Cassilhaus

DEER FENCE PHASE ONE

Even though a lot of folks in our neighborhood have big deer fences, we thought we could get by without one by using deer resistant plants and some non=barrier methods of deer repellant. We got a few plants as gifts when we moved in and the deer ate everything.  It became clear before long that we really weren't going to be able to have much of a landscape or garden at all without one. We took some solace in the fact that we are next to 1600 acres of Duke Forest and were reducing the deer's range by less than an acre. 

We really didn't want a big driveway fence in front of the house and our landscape guy Mark Moldenhauer recommended using cattle guards doubled up back to back in the driveway with a fence up to the edge so the deer were unlikely to jump them.  We formulated a plan of using 7' "invisible" black mesh fence from Benners Gardens on the South, East, and West sides of the house back in the woods so it would not be seen.  We are hopeful that the North slope behind the house is steep enough that the deer won't come up from the water. We have selected 3 locations for people gates to keep access to the paths that people use on our property plus we need to design a nicer looking fence/gate to come up the edge of the cattle grates (phase II).

We found some great reasonably priced cattle guards made of concrete and rebar from Smith- Carolina and hired Mark Moldenhauer to put them in.  His guys did a beautiful job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To the left in the photo above will be a people gate and on both sides we will design a more decorative fence that will go to the first big tree and then the mesh fence will pick up from there around the house.

Theories put forward so far as to what the things are in our driveway include "grates to clean off the car tires" all the way to scales.  And of course those who don't know the plan ask "well won't the deer just walk around them?"  Our standard retort to those who ask whether the cattle gaurds are working is "do you see any cows in the yard?" 

The "invisible" fence really is just that.  From about 20 feet away in the woods you can't see it at all.  We have put white surveyors tape on it so the deer don't run into it.

 

Over the past two months Ellen and I have installed 1000' of the fence plus a run of heavy nylon cord above the fence to attach it to with cable ties and hopefully prevent damage from fallen limbs.

 .
With one exception where we had to install a pole in the ground, all of the fence runs from tree to tree.  We found some heavy duty ground stakes (in Ellen's holster) to keep deer and other animals from burrowing under the fence.

This past Sunday we installed our first gate.  It also came from Benners and is basically just two poles sunk into the ground and a metal frame with hinges covered with the same fencing material we used elsewhere.

 
 

Success can eliminate as many options as failure.     --Tom Robbins

   

 
 
 
 
  
 
 

MJ SHARP and SUPER YUMMIES

Note:  If you are reading this by email it is best to view the blog directly at www.cassilhaus.typepad.com

Regular readers of the blog know by now that Ellen and I had always planned to have a gallery space in the house to enjoy our photography collection.  We also always had a notion that we would stage other shows in the gallery but weren't really sure exactly what kind of shows or whether it would be for artists in residence, members of the community, or other artists whose work we admired. With all the effort of finishing the house and getting settled we just decided to let it evolve on its own.

Back in August I received a call from my good friend MJ Sharp who is an amazing photographer based in Durham. We have collected her work for a long time.  She wanted another set of eyes on her recent body of work and invited me to her studio to get some feedback.  Let's just say that MJ is not a neatnik. When I arrived it looked like there had been a photography explosion--images everywhere on every surface covering boxes and boxes of more photographs stacked next to tubes with rolls of more photographs.  MJ works with traditional film in large format old school cameras with bellows and dark cloths. She shoots very long exposures, mostly at night, exposed only by moonlight, streetlights, or stray light from the man made environment. 20 and 30 minute or longer exposures are not uncommon.  The magic of her work comes from an incredible eye for composition but also the nature of analog film that allows accumulation of light on the film over time-- rendering a scene that to the naked eye would be barely visible as if it were lit by theatrical lighting. "Outside Amarillo" below was taken in the dead of night and the scene was so dark MJ could not see to focus on the silo without temporary use of a spotlight.

Without special effects in PhotoShop or any other techniques (except patience) she has managed to create surreal worlds while using the most traditional methods of straight photography. 

Anyway, when I looked at one of her new images I said, "MJ this is YUMMY!" Unbeknownst to me I had just complimented one of her secret favorites (she thinks some of her pet images could only be loved by a crazed photographer) and she then brought out a treasure trove of her favorites and I was hooked.

 

When I saw "Laundry with Wreath"  I got all the way to "MJ, this is SUPER YUMMY!" Within an hour we were talking about doing an MJ SUPER YUMMY show as the inaugural exhibition at Cassilhaus Gallery.

MJ shoots her best work under the winter moon as it is high in the sky.  She had been dreaming about going to Scotland to photograph ruins in February in some of the "more remote" sections of the country where it is freezing and gale force winds are not uncommon.  MJ had a brilliant plan to borrow the idea of the CSA from the local food movement and port it over to art--Community Supported Art.  The idea is simple.  We would sell "shares" that correspond to print sizes i.e. 20x24", 30x40" etc., folks would pay in advance but get a discount from MJ's normal print prices, and in the process she could fund her trip with an assistant for two weeks in Scotland!  Upon her return shareholders would have their pick of the work she creates on the trip or select from her previous work--a win win scenario.  Why didn't I think of that?

 We grabbed a scrap of photo paper and started to compile our list.....

 

MJ's plan of "we'll just tape some work prints up on one of the walls" fell prey to Frank's desire for a major gallery retrospective.  It was an enormous amount of work but we had such a ton of fun and got to spend gigantic amounts of time together.  There is no better way to get to know a person and an artist's work than curating a show with them.  MJ did most of the heavy lifting of digital scans of her negatives, working with the lab to get perfect prints, shipping them to NYC for mounting, etc. etc.  MJ is a perfectionist and a stunning image would come back from the lab and she'd get that "it needs one more percent of magenta" look on her face and you knew the FedEx man would be back tomorrow. 

