Wellfleet

Rain in Wellfleet Harbor

On a rainy Saturday in Wellfleet, way out on the Cape, I went gallery hopping. Maybe it was the rain or the new device for photo snapping (my first smart phone), but I didn't take a single photo. However, there was an abundance of pottery and clay sculpture. Some artists I recognized from the big craft shows I visited this past season, and some were new to me, or local. One lucky lady has a studio with two kilns behind her own gallery right on Commercial Street in Wellfleet, Andre Gallery.






A gallery I enjoyed on a warm summer evening as we waited for a table at the very popular "Mac's Shack," was the Harmon Gallery. One ceramic artist was shown amidst a bevy of mostly 2D artists, and that was Cynthia Consentino.

Is there a history of Catholicism in her life, did she grow up with statues of Mary all around? What is she intending by switching out the heads, or adding arms and other additions to the Virgin's figure? The figure in the burka, a Moslem woman, and the Krishna-esque multi-armed figure seem to suggest that she recognizes other religions as equally valid or invalid, or equally worthy of inspection and dissection. Her views are not latently expressed, but I sense an open mind in the artist's approach to religion.

The Left Bank Gallery featured beautiful earthenware bowls by Emily Rossheim. Spray painted with underglazes, they genuinely did seem to glow from within. Disappointing to me is the fact that they are non-utilitarian. What a shame not to be able to use a bowl. Yet, if you have the space for it, how lovely an object a simple bowl is.










I bought no ceramic art, but in the Wellfleet Thrift store I made two great finds: a candelabra by Bengt and Lotta and a Swedish stainless sauce boat, both beautifully made and only $5 each. Back home I immediately bought white candles and found a spot for the candelabra, which really looks good anywhere.










And I bought two prints from original watercolors by Margaret Burdick at the Burdick Gallery. One of delicately painted shells and the other a view of a beautiful park where I walked twice during our stay in Wellfleet. The view is accurate, except she added a house on the island that is not there, and the more I look at it, the more bothered I am by its presence. It just looks wrong, Margaret, though otherwise, I love it. I am going to give the print away, and not mention the bothersome house.

my photo of the park shows no house on the distant island

 Yes, there is both art and natural beauty in Wellfleet. Just don't drive Rte. 6 on Sunday to try to find it.