The Magnolias of Pinewood Cemetery

I awoke to a cold rain this early October morning. Looking out the window at the dark wet streets reminded me of being caught in a warm rain at Pinewood Cemetery back in the springtime. Pinewood is in Charlotte, North Carolina. Charlotte is pretty far south, bordering South Carolina, where the weather is hot and there is ample pulled pork and hummingbird pie to eat no matter where you go.

Pinewood and Elmwood cemeteries coexist in the same complex. If not for my map, I would have thought the whole place was Elmwood. I never did see any sign indicating that the back portion of the cemetery - the less elaborate section - was Pinewood.  

The cemeteries opened together in 1853, Elmwood as a final resting place for city leaders and the well-to-do, Pinewood as a segregated African American cemetery and Potter’s Field (pauper’s cemetery) (ref). According to a report by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission, "the complex was the center of a civil rights controversy in the late 1960s, when city councilman Fred Alexander spearheaded a successful campaign to bring down the chain link fence separating all-white Elmwood from all-black Pinewood." The fence had been erected in the 1930s under the Jim Crow laws of the early twentieth century, which "dictated not only where African Americans could work, eat, shop, and socialize, but also where they could bury their dead."
  

As I was driving around Elmwood, stopping here and there to walk around and check out the statues and monuments, the cloudy sky began to sprinkle a bit. I had just spent about an hour in this lovely cemetery complex and there was still much to see. So I jumped in the car to drive around the perimeter of the cemetery until the rain stopped. Hopefully, it would stop. I figured it wouldn’t last long since it was about ninety degrees.

I passed the groundskeeper on his riding mower, who appeared oblivious to the raindrops. I had to, however, stop to grab a few shots of the angel you see above. It was standing at the side of the road just peering at me! I drove along the road into Pinewood, where the tombstones were a bit more sparse and the grass patchy. A homeless guy was sitting on the stone perimeter wall. 

W.W. Smith mausoleum

Pinewood has two mausoleums made of colored brick, which are quite unique. My photos of them are nothing more than snapshots as it was raining pretty hard as I approached them. The structures were designed by W.W. Smith, the City of Charlotte's first black architect. One of the two is his own mausoleum. 

I saw the riding mower guy zipping across the lawn heading for a cluster of tall trees – seeking cover. As I sat in my car, AC blasting, shooting out the window, the rain was belting down. Rivers of red mud washed away from the side of the paved road and rushed down the hill. Oddly, the soil here is actually red. With all the grass, you don’t really notice this.

Groundskeeper on riding mower scurrying for cover in the rain

About ten minutes after the storm began, the sun was out and the heavy rain had slowed back to a sprinkle. The mower guy was still under the patch of trees as I nosed my rental car further down the road. I came upon a grove of enormous magnolia trees, laden with floral blooms as big as my head. The headstones and small monuments beneath the trees were dry as a bone. I figured I could duck under them and do some shooting from under the boughs.

Though I can’t smell (might have been dropped on the head as a small child), I imagine these wonderful white blossoms had quite a heavenly scent. It was so quiet and dry under the magnolias, the feeling was almost magical. As the sun came out and the humidity rose, the rain glistened on some fallen headstones nearby. I quite enjoyed these few minutes under the trees - the weather in my soul stirred by stronger winds, as writer James Thurber might say. I close the curtains on this essay with one of the photographs I made in the shade here, though curtains of marble never close.

Further Reading and Reference:

Survey and Research Report On Elmwood/Pinewood Cemetery  by the the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission

Dearly Departing for the Dunmore Cemetery

I’m quite looking forward to October 7, 2012, when I’ll be attending the Dunmore Cemetery Tour, in Dunmore, Pennsylvania, hosted and presented by the Dearly Departed Players theatrical group. Thousands of people attended this annual event over a two-weekend period in the fall of 2011!

From the Dunmore Cemetery Tour Facebook page:

    Sunday, October 7  and 14, 2012

    2:00pm until 4:00pm

    Dunmore Cemetery,  400 Church Street,  Dunmore, PA 18512

    Join the Dearly Departed Players on their annual historical walking tour through the Dunmore Cemetery. With all new "stops" the "Players" will be joined by the students of Scranton Civic Ballet and the Genealogical Research Society.    No reservations are required, admission is free. For more information regarding the tour call 570-344-3819.

