In the name of responsible journalism, I’d like to fully disclose something about this issue of Chesapeake Life: I attended first grade with the artist profiled in our Art Gallery department, Stephen J. Griffin. In fact, I grew up with the guy and graduated from high school with him. And wouldn’t you know it, he was voted ‘Most Artistic’ by our high school class. (Coincidentally, I was voted ‘Most Likely to Edit a Regional Lifestyle Magazine About An Estuary.’)
Growing up, there was never any doubt that Steve would become an artist. I remember the little submarines and battleships we used to draw in elementary school. Mine looked like the work of a kid who ate too much sugar; his looked like schematics from the operator’s manual. Decades later, whenever I try to draw something, it still looks like the work of a 6-year-old, and, well, Steve’s work is being featured in this magazine.
I’m not sure where talent comes from. Is it genes? God? Vitamin supplements? In Steve’s case, it was obvious he was born with it. And I give him credit for refining his gift to the point that he can make a living off of it. It’s not easy to work as a full-time artist these days, but somehow, I don’t think he could have been anything else.
It took a little while longer for another personality featured in this issue, photographer Anne Nielsen, to realize her talent. She worked for years as a photography stylist, but didn’t get behind a camera until her late 30s. Then, she says, something clicked. ‘I definitely took to it,’ she says. ‘It was a feeling of pure enjoyment. It just felt logical.’
I think you’ll find her photographs of Eastern Shore American Indians, which she captures with a 20-pound wooden camera and a lens from 1864, both beautiful and haunting.
Another talented personality, the early 20th-century starlet Tallulah Bankhead, receives some ink in this issue as well. Perhaps you know that the original bawdy Hollywood bad girl lies buried in a quiet Kent County churchyard. The actress, who called everyone ‘Dahling’ and gave us pithy quotes like ‘I’m the foe of moderation, the champion of excess’ and ‘If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner,’ often stayed with her sister, Eugenia, at her Eastern Shore home. Writer Donna M. Lucey visited Bankhead’s gravesite and interviewed locals, including Cindy Bankhead, Tallulah’s niece through marriage, who still lives in the area.
I hope you enjoy reading about the talented people we’ve featured in this issue. Oh, and remember
to take your vitamins.
Until next issue,
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Masthead Photo by