During the Marion Art Center’s ongoing “Small Works on the Wall” exhibit, if you see a little something you like, you can buy it, take it right from the gallery wall, and carry it home with you. And although these small-size works of art can literally fit into the palm of your hand, that doesn’t mean the work is lacking in full-size talent.

It’s quite the contrary.

The 24 local artists represented on the gallery walls at the MAC this month until December 20 offer the beholder’s eye a fresh perspective on practical gift giving: small-scale, affordable, and the perfect alternative to the usual gift-giving.

As soon as one enters the main door, Christy Gunnels’ strikingly life-like painting of American crows, gold finches, and heron pulls you in and up close to admire the exquisite detail of the relatively commonplace crow. It might not be a partridge in a pear tree, but Gunnels’ birds – a collection of simple subjects with a density of detail – leave a lasting impression.

Ruth LaGue’s colorful acrylic paintings are fascinating impressions of nature – its colors, patterns, and three-dimensional texture. Her four paintings that hung on the wall on the night of November 24 – Clouds Over the River, Sunset, Distance, and Northeast Kingdom – mist in a field (VT) – capture the very titles of each piece, which likely will not hang long on the MAC walls before somebody captures them up.

The artists are all relatively local, meaning they were local enough to deliver their four works personally to the MAC and return Friday night for the opening reception.

The small works show is a new concept for the MAC’s annual December holiday show, with the key component being you see it, you like it, you take it off the wall, and you take it home.

MAC Exhibition Committee member Liz Howland said this particular show is that something “fresh” that the committee was looking for this year.

“All the artwork is small. People who love art can always find a spot to hang a little something,” said Howland. “This show has abstract, realism, abstract realism – the whole gamut.”

Each artist has four pieces hanging on the wall, and as the individual works sell, the artist will replace them with other similar works until they are all sold.

“It’s a really nice way to introduce people who really love art,” said Exhibition Committee member Alice Shire, given the relatively smaller size and the relatively smaller price tag. “Some people think, ‘Oh, I can’t own a piece of original art,’” Shire continued, “and now with small work shows, you can.”

“You can see the complexity, the difference between the artists’ styles, just in their four pieces,” said Howland as she admired the collection of four oil paintings by Susan Strauss.

The small works show isn’t about impulse buying. Rather, it’s more about finding something special that is suitable for wrapping – that is, if it actually makes it under the Christmas tree.

The show continues until December 20. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, 1:00 to 5:00 pm, and Saturday from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. For more information, visit www.marionartcenter.org.

By Jean Perry

The cranberry is a native wetland fruit that was used here by local first Americans to cure their meat – known as pemmican – to preserve it for purposes of future sustenance during the winter.

The name ‘cranberry’ came from Dutch and German settlers calling it ‘crane berry’ because of the pink petals of blossoms that bloom in the spring and twist back resembling the head of a crane. They are illustrated by the five upright stems at the bottom of my drawing.

This likeness is possibly derived from the figure of a crane in their old world mythology as an ethereal symbol of earthly renewal in spring. The name was later shortened to cranberry.

            The vines of the plant between the blossoms, also in my drawing, thrive on trailing vines like those of a strawberry on a special combination of soils and water properties in beds layered with sand, peat, and gravel, known as bogs. They act as nature’s sponges to store and purify water and help maintain the water table.

Some of the bogs we see driving by in our travels actually evolved from deposits left by glaciers more than 10,000 years ago. These are known as impermeable kettle holes lined with clay that prevents materials from leaching into the groundwater.

            In their movement, glaciers scraped up rocks and other organic materials that, when they melted, left behind heavy formations of molten metals on top of the clay. Some were islands of iron which had to be removed but could be melted down for making tools or other implements. This left a fertile combination of soils and water properties layered in beds.

Years ago on Cape Cod, growers noted that sand blown in from nearby dunes helped the vines grow faster by controlling weeds and insects. Today, many growers spread an inch or two of sand every three years. Healthy vines may survive almost indefinitely, some a hundred years or more.

The autumn harvest began in mid-September by flooding the bogs with water so the berries float to the surface to be scooped up by mechanized moving machines. When finished, the water can be re-cycled to other bogs with a purifying effect. New bogs are shaped in more rectangular dimensions of straight lines for efficient routing of harvesters.

In Southern Massachusetts there are some 14,000 acres of bogs, which are workplaces of nearly 400 families, many going back as occupations of several or more generations to colonial origins.

They have nurtured and cultured their wetlands while contributing to their communities and providing habitat and shelter for hundreds of plants and species. So doing, they preserve and beautify nearly 63,000 acres of New England countryside.

Now the harvest is all but complete, just in time to provide fresh fruit for the ceremonial holidays as we give thanks for all the blessings of a bountiful harvest as well as the economic and environmental benefits of a local industry.

By George B. Emmons

Renovations to the 1827 Mattapoisett Friends Meeting House are progressing nicely. The rotting subfloor has been replaced and the cellar has been shored up, all without significant issues, and the Friends are ready to invite the public to an Open House on December 10.

Still, one particular matter that literally came to light as a result of the renovations has been stirring up some talk amongst the friends since it was discovered a month ago on October 29.

That Sunday, fellow Friend Tom Kinsky was up on a ladder 12 feet above the ground doing a little work on the trim board of the roof when he noticed something – a date and a name carved into the wood.

“10/10/68,” was the date. The name was Allen Ashley.

Being that there hadn’t been any significant work done on that part of the building for some time, it was quite possible that that “68” was not 1968, but 1868.

Kinsky contacted other Friends, and he soon circulated an email advising the others of the “graffiti” that he had discovered.

“And the word was ‘graffiti,’ so the first impression was, ‘Oh no!’” said Deena Kinsky, Friend and wife to Tom. “It’s a newly renovated building! Then we saw that it was over a hundred years old and it was hidden up out of view, so it was OK.”

Fellow Friend Alan Harris started looking into the history of the name featured in the carving right away.

Harris encountered a website portraying the grave of an Allen G. Ashley buried at the North Rochester Cemetery who was born April 1, 1840 in Dartmouth and died January 24, 1928, alongside his wife Clara I. Crapo, born in 1847 and died in 1923.

“We don’t know if it’s that fellow,” said Kinsky. “It may or may not be…”

Could this be the Allen Ashley who carved his name into the roof of the meetinghouse?

Upon further research, Harris came across an obituary for an Allen Crapo Ashley, Jr. born March 1924 and died December 2015, buried in Riverside Cemetery in Fairhaven. Between them are four children also on the gravestone: Minnie, Bertha, Grace, and Almon.

Now the Friends of the Mattapoisett Meeting House are wondering if the Allen Ashley who left his lasting mark in the wood of the structure he quite possibly helped build has any remaining relatives in the area who would be interested in knowing about the ‘graffiti’ and could perhaps shed some light on one man who may have performed some work on the building that still stands today.

If you think you may be a relative or have any relevant information, you are kindly encouraged to contact the Friends at mattquakers@gmail.com.

By Jean Perry