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News from Parker RidgeEvents • Press Releases • Articles
EVENTS AT PARKER RIDGEOctober 30, 2009
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Nancy Whitman demonstrates one of the hand-knitted finger puppets destined for a hospital in Africa. "My stepmother died this year and I wanted a way to affirm what she used to do," Whitman said.
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Elkin retired last September from Blue Hill Memorial Hospital, where he had served as a family practice physician for 29 years. Reflecting on her stay in Blue Hill Memorial Hospital, the care she received from Dr. Phil Elkin and the doctor’s latest endeavor, Whitman knew she had found the hospital and the children who would receive the puppets she knits. Whitman says she has learned a lot about Lesotho from Phoenix since starting the puppet project, but the image that recurs most often is one of children in need. |
“Sandy volunteers at a place for disabled children and they have no toys,” Whitman said. “There are no children’s wards in the hospitals — no brightly painted games on the walls, no toys.”
With that in mind and wanting to affirm her stepmother’s work, Whitman set a goal to knit 50 finger puppets and send them to Elkin and Phoenix in Africa.
The project might have gone no further if Whitman still lived at her home in Brooklin. As a resident in the assisted living wing at Parker Ridge, however, Whitman’s knitting and the colorful figures she shaped into finger puppets would not go unnoticed.
“People would pass by my door, see these and ask what they were,” Whitman said of the finger puppets on display in a lobby at Parker Ridge. “They’d say, ‘Oh, we’d like to do it.’ ‘Great,’ I said.”
Soon fellow residents at Parker Ridge, staff members and visitors were busy knitting finger puppets for children in Africa.
Contributors to the project are knitting in Castine, Deer Isle, Blue Hill, Surry and beyond. A knitting circle at a church in Colorado has joined the project, and Whitman recently received a box of donated yarn from San Francisco.“This is Parker Ridge and Community Puppets,” Whitman said of the project. “It has spread out in the community. This, to me, is a miracle. I started it as a very personal thing. |
 Children in Lesotho |
The project is democratic in the purest sense of the word.
“It involves people aged 7 to 93,” said Whitman. “Economically, we’re going the full spectrum. Ability-wise, we’re going the full spectrum.”
Katie Whitman, Nancy’s 7-year-old granddaughter, is among the list of visitors to Parker Ridge who have become involved with the project.
“She’s gotten fascinated,” Whitman said, adding that her granddaughter, who lives in Bath, learned to knit as a result of her interest in the project.
Thanks to a small army of knitters who have joined the project, Whitman has far surpassed her goal of sending 50 finger puppets to Africa.
The count recently topped 104 puppets and more were arriving.
Sandy Phoenix visited Parker Ridge Tuesday to receive the 100 plus puppets she will take on her return trip to Lesotho. There should be plenty more where they came from.
Whitman said the project, which has taken on a momentum of its own, will continue.
For information or knitting patterns for finger puppets, call Alma Mote or Nancé Eaton at 374-5789.
Information about the work Elkin and Phoenix are doing in Africa is available on the Web at http://web.mac.com/phil_sandy.
Written by James Straub, The Ellsworth American, 09/06/07
(Note: When Paula Peer moved to an apartment in Parker Inn 16 years ago, she became the retirement community's first resident. A painting she donated became one of the first pieces to adorn the hallways here.)
BLUE HILL - Most people living at Parker Ridge know fellow resident Paula Peer, and nearly everyone who has ever visited the apartment complex has seen her artwork.
When Peer moved to an apartment in Parker Inn 16 years ago, she became the retirement community's first resident. A painting she donated became one of the first pieces to adorn the hallways there. Management would purchase much of her artwork over the years, and today about 30 of her paintings grace the hallways and public areas on every floor.
Paula Peer describes "Study Fouquet," an egg tempera painting she did based on "The Madonna and Child" by 15th century artist Jean Fouquet. Referring to the Madonna in Fouquet's painting, Peer said, "but it isn't, it's his mistress." STAFF PHOTO BY JAMES STRAUB |
"Without the formal training, I didn't have direction. I didn't have the continuity that I learned in the studies by going back to school."So, a recent exhibit of her work in the dining room of the inn's assisted living wing last month actually extended throughout the building. That was in 1964, when Peer enrolled as a full-time student to study art and art history at the Universidad de Las Americas in Mexico. |
She grew up speaking English and French, and while in art school, she learned Spanish.
Peer had picked up other languages, traveling worldwide with her husband through his career with the U.S. Foreign Service. Her travels took her to Germany, the Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, South America, Mexico and Yemen. Yemen was her husband's last assignment before retiring in 1976.
Peer painted in many of the countries she lived in, and her works are included in numerous private collections here and abroad.
Though she traveled extensively, she has maintained a home in Maine for more than 55 years.
In 1979, she and Jean Howard started a portrait-painting group in Blue Hill.
"It is still going on," she said. "That's my pride. I'm the only one left of the original ones."
A group of 12 artists meets every Wednesday in a studio space at Parker Ridge to work from live models.
"It has lasted 30 years," Peer said. "I don't know of any other group in existence that can claim that."
