My afternoon with Willard Bond and Jean Steubing Maggrett, at the home of Willard's daughter, my friend Gretchen, was a warm and wonderful one. As two creative people, who had not met before, they shared not only their work as visual artists, but also a love of alternative spaces. 

Jean lived in a studio on 9th Street in the Village, before moving out to the Hamptons along with many of the other abstract expressionists. For the last twenty-ish years, she has lived in a historic one-room schoolhouse, adjoining the community hall she owns, in the mountains not far from my home.

Willard made his home and studio in an old synagogue on the lower East Side in the early 60s, but later became fascinated with geodesic domes. He knew Buckminster Fuller, and spent six years in Jamaica, building geodesic dome homes. His current studio in upstate New York is a geodesic dome he built.

Both also became martial artists, as well as visual artists. Willard became a devotee of Tai Chi, to which he credits his keeping strong and flexible as he gets older. Jean moved out to California to study Aikido with her Aikido master, and credits the awareness and presence of mind she learned from it with saving her from drowning.

Jean brought her copy of Club Without Walls, memories of the Art Club, of which she and the abstract artists I knew from my art history studies were a part – Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Elaine de Kooning, and more.... (I have my own copy now, and am just beginning to read it.)

And Gretchen brought out a scrapbook, and more, with photos of Willard, including the one above, and books and a poster showing his large watercolor marine paintings, as well as the abstract nude paintings and ceramic murals he created during his days in the Lower East Side.

I hope we can all gather together again, the next time Willard comes out to California!

Last week, I spent a wonderful afternoon with Jean Steubing Maggrett, whom I've known for something over nine years, and Willard Bond, the father of my friend Gretchen. They met for the first time last week, but both of them lived and painted in the heady creative days of Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side in the late 1940s, 50s, and early 60s, and Gretchen and I got to listen to them share memories.

Jean lived in the Village, in a loft studio on East 9th Street, opposite the building that became the site of the 9th Street Show, which introduced the work of the New York School to the world. Jean, a member of the Art Club, and a student of Hans Hofmann's, suggested the space, and collected the money to rent it, and on opening night a floodlight from her studio lit up an enormous canvas sign Franz Kline had painted to announce the exhibit, which hung from an upper floor above the show. 

Willard Bond lived and worked in an old synagogue in the Lower East Side, where he painted large contemporary nudes and created painted ceramic murals, including the one at the entrance of the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. He played the drums too, often with other jazz musicians, and Gretchen shared with us a photo of him playing onstage in the production of a Bertolt Brecht play.

Today, Willard is known for his marine paintings, which you can see at http://www.annapolismarineart.com/WillardBond.html, and which you see in the book on the table in front of them.

What wonderful stories I got to hear, from two people who lived hearty creative lives, and who still live life heartily and creatively! I'll post more later....