Somewhere along the line I ran across the madcap artist Ricky Boscarino. I became fascinated with his over the top studio and home. He occasionally opens it for tours and I managed to snag a spot so off I went.
It is in New Jersey north of Philadelphia and west of NYC.
When heading up that way I often go the Eastern Shore route because it is a lot less stressful than driving I95 even with all the stop lights.
BERLIN
My first stop was in Berlin. The first time I was there, maybe 20 years ago, it was pretty quiet, not many shops, and the hotel looked empty. Through the years it has really perked up, to the point that it has been called by some “America’s coolest small town”.
You know how many towns in Europe are suffering from over tourism, I’m afraid that is what is happening to Berlin. But then I imagine there are towns that would like to have that problem.
There is a lot of parking and every single spot was full. On the way into town I saw a lot of these signs “make Berlin uncool again”.
I needed a break so finally found a place to park and strolled around a little. It didn’t seem as charming this time as it was in the past but I did find a beautiful bookstore/art gallery called The Greyhound.
BRANDYWINE MUSEUM OF ART
My first overnight stop was in Wilmington, Del. I stayed at a beautiful Residence Inn just minutes away from all the attractions, Longwood Gardens, Winterthur, etc. The hotel just opened in June of this year.
I’ve been to most of the local attractions, this time I was just returning to the Brandywine Museum of Art, full of Wyeth paintings from all three generations, along with many by Howard Pyle. The Pyle connection is he was a teacher of NC Wyeth, and Betsy and Andrew often purchased his paintings when they became available as gifts to each other.
Of the 3 best known Wyeths, Jamie is my favorite. Right now they have a special display honoring the contributions of Andrews wife, Betsy James Wyeth who was an author, art collector, and the business manager and archivist of Andrew.
It seems she contributed equally to the success and mistque of the Wyeths. Jamie is quoted as saying “I always felt her signature should be alongside his.” And Andrew said “she made me into a painter I would not have been otherwise”.
She arranged commissions, organized shows, set up still lifes for him to paint, and maintained his catalogue raisonne. A term which means an annotated listing of the works of an artist. I did that for years for my work but somehow it got away from me, I do try to photograph everything but I haven’t even kept up with that very well. I need a Betsy!
Betsy collected the letters of her father-in-law into a book, The Wyeths: The Letters of N.C. Wyeth, 1901-1945. And wrote two books on Andrew Wyeth’s work: Wyeth at Kuerners, and Christina’s World, and assisted in the documentary Andrew Wyeth Self Portrait: Snow Hill.
As they say, her contribution to the Wyeth legacy was just as important as that of the Wyeth artists. And as for me, I can say I never could have done everything I was able to do in my career if it were not for the help and support of Michael.
I also took the tour of NC Wyeth’s studio and home. The home is where Andrew and his 4 siblings grew up. Just a short distance from the museum.
In 1911 NC purchased 18 acres of land near Chadds Ford with the proceeds from his illustrations for Treasure Island for his home.
The home and studio is built on a hill overlooking the valley. They are designated as a National Historic Landmark and a member of the Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Andrews studio is next door. I visited it a few years ago.
Just outside the museum is a sweet little collection of buildings. Love the bird houses!
Then I was off to Philadelphia.
BARNES FOUNDATION
I’ve been fortunate to have been to Philadelphia at least 30 times through the years on business. And while I always tried to mix some pleasure in there are still things I didn’t get around to seeing, one was the Barnes Foundation.
It was established in 1922 by Dr Albert C Barnes, he intended it as an educational institution rather than a museum. He believed that art could transform lives (I agree it transformed mine, more about that later!). He assembled one of the world’s most significant collections of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and early Modern art, including major works by Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, and Picasso, displayed alongside African art, Native American jewelry, Greek antiquities, and metalwork.
The collection was initially in Merion, Pennsylvania and in 2012 it was moved to Philadelphia. It is still hung in rooms just as Barnes had them hung in their original building, and the only identifying information on each piece is a tiny plaque on the bottom of the frame with the artists name. You can go on their website to read more about each piece.
