Home Sweet Home

Posted on | August 30, 2009 |

Home again after a couple of weeks in the UK.  I wish I could say we had a FABULOUS time but the trip was fraught with certain family responsibilities that proved challenging enough as to almost snuff out our good spirits. But, once again, we were saved by art.  This time by a visit to the Sussex coast where we spent several happy days.  Key among them was our visit to Charleston, the home of artist, Vanessa Bell, sister of Virginia Woolf. She shared the house with her ex-husband, Clive Bell, her sometime lover, lifelong partner and friend, artist Duncan Grant, and one of his former lovers, the economist Maynard Keynes.  And Vanessa’s three children—two by Bell and one by Grant.  A liberated household indeed and an absolute treasure.

Every surface in the house is decorated by Vanessa and Duncan.  They painted the walls, the furniture, lampshades, folding screens. They stitched slipcovers for old chairs from fabric they designed themselves. And Duncan’s mother, Ethel, must have worn her fingers to the bone stitching the needlepoint bench covers and hooking rugs based on her arty son’s designs.  It’s a feast for the eyes and a balm for weary souls—and we were weary!

Outside we wandered in the fantastic garden where around every corner was some fabulous sculpture that one of them had made or found.  Naturally ideas began to percolate for our own wee garden.  And then even larger ideas took hold.  Could we possibly find a way to have some sort of country place ourselves or does one have to be impossibly rich?  Well, it’s good to dream because that’s where everything starts, isn’t it.  So we now have small scale Charleston dreams and they truly saved us from the dreary nonsense that consumed the rest of our trip. It confirms for me that the purpose of art is to lift us up one way or another.  It also confirms another notion I have long cherished—that we needn’t have Picasso-level skills to offer something of rich visual value to the world through our art.  Neither Vanessa nor Duncan are first-rate painters or crafts people. A wondrous clumsiness often intrudes and occasionally overwhelms.  At the same time there is an exquisite design sense, wondrous color sense and superlative sense of whimsy and fun.  They were explorers and expressers and we are so lucky the house has been preserved.

Something else of note—in their time they fell well out of fashion and Duncan struggled with an interior design business.  He was often short of funds after Vanessa passed on but managed to stay in Charleston until his own time was up. Even with such struggles, common to most artists, they were able to transcend all limitations to create this enduring testament to love and life.  Well worth a visit.  Or you can buy the book here.  Well worth it.

One amusing note—in one of the upstairs bedrooms of the house I overheard the ‘guide’ saying to one of the visitors—”You wouldn’t believe the things that went on in this house.  I won’t even say.”  I was wishing she would but instead she raised a discriminating and disapproving eyebrow.  Funny. I wonder at her volunteering so much time in the very liberal Charleston House but there you go.

We were very happy to return home on Friday in time to see the moving tributes to Ted Kennedy at his wake and then to watch the funeral.  It was a weepy day all around yesterday but felt a ray of hope that we can get universal health care coverage in this country. For reasons that are utterly mysterious to my ruggedly Canadian soul the word ’socialism’ seems to be viewed with disdain here.  The rich, of course, don’t want to pay higher taxes and they’re the ones with all the power, it seems.  But what about the rest of us?  Really, it is better to take care of the poor.  Trust a Canadian on that one.  It’s better to take care of the middle class too.  It’s better when the basic things are there for all of us.  Anyway, breathing in a little of Ted’s determination here.

Now, time to make Sunday morning latte and relax.  Much to ponder today and art to make tomorrow.  Hope you are well in your world.

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