Author: Kimsmithdesigns

Documentary filmmaker, photographer, landscape designer, author, and illustrator. "Beauty on the Wing: Life Story of the Monarch Butterfly" currently airing on PBS. Current film projects include Piping Plovers, Gloucester's Feast of St. Joseph, and Saint Peter's Fiesta. Visit my websites for more information about film and design projects at kimsmithdesigns.com, monarchbutterflyfilm.com, and pipingploverproject.org. Author/illustrator "Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities! Notes from a Gloucester Garden."

Gloucester Stage Celebrates Playwright Arthur Miller’s Centennial

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ARTHUR_MILLER_01_copiePlaywright Arthur Miller Arthur

Gloucester Stage proudly presents The Arthur Miller Centennial, a celebration of playwright Arthur Miller and his work in honor of his 100th birthday, on Saturday, October 17 at 7:30pm at Gloucester Stage, 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, MA. The audience is invited to enjoy birthday cake during a post-show reception with the cast and crew. Conceived by directing apprentice Allison Benko and stage management/production apprentice Jenna Worden, The Arthur Miller Centennialis a multimedia performance featuring recorded interviews with Miller himself as well as scenes from some of his best-known works including The Crucible, Death of a Salesmen, and After the Fall. Benko describes this special evening, “Arthur Miller is often called a quintessentially American playwright, and that might be true. But that’s a dangerously broad blanket statement — and what exactly does it mean? I think this production will be a way of asking that question. It’s a way of asking what Arthur Miller means to us, today, one hundred years after his birth.” The cast features local Boston performers including Kate Paulson and Sheridan Thomas, a professor at Tufts University.

Benko Allison

Directing Apprentice Allison Benko
Worden JennaProduction Apprentice Jenna Worden

Continue reading “Gloucester Stage Celebrates Playwright Arthur Miller’s Centennial” →

DOG BAR BREAKWATER PANORAMA

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Dog Bar Breakwater panorama, from end to end!

Dog Bar Breakwater Panorama ©Kim Smith 2015

Click panorama to view larger

Built to protect ships from the Dog Bar Reef, the Dog Bar breakwater was built on top of the ledge. The half mile long breakwater is seven and a half feet above mean high water and ten feet wide, constructed of 231,756 tons of Cape Ann granite over a substructure of rubble. Built by the Army Corps of Engineers between 1894 and 1905 at a cost of only $300,000.00, I wonder what it would cost to build a granite breakwater such as Gloucester’s in today’s economy?

For more interesting history about the Dog Bar Breakwater visit Lighthouse Friends and Terry Weber’s fun facts about the Breakwater.

Eastern Point Lighthouse ©Kim Smith 2015

AMBER AND JOHN FISHING BOAT WITH SAIL?

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What is the purpose of the sail on the Amber and John? Is to help power the boat or does it have some other purpose? I would love to know. Thank you.

Fishing boat with sail ©Kim Smith 2015

 

MAYARA DANCING FOR THE POPE

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unnamedFilmmaker Mary Jane Doherty writes the following, “It’s 2007.  I am sitting in Mayara’s tiny bedroom staring up at her laundry draped over the termite-riddled beams, wondering how on earth she and her mom manages…

Fast forward to 2015. Yes, this is Mayara. The Executive Director from the Pennsylvania Ballet sent this photo to me. Mayara now dances with them as Soloist. She was also PROFILED in Dance Magazine recently.”
Mayara defected to the United States during filming Secundaria!  Mary Jane’s companion film Premaria has just “begun its outward journey.”
secundaria-the-film

“Secundaria quietly follows one high school class on its journey through Cuba’s world famous National Ballet School.  Our teenage dancers love to dance but many of them must dance as their sole way out of poverty and the constraints – visible, and not so visible – that is life in Cuba.

At least, that’s how the movie begins. In their third year, shy and inscrutable Mayara, the class star, takes charge of her destiny by committing an unprecedented act of willfulness.