Barnes made his fortune in pharmacology by co-inventing a successful antiseptic. Instead of pursuing medicine, he devoted himself to art and progressive education.
I was truly astounded by the collection. I knew he had important work by some major artists, but he had multiple pieces by those artists. This one man collected over 800 pieces! There are 7 Van Gogh, 69 Matisse including a huge mural, 179 Reniors, 69 Cezanne, 40 Modigliani, 10 Seurat, and 2 Gauguin to name a few.
As for art transforming lives. I have told this story before but it seems pertinent here. I was a C student in school, I didn’t particularly like school, especially someone telling me what to do all the time! We had art class but it was uninspiring, especially the teacher. She was not at all enthusiastic and if you were not a cheer leader she didn’t have any time for you.
I intended to go to college and needed a foreign language, our school only taught German, not a language I was particularly interested in. Our school started an exchange program with a nearby school where you could go twice a week for the afternoon so I went to take Spanish. You could also take another class, I took art. That teacher was amazing, we did sculpture in clay and wire, we painted and drew, we did everything you could think of. I LOVED it! This teacher and art transformed my life.
Soon I told my folks I going to be an artist and go to art school.
They insisted I get a “real” education, so I did go to a 4 year liberal arts school, Siena Heights College, but majored in art all the same. The rest is history! I have spent my entire adult life working in the arts and creating art.
Back to Philadelphia… It was super hot and humid, the weather channel said it was 92 but felt like 102, I can attest to that. I thought I was going to pass out walking from the Barnes to the Market.
THE QUAKERS
On the way I passed by this Quaker Meeting Hall. The Quakers core beliefs are …
Simplicity: Value spiritual life over material wealth and use time and resources with care.
Peace: Reject violence, practice non-resistance, and work to remove the roots of conflict.
Integrity: Speak and act with total honesty so your word can always be trusted.
Community: Support and hold one another accountable in a shared spiritual journey.|
Equality: Treat all people as equal because a part of the Divine exists in everyone.
Stewardship (Earth): Care for the planet and protect the natural world as part of sacred creation.
All good things to abide by.
READING TERMINAL MARKET
While owning Carolina Creations I went to an art show at the Philadelphia Convention Center, featuring North American and Canadian crafts people, often twice a year for about 20 years. During that time we would go next door to the Reading Market Terminal for lunch. At least once every visit I would eat at the Dutch Place and often get an open faced turkey sandwich on white bread with french fries and gravy over the whole thing!
Talk about carb overload!! But once or twice a year I figured I could do it. So I could not visit Philadelphia and not have that meal. If Michael was with me he would order the apple dumpling with clotted cream, I decided to forego that this time. I love the market!
We belonged to a wonderful organization called CRAFT, the members were gallery owners from across the country. I made so many friends ……. And these shows were where we would meet up and share ideas. I am still close friends with many of those gallery owners.
MAGIC GARDENS AND ISAIAH ZAGAR
I was sad to hear that Isaiah Zagar died this year in February. He’s the artist that created all those wonderful mosaics (over 200) scattered about the city, and the Magic Garden. When I say he created over 200, they are not small pieces, they cover whole facades of buildings. One of my favorite parts about his mosaics is his use of mirrors.
In 2019 I traveled to Philadelphia and worked on a mosaic for the Saint Thomas Aquanius Center with him. We worked on it for just three days so I never saw it finished until this visit. After I got back to my car I drove to the Center to see it. The gate was locked so I could not get close. But this is it and a few shots of us working on it and here is a link to read about that whole experience, I wrote in a previous post.
About the Magic Garden – In 1986 and 1995 Isaiah and Julia Zagar purchased two buildings and a lot to be used as Isaiah’s studio on South Street. At the age of 58, after fully mosaicking those spaces, Isaiah started working on the vacant lots next to their property. He did not own those lots, but nevertheless decorated the fence on South Street and then began sculpting structures out of found objects.
