Sunset Cottage [details]






On William West Durant from the NY State Archives:
William West Durant was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1850, the son of Dr. Thomas Clark and Heloise Hannah Timbrel Durant. Durant attended Twickenham School in England and Bonn University in Germany and while living in Europe, Durant traveled extensively. Following his return to the United States, Durant took a position as Supervisor at the Equitable Loan and Trust Company. Durant first came to the Adirondack Mountain region of New York State in 1876 to assist his father in managing the Adirondack Railroad Company. Durant served as secretary and later as president and general manager until the company was absorbed by the Delaware and Hudson Company in 1889. After the merger, Durant continued to sit on the company's board of directors. Later, he worked as a General Land Agent for the Adirondack Company, which was owned by his father. At its peak, the company owned half a million acres in the Adirondack Mountains.

In 1884, Durant married Janet Lathrop Stott and the couple had three children. Following the death of his father in 1885, Durant continued to purchase land in the Adirondacks and began to develop transportation lines and to build homes and resorts. He established the Forest Park and Land Company, of which he was president. Durant built a road between Raquette and Blue Mountain Lakes and established a line of horse–drawn coaches from the terminus of the North Creek Railroad to Blue Mountain Lake. In 1878, he established the Blue Mountain and Raquette Lake Steamboat Line and built several dams to facilitate water travel. He built hotels to accommodate the growing number of visitors to the region and designed, built, and decorated many of the first “great camps” in the Adirondacks. He built Camp Pine Knot in the 1880s, which he took as his home. In 1895, he sold it to Collis P. Huntington. Durant built Camp Uncas for J. P. Morgan, the Sagamore for Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, and also built Camp Kill Kare. He established the Adirondack, Lake George, and Saratoga Telegraph Company as well as the first post office on Long Point, Raquette Lake. He raised funds and donated land to build two churches, the Episcopal Church of the Mission of the Good Shepherd and St. William's Catholic Church. He also built a store on Raquette Lake. In 1900, he built the Marion River City Railroad and oversaw completion of the Raquette Lake Railroad along with fellow investors including Collis Huntington, J. P. Morgan, William Seward Webb, William C. Whitney, John A. Dix, Charles E. Snyder, and Edward M. Burns. Between 1899 and 1900, he built the Eagle's Nest Country Club & Golf Course on Eagle Lake in Hamilton County.

In the early 1900s, due to several poor business deals and difficulties in the settling of his father's estate, Durant lost much of his fortunes. He was divorced from his first wife and married Annie Cotton in 1907. To earn a living, Durant performed title searches for land in the Adirondacks for Charles E. Snyder, a Herkimer, N.Y. attorney and former business partner. Durant died in 1934. In honor of his contributions to the Adirondacks, the lake located between the Village of Indian Lake and Blue Mountain Lake was named for him in 1936.

early color









Saturday we started very early--with Rob and Kitty taking TJ off to the vet as he had a swollen, sore leg. We dropped Alex off for the bus to Baldwinsville (outside of Syracuse) for their annual XC invitational. We packed up and left for Baldwinsville for Alex's event. We dropped off Rob's rental on the way and actually made the meet on time. He bested his time by 30 seconds. He came in 4th for our team. We waited for him for an hour or so and then packed up to drive north through Utica to spend the night at the Great Camp Sagamore, Alfred and Margaret Vanderbilt's great Adirondack camp. Rob spent the week there with the Upstate History Alliance and was so taken with his experience, he wanted us to see it too. So, about two and a half hours from Syracuse, we arrived at the Sagamore (outside of Racquette Lake)....to this beautiful, tranquil lake with a little Adirondack Swiss/German village sited in this country. There were deer grazing and big, snowshoe rabbits grazing on the lawn--with a wonderful grouping of buildings...some of them for sleeping, some for eating, some for play...and a bowling alley! There was a manicured croquet green with a lovely boathouse with a floating dock for canoes.

