Hannah Grimes Gallery – Keene NH

This wasn’t the first time I have been to the Hannah Grimes Gallery, but it is probably the first time I have blogged about it and definitely the first time I have spoken about it since they got a large expansion to their space!

I always liked this place because of the community feel it has to it. It is stocked almost entirely (or possibly entirely) with arts and goods made by local artisans. This means that although much of it remains familiar – like the greeting cards and various food stuffs, much of changes over time as new artists move in. So, there is always something to see or check out and I love this.

Some of the art is very accessible to those of lower means such as the greeting cards and soaps allowing even sorry sods like me to support this whole endeavor. However, if you are someone with means this place has a lot more to offer – glassware, ceramics, wood sculptures, paintings, metal sculptures, lovingly crocheted plushies, quilts, you name it! And a lot of it is GORGEOUS. They even had the swankiest bat house I have ever seen. Those are going to be some spoiled bats!

Keene is a wonderful town to just walk main street indulging in the gallery, a chocolatier, a bakery, a candy shop, lots of proper eateries, a theater, jewelry shops, clothing stores, you name it! And being a college town it’s also very art friendly and busting with charm. The perfect way to spend a summer day if you enjoy walking a city while still being in the country!

May 12, 2024 0

Avery & Dash Collections – Stamford Connecticut

Avery & Dash Collections was so affluent an establishment that they use an ampersand (this little guy &) instead of the word and. We were greeted warmly at the door where I said a cheerful hello to an older lady. Despite my drab appearance that day I usually can pretend I fit in just about anywhere and women in particular are generally happy to accept that I do. Men on the other hand….

There was a very articulately dressed young man in his twenties, tall and lean, who looked at us coming in like we were shit-covered rats. Oh God they let in the Poors. His whole body literally tensed up at the thought and I have never in my life wanted so badly to invade someone’s personal space as I did in that moment. You know, just run up and give him a big bear hug, rub some of those destitution cooties all over his silk shirt. Not wishing to be escorted off the property via cop I behaved, though I did make sure to pass unreasonably close as we walked by.

This place was chic. So fancy! Just… overtly so. But it was more than that. It was playful. Here mixed in with the fine china were crystal dinosaurs set on the table. OK, if you’re the kind of rich that puts crystal dinosaurs out for the dinner guests you’re OK in my book. That’s just hilarious. Obviously, there were pieces of real dinosaurs and other fossils here and there including a sea scorpion which had to have been locally found. I’d never set eyes on one before but I always wanted to.

Here the leopard spot pillows were made of actual leopards. Now I do not condone in any way the hunting of leopards or the use of their gorgeous pelts but when else would I ever get a chance to touch a real goddamn leopard fur? I pet it. It was super course lacking in any softness whatsoever.

This place also had a lot of paintings and other things you’d hang on the wall. Things you’d normally see in a museum. And then a few things that were OBVIOUSLY clever poor people fleecing the rich for all they were worth including a bell jar full of ordinary sea shells for SIX HUNDRED AND NINETY FIVE DOLLARS. Clearly, I’m in the wrong profession. I wanted to meet whoever sold that piece to a place like this. You, my dear, are mypersonal hero.

Onward we went getting more and more engrossed with this place with every breath. It did however have a possibly haunted bathroom. I say this because there wasn’t really anything in it but when I went to leave it there was a HUGE bang like someone had just thrown a dresser at the wall. I looked back, horrified something may have fallen, but there was nothing to fall in this little one stall bathroom. We left soon after. I can take a hint.

If you are fortunate enough to be haplessly sitting on a mountain of cold hard cash this place would be well worth a good poke. And if you’re a Dicken’s styled street urchin like myself you still might have fun seeing just how big the wage gap in the US really is not to mention seeing a lot of things that should live in a museum! I very much enjoyed this place.

