Tucked deep in the hollows of Chappaquiddick’s woods is a humble place where snapshots of Vineyard charm come alive. The studio is new, and proud to be so. It’s wooden and white on the inside, and thick oak leaves tickle its windows. Paintings, collages, sketches, all manner of art hangs on the walls. The art is of the Vineyard, and the artist is Gail Rodney.
A sketchbook sits among half-finished works, entitled A Martha’s Vineyard & Chappy Sketchbook, published this summer by Vineyard Stories. Ms. Rodney’s voice is soft as she tells its story. The pictures are in honor of her relative Jane Bannerman. Jane died at 104 years old last year and completed more than 75 sketchbooks on the Vineyard, inspiring Ms. Rodney to do one of her own.
“She was a mentor to me,” Ms. Rodney noted.
But Jane wasn’t the only reason Ms. Rodney felt she should pay tribute to the Vineyard.
“When I got married in 1975, I didn’t know I was marrying the Vineyard as well...Chappaquiddick was really central to my developing as an artist...this was the start,” she said.
Ms. Rodney and her husband have one son, and the family’s life as a trio in New York city was very different than their community on Chappy.
“My husband’s family came and this whole compound became our own,” Ms. Rodney said, recalling days she would spend out with her watercolors and easel, at the Chappy ferry or watching turtles at Mytoi Garden, while her son wandered the Chappy dunes with his cousins.
Flip to a page in the sketchbook and a woman sits at a loom at the Agricultural Fair. That image leads to memories of persuading Skipper Manter to give out free ride bracelets, or sitting in the hot sun to watch pigs run around a track, or waiting in the Touchdown Tempura line for half an hour, simply because it’s the best tempura anywhere. Ms. Rodney wished to capture snippets of summers on the Vineyard that would resonate with many.
“It showed all the things...all the little things that I found delightful,” she said.
In addition to the illustrations, each page contains a quote that answers the question: “What is one thing you love or value about the Vineyard?” The quotes are by representatives from the whole Island, from an eighth grader at Edgartown School to the executive director of the Martha’s Vineyard Museum.
Ms. Rodney said she wants people to remember the innocence they felt as children on South Beach, walking across Waban Park or playing hide-and-seek barefoot in Alley’s while ignoring the “shoes required” sign.
Her sketchbook paints the innocence of the Island, and colors an age-old theme, the security of a piece of land locked by water and time. The book’s publisher Jan Pogue said that Ms. Rodney’s work is “a love letter to the Island.”
The dirt of local cornfields is under our nails, the dust of Alley’s General Store under our toes, and the waves at South Beach still flip us upside-down, tearing our bathing suits every which way.
Gail Rodney will take part in the My Chappy: Author Talks and Signings event on Saturday, August 22, at the Chappaquiddick Community Center, beginning at 5 p.m. Other authors include Edo Potter, Tom Dunlop and Melinda Fager.
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