Nothing plugged in. No wireless connection. No television. No telephones. No room service. Back to basics. Comfortable accommodations, breakfast/lunch/dinner for 1 hour each upon the clanging of the dinner bell. There were camp fires outside at night, and fireplace fires at your pleasure in the living rooms in the various sleeping buildings...in these lovely, massive stone fireplaces...one different from the next...with some (you cannot use) in many of the rooms...

We heard a lot about Alfred Vanderbilt and his wife/and steward of Sagamore, Margaret. We heard about the history, the families and village (essentially) that kept this magical place up...but what was missing was a lot on Ww. Durant, the man who conceived, designed, built and lost Sagamore and many of the other Great Camps in the Adirondacks. There is some work there for me to better understand this man, this stylist, this visionary who saw this opportunity, envisioned it in his work and projects and squandered his railroad based fortune on this vision. There was a delightful cottage at the Adirondack Museum (I highly recommend...its a treasure and jewel, sited on Blue Mountain Lake to be a mini Shangri La). Sunset Cottage is a magical jewel...and really was a small crystallization of the Adirondack Style. If Saul Steinberg was an architect, this little inlaid cedar cottage might have flowed out of his pen nib.

I could go on and on..and may continue tomorrow, its just that work awaits followed by dinner and organizing for the XC meet tomorrow.

Sunset Cottage, Adirondack Museum, Blue Mountain Lake NY.
From the signage outside this adoreable little building (designed by the Adirondack Design Star! WW Durant):
This building, covered on all sides decorative split spruce limbs, is named Sunset Cottage after the radiating pattern on it's gables. Sunset Cottage was built as part of Camp Cedars which was designed by William West Durant for his cousin, Frederick Clark Durant (1853-1926). It was located on a 30 acre tract of land at Forked Lake, north of Racquette Lake. The Durants used the cottage as sleeping quarters. A wrap around porch on the building protected the twig decoration from wather fo many uears. The builder of the cottage is unknown, although there is speculation that Andrew Fisher, a carpenter-guide-caretaker in the 1880s might have produced this finest surviving example of rustic twig work built on an architectural scale. Twig work is made by nailing split sticksor rods of various sizes to flat surfaes in geometric mosaic patterns. The central Adirondacks-- Blue Mountain, Long, Tacquette and their neighboring lakes was the center of mosaic twig work for furniture and architecture.

Thursday thises and thats....


Celebrating the First Day of Autumn

I had a treat this morning when I picked up my apple share from Black Diamond Farm's fridge with a "help yourself" crate of glorious gala apples. So, the apples were a bonus enough for the morning, but somehow my timing was perfect as I had a chance to greet the family. Ian Merwin was full of energy, full of ideas and inspiration....made me want to sign up immediately for my next degree in Pomology...with his passion for teaching horticulture at Cornell, his pointing out the upside of his apples, and a quick review on colleges with an open style curriculm such as Reed College, Hampshire College...Evergreen. Next was Jackie...full of energy and ideas...letting me know that she and her daughter, Erica (now on the ballot to be the Town of Ulysses Clerk! Pls. vote for her on Nov. 3) were appalled (as was I) on the NPR story on natural gas. The way NPR portrayed natural gas, it was an obvious choice, it was the brave new world of energy resources despite the oilmen not interested until now as the economics of horizontal drilling and other processes (no mention of FRACing...the destruction of the landscape. the killing of the water resources) now make sense. NPR made it seem as mild as milk. We know that is not true.
These oilmen are infiltrating our neighborhoods trying to get any foothold into the shale and not telling the complete story to farmers who would love the money to make ends meet. Nothing on what the fracturing of the shale with chemically impregnated water does to the land, the water, and the water system. Nothing on the decision one land holder makes, impinges on the contiguous properties etc. We all are in this together, or not at all. We need to stop this stuff from happening in the Finger Lakes for the small change now...versus the irreversible destruction later. This is a subcrust version of strip mining. Not, an option.

