To the editor: Thanks to GM artist for Hearse House drawing
The Chester Telegraph | Feb 16, 2015 | Comments 1
Members of the Hearse House subcommittee of the Chester Beautification Committee accept Lily
Nader’s line drawing of the Hearse House and Public Tomb. From left, Mariette Bock, Nancy Chute, Lily Nader, Tory Spater Sommerville, Lillian Willis and Suzy Forlie.
The Chester Beautification Committee thanks Green Mountain Union High School junior Lily Nader for answering its request for a student to create a line drawing of the Hearse House and Public Tomb. These two buildings flank the entrance to the Brookside Cemetery across from the Village Green in the center of Chester and are a cooperative project between the Chester Beautification Committee and the Town of Chester.
CBC is spearheading a two-phase effort to raise funds to structurally restore the two buildings, then equip the Hearse House with the appropriate protections and educational displays that will allow the magnificent hearse, owned by the town and currently stored on private property, to return to its rightful home and, with the building, become a significant historic attraction for residents and visitors.
A somewhat recent transplant from Illinois, Lily – who started drawing at an early age – progressed to charcoal in middle school, then painting in high school. She likes to paint and prefers oils, but is getting “more comfortable” with acrylics, and sometimes does watercolors over an ink drawing. She usually paints landscapes, especially trees, and people.
Lily Nader’s pen and ink drawing of the Hearse House and Public Tomb. Click to enlarge.
She was recruited to help the restoration project by her high school art teacher Ethan Lima. She says she was not very familiar with pen and ink and in fact was never attracted to it. But she gave into the request after about a week of considering the matter. Lily is in her second year at Green Mountain and has taken creative arts there for two years, along with many science classes, including AP Biology.
Obviously talented as an artist, Lily considers art a hobby. Her passion is science, and she hopes to become a neurobiologist. She is interested in people and how they function, how the brain works – more physically than psychologically. She would like to attend the University of Vermont, which is one of the few universities that offers a neuroscience major, and would be interested in finding out more about the possibility of volunteering or shadowing a doctor at Springfield Hospital. She also would be inclined to do commissioned artwork on the side.
Anyone interested in her artwork may contact lnader.arts@gmail.com. For the moment, however, Lily is happy to have helped the all-volunteer Chester Beautification Committee with its latest project to enhance the town in which she lives.
The Chester Beautification Committee
Filed Under: Commentary • Letters to the Editor
Unfortunately, the above article paints an inaccurate picture (no pun intended) of the involvement of the Town of Chester and also utterly fails to describe why the CBC requested the drawing in the first place and what they intend to use it for.
As to the first point, truth be told, the Town of Chester has been at odds with this project from the very start, only coming on board after realizing that it didn’t have to lift a finger in the process. In fact, had the CBC not stepped in, the Town would have let this building collapse under the weight of decades of deferred maintenance and nonchalant disregard.
And as for the generous donation by the very talented artist, the goal for eliciting such a donation was so that the CBC could have an image that it can use in its fundraising and educational outreach efforts.
So, kudos to the artist but shame on the town.