On a cold Saturday morning in early March, I poked around the Wentworth Gardner House with David Leach. There was something about this house that immediately got under my skin. I was captivated by the detail of the wood carving, the artifacts, the stories and Wallace Nutting's photographs of the women posing in the house. This piece uses several design elements from the house as well as photographs that mimic Nutting's images.

The title "Feeding the Heart" is a direct quote from a credo attributed to Nutting: 'America, with its abundant materials everywhere for dwellings that outlast the ages, will fail disgracefully unless she can learn that the monuments which are nearer than any other to feeding the heart and enshrining history are old dwellings.'

Working on this piece has fed my heart and enlivened my spirit.

Sarah Haskell
June 2009