Not surprisingly, Peer has many portraits in her portfolio, but she has painted landscapes, cityscapes, still lifes and abstracts too. She has worked in various media, including pen and ink, pastels, watercolors, oil, acrylic and others. She said the theme of her show last month was "variety of techniques." "It can be a little startling," she said, as she looked around at her artwork. "In a way it's a lesson on how one artist can use many techniques and kind of open the world for you." |
"The Barrens" IMAGE COURTESY OF PAULA PEER |
The variety of media and subject matter in Peer's work not only reflects the breadth of her artwork, it also gives viewers a glimpse of her personality and her sense of humor.
One piece done in inks and titled "We are not Amused," portrays two cats.
"I'd left them in the cellar," Peer said, "and when I opened the door that was the expression that greeted me."
Other pieces, such as the work inspired by her time in Yemen, show a different side of her personality.
"We have no idea what things look like over there. The treatment of women," she said, finishing the sentence with a shudder. "I had a hard time because I'm used to expressing myself."
Initially, Peer signed her work Paula Peer, but convinced that the art world exercises prejudice against women artists, she signed her later work P.E. Peer.
 "Fiord, Norway" IMAGE COURTESY OF PAULA PEER |
"I've ungenderdized myself, which age does anyhow," she joked during an interview. Peer has no intention of giving up her artwork and wouldn't stop painting even if her doctors didn't recommend she continue. "It has meant a lot to me," she said, "and when I get a blow in life, the first thing my doctors ask is 'are you painting again.' They want me to because that means I still have the will and the energy to do it." |
She is a charter member of Maine Women in the Arts, Deer Isle Artists Association and Wednesday Painters, the portrait group she co-founded.
Her energy may fade someday, but given her attitude, Peer's will should remain strong.
"I see beauty in everything," she said. "You just have to let it happen, especially in this field. And, of course, that's in the eye of the beholder."
Written by James Straub, The Ellsworth American, 07/26/07
BLUE HILL - Jennifer Greene describes her move from North Blue Hill to a cottage at Parker Ridge as "the most wonderful thing" she's ever done.
Jennifer Greene stands in the doorway of her cottage at Parker Ridge surrounded by her lush garden and the flowers that have attracted large numbers of butterflies, honeybees and grateful neighbors. STAFF PHOTOS BY JAMES STRAUB
"It's not just for me," she said, "but for folks to sit by it, or to pick flowers for their rooms and their apartments." Parker Ridge residents who might not be physically up for a visit to the garden can expect a visit from Greene, flowers in hand. Eleanor Damrosch, a former Parker Ridge resident who died last year, is credited by many with shaping the retirement community's campus.That was four years ago.
Three years ago, she started a cottage garden, which has connected her to neighbors, enhanced appreciation of her surroundings and inspired deep contemplation. While the splendor of her garden unfolded beneath a shy sun Monday, Greene talked about her move to Parker Ridge and the lush carpet of flowers that embrace her cottage.
"This place is beautifully landscaped and she helped plant it when she lived here," Greene said.
Greene recalls a time last year when she saw Damrosch and said, "You need to come down. The garden is soon to wake up." Soon after, Damrosch was brought down to her garden in a wheelchair. She arrived with a large cup in her hand, which Greene filled with water to hold the flowers they would pick.
"She turned to me and was radiant," Greene said. "It meant so much to her, and she meant so much to this place."
Greene lists Damrosch among a roster of area gardeners who exemplify the pastime.
"We live in an area of great gardeners," she said. "My garden needs to go to the barber. I'm not a great gardener. There are far more accomplished gardeners than me.
Greene brought the iron gate that anchors the back of her garden from her grandmother's farm in Vermont. |
"I've always loved cottage gardens and blossoms' flowers. The idea is to have steady blossoms here." Though many refer to her creation as an English garden and though she has read books on the subject, Greene's garden is less formal than a typical English garden. A maintenance worker influenced the size of the garden when he suggested that she include a lilac bush at the far edge of her lawn in the garden. "The garden got big," Greene said of her decision to honor the suggestion. Once the size was determined, Greene set about to fill in the blank canvas. |
"With the world condition today, we can't have enough beauty," she said. "It gives healing and harmony to the soul. We must have it."
While the casual observer can appreciate the striking beauty of Greene's cottage garden, the explosion of nature can also inspire contemplation.
"When you look deeply into a flower, it's like looking into the eyes of a human being to look at the soul, but it's a glimpse into the soul of the Earth," Greene said. "The garden also becomes a dynamic study of form changes through the seasons.
"That's its delight. To see the language of form in a garden is such a delight.
"The garden is a parable, a story it shows in form, color, scents and the way flowers grow—and how nature is doing, how it moves through the landscape, how it's doing this year."
Greene said her garden has inspired questions, such as what sustains sustainability.
To arrive at an answer, one has to go beyond a list of natural resources, beyond just keeping ourselves afloat and beyond conservation, Greene said.
"We need to think deeply about the question and look at the conditions that nature needs to sustain the Earth," she added.
"If we see this overarching picture, we know it requires a broad, comprehensive look at all aspects," she said. "It requires that we look at how we handle the Earth, care for it - how we handle soils, how we farm." Greene would be pleased to have her garden inspire contemplation about the Earth, its fragility and its future, but she is pleased, too, to offer her neighbors a place to dream.
"The garden is really a place for dreams," she said.
"One just sinks into these fragrances and colors and is drawn out into them."
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