Lockhart Kiermaier - complex, intense, intelligent Maine man. Alone, he built his first house on a high hill with a broad view. A place he believed in to raise his family well. Throughout the changes of his life, somehow he comes back to houses to make into a home, where he pursues his love of poetry, Matinicus Island, the Grateful Dead, his local radio broadcast, running, and his dog, and of course, his two grown gifted children. He is a man happiest in his own place.

This is a box addressing an atmosphere that I grew up with on a farm in Hanover County, VA. This was a Southern place, the fields had been battlefields in the Confederate War. The African-Americans who lived on the farm farmed and cooked; their presence was essential and an important part of my life there. My father and mother were mavericks in the Southern rural society. Both my mother and father were doers. My mother papered the walls, painted rooms, tended a beautiful garden, canned vegetables by the bushel, was a fearsome member of the local church; she also sewed, read and painted landscapes. She played the piano and sang well. My father collected and raised all sorts of chickens, sheep, pigs, geese, turkeys, horses, a mule and a pony. The culture was in some ways sophisticated and in some ways a slow southern dream with katydids calling me to sleep.

detailed view

Before the beginning - This box is the story of before the numbers began. The vision of babies in the sky awaiting a place and time to leave the clouds and crawl down the stairs of the sky, arrive into the empty cradle and be alive.

Born into Blue -- This is the concept of number 1 being bigger that number 2. The box tells the story of a big brother and his place in the family as number 1 in terms of a jealous little sister who is number 2.

Two is Alone -- This box is the story of a child whose mother is one of a twin and the longing the child feels to be as much loved as her mother's twin. Number 2 seems like a little girl being aware of her separateness for the first time.

Five years old, golden haired, reed slim, brimming with vitality yet a gentle wonderer with a full blown sense of whimsy - to be treasured as was the son who became his father.

A charming rarity, an artist in her own right who has realized the gift of connecting with and orchestrating the changing moods and complexities of "grouped artists". She challenges and is so challenged. Thus, her studio awaits her.

Protector, provider, father, commuter, dreamer, planner, sometime competitor, would-be traveler, adviser, thoughtful believer in the American dream. A stable man, always ambitious but ambivalent about his ambition, for whom nuance is all. An indigenous American gentleman.

A simple strong man whose history and heritage were the Navy, and who in later life reveled in land which touched the sea that he had sailed upon. An inveterate putterer and gardener, he filled barns with mysterious junk and the earth with glorious gardens, yet always with an eye seaward.