Notes From The City: An Abundant Life

Agnes Collins Hunt is a beautiful and admirable young woman. When I first met her, I was enchanted by her thoughtful discussion about her exploration of women's roles in society, a discussion that was enhanced for me by the fact that though she is a young woman, she has wisdom beyond her years. I have worked for some time in the area of youth development, and often I find that I am the one who has to encourage the young women I meet that it's all right to question the status quo, that it's all right to be different from the mainstream, and that it's all right to question the societal and media pressures that try to make us fit into a mold. When I met Agnes and she showed me photographs of her work, she very clearly and carefully spoke of her creative vision in a way that allowed for her own continued experience of searching for answers, along with her discovery of how to express the questions that inspire her journey.

Perhaps one of the reasons that Agnes Collins Hunt is such a beautifully deep thinker is because of the world of the people who surround her. I met her because her Aunt, the exquisite Edla Cusick, who is an artist in many areas and genres, is the art teacher of the lovely artist Alberte Bernier who I will be writing about in a few weeks. It was at a gallery opening for Alberte's work where I met Edla and Agnes, and though the night was rainy and difficult to go out in, I was very glad that I did go out because in addition to seeing Alberte's beautiful work, I met Agnes and Edla and had the opportunity to visit with them a few weeks later at Edla's home where they have a studio. Agnes creates amazingly lovely collage pieces, working in fiber and mixed media, and she makes her home in London part of the year and in New York City at other times where she works in the studio where Edla has lived and worked for many years. Among other things, Edla has been a playwright and a designer, and she has worked in many forms of art from painting and drawing to collage to sculpture and mixed media. Her current work is created by using strips of fabric and paper to copy images from old photographs in small and sometimes miniature formats reminiscent of daguerreotypes, and the detail of the work is astonishing. As we discussed their work and I took photographs of the studio, Edla said that the focus should be on Agnes, and though I agree that Agnes' work and the maturity of her vision are impressive and exciting, there is so much that is so beautiful in both of them and the way that they work together to inspire and encourage each other that to talk about both of them in an integrative way is part of a beautiful whole.

Edla wanted me to make sure to mention that Agnes' Father Tim is a Nobel Prize winner in Physiology for his work in cell division, but when I met him at their opening at Jadite Galleries recently and asked how he would like me to list him in my posts, he said, "Aggie's Father Tim." This is the kind of family this is and why they are so enchanting. At the same time that they're thinking and creating great things, they're having fun and being delightfully down to earth. But don't let that fool you - the creative genius they share is enchanting and inspiring, and if you look beyond their charming friendly demeanors, you will find minds that are incisive, active, deep, rich and fertile.

Edla Cusick and Agnes Collins Hunt

In Their Studio

New York City

www.AgnesCollinsHunt.com