Cinematic storytelling without a script, staging, or interviews, our gentle stream of a story turns out to have a waterfall hidden around that last bend…”mary-jane-doherty-filmmaker-location1

Mary Jane on location in Cuba

Mary Buchinger at the Eastern Point Lit House

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mary_buchinger_smallOn Saturday, October 17th we are excited to host a reading with poet Mary Buchinger. We will be holding an open mic also. The fun begins at 7 pm.

Mary Buchinger grew up on a farm in the thumb of Michigan and now lives in Cambridge, Mass. with her husband and two sons, dog and two cats. She holds a doctorate in Applied Linguistics from Boston University and is Associate Professor of English and Communication Studies at MCPHS University in Boston. Her books include Aerialist (Gold Wake Press, 2015; shortlisted for the May Swenson Poetry Award, the OSU Press/The Journal Wheeler Prize for Poetry and the Perugia Press Prize) and Roomful of Sparrows (Finishing Line Press, 2008).

BREAKING NEWS: EASTERN POINT WOMAN ATTACKED BY COYOTE

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BREAKING NEWS: EASTERN POINT WOMAN ATTACKED BY COYOTE

An Eastern Point resident was attacked by a coyote at 5:15 this morning. She was curled up in an Adirondack chair drinking coffee and watching the stars before heading off to work. The wolf-size coyote leapt on her back. She jumped to her feet and fought it back with her fists. She next grabbed a broom and in the process hit her truck’s key fob, which sounded the alarm. The coyote slunk back into the brush and observed her as she threw rocks at it and yelled loudly, to no avail. It stayed for some time watching her. The coyote could be rabid.

The woman describes the coyote’s drool as smelling like foul meat and the fur as coarse and bristly. The drool was in her hair and took some time to wash out the smell. She does not inherently dislike coyotes and is an animal lover by nature, owns many pets and chickens, and was the former owner of a horse stable. There are several fences around her family’s property, in place to keep her pets safe, including an electric fence.

The woman called the police, who informed her that the animal control officer was not in. She has not heard from animal control.

Diana Peck Submits Hornworm Poems

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By Stanley Kunitz

Hornworm: Summer Reverie 

Here in caterpillar country
I learned how to survive
by pretending to be a dragon.
See me put on that look
of slow and fierce surprise
when I lift my bulbous head
and glare at an intruder.
Nobody seems to guess
how gentle I really am,
content most of the time
simply to disappear
by melting into the scenery.
Smooth and fatty and long,
with seven white stripes
painted on either side
and a sharp little horn for a tail,
I lie stretched out on a leaf,
pale green on my bed of green,
munching, munching.

 

Hornworm: Autumn Lamentation

Since thatfirst morning when I crawled
into the world, a naked grubby thing,
and found the world unkind,
my dearest faith has been that this
is but a trial: I shall be changed.
In my imaginings I have already spent
my brooding winter underground,
unfolded silky powdered wings, and climbed
into the air, free as a puff of cloud
to sail over the steaming fields,
alighting anywhere I pleased,
thrusting into deep tubular flowers.

It is not so: there may be nectar
in those cups, but not for me.
All day, all night, I carry on my back
embedded in my flesh, two rows
of little white cocoons,
so neatly stacked
they look like eggs in a crate.
And I am eaten half away.

If I can gather strength enough
I’ll try to burrow under a stone
and spin myself a purse
in which to sleep away the cold;
though when the sun kisses the earth
again, I know I won’t be there.
Instead, out of my chrysalis
will break, like robbers from a tomb,
a swarm of parasitic flies,
leaving my wasted husk behind.

Sir, you with the red snippers
in your hand, hovering over me,
casting your shadow, I greet you,
whether you come as an angel of death
or of mercy. But tell me,
before you choose to slice me in two:
Who can understand the ways
of the Great Worm in the Sky?

