In the small coastal town of York, Maine, you can pull in and fill ’er up at a unique studio and gallery space called Chases Garage. Co-owners and directors Cait Giunta and Ned Roche started renovating the former blacksmith’s shop/garage that’s more than 100 years old in 2012, opening the first artist studios in April of the following year, and the gallery a few months later. “The space was so empty—we were really able to decide what it would be and what went where,” recounts Giunta. Roche and Giunta are both ceramicists, as well as large-format print enthusiasts, so being able to put their large, heavy equipment precisely where they needed greatly benefitted their business concept.

In addition to the studios and gallery, Chases Garage hosts ceramic and printmaking classes taught by local artisans and the owners themselves. The gallery shows from May to December. “Our artists are primarily local and regional,” explains Giunta. “Ned and I curate our shows with artists whose work we think will complement each other and the space.”

With a pair of gasoline pumps out front, there’s no mistaking what Chases Garage once was. But the facade that once held a giant overhead door now welcomes visitors, students, and professional artists. “The Seacoast has a flourishing artist community,” says Giunta. “Our goal is to support artists who are not only looking to create work, but to join in a dialogue about it. The community is a huge component of why we started this endeavor.”

Chases Garage
York, Maine
Website

New photo by Erin Little; composite image by Izzy Berdan

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Self-described literary wet nurse Miette Gillette is one of our belletristic crushes. Whiskey Tit publishes books no-one else will, with titles like, Kinderrinder, I, No Other, and The Man Who Can’t Die, which we can’t get enough of. When we decided to do a Five Questions With…, our series on interesting New Englanders, Miette was an immediate, must-involve choice.

Take: When did you know you were a New Englander?
Miette Gillette: Transplant from NYC. I’m still not sure I’m a New Englander, though last summer I was attempting to inseminate our sow, and couldn’t get the cap off of the bag of pig semen. I didn’t have a free hand, and the pig was getting excited, so in a pinch I used my teeth to remove the cap, and got more of a taste than I’d ever like to admit. Is that a New England thing?

T: What one word would you use to describe New Englanders?
MG: Subarued

T: Favorite New England-based artists?
MG: Yannick Murphy and Carolyn Chute are both doing vital, astonishing work in American letters. Stylistically they’re diametric opposites: the literary equivalent of working in NYC interactive agencies, then retiring to inseminate pigs in Vermont. But both women capture very thin slices of New England culture in ways that nobody else in the country is capable of.

T: What’s your favorite bizarre, historical, or quirky piece of New England trivia?
MG: There’s a law against bringing elephants into the state of Vermont. Given the current collection of beasts roaming on my land, this is a law that’s definitely looking out for my interests.

T: What’s the funniest thing you’ve seen while driving in New England?
MG: I’ve seen about all the things one might see on Vermont Driving Bingo: skunks chasing moose, naked families happily hitchhiking, ducks stopping to drop an egg. When we first moved to the area, we were renting the last house on a dead-end road. The road apparently had not always been a dead-end; a bridge had gotten washed out years prior, and the town had decided not to fix it. But GPS systems still had the road intact on their maps, and had that road marked as the fastest route from Sugarbush ski resort to Boston. Every Sunday night in the wintertime, without fail, a car would be barreling down the road and smash directly into the snow bank in front of our house. So the funniest thing many weekend skiers had probably seen in Vermont were two beleaguered city transplants, hopping out of bed at midnight often in boots and coats but nothing underneath, patiently towing them out of the snow bank and turning them around. Notice: Heed the Dead End signs!

Bonus Questions:

T: What’s pissing you off today?
MG: The same thing that’s been pissing me off pervasively since January 20.

T: Dog or cat?
MG: Well, just today the Dog gave my daughter’s favorite stuffy a rhinectomy, and the cat vomited mouse guts all over the proof of a new book I’m debuting in two weeks’ time. So, both?

The post 5 Questions with. . .Miette Gillette appeared first on Take Magazine.

Take friends and neighbors Boon and Caro Sheridan invited us to a unique house party the other night. The couple’s 19th-century church in Holyoke, Massachusetts has been their home for a couple of years but this week they hosted their first house concert. As expected, it was not just any concert. They went all in with one of their all-time favorites, David J of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets fame. “Great music, amazing company, and one hell of a night,” Boon summed up.