Back to the apples. Kitty had a field trip to Black Diamond Farm with the Naturalist Club. Ian took them through the genealogy of his trees...this tree has these trees as the momma and the pops...and this tree has been grafted with that tree to make this spiffy apple. Kitty was taken with this deep red/brown apple called King that is used in cider making that has streaks of fermentation throughout its flesh...and has the flavor of licorice. Another apple tasted like cinnamon...and the gala for Kitty, stands alone. Yes, she tried all of the apples as Ian plied his pocket knife as part of the demonstration, showing the trees, and allowing a taste. He had them all in his thrall. I cannot imagine a happier moment than this sort of exposure with one of the best in his field, among the hometown kids...on a perfect clear fall day, standing in the orchards, talking about apples.( I am a bit biased as Ian spoke of his delight in teaching his Intro to Horticulture class at Cornell, and his pleasure in teaching this overview....He was so infectious, I was doing mental gymnastics trying to figure out how I could work this into my schedule....everything from apples to grasses, from flowers to plants...the first step in beginning to specialize...and what with Cornell's strength in the land of the agricultural...it could be amazing)....This is such a gift.

Kitty had two gifts today. The other was going to Smith Woods (our old growth forest) and doing environmental science quadrants. She told me of all the mushrooms and ferns, the trees and all the loveliness in the quadrant they had to sketch and remark on. Wow. I want to go back to school.

Alex is hopeful for chords in guitar class.

Churned through a pile of work today. No fun, whatsoever. The bow is part of a Xmas logotype and felt I could pull it over and put it on a box more to remind myself that I have this "part" in the scrap pile.

Tomorrow is finalizing things. Confirming ads. Getting files to 3x3 for the advertising. Searching for glass hurricanes (wholesale). Calling a printer or two. And having mini prayers for the outstanding holiday card that could hit the bricks at a minute's notice.

Himmelsbrief: Dear God, send me a message.


Tired. More tired than usual....really want to put my head down on my desk and take a nap. This fatigue from waking up at night is so tedious...I am getting cranky. Maybe I am not getting cranky. Better. I am cranky. And my thoughts are blurring again.

Alex did a personal best last evening...placing third on our varsity team. He beat out his team nemesis...and then shook his hand at the end of the race and thanked him for pushing him forward. He hugged me when I got to the track, taking the apples from Kitty and me, hugging our dog...so I gather he was pleased we were there. Its the singular Tburg XC event which is always this signature day in early fall that the air sits lightly on the day, low heat, low humidity and ermine clouds with the promise of the full color blaze on the horizon.

Got my cheap 1GB sushi flash drives in the mail. I am delighted. I should test to see if they work. But for 1/5 of the going rate that these babies go for, I am pleased as punch. What fun at Christmas!

Kitty had drama/improv tryouts today. She was saddled with the tough person in the group and bless her, she took it in stride and tried to have some fun with it. She is the kindest person. She explained matter and thermodynamics (dumbed down entirely) which I enjoyed. There were some big God moments in that discussion.

I apologize for my brevity, it was just full tilt all day, and getting into a horizontal place before 10 is not an option given my fatigue. So forgive me, I must go.


Rob is gone at a very cool conference at the Great Sagamore Camp in the Adirondacks. He called this a.m. and seemed so pleased and delighted in his environment and the activities to come. It was great to hear the lift and light in his voice.

Yesterday I hammered away at a big publication project as well as some small stuff on the horizon. Today, more on the big pub (trying to get it somewhere fast as the client may go ballistic though the copy took well over 3 mos to have happen). However, not to complain, at least its all in one place so we can really get the hammers and nails out and build this thing in one piece versus the "hang the door and then we'll build the wall" program we normally work with.

Met with a renaissance person yesterday who is very learned and very much living in that world. He is not loving the project he is working on and has reached the point that he wants to do something he has passion about. It was a fun topic because he is good at so much, so we talked about what about this, and what about that. I will help him the branding/logotype of one of these ideas. Should be an interesting process. He also knows quite a bit about grants and in particular, Fullbright fellowships. He suggested I think about going out and seeing if I could get one? Maybe one with Fraktur? Niche but nice.