 

EASTERN POINT LIGHTHOUSE OCTOBER LIGHT

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Gloucester Eastern Point Lighthouse ©Kim Smith 2015JPG

EASTERN POINT LIGHTHOUSE OCTOBER ©KIM SMITH 2015Is there a more lopsided lighthouse configuration than ours?

October sunset Dogbar Breakwater Eastern Point gloucester gKim Smith 2015JPG

Gloucester eastern Point Lighthouse October ©Kim Smith 2015

“Small Jewels” Kathleen George Show at the Sawyer Free Library Matz Gallery

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image33My husband Tom came home raving about Kathleen George’s show at the Sawyer Free, calling her paintings “small jewels!” Go see, they are indeed jems!

About the artist ~

I have loved art my whole life. I come from a family that has always valued art. I find that art is an inextricable part of my very being; it’s in the way I see light, in the way I can tap into energy that shouldn’t exist in my busy life to paint for hours and hours after a busy work day…It doesn’t matter if I spend 5 minutes or 5 hours doing art, it is always a window into true beauty for me. Lately, with gratitude, I am making more space in my life for this art I have loved always. Read more here.

Visit Kathleen’s website here.

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Cape Ann TV Channel 12 Airs seARTS Wearable Art Runway Show

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Cape Ann TV Channel 12 Airs seARTS Wearable Art Runway Show

Cape Ann TV premieres their coverage of the seARTS Wearable Art Fashion Show this weekend. Celebrate Wearable Art lll Runway Show will air on Channel 12 at these times and dates: Friday, October 9 at 9:30 pm; Saturday, October 10 at 8:30 pm; Sunday, October 11 at 9:00 pm; and Monday, October 12 at 6:30 pm. For future airings of this program go to: http://capeanntv.org/schedule/.

Top fashion designers and artists from Cape Ann and beyond, designed clothing and jewelry for this one-of-a-kind fashion event held on September 27 at Cruiseport Gloucester. Cape Ann TV captured the show with three cameras, giving the viewer three different angles to view the models wearing their spectacular outfits on the catwalk. The show also includes behind the scenes interviews.

wearableArt.Still002

CAM Connections Third Tuesdays

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The Cape Ann Museum is pleased to welcome older adults and their care partners to CAM Connections, on Tuesday,  October  20 from10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.. This program meets on the third Tuesday of every month and is free and open to the public. Reservations are required – to make a reservation or for more information please call Kate LaChance at (978)283-0455 x12 or email katelachance@capeannmuseum.org.
The Cape Ann Museum CAM Connections Third Tuesdays program brings art, culture and history to underserved seniors in the Cape Ann community. The program offers personal engagement with the Museum collection through small group art conversations. The heart of the program is to create space for a meaningful experience in the welcoming environment of the Museum, where participants can share responses and reflections as well as form new social connections. Individuals with memory challenges and their care partners are warmly welcomed.

Third Tuesdays offers seniors the experience of slowing down and becoming still to look closely at art with others. During small group conversation, participants view paintings, objects and artifacts in an open-ended discussion format, stimulating personal curiosities and stories, while having fun, growing and learning together.

The Cape Ann Museum, a regional center of local art, history and culture, has a treasured collection that resonates with the personal and collective history of seniors with ties to the region. Committed to improving the lives of seniors, CAM Connections values the arts as healing and believes active engagement with the arts offers needed connection, reduces isolation and promotes health and well being. Past participants have witnessed the many ways the Museum’s unique collection offers a bridge to a meaningful and enriching life experience.

