Drawing Ire, Not Artists, By Penelope Green
· July 30, 2014
STAMFORD, Conn. — The setting was pastoral, eight gently rolling acres on a water-lily-flecked lake with two dainty islands. Overlooking it was a modestly elegant Tudor-style house built in the 1930s, with a brood of 19 Rhode Island Red chickens, a colony of honeybees and a burly but amiable German shepherd named Brady.
To Michelle Slater, a 39-year-old academic of independent means, it was just the right spot to enact her longtime vision of an arts retreat, a sanctuary where scholars, musicians and fine artists could attend weeklong workshops punctuated by nearly vegan meals made with produce from her vegetable garden, sunrise yoga and meditation sessions she would lead herself, and lectures by luminaries in the humanities held at a local museum.
[……. ] Arthur Zorn, 60, an artist and musician from Barre, Vt [..….]The sunroom was littered with Mr. Zorn’s charcoal sketches, including one that bore the digestive imprint of a chicken, an interference that delighted Mr. Zorn, an impish fellow with a taste for performance. Mr. O’Connor said he was amused to see Mr. Zorn rubbing extra charcoal on his already-smudged pink cheeks to amplify his dishevelment. Mr. Zorn said he had stifled the impulse to vandalize the “Stop Mayapple” signs by adding the word “by” after “Stop.”
Ms. Slater said, “Arthur has the heart of a child, which is why he has attended every one of the workshops. “ ……]