Lineup for the Hangar Theater 2010 season is Man of La Mancha, 39 Steps, Penelope of Ithaca (a new performance written just for us!) The Piano Lesson and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Had a really energizing meeting with the creative director, Peter Flynn and Lisa Bushlow, executive director and their team and board members to think out where the images/show graphics need to go, their use, their placement.I am feeling really good about Penelope of Ithaca--greek urn red figure vases updated. Also, want to go a la Beggarstaff Brothers on the Man of La Mancha. Why not? The other illustrations seem less immediate.

Everyone is app crazy. McSweeney's (one of my favorite magazines) has thrown their hat into this ring>> .

gotta go. Alex has a high goal assigned by his coach for the XC (Cross Country) meet at our school. Kitty and I just bought a bushel of mixed cortland and macintosh apples for the team ($14/bu Kingtown Road Apples). We also bought a gallon of preservative free cider ($4). A taste of fall.

colliding worlds?


coloration in process.

Long day yesterday getting the nonholiday card resolved...but I feel good that there is something there and the idea is solid. Learned quite a bit in the process (like tons of key commands (poweruserville!) and live paint is a more versatile tool than what is percieved in the beginning. Live Paint allowed me to quickly recolor the design over and over again in minutes versus a very deliberate, time consuming process of individual objects being selected, color selected and so on. Plus, if you use Live Paint as a way of breaking your illustration up into forms, then releasing those forms (unbuckling them from each other) -- expanding them, deleting the forms that are essentially "scrap" from the final image and then, rebuckling/ re Live Painting the finished form for coloration gets you back being productive etc. I am thrilled with my purchase of a year's worth of tutorials from Lynda.com as I stopped everything as I began to get tangled in my own technical web, watched 3 tutorials (there are more to do) and after 15 minutes, went back to more productivity and confidence than I had prior to the spot training on demand.

Went over to the High School yesterday to see what was up re the Yearbook class. I am helping them migrate from the corporate machine of the yearbook companies to really having a publications course. I could'nt put my finger on what needed to be done until this morning which really gets down to basics. Teach them about the concept> content> production flow. What is a concept? What does content comprise of? How can we get content? Do we have to do it all ourselves? How do we make the content and concept shine in the final production? How do we create a publication for everyone? Can we be democratic? or is it more important to have a strong vision of the book instead of a group think? Both are valid. So, when Alex and I were in Staples today getting the requisite back to school notebooks and folders, I bought a big pack of posterboard to rough out some approaches to this discussion as something to point at. Plus, I need to get the students away from the computer screens(the class is held in the computer lab) so they will pay attention and not be as disrespectful and in some cases, downright rude to this lovely man that has graciously taken this project on his shoulders.

Today hs been a gloriously clear, cool day with the trees turning. We had a small fire in the woodstove this morning in between the picking up and delivering A. to the XC practice out at the Hector National Forest. The grassfeeding big black cows didnt seem too bothered by us taking a stroll by them though my pal Shady Grove wasn't too sure of that action. We hung out at the Luckystone until 2, went into Ithaca to have my glasses fixed (the side fell off of a pair), buy Alex new running shoes and a running watch and pick up a rental (Prius) for Rob. He is off to the Sagamore Camp in the Adirondacks to attend a board meeting he is on and then spend the rest of the week in a very small conference, learning session on Museums in NY State. It should be autumnal perfection.

I am busy reading about Fraktur, the artists and scrivners, the history and place, the styles and the imagery. I dug up some interesting information which helps to inform the time and area that this social documentation (in the Fraktur) at the same time. I am talking about Powwowing. Huh? Yes, Powwowing.

David Kriebel really gets into the meat of this esoteric practice of the Pennsylvania Germans in his article, Powwowing: A Persistent American Esoteric Tradition. Briefly, Kriebel states in his introduction:

Powwowing, or brauche in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect, is a magico-religious practice whose chief purpose is the healing of physical ailments in humans in animals, although it has had other aims as well, such as conferring protection from physical or spiritual harm, bringing good luck, and revealing hidden information. The practice has been present on this continent since the first German-speaking settlements were established in Pennsylvania in the early eighteenth century, although it has its roots in much older German esoteric traditions (Yoder 1976).

