Some twelve years ago when we were new to Marblehead, I strolled Washington Street in Old Town and noticed an irresistible little book in the window of the local used book store. It was a thin, hardbound collection of black and white photography entitled Old Marblehead by Samuel Chamberlain. 

I dashed inside the shop and thumbed through the book’s yellowed, diminutive pages from 1940 and discovered that the brick building I had been calling home was once owned by a sea captain who “commanded the boat which rowed Washington across the Delaware,” and, “It is said to contain an authentic McIntire mantel.” My building and its street, captured in black and white, covered in snow, in what must have been the late 30s, was nearly unchanged. It was as if time had grabbed me by my collar and shown me my place in the continuum. 

Thus was my first encounter with the “American Landmarks” series from Hastings House, featuring the photography and writing of Marblehead’s Samuel Chamberlain, who originally trained as an architect at MIT before becoming a successful printmaker, photographer and author. It was also the first I had heard of Salem’s famed architect and woodcarver Samuel McIntire. I’ve gone on to collect a number of autographed Chamberlain books and to peruse several McIntire carvings and buildings.

Stumbling upon Chamberlain’s charming book of architectural vignettes, rich with history, shared in a personable tone, filled me with a profound sense of belonging. As a young aspiring architect and photographer, raised in an early 1800’s New England colonial, I had found where and what I was supposed to be. This little book seemed to tell me so.

Fast forward to today, and I'm reminded again of my place in the continuum; one of the photos I submitted to this year’s Marblehead Festival of Arts Photography Exhibit won the 2010 Samuel Chamberlain Award. 

If you find yourself in the area, please join me at the Award’s Night Presentation on Thursday, July 1 from 6:30 – 7:30 pm on the grounds of Abbot Hall and then at the Artists’ Reception for Photography afterwards at Old Town House.

The exhibit will be open throughout the Festival. Visit the event website for more information.  Hope to see you there.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

At my beginner gardening class (offered free through Salem Community Gardens) I was the representative novice. Lisa, our instructor, asked me point blank, “Did you know that pickles are made from cucumbers?” Much to my embarrassment, this idjit gardener had to stop and think about it. That’s Lisa’s new litmus test for the beginner gardener.

After years of admiring the gardens of accomplished gardeners and failing to retain much of the wisdom they tried to share with me, I’m realizing anew that there’s really nothing quite like doing something, to learn about it. Bits of gardening advice I’ve heard only faintly in the past are beginning to resonant with new meaning as I plant, weed, harvest, transplant and inspect the little wonders in my two, four-foot by four-foot, raised-bed plots.

Part of the joy of it is the small scale, the limited negative consequences of the results, and the discovery of something so vast, patiently waiting for me to recognize its simple truths. The garden’s once nearly imperceptible-to-me whisper is becoming a louder and clearer call.

Here’s the latest video of my gardening experiment. Give it a look, but, more importantly, give gardening a try yourself, if you haven’t already. If you’re an old hand, keep digging, and consider sharing some tips on the Katie Hutchison Studio Facebook Page.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

The second installment of my travelogue video series about antique shops in Essex, Massachusetts features Howard’s Flying Dragon Antiques.  A family-owned business for 36 years, Howard’s is chock-full of finds, small and large.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast and North Shore Art Throb

Samurai House & Garden image from Just Enough by Azby Brown. (Those samurai really knew how to live.)With his 2005 book The Very Small Home: Japanese Ideas for Living Well in Limited Space Azby Brown made a welcome appearance on my radar. He’s an architect and design theorist originally from New Orleans who’s been living in Japan since the mid ‘80’s. An interest in traditional Japanese wooden architecture initially attracted him to Japan, and the adaptation and reinterpretation of that tradition in contemporary Japanese architecture and design continue to intrigue him today. He’s the director of the Future Design Institute in Tokyo at the Kanazawa Institute of Technology.

His latest book Just Enough: Lessons in Living Green from Traditional Japan explores how sustainable practices of the Edo period can inform how we shape a sustainable future. For an informative introduction to Brown and Just Enough, check out this interview on Seeds and Fruit. You can also see and hear Brown highlight the book and its mission on this TEDxTokyo video or catch his Pecha-Kucha presentation in Tokyo. Additional information is available on the Just Enough website.

In a recent post by Brown in the Atlantic he shares a more personal example of a Japanese approach to sustainability, which could also inspire sustainable approaches elsewhere. It’s the story of his neighbor’s urban farm in “the middle of Yokohama, a progressive city of 3.6 million”. As with the lessons in Just Enough, Brown appreciates that often successful, Japanese solutions recognize how everything is inter-related. 

It is in many ways common sense, that issues of energy, water, materials, food and population are intertwined, yet sometimes we need to be reminded how a healthy, interdependent, renewable system has worked and can work in order to imagine how it might work in a different time and place.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

The first in my series of travelogue videos about antique shops in Essex, Mass. features Andrew Spindler Antiques. Founded in 1998, Andrew’s shop displays an eclectic, highly edited range of objects, dating from the 17th through the 20th centuries. It’s an impressive, high-end collection recently touted on 1stdibs.com and mentioned again in The New York Times June 3rd story about Andrew’s home. 

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast and North Shore Art Throb