In 2004, the owner of the lots discovered Isaiah’s installation. He decided to sell the land, and have the work destroyed. Art lovers stepped up to save it and incorporated the site as a nonprofit organization called Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens.
The museum is now made up of two indoor galleries and a multi level outdoor sculpture garden. Isaiah used handmade tiles, bottles, bicycle wheels, mirror, and other things he salvaged. The majority was done by 2008, but he continued to add to it the rest of his life.
It is hard to capture the impact of what he built in photos. There are walls, tunnels, and stair steps to wander through, it is quite a maze. There are many videos on YouTube that give you a better picture of the Gardens.
After a full day I headed toward Stroudsburg to spend the night, I would drive another hour on Friday to Ricky’s house and studio through the Delaware River Water Gap.
LUNA PARC
My visit to Luna Parc was well worth the drive. I arrived first so roamed the grounds by myself until the other 60 people who had signed up for the tour arrived. I knew about Ricky being an artist and turning his home and studio into a funky work of art, but there is much more to it.
He bought a run down 600 sq ft cabin and some acreage in 1989, and has added to it to the point there are 11 levels and 15 rooms! It is filled with mosaics, sculptures, taxidermy, and themed rooms such as the Hall of Hats, Zen room, library, Nature Lab, and crypt, where his ashes will reside when the time comes.
He has turned the property into a foundation that will continue as a museum and place of learning after his death.
He and his partner give hands-on training to aspiring artists and apprentice workers in welding, casting concrete, working with clay, and doing mosaics, along with teaching them some everyday skills.
The photos kind of speak for themselves, it’s a LOT to take in!
Not surprisingly Ricky and Isaiah knew each other and some of his students came to Luna Parc to work with Ricky for a bit. While there they created a totem with Ricky on one side and Isaiah on the other.
Again, if you search on YouTube you will find lots of videos of the property, it is pretty amazing. I would have loved to bring home one of the concrete and mosaic totems but alas I just ended up with a “clanker”, it fit in my car better.
It also justifies me not cutting down that dead crepe myrtle outside my breezeway.
I thought it looked like a sculpture so I left it alone.
Now It is a support for Rickys clanker, which is about 5 feet tall.
BETHLEHEM AND THE STEEL STACKS
I don’t remember ever being in Bethlehem before, what an interesting city. It was named Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, 1741, by Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, the spiritual leader of the Moravian Church. The Moravians are a Protestant denomination from the Czech lands, who had settled on a 500-acre tract along the Lehigh River and Monocacy Creek that year. Our North Carolina Moravians came from this Bethlehem group.
There is some great architecture and many historic districts. There is never enough time so I didn’t make it to the Church Settlement which is a UNESCO site.
The main reason for stopping was to see Steel Stacks.
They are the ruins of the Bethlehem Steel Plant, redeveloped as an arts venue. I read an interesting article that explains the history, the operation, the downfall, and the redevelopment of the plant and site.
Of course I happened to be there during Musikfest, one of the largest free music festivals in the United States, just my luck Which takes place on Steel Stacks grounds. Thousands of people!! Musikfest draws over a million visitors annually for eleven days of free music.
You can take tours but with the festival going on there were just too many people.
I had to back track to Jim Thorpe.
JIM THORPE
I was there just briefly once before and was intrigued by it. The historic district is built up a ravine much like Ellicott City, Maryland. I was mostly interested in the architecture and beautiful flowers. Most of the shops are touristy but there is one letterpress shop that is pretty impressive. The custom work they do is beautiful. They also have a lot of cards that make you wonder how many ways can you use the f word in a greeting! But they have some nice ones too.
I learned a lot about the man Jim Thorpe I did not know. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, he won gold in the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, which was later controversially stripped and ultimately reinstated in 2022.
“Sir,” King Gustav V of Sweden said, as he placed a laurel wreath on Thorpe’s head, “you are the greatest athlete in the world.”
He excelled in professional football, baseball, and basketball, serving as the first president of the NFL.
