begrudge doilies
oval boxes
begrudge doilies
flame red colors
venus east sky
neon yellow
blue dotted
purple violet
wrangled lines
noting nothing
onto paper
thoughts
cantankerous
qualities of things
collide
.
.
from prismatic utopia, my poetry manuscript
so thankful to poet & editor Heather MacKay Young
for the opportunity to work together on this manuscript
( of ) Newton and Optiks
of mystics and mysteries maintained
of gravity graced and rippled radiuses
of faceted prisms and rainbows realized
of colour continuums and countless confections
( of ) vistas and visionaries
of ricocheting and reflecting
of timelessness and tinsel strands
of stars and fourth floor staircases
of simple sincerity and quickenings
of thin redlines and economy of means
Tomorrow begins the Dublin Seminar held at Historic Deerfield. I’ll be giving a paper on Saturday, ‘building Harmony | constructing Color.’ Positing ideas about Shakers early use of architectural color predating 21st century color consultants’ and theorists.
And, this paper wouldn’t have happened without the Historic Deerfield Library Fellowship where I read so many books in the Wolf Collection—1200 books of color! Thanks Mr. Wolf and Historic Deerfield Library.
[excerpt from ‘emanations’ from my upcoming poetry book, ‘prismatic utopia’]
[images all from books in the Wolf Collection at Historic Deerfield Library]
Munsell & Faber Birren
Burris-Meyer & Vanderwalker
old horizons
become new buildings
historical
becomes contemporary
building Harmony | constructing Color
at the upcoming Dublin Seminar
[books from Historic Deerfield Library,
objects from Shaker collections at Pleasant Hill Shaker Village & Shaker Museum]
orange & yellow
yellow & orange
book covers and oval boxes
balls of deep orange chair tape
glowing orange doors
chrome yellow carriers and yarn swifts
mustard yellow chair tape
chrome yellow wall peg and chairrails
rereading books by Faber Birren, Elizabeth Burris-Meyer
Jane Betsy Welling
on color and industry and harmony
preparing for my talk
building Harmony | constructing Color
at the upcoming Dublin Seminar
[books from Historic Deerfield Library,
objects from Shaker collections at Fruitlands,
Shaker Museum, and glowing orange door at South
Union Shaker Village]
Working on a paper for the upcoming Dublin Seminar entitled ‘building Harmony | constructing Color’ juxtaposing Shaker color and light uses in their buildings later used 20th century design principles.
“Color is an essential part of construction,” Elizabeth Burris-Meyer, ‘Historical Color Guide,’ 1938
“We see colour as sort of building material, just like bricks and mortar,” says Catrina Stewart, director at OfficeS&M along with Hugh McEwen. “It’s a very economical material that can really transform a space. It’s something that we explore right from the beginning, instead of designing first and adding colour later.”
[‘Talk of Tone’ by Felix Speller in 23/24 May 2026 House & Home section of the Financial Times]
Images from recent visit to South Union Shaker Village and Pleasant Hill Shaker Village.
info on Dublin Seminar, HERE.
collecting
initials
teeny
cross
stitches
marking
kerchiefs
gloves
mittens
dresses
sure
footed
semblance
of order
circles & lines
circles of chair tape
a whole made a circle from
a row of chairs
chair tape in the textile collection of the Shaker Museum
circles for today’s flower moon
today I’m setting the table for
my friend’s indigo dyeing class
studio visit
walking around the table so many to thank,
including--
-india flint at haystack for her ecoprinting class
-norte maar & Jason Andrew for showing ‘a year’s worth’
-and later bewilder work with catalog
-everyone that taught & talked to me about natural dyes
-working at Naumkeag with their amazing flower gardens
-being a TA for Kathy Hattori at Haystack and dyeing with
so many talented dyers
-learning that Shakers wore ‘any color they could dye’ as
an artist in residence at Hancock with Smp
-showing not once but twice with like-minded artists
interested in the Shakers, organized by Albany airport & Eric
-performing meetinghouse with miram at a moonbow event
and later eal publishing it and then adding a podcast
-working with curator Christie Jackson & all at Fruitlands on
‘anything but drab’
often one thing leads to another
oftentimes it's just someone’s faith in your work
or just willing to say yes to something never done
but always, I am filled with so much gratitude to all.
Thank you.
what is poetry?
how does one revise?
how does one make a manuscript?
emily dickinson said, “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there another way.”
[letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson]
i’m playing a poetry game
rearranging words
moving about sentences
reading chanting aloud
working with Heather McKay Young is serious &fun
color charts the way
“a book is a small building”*
within
folds
structures
a village
unfolds
utopian
colors
collide
into a
spectrum
book spines at Historic Deerfield during color research Fellowship using the Stephen L. Wolf Collection.
roster of reds
recently read
ranges of russet
selections of scarlet
swatches of silk
books from Memorial Library, Historic Deerfield
Shaker objects & textiles, Shaker Museum
.
—Maerz Dictionary of Color
—cupboard over drawers
-Syme, Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours
—Shaker Sister Kneckerchief
—Jorgensen Mastery of color
—Shaker oval box
—Chevreul, Des Couleurs
—Shaker survey tool
—The Practical Decorator, George Audsley & Maurice Audsley
—Shaker Sister Neckerchief
—Munsel Book of Color
—Colors, what they are and what to expect of them
all in line
aligned
midnight blue
dove grey
forest green
petal pink
crimson coral
I’ve cited
I’ve cleaned
i’ve imagined
I’ve inventoried
colors in Dorothy cloaks
colors in poetry manuscripts
image Dorothy cloaks Shaker Museum
Prismatic Utopia, poetry manuscript
