As I hinted in my previous post, I’ll be taking it easy next week and will only put up a post if something really, REALLY important happens.
I’ll be heading to the namesake of this company, the small rural town of Chilmark MA, located on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. My first visit to Chilmark was when I was 6 months old (family’s been going for some 100 odd years) and I have been going back on almost a yearly basis ever since. Actually spent a couple of years down there as well shortly after college. Despite the massive crowds which the Vineyard now attracts at the height of summer and some of the less desired changes that have come about, it is still a magical place for me and I get really excited just thinking about it.
So what do I do once I get there? Well for one, simply relax. This consists of canoeing around Chilmark Pond, walking Lucy Vincent beach (one of the most beautiful beaches in the world – painting above by my cousin, Andrew Gordon Moore), splashing and swimming in the ocean, riding my bike, eating lots of fish & shellfish, and doing a lot of star gazing.
Another, more recent activity is an ephemeral one.
You see, I take some of those beautiful, smooth rounded rocks one finds on the beach and build sculptures. This is an ephemeral act for they never last long as either people, their pets, wind or waves always knocks them down leaving me to build new ones the next time I’m on the beach. I was doing this for a few years when I finally hit upon the idea a year ago: Gee, why don’t I take some pictures of these sculptures, one of which I have added to this post.
Art has always been an important aspect of my life. I’ve dabbled in different mediums but keep coming back to sculpture, which I now combine with photography. What I love most about the whole process of creating and capturing these sculptures is the ability that creativity has in taking my thoughts in a completely different direction. Never is there any deep thinking here, at least it doesn’t seem that way. It is more iterative, expressive and develops out of somewhere in that gray matter of mine that I do not have a firm and conscious grasp of. Quite refreshing change from the logical, analytical thinking of an analyst.
There is also another reason for me to be particularly excited about this trip. I recently bought a Yak trailer which I will attach to my bike, load it up with a week’s worth of gear (including that digital camera) and ride from Boston to Woods Hole where I’ll grab the ferry to Vineyard Haven then cycle up to Chilmark. I’ve always wanted to do this ride, just never had the right gear to make it happen.
So with that I bid you all adieu and pray that no big news hits next week (in my experience the Labor Day week is typically slow for news). On September 8 & 9th I’ll be down in Washington DC to attend the annual AHRQ event (why are govt websites so ugly?) and will post directly from that event. If you plan to be there as well drop me a line (john at chilmarkresearch dot com) and we can set something up.
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