He became an actor and was in over 60 films. Jim, however, never visited Jim Thorpe, PA, but the story goes, his wife convinced the town to name it after him for promotional purposes and he is buried there.
It would be a fun place to spend some time, take a train ride, a trolley tour, go tubing, visit some museums, but what sounds the most fun to me would be to ride your bike through the Lehigh River Gorge.
This section, through the Gorge, is just a part of the D&L Biking Trail, which in its entirety is 165 miles long and runs from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, PA. You can put your bike on a hauler and ride up 25 miles on the train then ride downhill back into town. You ride along the slight downhill grade of an abandoned railroad bed and follow the river through the Gorge.
Along the way you see rock formations, waterfalls, wildlife, the ruins of the Lehigh Canal and see the Penn Haven Planes, incline rail tracks that moved coal cars down the mountain to the waiting boats in the canal.
Time to start heading south!
EPHRATA CLOISTER
In Ephrata I stopped at the Ephrata Cloister, a historic religious community established in 1732.
It was a monastic community, which they termed a “Cloister.” This settlement was founded by Conrad Beissel, who “emphasized preparing for a spiritual union with God”. It was home to nearly 80 celibate Brothers and Sisters who lived in the cloister and nearly 250 family members, known as Householders, who resided in nearby homes and farms.
Beissel was born in Germany and had a religious awakening. He immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1720 and began to have a following.
The celibate members dressed in white robes, they adhered to sparse diets and limited sleep as part of their spiritual practice. Their work was diverse, including farming, papermaking, Illumination, carpentry, milling, and textile production.
They became known for the calligraphic art of Frakturschriften, they composed a cappella music with over a thousand compositions, and they printed books and other materials.
The society declined after Beissel’s death in 1768 and the last celebate member died in 1813. At that time the Householders were incorporated into the Seventh Day Baptist Church.
I missed the last tour but you can go inside all the buildings.
Lancaster, Bird in Hand, and Strasburg
I spent the night in Lancaster, drove around downtown, and stopped and had a crepe at Rachel’s Cafe & Creperie.
There were some neat murals around town. It was Sunday morning so nothing was open to stop and see.
I’ve been interested in railroads since high school when I took a two week trip from Toledo, Ohio to Mexico City and back on a train. I’ve been to at least 15 railroad museums across the country and have ridden on many excursion railroads.
So I could not pass by Strasburg without at least stopping to take a photo or two. Well I ended up going on a 45 minute train ride. It wasn’t as exciting as the Durango and Silverton or the Cumbres and Toltec, but it was a train ride all the same through the beautiful Pennsylvania countryside. The engine pulling the train this day was a diesel but they do have some steam locomotives they use on certain days.
I then passed through Bird-In-Hand and stopped to take a photo of a sweet looking shop when a buggy passed by at exactly the moment I was shooting.
My last stop was the Ladew Topiary Garden near Baltimore. The garden was nice enough, there were not as many topiaries as I thought there might be but I LOVED the hunting one.
The Estate was the home of Harvey S. Ladew. Born into a wealthy family in 1887, he purchased the Pleasant Valley Farm in 1929, which eventually became Ladew Gardens. He was passionate about fox hunting, gardening, and architecture. During his lifetime he did all the topiary work and received national recognition for it.
I loved the house as much as the garden. The house started with a farmhouse dating from the 1700s and was added onto through the years. I felt like I was in Europe with his collection from around the world of paintings, and object d’art. He bought an oval desk in Europe but found no where in the house that it fit properly so had a large oval room built for it that contains over 2500 books!
The library is included in Helen Comstock’s book One Hundred Most Beautiful Rooms in America.
Ladew was the Master of the Elkridge-Harford Hunt for several years, and he received the Distinguished Service Medal of the Garden Club of America for his “great interest in developing and maintaining the most outstanding topiary in America, without professional help.”
A lifelong bachelor, Ladew died on July 28, 1976, in Monkton, Maryland, at 89.
It was a great trip but always good to be home.
Where to next? Back to the North Carolina mountain in September.