    Don't forget "Dinner with The Dearly Departed"on October 7th. This dinner is sponsored by the Dunmore Historical Society and will take place immediately following the tour at the Dunmore Civic Center on Monroe Avenue. Reservations are required, tickets are $8 and can be obtained by calling the Dunmore Historical Society at 558-1060. All proceeds from the dinner benefit the Dunmore Historical Society.

Dunmore Cemetery, Dunmore, Pennsylvania

From what I’ve read and heard, the performers, sponsors, and coordinators do an incredible job with this program so I’m just DYING to see it! I was graciously invited by the coordinators to exhibit my artwork in the cemetery the first day of the tour (October 7), so I will be set up at the entrance at noon. I do hope to take in some of the tour, however!

For the occasion, I made cards and prints from images in the Dunmore Cemetery itself, and will exhibit these along with my cemetery photography from all over the United States (and Italy as well). I spent a few hours in the Dunmore Cemetery last fall and photographed many of the wonderful monuments, mausoleums, and headstones. I used about twenty of these photographs for the new work, examples of which you see in this article.

The Dunmore Cemetery is a wonderful Victorian masterpiece, meticulously cared for and interesting in so many ways. From the iron scrollwork on the mausoleum doors to the unusual monuments,  to the rolling hills that lead you back to the old section (1838) of the cemetery, there is something here for everyone − taphophiles, historians, nature-lovers, and those who just want a quiet place to think.

Headstones in the old section of the cemetery

Click to buy Julie Snell-Esty's book

No doubt some of the trees up there in northeast Pennsylvania will soon be donning their fall attire. Such will add to the pageantry of the Dearly Departed Players, as they (in Victorian dress) lead the audience through a two-hour tour of the lives of some of the cemetery’s residents, re-enacting interesting events in their lives. These “Stories in Stone,” as Players’ director Julie Snell-Esty calls them in her book of the same name, provide the script through which her cast fleshes out the lives of people who lived in the region.

Today, people “yearn to learn of their past” and to preserve their heritage, Esty says. The region’s ancestors include miners, soldiers, housewives, clerks, laborers, merchants, and artists – who “all played a significant role in the making of our history.” These people are no different than those of your own ancestors, wherever you live. While you might not recognize any of the personages addressed in the tour as celebrities or national heroes, they give one a sense of how everyone contributes in their own way to the “fabric of our history.” So even if you cannot attend either of the October 7 and 14 cemetery performances, I hope I’ve stirred up enough interest in you to at least visit the Dunmore Cemetery.

As a side note, Dearly Departed Players Julie Snell-Esty and Wendy Belaski’s “Grave Matters Funeral Exhibit” affords us a look at the history of mourning in the United States:

Grave Matters Funeral Exhibit 
    Saturday, October 27, 2012

    10:00am until 5:00pm

Mall at Steamtown, Second Floor, Scranton, Pennsylvania 18503

                Local historians and Dearly Departed Palyers Wendy Belaski and Julie Snell-Esty bring their curious collection of funeral and mourning memorabilia to Library Express! Players will be on hand and in historic costume to help explain photos and histories of mausoleum stained glass, vintage funeral fashion, and a whole collection of ephemera related to funerals and cemeteries. This is not to be missed! Schedule, 2-4 pm, dinner afterwards.

References:

The Dunmore Cemetery Tour on Facebook

Scranton PA chamber of Commerce link to the Dunmore CemeteryTour

Stories in Stone: Tales Of Life from the Dunmore Cemetery by Julie Snell-Esty    

Stolen Art

I’ve been known to exaggerate a bit, the title being a prime example. Let me explain. If you’re an artist who wants to sell the art you create, you need to put it into the public eye. (I make that distinction because there are, in fact, artists who do not want to sell their work and keep it secreted away; there are more people like this than you can possibly imagine!)