Seaside Garden Club

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The Seaside Garden Club is excited to have the dynamic group that transformed the Grant Circle in Gloucester tell their story on October 13th at the Manchester Community Center.  Social time begins at 7:00 and the program begins promptly at 7:30.  Light refreshments will be served.
The Plant Grant Circle team consists of representatives from the Cape Ann Garden Club, the Gloucester Garden Club and the Rockport Garden Club (Lida Bernard, Stevie Neal, Laura Kraul, Dorene McManus and Leslee Shlopak).  They will present a slide show of the transformation of the center circle on the Grant Rotary from a weed infested eye sore to a beautiful gateway to Cape Ann.  Included in the talk will be the history of Grant Circle, the many obstacles the group overcame from the success of the project and a description of the landscape design.  It is a story about a great vision, collaboration and dogged determination.  Plant Grant is a campaign designed by the Gardeners of Cape Ann to refurbish and beautify the “gateway” to Gloucester and Rockport, Grant Circle. Last spring the Garden Clubs of Cape Ann (a collaboration of Cape Ann, Gloucester and Rockport Garden Clubs) submitted a proposal and were awarded the permit from the state to maintain and refurbish Grant Circle.  Collectively they cleaned up the gardens last summer while designing new gardens as a welcoming entrance to our area for residents and visitors.  The project plan builds on the site’s naturalistic foundation by adding masses of plantings in linear beds scaled appropriately to the size of the circle. Combinations of perennials and flowering shrubs provide seasonal color and variety, while new tree plantings add vertically and complement the existing mature trees on site. Join us for to hear this interesting story about a great vision, collaboration and dogged determination.
The Seaside GardenClub has some great programs on tap for this season!  Organic Lawn Care, Life Story of the Black Swallowtail Butterfly, a film by Kim Smith, Pressed Flower Card Workshop and The Art of Ikebana are just some of the exciting programs we have arranged for our club members.  We meet the 2nd Tuesday of the Month (September through June) and are always looking for new members.  Make sure to sign up for your 2015/2016 Seaside Garden Club Membership – still on $25 for the entire season! Invite your friends and neighbors, all are welcome.  Guests $5.
grant circle in process
grant circle bed planVisit our blog https://seasidegardenclub.wordpress.com/about/ or find us on Facebook!

GOOD HARBOR BEACH SUNRISE PANORAMAS AND SURFERS

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Good Harbor Beach sunrise surfer ©Kim Smith 2015JPGAfter attempting to photograph the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter in the night sky Wednesday morning, the colors were so spectacular  I couldn’t help but stay to photograph the rising sun. The beach was soon alive with surfers, paddle boarders, photographers, and dog walkers, in that order. The three panoramas were taken at about ten minute intervals. Click on the image or drag panoramas to your desktop to embiggen.

Good Harbor Beach Panorama Sunrise -1 ©Kim Smith 2015

Good Harbor Beach Panorama Sunrise -2 ©Kim Smith 2015

Good Harbor Beach Panorama Sunrise -3 ©Kim Smith 2015.

Thinking I would just take a few shots of the night sky, I had run out the door wearing only a light sweater. Staying longer than anticipated I came home shivering. Bundle up if out for an early walk on these gorgeous, albeit chilly, October mornings.

Good Harbor Beach surfer ©Kim Smith 2015

Good harbor Beach sunrise seagull ©Kim Smith 2015Few more snapshots here. Continue reading “GOOD HARBOR BEACH SUNRISE PANORAMAS AND SURFERS” →

Lit House Book Club Event at Duckworth’s!

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oct15_book_club_smallOn Sunday, October 18 @ 5 pm we’ll be hosting our next book club event at Duckworth’s. Our very special guest host is Margot Livesey. We’ll be discussing To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. Seating is limited. All are welcome. Tickets are available at: http://www.easternpointlithouse.com/#!the-lit-house-book-club/c56l

Margot Livesey grew up in a boys’ private school in the Scottish Highlands where her father taught, and her mother, Eva, was the school nurse. After taking a B.A. in English and philosophy at the University of York in England she spent most of her twenties working in shops and restaurants and learning to write. Her first book, a collection of stories called Learning By Heart, was published by Penguin Canada in 1986. Since then Margot has published six novels: Homework, Criminals, The Missing World, Eva Moves the Furniture, Banishing Verona and The House on Fortune Street. Her seventh novel, The Flight of Gemma Hardy, will be published by HarperCollins in January 2012.