August 17, 2023 0

The Antique & Artisan Gallery – Stamford Connecticut

Earlier on in the day we had decided to take the long drive to Connecticut to check out an “antique store” that had one review which seemed to be talking about a hiking trail and had a photo of a little dog. This intrigued my travel companion but when we showed up at the listed address it was CLEARLY just someone’s swank driveway. A second choice ended up actually being a super pricey little furniture store that had a big sign reading, “No photography.” Their loss – they would have gotten free publicity from this blog.

Not wanting to have wasted two and a half hours of driving time he picked a third destination which ended up being the Antique and Artisian Gallery and this WAS WORTH IT. It did not look from the outside to be an antique store but looks can be deceiving. In front of a giant artificial hedge wall there was a bunch of garden statuary – most Grecco Roman in style, all with a gorgeous patina, some purposely with missing limbs or heads to be perfect replicas of real statues. It was the sort of thing you might find in a well-manicured hedge maze or flower garden in front of a mansion. Still, we didn’t know just how rich this antique store was, that’d take a few moments more.

The initial room at the entrance still didn’t belie where we had ended up. The antiques here were a continuation of garden statuary and seemed more or less normal faire but beyond that we found a hallway of mirrors and on the wall an intricately painted medieval era wagon back. I had NO IDEA people ever painted wagons with motifs or that they were just as beautiful as actual paintings of the time. It was startling to realize that some parts of the dark ages were… colorful. But who had kept this wooden panel for several hundred years?!?

Beyond this was an absolutely enormous sprawling antique mall with artifacts I was afraid to even breathe on. Above us were chandeliers of every variety, most exactly what you’d think of when the word chandelier comes up, but then there was one in the shape of a ship so obviously I was drawn to it. That’s weird. Turns out it was $36,000 worth of weird. I gasped. I had mentioned earlier that this part of Connecticut is where rich folks from NYC come to be in mansions among the trees but lord, I didn’t realize just how wealthy. I stopped looking at price tags. I didn’t want to jinx myself and break something worth a college education!

I was absolutely delighted that one whole booth and smattered about there was a series of absolutely pristine wooden Victorian birdcages that were just as exquisitely huge and eccentric as the mansions that probably once housed them. Some were even in the shape of castles and this delighted my sense of whimsy. A single live and solitary female Glouster canary moped around in one – surrounded by luxury but lacking any companions she seemed a sad and depressed little creature but not nearly as much as the taxidermized birds under bell jars we started to find!

The fads of the super wealthy often revolve around the “exotic” – that is artifacts from far off lands and or a great distance in the past. This place was a better representation of this than usual with an enormous amount of Chinese pottery. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if there were Ming dynasty vases in there! I didn’t breathe on any of them!

Not to be outdone there were medieval European artifacts of various kinds, a number of Asian religious statues, everything from Buddhas to Vishnu, as well as a bunch of scary masks from around the world. Dolls too. Swanky creepy ethnically diverse dolls from God knows where. Probably deeply cursed. I mean wouldn’t anything with these prices be?

This place was WILD to poke through. It was just soooooo out there to be amongst so much stuff from the likely unreasonably affluent. Like a completely different world. But I mean I do think it’s a good thing to explore things so different from your own existence. You never know what you are going to see or learn. So, if you happen to have Scrooge McDuck level finances or you just want a glimpse into this world check it out! As well as the antique store right next door at Avery & Dash Collections.

August 16, 2023 0

Riverview Mill Artist Studios – Wilton NH

So I was in Wilton today to revisit the Vale Cemetery but also to check out their many little free libraries that live there. I had decided these would be great receptacles to get my name out there if I donated my own books to them. It was one of those days though – one little library was defunct and the second one I couldn’t find. And somehow as I got lost I ended up behind an old wool mill. There were signs everywhere for “artists” and I… wanted to fall down this rabbit hole to see what it was.

As it turns out there’s a little community of artists and practitioners over there. There’s artist studios, massage parlours, tarot readings. Somehow, I had found the hippies in this town. I knew it. I knew they had to be somewhere providing a delightful counter to the tightwads who made the cemetery so… rule bound and uniform. And were they ever!

