Generations of Williamstown children knew the clapboarded building at 112 Water St. as Fanny Tash’s store. One of them was photographer Nicholas Whitman who, growing up on nearby Hoxsey Street, found the store a prime source of penny candy.
Now Whitman, a noted photographer, and his wife, artist Mary E. Natalizia, have opened a gallery in the former store and part of the adjoining 18th-century house, where their opening exhibit showcases 13 artists. They kept the long, gleaming wooden counter from the old store as a centerpiece for the room where bright and bold paintings hang on white walls, and ceramics inspired by antique botanical prints cluster in the windows.
Plum Gallery is the result of not only the pair’s creativity, but grueling physical labor as they transformed the space into a bright, airy venue for a range of art.
“It’s a great old building, and it was for sale forever,†said Whitman.
“Nick did all the restoration, everything except the electrical wiring, plumbing and sheetrocking,†said Natalizia. “It’s a real team effort.â€
“This place was a diamond in the rough,†said Whitman. “We filled up more than 15 dumpsters, and it did need some jacking, and it needed a lot of siding.
“It’s solid, just not real square,†he said.
“I tried to do a really sensitive restoration job,†he said. In the former store, the gallery’s main space, the bead-board ceiling had, fortunately, never been painted.
Sheetrock panels were installed on the walls to screw paintings into.
And in the second room, up a step, in the adjoining house, Whitman pulled down the ceiling and found chestnut beams — “extinct, beautiful and rot-resistant†— bearing the marks of the broad-ax that formed them.
“All I did was vacuum, scrub and oil them,†said Whitman.
Whitman said he enjoyed his work on the house, which was part of a mill complex on the Green River, and the 1922 store building. Whitman has a recently-released book on The Porches, the new inn in North Adams across from MASS MoCA. He has also done a book on MASS MoCA, documented the former, and now demolished opera house, and is in the middle of a project on the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield.
“It was really interesting to put the camera down and take the place apart,†he said.
Natalizia, a painter, is on leave from teaching in Pownal, Vt. She said the idea for the gallery grew naturally “out of our interests in art.â€
“Most of the people in this show are also friends,†she said.
“This is heartfelt art,†she said. “It’s not just a pretty picture, it’s the artists’ response to the world. It speaks to your heart, and you feel you’re tapping into the moment.â€
“We do have strong opinions about art, and we thought ‘wouldn’t it be nice to give people a place to show?’ This winter, we just decided that we’d go for it.â€
In one of the front windows is a sculpture of welded copper, the work of Greg Smith of Pownal. His stainless-steel sculpture is on the front lawn.
Ceramic floral-derived shapes by Nermin Kura, who is from Turkey and went to the Rhode Island School of Design, is ornamented with designs inspired by calligraphy.
“It’s so strong,†said Natalizia. “It’s wild stuff.â€
Much of her own work, she said, is based on floral shapes, and often includes fragments of poetry or journal entries.
“This is very particular artwork,†she said of the work in the show. “It doesn’t take anything for granted. It tells something about how you feel, or tells something about the particular time, or the day.â€
Also on view are drawings and a print by Timothy Hawksworth, who, she said, “works only from memory.â€
A collage by Martin Bromirski includes “canvas cut and rewoven,†she said. “He’s obsessed with materials.â€
Steel gray and black shapes, sculpture by Makoto Yabe, who has work at RISD, the DeCordova in Lincoln, and the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, seems to prefigure the mourning in the wake of the Sept. 11 loss of life, although they were made beforehand, she said.
Whitman’s platinum prints in the gallery include woods in North Berkshire and sculptural rock faces, some shot in Labrador, some strongly cubist.
They are pleased with the reception so far, and enthusiastic about the endeavor.
“I love to arrange things,†said Natalizia. “I saw this work and really loved it. It felt like it was a risk at first, but when we made the decision, it’s great. And we had good sales the first week.â€
The opening reception was May 23. Gallery hours are Wednesdays through Sundays 11-5 and by appointment. Telephone is 458-3389; web site www.plumbgallery.com.
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Mainers Pull Away Late in Pitching Duel at Joe Wolfe
By Stephen DravisiBerkshires.com Sports
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- The Sanford Mainers Thursday rallied for four runs in the top of the eighth inning and went on to a 4-1 win over the North Adams SteepleCats at Joe Wolfe Field.
Two of those runs were due to an outfield error, one of three miscues in the game, on a night when the 'Cats got stellar pitching from Tyler McKinstry and three relievers.
"That was definitely one of the better performances by the pitchers, collectively, really all summer," North Adams manager Ryan Abel said. "They got outs, got us off the field, gave us opportunities.
"And I thought their pitchers were equally as good, and you can see that with the amount of hits."
McKinstry, Jonathan Peterson, Joseph Sabbath and William Gervase combined to strike out five, walk two and scatter six hits.
A classic pitchers duel between McKinstry and Sanford starter Thomas Ellison (6 innings, seven strikeouts, one hit) was 0-0 going to the bottom of the seventh.
That is when North Adams got back-to-back hits for the only time in the game -- and they were big ones.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. click for more
The Berkshires received more than $600,000 for improvements and planning of recreational trails. The funds are part of some $12 million in awards announced recently for 65 projects across the state.
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Wilk went to school for social work and worked at the post office, where she met a lot of people who opened doors for her to get involved because of the conversations she would have with patrons.
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The bridge on Christopher Columbus Drive has been closed to traffic and the one-way bridge from Western Gateway Heritage State Park will become one lane. click for more
