any guidance. I just knew they wanted me to do a demonstration of making work. That in itself was a challenge as nothing happens in a 5-minute period – but usually takes a week or more. So, I set about to make all types of hair accessories and jewelry in various stages. The next challenge was doing a low tide sea glass walk. So, just as mother nature would have it, that had to be on APRIL 1st at 8AM. In case you don’t remember this cruel April Fool’s joke, it was 34 degrees with 30MPH winds that day. Putting the microphone under my jacket to hide it from the wind really didn’t make a difference. Kendyl, Richard, and I were frozen on Niles Beach! I didn’t find too much sea glass that day – but they were great about letting it be as it is – a diminishing resource.
Erika Tarantal was a delight. With her family background in the arts, she was a perfect companion to work with me on a piece. Honestly, we really had fun – and I did everything possible to make their visit easy and be responsive to their questions and helped with any introductions. I was thrilled they visited Rocky Neck Cultural Center and the Salted Cod for the art-focused segment. It’s not easy to create the off-season picture for Gloucester – yet truly, this is the most prescious time of year for many of us. Equally, the incredible focus on GMGI, Backyard Growers, the Bowling Alley, the Beauport, and Joey of GMG’s tour of downtown show the diversity of our community. Key word here is COMMUNITY – a place we love calling home. Following are links to the art-focused video and the other videos for all to share!