VENUS ALIGNED WITH JUPITER AND THE MOON

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Moon Venus Jupiter October 7, 2015 Gloucester ©Kim Smith 2015Tomorrow morning (as it was this morning) look east about an hour before dawn. Venus is dazzling next to the crescent moon and a little below Venus is Jupiter. Our astronomy friends will have to confirm, but I think you can see Mars, too. Go have a look for your self because these photos don’t adequately show how beautiful!

Moon, Venus, Jupiter October 7, 2015 Good Harbor Beach Gloucester ©Kim Smith 2015 .JPG

SCREENING OF MY FILM LIFE STORY OF THE BLACK SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLY

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bst_banner_final copyPlease join me tomorrow night in Nashua, New Hampshire for a screening of my film Life Story of the Black Swallowtail Butterfly. For more information visit the Events page of my website. I hope to see you there!

Next week I am giving programs in Brockton and Nauset however in early November I’ll be home, with a screening of the Black Swallowtail film for the Seaside Garden Club at the Manchester Community Center on the 10th, and on the 12th of November I am the guest speaker at the Sawyer Free Library!

Black swallowtail Caterpillar ©Kim Smith 2011 copy

Black Swallowtail Caterpillar

Life Story of the Black Swallowtail Butterfly is a 45-minute narrated film that takes place in a garden and at the sea’s edge. Every stage of the butterfly’s life cycle is experienced in vibrant close-up, from conception to pupation to metamorphosis. The film is suitable for all ages so all can gain a deeper understanding of the symbiotic relationship between wildflowers and pollinators and the vital role they play in our ecosystem. Filmed in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Discussion and Q & A with the filmmaker to follow screening.

Queen Annes's Lace -4 ©Kim smith 2015Queen Anne’s Lace, Black Swallowtail Caterpillar food Plant

Gloucester Stage Appoints New Managing Director

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logo_font-tests_3base-webJeff Zinn Moves North to Gloucester Stage

Gloucester Stage Board of Directors President Robert Boulrice is pleased to announce that Jeff Zinn has been named the new Managing Director of Gloucester Stage, effective immediately. Joining newly appointed Artistic Director Robert Walsh, Jeff Zinn, a longtime New England theatre professional, completes a new Gloucester Stage leadership team. According to Boulrice, “Gloucester Stage’s 2015 season has been a real thrill ride, filled with wonderful accomplishments. We’ve enjoyed critical acclaim and sell outs for Out of Sterno and Gloucester Blue,which is being extended through October 11! The great news of Robert Walsh’s appointment as Artistic Director coincided with the resignation of Jon Wojciechowski, Gloucester Stage’s Managing Director since October 2014, who has moved on to pursue other creative opportunities. Jon brought the Welcome Project and Never Dark programming to Gloucester Stage, along with The Collaborative, a very energizing Apprentice Program, which will endure for seasons to come.” Boulrice continues, “Next came some really excellent news with the appointment of Jeff Zinn as our next Managing Director. Jeff brings a sterling pedigree and an impressive tool set to Gloucester Stage. The thought of Jeff Zinn and Bob Walsh working together leaves me breathless. Ok, forgive the hyperbole, but this is theater after all and the Gloucester Stage board is very excited for the future, starting right now!”

Artistic Director Robert Walsh enthusiastically welcomes Zinn to Gloucester Stage, “Jeff is a wonderful director, producer, and collaborator and has an extraordinary track record for bringing connected, passionate work to the stage. He is a consummate theatre artist and manager and I couldn’t be more excited to partner with him to continue and grow the work at Gloucester Stage.”

Jeff_Zinn_2015 Continue reading “Gloucester Stage Appoints New Managing Director” →