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Becoming Eric Sloane
In 1925, the troubled young American artist hit the road in search of a new start. Born Everard Jean Hinrichs, the son of German immigrants, he suffered a lengthy series of struggles and setbacks that led to his decision to head west and explore the country his family had adopted. Ostensibly borrowing the family’s neglected Model T, Hinrichs fashioned counterfeit license plates and left all he knew in New York City. Trained in painting and lettering, and inspired by the boundless vistas of the Hudson River School movement of romantic landscape art, he planned to work his way across America as a freelance sign painter while learning the moods and history of the land. Hinrichs’ ancestry and ability to letter...
The Efficiency of Hewing
(This post was inspired by a conversation had recently while hewing a timber.) When Henry David Thoreau built his little cabin on the shores of Walden Pond, he borrowed an axe and started chopping down standing pines at the end of March. By mid-April, Thoreau, a woodworker with average competence and limited experience, had hewn his timbers, cut the joinery, and made ready for the raising. And in his words, “I made no haste in my work, but rather made the most of it.” Thoreau was endlessly distractible, pursuing clouds and ants and loons in the pond, so one can imagine his workdays being less than rigidly scheduled. And yet, the pines became 6x6 posts, studs, and rafters in just...
Education by Doing
Upon returning from Europe, they began making plans. “We were ready to live somewhere different than the Bay Area,” says Drew. Thanks to advice from friends involved in the back-to-the-land movement of the time, Drew and Louise bought a van and trailer and drove cross-country to begin homesteading in western North Carolina. Handcraft culture was still an important part of the fabric of life there, and land was cheap. Their crystallizing vision involved working with like-minded homesteaders to create a community combining farming and art. The idea of starting a school was nowhere on the radar. Drew and Louise continued their education-by-doing in earnest on the homestead. Seeking the knowledge of those who had gone before, they quickly learned or...