Yoder, who is mentioned quite often in this article is Don Yoder, a Fraktur scholar and writer who has over the course of time migrated his studies from Fraktur to really understanding and explaining Powwowing ( a bio on Yoder cites him as Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies and Folklore and Folklife at the University of Pennsylvania. He is past president of the American Folklore Society and co-founder of the Pennsylvania Folklife Society). . I kind of fell into this ...and am enchanted as this colors and adds dimension these Fraktur ephemera from birth, death and marriage certificates, hymnals, to spiritual labyrinths to actual letters from Heaven. Factor in the architcture (ie Bucks County barn structures painted to indicate windows bigger than the actual window to allow for the demons trying to fly into the barns to hurt themselves, to the Peter Wentz Farmstead and the Ephrata Cloisters...the farmstead being one of the more insanely decorated places of the period out there to the grace and elegance of the austere cloister which was a locus for much of the fine Fraktur work. Now, figure this--Phildelphia at the same time was this bustling, urbane, rational town...filled with thought leaders, writers, and people who were changing their community and the world with their thinking and writing. Less than fifty miles away...this nuttiness was happening amongst the Germans.

So where was the interface? Did one community inform the other? Or did the Germans keep to themselves--with faith/folk healing in brilliant yellow rooms with 6" black polka dots, surrounding and commemorating their process through their life with this marvelous ephemera that fuses life events with faith? Did Ben Franklin know of these people? or Jefferson as they penned big thoughts for the now and the future? Or did this beat of modern democracy stay as confined in it's community as the Powwow did in its own? Things to read about and wonder.

Stay tuned.

Flower and Seed of Life


These are not words I'm making up,
these are the actual words that were used in ancient times
to describe this. I think they called it the Flower of Life
because it looks like a flower and because it [represents]
the laws and proportions for everything alive and even not alive;
everything that's manifested.

Drunvalo Melchizedek,
speaking in a video of a presentation on the Flower of Life.

The Flower of Life is the modern name given to a geometrical figure composed of multiple evenly spaced, overlapping circles, that are arranged so that they form a flower-like pattern with
a sixfold symmetry like a hexagon. The center of each circle is on the circumference of six surrounding circles of the same diameter.

It is considered by some to be a symbol of sacred geometry, said to contain ancient, religious value depicting the fundamental forms of space and time. In this sense, it is a visual expression of the connections life weaves through all sentient beings, believed to contain a type of Akashic Record of basic information of all living things.

There are many spiritual beliefs associated with the Flower of Life; for example, depictions of the five Platonic Solids are found within the symbol of Metatron's Cube, which may be derived from the Flower of Life pattern. These platonic solids are geometrical forms which are said to act as a template from which all life springs.

Another notable example of that which may be derived from the Flower of Life is the Tree of Life. This has been an important symbol of sacred geometry for many people from various religious backgrounds. Particularly, the teachings of the Kabbalah have dealt intricately with the Tree of Life.

According to Drunvalo Melchizedek, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, the stages which construct the Seed of Life are said to represent the seven days of Creation, in which Elohim (God/concept of divinity) created life...


Using the symbols of the Seed of Life and the Flower of Life for a holiday card (requested colors in the terracotta/ antique palette)has had me running for the lynda.com tutorials on live color--which confirmed what I knew, added to the skillset I am developing and giving me confidence to just hack my way through this web of imagery. The simpler mandala is the Seed of Life (not shown), the image in the rope border (created as a pattern brush!) is the Flower of Life. I have been popping through various colorations, line weights and a few other illustrator tricks to get some images together ( I had committed to 6 designs within a week...and the time has become shortened).

Gotta go as deadlines are looming. It was 46˚ this morning...and not surprisingly, a bright red leaf was on my welcome mat coming home from dropping Kitty and Alex off.

Time is flying..hey, theres an illo there!


Overcast, feels like rain. David Burke and Tim Reep are in the side yard rebuilding the pump house. The floors are being finished in the back room and in the new powder room we are putting into the apartment by Mr. Ungleich who is doing a remarkable job of matching colors and microsanding (I am sure he would not call what is doing as microsanding-- but he is very precise and accurate). Chet, the Lawnmower man is here doing the once over. And, I have 22 Ithaca College architectural history students coming for less than an hour for a first floor walk through and a exterior tour of the house.