So, I have this issue with leaving my work hanging in places and then ignoring it for months. You know, you get wrapped up in other things. Believe it or not, I’ve left my framed and matted expensive cemetery photographs in the same venue for a year, without even ONCE checking the status of the show! (If my photos were children, they would have been legally removed from my custody years ago.) I used to think I was just scatter-brained, but other artists have confessed to the same sin.

Sometimes you get lucky and all your work is still there – and possibly the venue has even sold a few pieces for you. However, there are times when I’ve gone back to the venue and it was closed! Empty! Gone! You wait too long, and you’re screwed. Take my advice − don’t EVER leave a show unchecked for more than two months!

Now of course this is not likely to happen at a reputable gallery which has you sign a contract (which spells out both the artist’s and gallery’s responsibilities) before your work goes up. However, it’s far easier for emerging artists to get shows in coffee shops, book stores, and restaurants.

Galleries typically rotate their shows on a monthly or quarterly basis, so with these venues, you’re held to the gallery’s strict scheduling guidelines. Occasionally, I’ll do a show in a bar or other business establishment because it’s fun and the foot traffic is usually better than in an art gallery (however, your asking prices might need to be somewhat lower). Sometimes the establishment might say, “You can leave your work up until we find another artist.”

When such an opportunity presents itself, it’s very tempting to leave your work up for several months. With more potential sales resulting from extended public exposure, why not?  In one instance, I had work hanging in the same restaurant for three years, rotating my work about every six months. It was a great opportunity in a popular location in an affluent neighborhood; they charged no commission and I made regular sales. Unfortunately, I sometimes fall victim to the “out of sight, out of mind” syndrome. Before you know it, six months or more may have gone by, when you finally remember to go check on your work. One time I went back eight months after not checking a show, and all my work was stacked in the basement, soaked with water, ruined.

The images I’ve sprinkled about this blog today are some MIA (Missing In Action) photographs that I recently lost when a venue that was exhibiting my work closed up shop. Gothic Creations in New Hope Pennsylvania was in business for sixteen years. For the past five, they sold my work, at a commission. I didn’t get a lot of sales, but it was good exposure and my cemetery angels kind of fit in with the Medieval gargoyles in the shop. Foot traffic in New Hope is immense, as it is a tourist mecca.

After I got married in 2008, and had a child in 2009, it became more difficult to make the forty-mile trip to New Hope. The proprietor never answered his phone or emails. If the venue is quite distant from where you live, laziness can set in. Worse yet, after a time you begin to feel embarrassed that you’ve waited so long, and you AVOID making contact!

I decided to make a final trip to Gothic Creations, to collect my work and any monies from sales. I hadn’t been there in over a year and I was not able to reach them by phone or email. Imagine my surprise when I found a DIFFERENT business occupying the physical space! The new proprietor told me that Gothic Creations disappeared overnight, about six months prior. Rumor had it that the proprietor got himself a divorce for Christmas and moved to Germany.

What happened to all my work? I lost eight photographs in 16x20 inch frames and about forty photo greeting cards whose total value was about $1500. Perhaps my artwork now adorns the walls of some burgermeister’s chalet:

(Guest enters burgermeister's art-filled salon, eying pastry on table)

 Guest: "Herr Burgermeister, can this be stollen?"

Burgermeister (guiltily alarmed, whips around to face guest): "Of course not! I bought zem over zee Internet!"

More than likely, all of my work probably ended up in the dumpster behind the Gothic Creations shop. If I had been in closer contact with the proprietor, I probably would not have suffered this loss. While it’s tempting to enter a “Gentleman’s Agreement” with someone who is willing to exhibit your artwork and front sales for you, it’s also very dangerous.

Many people have suggested using ETSY (“the world's most vibrant handmade marketplace”) instead of physically exhibiting my work. The notion of doing all business over the Internet is tempting (and I do plan to become an ETSY artist), but just as hanging your work in venues implies a certain responsibility, online sales demands even greater responsibility, as you are now entering into direct agreements with customers. The Internet also offers greater anonymity, however, allowing you to remain up in the cloud somewhere, just out of reach of mere mortals. Read the cute announcement on the Gothic Creations website, and note there is no way to contact the person/people in charge.