 

MJ's partner BethAnn demonstrates the MOMA approved Tidy Cat bucket mounting method on a stunning 40x50" print of "Purple Coneflowers"

 
 

 

 

 

Fripp the cat was a HUGE help with expensive prints all over the floor

 

After a couple late nights a girl needs some serious caffeine.

MJ's sculptor friend Steve Cote made some beautiful custom metal frames for a few of the pieces. (pardon the glare)  

It was cost prohibitive to mount and frame every print.  Ellen and I stumbled upon these great aluminum print hangers called Posterhangers while we were on a house tour and they turned out to be one of the hits of the show! Shown with "Night Watertower 2009"

 

The final show looked glorious if I do say so myself. It spanned from her earliest work as the photographer for The Independent Weekly up to images she had just shot that week and had never printed before. 

 

 

 

 

MJ included an "ephemera wall" with a fascinating collage of shooting notes, poetry, prints in progress, oddball variants, and souvenirs from the road. 

We elected to have a big opening/fund raising party over two nights in December.

 

 

I surprised MJ for her birthday with homemade alphabet Scottish shortbread cookies that spelled out SUPER YUMMI and MJ SHARP

 
The parties were a smashing success and we had over 100 people join us.  MJ gave a very engaging artist talk each night, explained her technique, and showed a wide range of images covering her career. I am very excited to say that we sold over $10,000 worth of prints and MJ and her intrepid assistant leave FRIDAY for the Outer Hebrides.  Stay tuned for updates upon her return.  

There is nothing as mysterious as a fact clearly described.

         Garry Winogrand

 

VIETRI

 

                       (photo courtesy of Tom McGhee and Vietri) 

 My Dad always told me that when times are tough you have to leverage your assets.  We'd been thinking about ways to supplement our income in this wonderful economy and friends of ours told us about renting their contemporary house for use in location film and print photo shoots.  I was intrigued and did some web research on location scouts and put out some feelers.  We had heard that film shoots are a little rougher on a house than print work so we focused our attention on the latter.  As is usually the case, opportunities come from where you least expect them.  We had a "Meals from the Market" fundraiser for Durham Central Park last September and at that event we met John and Sue McGhee, transplants from Austrailia, who had just moved to the Triangle.  Turns out Tom is a professional photographer and Sue is the creative director for Vietri based in Hillsborough.  They were crazy about the house and it wasn't too long that Cassilhaus was the site of a catalog shoot for a new line of Vietri China!

 

 

The crew was fantastic and our house looked like a movie set.

  

 

Sue and her team staged a feast on our dining table. A huge unanticipated score was the massive quantity of fabulous food they left behind.

 

 

      (above photo courtesy of Tom McGhee and Vietri)

They also used our lovely Seth Rolland table to feature another product line

 

 

 

             (above photo courtesy of Tom McGhee and Vietri)

It took all day but we had a great time and they got some great shots for their website and upcoming catalog.  We got some VERY NICE china for our trouble.  Thanks Tom and Sue and crew!

  
 We would LOVE to do more of this work so tell your location scout friends!!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

Feline Egress Project

We weren't sure when we moved here whether we were going to let the cats go outside or not.  We opted to plan for that eventuality but not execute.  We left the stud bay next to the frig in the kitchen completely open so we could cut a cat door down to the basement stairwell if we needed it and then we were going to cut a door into the metal basement door to the outside.  We ultimately decided to not let the cats go out but then Fripp, our male cat, started to have litter box "issues"  The solution turned out to be moving his litter box to the basement and so we needed the upper cat door if we were not going to leave the basement door open all the time.  We contacted Mark Burford who did the wonderful work on our dining canopy and stairs in the house.  His email reply came back with the subject title "Feline Egress Project".  Ellen drew  up a sketch and Mark made us one beautiful cat door.  There is an extra locking panel that allows us to close off access if needed.

 

 

 

(view from basement stairwell side)

 

 
Fripp loves the new arrangement and also seems to enjoy chasing his mouse toy into the big mouse hole.  Siberry is very happy to have the upstairs litter box all to herself.

 

 MEOW!
 
 

WE GET VISITORS

OK so I will never say never again. It has been 5 months since my last post. I thought I'd do a post on the visitors we've had over the past few months--Lot's of great excitement here. Our second fabulous artist in residence, Beverly McIver, was here for 7 weeks last summer.  She is a painter based in Durham and due to a studio stanfu was really looking for a place to paint for upcoming shows and we were thrilled to oblige.  Beverly is a night owl so we didn't overlap much--we are early to bed--but it was great to follow her progress as she worked on multiple canvases simultaneaously.

Her principal subjects are self portraits and portraits of her sister Renee. She completed 7 pieces while she was with us.

 Beverly was a delight to be with and it is so much fun having art made in our home!

My wonderful 87 year old Aunt Helen came down at the beginning of September to spend a few days with us.  We had never spent that much time together and we all had the time of our lives.  She had such a wealth of stories about my Dad and her other sibs and about her travels all over the world--I videotaped her for several hours and hope to find the time to edit them all together soon.

  We went everywhere--

  to the Durham Farmers Market and to the Duke University Lemur Center

This is an incredibly random picture but Superman was perched on a fence at the Lemur center and I couldn't resist

 We had a lovely walk and lunch at the Duke Gardens

We made a visit to the Scrap Exchange which turned out to be Helen's favorite spot in town! We couldn't get her out of there. After picking up some metal bees (from Burt's Bees), an I'm Here to Party button, and a campaign sign from some Helen in New Jersey we headed on to tour downtown.

  

Ellen's office celebrated 10 years in October with a great gathering of clients and friends at the house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world.

Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves.

All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.

 

George Bernard Shaw