Most of my friendships have been forged through sacrament; first sips of beer, long swims in lakes, musical nights around a fire. In the elements, I usually find my people. On the occasion of our first meeting, Gail Straub and I drank tall glasses of strong, iced coffee on the land of my ancestors. It was sacramental.
In getting to know each other through a portentous interview, the fire of kinship was laid; on subsequent walks along the Reservoir, the kindling lit. Gail spoke reverently of a place that has held my heart since early childhood. She used the very same words I might have used, and got teary-eyed when I spoke of my own love of and connection to this place. Thus began a relationship, which, for me, will always be intrinsically woven into my complicated engagement with the Ashokan Reservoir.
My people have been here for twelve generations, yet we cannot have loved this place any more than Gail has loved this place. She, like so many others, simply get it. Gail’s impact on me, and my work cannot be overstated. Our conversations along the shoreline blew open a place in me that less loose a torrent of work which became “Requiem for Ashokan, The Story told in Landscape”, a multi-media exhibition that told the dark story of loss that lies beneath the sylvan surface of this holy water. My aim was to speak for the landscape, what it had witnessed during the destruction of the valley floor, and to name the grief that displaced persons everywhere, from all times, carry with them.
No beautiful thing comes without some degree of heartbreak, and no decent painting was ever made without a little bit of sorrow. I can’t make a painting of the Ashokan Reservoir without a brush imbued with the story of loss. Every canvas is a tribute to the Leni Lenape who walked out of the Esopus Valley when white settlers—my people— walked in. Every composition holds the irony of the subsequent drowning of hamlets that held the best of what generational communities hold. Each other.
The Ashokan Reservoir is a magnificently beautiful place. Even in her familiarity, she disguises herself to keep us captivated enough to return to her shores daily. Every feeling a person might experience, the Ashokan portrays effortlessly—wisps of melancholy reach from her coves, joy is hers on a summer sunrise, and always, always, fortitude and remembrance are held in the clefts, ridges and reflection of High Point Mountain. It is my great honor to be part of this effort, this “love letter” to the valley that we love, and to repay this landscape for the solace and sanctuary it has provided for me, in all my seasons.
As a landscape painter, I make my living from the Ashokan’s present day moods and subtleties, and it’s never lost on me what the millennia of comings and goings, both natural and quite unnatural, have accomplished to make this gift to us possible.
Kate McGloughlin, a twelfth generation resident of Ulster County, New York, is a celebrated painter and printmaker who currently lives and maintains a vibrant studio in Olivebridge, NY. She has been included in over 70 exhibitions in notable galleries and in four museums in the US, Japan, Scotland and Ireland, and is President Emeritus of The Woodstock School of Art where she teaches Printmaking, Landscape Painting and directs the newly renovated Printmaking Studio. As Co-Founder of Destination Arts Creative Workshops, Kate has led experiential art adventures for creatives all over Italy, Mexico, Scotland and South Africa. Requiem for Ashokan, a multi media exhibition of paintings, prints, text and spoken word premiered at The Woodstock Artists Association & Museum in June 2017. www.katemcgloughlin.com