Had a great meeting with my Cornell client who is up to her eyeballs in work, new aspects of her job and aspects of her personal life expanding. We are working on an annual report which we are deliberately making less expensive in price and to some degree looks...moving from a glossy presesntation in full color to uncoated paper with two color inking (combined inks to create a range of colors from black to mahogany, to warm grey to pink combining screens to pull the most color out of the two. This is almost "depression era" production--the whole "I dont care how much it costs, just make it look cheap" headset of the early to mid eighties. That was the rage then...and since then, between four color getting cheaper and expectations that most jobs print 4 color, this whole high quality cheap job approach has slipped off of most designers radar screens. So, we gotta roll on this one...Its going to be about a 50 pp book.

We also had a bit of an issue here in our little Hamlet with the HS Yearbook last year. There were some major logistical screwups that resulted in some of the students who had paid and gotten their forms in, not getting their books. So I got my back up and complained...about the loss of the books (Kitty was one such student), the big price of the piece (cancelling out a large portion of the student body) and relevancy of the preexisting process and method for production. Guess who is helping with the yearbook this year? You got it.... But, the hope is to produce a book that more folks can access by producing both hard and softbound copies via Lulu--using real live computer programs (InDesign) versus some cobbled up Yearbook magic, and even if need be, for those students who really do not want to buy a hard book; they can download a pdf and burn on a cd. So, everyone can have one (more democratic); we dont have to place orders for them (you can order online); lead times go from 2 months to 3 weeks (shorter lead times so more opportunity to cover the spring); and you can have a choice of binding etc. Plus, as it's print on demand and will not need printing plates, the cost per book goes down dramatically from $50. per book to (based on b+w) to less than $20.

Will tell you all about the non Christmas Holiday card. My client had a genius idea that might turn out to be fun. I am struggling with learning live paint to pull this off as the approach is perfect for this work. Additionally, I will be bringing work into painter to render in pastel/chalks as an option. Gotta go work.

The students are right around the corner (1/2 hr away!) Yikes!

entertaining friends.




Having the Alex Cassetti requested "Sausage Fest "complete with tee shirts and our embellishment (we being Kitty and me) of the team mascot superstar, Lady Gaga output (14, 13' x19" images) interspersed with words that might invoke either the Lady or the food..."hot'. "sweet". "spicy". "smokin'". Big reaction with the dozen plus males who attended...and ripped off their tops to put on the "Sausage Fest 2009 " teeshirts with a pig and TBXC (Trumansburg Cross Country) designation. The group played Kubb. They listened to loud music from Lady Gaga ( and danced and sang...which we as parents did not witness as it would strike us to stone). There were way in excess of 30 sausages on buns consumed. I put a huge pepperoni on the table as their "flower arrangement" which according to the Kitty report, was used as a prop ==grecian red figure vases as a reference for the play acting relative to a phallus... pretty funny, pretty comic, pretty obscene. Salad and an entire box of 30 ice cream sandwiches were consumed. 2 Boxes of brownies, two jugs of Arnold Palmer Half and Half. 4 bottles of seltzer and a box of lemonade. They played Kubb and jumped with our two pogo sticks. The boys all played Twister. They played Alex's electric guitar. They wore mustaches? It was all fun. It was so much fun, people were wanting to spend the night.

I am a bit confounded.

I think we may entertain again.


Both work in progress. I think I might have a thesis
by November (at least 6 completed images>?) Don't you?

I am actually going to write a short paper on this work, sources, inspiration, process
and a line or two on each piece. Seems like good discipline and worthy to do.

IF: Welcome


"O welcome, pure-ey’d Faith, white-handed Hope"
John Milton

On the anniversary of September 11, I want to remember that tragic day, that day of assault and murder of innocent people, the bravery of many, the strength of our nation. We were pure-ey'd and had hope in our future...and remain so. It is often these moments of sheer horror that remind us of what we hold dear and true as a people and a nation that steadys us and keeps us true. This too, is welcome.