The interior of the Sheridans’ space is configured so that a small landing towards the original pulpit area can be seen from almost anywhere in the building. No longer a traditional nave, it had enough seating for the crowd of 20 or so invited guests. Folks were also encouraged to watch from the lofted areas and stairs. And the sound? Just amazing. The high ceilings and expansive space make this an ideal spot to play music.

David J is out and about on tour now in support of his latest release, the double LP, Vagabond Songs. While he has booked traditional venues, David is enamored with the living room shows. “About five years ago, it was the star prize in a kick-starter campaign to raise funds to produce an album and we ended up in a kitchenette in Los Angeles,” he says of these intimate gatherings. “There were about 20 people and I had such a great night and something clicked that night with me and I just thought, ‘This is a new model, this is great,’” he says. ‘I love this sense of community and it’s familial and connected and intimate and focused. So that was the start.”

David J brought along musician Ali Jafri from the band Ariel out of Canada, who added percussion, vocals, and a little sitar to a few of the songs. The set included a number of new works with a smattering of covers and earlier pieces. A standout was “The Day that David Bowie Died,” an intimate and relatable tribute. “That’s a deep one,” says David. “For me that’s very deep.” Vagabond will soon be released digitally. For now it’s only available as an LP. “Vinyl release only,” says Davis. “The label, Last Hurrah Records based in San Diego, they’re kinda purists about it. They do really high-quality vinyl and high-quality art work. Once you’ve sold out the vinyl, I’m at liberty to make it available as a download.”

Boon and Caro are looking forward to hosting more artists. They were inspired to host by the building itself. “We’re living in a church. We have a space that can accommodate 25-40 people without even blinking,” says Boon. “The sound is perfect, the space is perfect.” The performer was also perfect. Connecting with the charming, talented, and gracious David J with his gothic background and his current Vagabond stories to ramble through and sing in the sanctuary was a stroke of genius. Do we end with a poignant and beautifully executed Knocking on Heaven‘s door? Of course we do.

David J – singer/songwriter
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Images by Ali Jafri

The post The Sheridans’ Sermon Series appeared first on Take Magazine.

Rob ‘REACT’ Larsen is a graffiti expert. He’s been doing graffiti himself since the ’80s with his works regularly featured alongside some of the biggest names in the genre. He’s also taught it, written about it, and photographed it—all over the world.

Larsen also takes people on public and private graffiti walking tours in and around Boston. “Public tours started last year, around this time. I had been developing some private tours, different itineraries, and I realized I could probably handle a few people so I decided to just list it on Eventbrite and see how it went,” he says. “I’ve been doing it every couple of weeks every since.” The tours kick off nearly every week and Larsen keeps the routes fresh and ever-changing, like the nature of the work itself. “I switch it up now that I have a couple of different itineraries,” he says. “I try and do the main street art and graffiti tour every couple of weeks.”

Trackside, uploaded by Rob Larsen on June 18, 2017

The street art and graffiti tour is a three-mile walk that takes three hours and focuses on street art for the first half and graffiti in the second half. The groups range in size from 12-16 people. Larsen also offers something more along the lines of a discovery tour. “I do a tour that replicates what I do when I go out and take photographs, just looking at what is up,” he says. “A straight graffiti tour, we walk through JP (Jamaica Plain), I just focus on whatever’s out there. Half of that includes a bunch of illegal stuff that can change from week to week, which is actually pretty interesting for me and people get to see me be surprised. The second half is legal walls, commissioned pieces with the owner’s permission.” This tour is usually two hours.

E-Violence, uploaded by Rob Larsen on July 11, 2017

Larsen puts his itineraries together about a month before the actual tour dates and is constantly thinking of new ideas and areas to share with people. He’s working on a short run for Somerville due to debut at the end of August. “It’s around Union Square because there’s some interesting stuff around there.” He also hopes to launch a public art tour this fall, that would focus on public art around the Boston Common, Public Garden, and the Commonwealth Avenue Mall.

This past winter, Larsen completed his book, You Can’t Win, which documents his eye for graffiti, tags, and murals with an international collection of his own photographic images. Larsen’s commentary on each of the images is an ode to the form he so loves. And the title? “It’s an open-ended phrase, it’s a little bit about the fact that this is all ephemeral,” he says. “It’s also just a nihilistic graffiti sort of attitude—you’re up against society, and you can’t win but you might as well try because what else are you going to do.”

Rob Larsen–graffiti/street art tour guide, illustrator
Boston, Massachusetts
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Images courtesy of Rob Larsen

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