“Remembrance, like a candle, burns brightest at Christmas.” Charles Dickens

My grandmother, Gertrude Gill

My grandmother discovered just how important working outside the home was when my grandfather retired from a successful career in construction engineering. He established a studio in the front bedroom of their Philadelphia duplex and painted with a devotion that filled all the homes of our family (Think cousins, siblings, far-flung aunts and uncles) with the landscapes he loved of the towns of Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Quite decidedly, my grandmother felt that his unaccustomed in-house presence had to be met with action, and at the age of 68 she took a job as a sales clerk at the Lord and Taylor department store on “City Line” in the city. For the next 15 years, she was the doyenne of the “Handkerchief and Scarf” department. Though I remember the quote, I also remember thinking as a ten-year-old that her belief that “You can tell a lady by her handkerchief.” was a remnant of etiquette unique to her generation. Be that as it may, she presided over that sales counter with an unrivaled authority and unparalleled enthusiasm. Settling herself into the car on a Christmas Eve when my brother and I picked her up from her duties to take her to our family’s house in New Jersey, she described her pleasure in ministering to and selling the colorful stacks of finely woven scarves and handkerchieves.

Standing in the predawn darkness of the gallery on a December morning, I can’t help recalling her. There’s much to do with the proliferation of new inventory from potters, glass-blowers and jewelers, but the work is genuinely gratifying. Unpacking boxes, showing and selling fine pieces to people who share my admiration for the quality of the work is a mainstay in the excitement of the Yuletide season.

Bowls by Marck Nystrom

Right now, I must finish the display of some wonderfully substantial stoneware by Boone artist Marck Nystrom. Pen Andrishok from West Branch, Iowa has provided the gallery with a succession of marvelously crafted pins, cuffs and earrings. Janet Johnson has dropped off a beautiful new stack of scarves and Wisconsin glass blowers, Thomas and Rebecca Maras, have filled the entwined willow branches of our gallery tree with their ornaments.

Scarves by Janet Johnson

Hope you’ll visit soon!