I walked in and immediately noticed a few cases full of miniatures. I don’t know what it is about miniatures but the well-done ones can really suck you in. And these were definitely that quality. There was also a few racks of gorgeous hand sewn hippie dresses, a display of glittery resin planchettes and mini spirit boards, and a table full of postcards and of course a rock shop vendor that was the only one I could see that was peopled. The woman at the counter was hilarious. She told us this was her last day until September as she was taking her goods on the road before “spooky season” hit. She lamented she was trying her damdest not to have a “real job” and doing every gig she could find vending but that she had learned her lesson that “some gigs are just not for me.” She described for twenty minutes one such event which was laden with country music that “compared women to trucks.” She just had stories to tell about drunk frat boys, terribly formulaic country music, and Christian fundamentalists who probably thought she was peddling Satan’s goods. And she did have some really nice new agey rocks. Pendants, spheres, polished rocks, natural rocks… and one that looked like a bowl of marbles. OBVIOUSLY I had to come home with the orange marble. And an orange fidget rock. But I left the orange pendent and a much bigger orange rock behind for next time. Most people are attracted to shiny things. I am attracted to orange things. Every. Damn. Time.

While talking to this delightful woman she told us there was actually a lot more here. There were three floors to check out as well as more studios on this floor. She pointed at the miniatures and joked, “I HAVE to show everyone the cat poop. It’s super realistic, absolutely perfect tiny little spiral of cat poop in a perfect little cat box. She does amazing work. Intricate tiny lace with such details! But I can’t get over the cat poop.”

ANYWAY. I did move on and met another lovely artist in a studio full of paintings and little scrap book type things. She’d just moved here from the south and was starting to offer classes on how to make different things. She shared the space with someone else who had some terrific Americana tattoo flash on the wall which I was again very attracted to. It was interesting.

The only other studio open was a jewelry maker at the end who’d been there the longest but I didn’t go in. It just seemed socially odd to wander in (there was a doorbell.) The three floors above… no one was in today. So I got some great exercise and took a photo of their gorgeously utilitarian spiral staircase but that was it for that…

This was a fun distraction. I really enjoyed it but I think you have pretty offbeat to find this sort of adventure worth finding this place. It’s… unique. Perfect for the eccentric.

August 8, 2022 0

The Turtle Gallery – Deer Isle Maine

And finally, after a good night sleep I can tell you about the third place I visited in Deer Isle – the Turtle Gallery. Again, it just happened to be en route so I decided to stop in and see what it was about. I had noticed this little coastal village seems to have a lot of galleries and I am already planning a visit just to do a tour of them! But in any case the Turtle Gallery is the one which I ended up at randomly after enjoying the Artisan’s Market and Nervous Nellies Jams and Jellies.

The Turtle Gallery was a swank little place, that’s for sure! The main gallery, as you entered, boasted a series of large colorful paintings depicting life in coastal Maine, as well as some intensely detailed very large charcoal sketches. Prices seemed to mostly stay within the $800-2000 range from what I could see. A door leading outside had a sculpture garden and when I went to check it out I found another “pop-up gallery” in a shed out there which had more folky art, mostly small sculptures.

I thought that was it but found myself wandering around the front where still more sculptures were being displayed, some metal sculptures were in brilliant colors and their shapes, texture, and color, really caught my eye. A private residence was sandwiched in between the main gallery, the outdoor sculpture garden, and the paper and glass gallery in the house at the far side. Here paintings on paper adorned the walls and a series of fantastically beautiful goblets for $800+ a piece glinted in the sun coming in from the window.

This was a peaceful and relaxed gallery displaying some really fine talent. I was happy we stopped by. I doubt I will ever be able to afford art from such a place but being around it calms my creative nerves. I must visit more galleries…

July 13, 2018 0