Off-Center Views: 2022 Art in the Orchard: Mark Fenwick

10/5/22

2022 Art in the Orchard: Mark Fenwick

ART IN THE ORCHARD

Park Hill Orchard

82 Park Hill Road, Easthampton, MA

Through Thanksgiving Weekend

Park Hill Orchard in Easthampton is one of the loveliest spots in Western Massachusetts. Where else can you (literally) frame Mt. Tom in your camera or cellphone lens with pumpkin patches and apple trees in the foreground?

In addition, since 2011 the orchard also spotlights the work of creative sculptors who mount their works on the grounds behind and across the street from the stand where you can buy fruit, cider, and other tempting goodies. It’s an area where kids can run wild while their parents check out the art, but expansive enough that those without kids in tow can get up close and take in the sculptures without dodging little feet or being annoyed by their playful screams. (The latter just float away toward Mt. Tom!)

Every other year there is a theme but in this, an off year, they feature the work of just two artists: the stone work of Gerald Clark and the wood wonders of Mark Fenwick. In addition, a lot of past alums have left their art in place so you can also visit a few old favorites (or see them for the first time). This includes the big red frame created by Easthampton’s Jean-Pierre Pasche where you can pose for selfies, snap a cool pic of loved ones, or just give some perspective to images of Mt Tom.

I will concentrate on Fenwick’s works in this piece. To say he’s been around short-changes his experience. He was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire to a shipbuilding family, shuffled off to a Vermont commune in the 1960s and 1970s, moved to California in the mid-1980s, drifted a few other places, headed back to Vermont, and now lives near Brattleboro. The constant in his life has been a love of the woods. He can talk in the sometimes-cryptic way artists do, but he boils down his approach thus: “I do as I did when I was ten. I go into the woods, find a stick... though now a log... and I take it home to carve.”

As if it were that simple! You need to toss in a fascination with mythology as filtered through a cut-and-paste approach that resonates with today’s mash-up practices. Hipsters need to know, however, that he was way ahead of them–by decades! The exhibit is called “Hidden Gems” and, to be sure, Fenwick’s pieces invite imaginations to create their own stories.

I will make a few comments, but mostly I will let Fenwick’s works speak for themselves. (If, for no other reason, I lost the booklet with the titles!)

Rob Weir