Before the pump house was built, there was just a stretch of marshy, flat prairie. I was only thirteen when the crews moved in to build the place, but I can still remember games of tag with my brothers in the tall, humid grass that once grew there. Back then, before we were old enough … Continue reading A. E. Staley Pump House, 1919, Decatur, Illinois
Artist: Unknown Title: Key chain and bottle opener (formerly with Abba imagery) Date: Unknown (1970s–90s?) Culture: European or American Provenance: Given to EAH by Kevin O'Rourke on her twenty-second birthday (2002). Purchased by Kevin O'Rourke on eBay in 2001 or 2002. Original owner/provenance unknown. I sometimes like to say that I got my husband for … Continue reading No. 5: Key Chain and Bottle Opener
What is it about the desert that makes me feel so at peace? Maybe it is its subtle, sun-faded colors. Its boundlessness. The fact that it is at once monotonous and variegated. The way the rows upon rows of sagebrush slide out into the horizon, greens and silvers fading into silvers and tans. There are … Continue reading Agnes Martin, Flower in the Wind, 1963
Artist: The Woodknot Bookshop, Newport, Vermont Title: Bookmark Date: 1990s Culture: American Provenance: Tucked into a book purchased at the Woodknot Bookshop in Newport, Vermont. Most likely purchased by the parents of EAH as a gift. Is there anything more ordinary than those paper bookmarks that are slipped into the new book you're buying at … Continue reading No. 4: Bookmark
I am hard stone pulled from the earth. For millennia I was pressed and squeezed and heated. My universe was dark and compact. I was limestone, and then as the earth roiled and shifted around me, year after year, millennium after century after epoch, I became what you now see. A "metamorphic rock," a stunning … Continue reading Winged Victory of Samothrace, 220–185 BCE
Artist: Anne Alavi Title: Mix Tape Collection Date: 1990s Culture: American Provenance: Gifted to EAH by the artist Before we had digital playlists and Spotify and Apple Music, we had the mix tape. I recall making mix tapes for myself for special road trips or parties and also making them for other people as … Continue reading No. 3: Mix Tape Collection
The heat has lifted, and a cool breeze is blowing in off the coast. There is a reprieve from the intensity of late summer. All day a steady stream of traffic barrelled south, back toward the city. To concrete, to offices and schools, to the rush of crowds and public transport. It's as though the … Continue reading Edward Hopper, Gas, 1940
Ellen A. Hurst 