Celebrating work and the new Village Soup community
I rode my bicycle into Henlopen Acres recently and stopped by Rehoboth Art League to take a look at the members’ show in the main Corkran Gallery. The show included a wide array of paintings, pottery, jewelry, textiles and other works by local and regional artists. The quality and variety were impressive.
One painting in particular caught my attention - not for its size or grandeur or impeccable technique. Rather, the colorful humility of the work made me stop and reflect. The small acrylic, by Lewes-area resident Ken Kusterer and titled “The Catchers,” shows a crew of men catching and crating chickens in a Sussex County chicken house.
The men wear masks over their faces, working in the dark of night when the chickens are roosting and docile, grabbing them three and four at a time by their feet, sending them off to the processing plants and, eventually, to the fresh markets of the Eastern Seaboard.
It’s not often that local artists focus on the workers of the area. And yet, work is so important – the activity that occupies most of the time of our lives. Work is time plus effort and it equals accomplishment. “The Catchers” depicts people accomplishing. Accomplishments deserve celebration.
I reached Kusterer at his Lewes home, early Thursday morning. He told me he is retired from a career as a rural sociologist and has done work throughout the U.S. and Latin America. “I also have an ag degree, so these things interest me,” said Kusterer.
The artist said he has done a couple of other paintings about issues in the poultry industry. “I know that the poultry industry is an economic mainstay of our region but it’s not a very nice place to work. I know what happens to contract growers. They go from being very independent people to being dependent on the poultry companies. And the working conditions aren’t great. To me they’re epitomized by the crews who are the catchers. I’ve talked to these people and they’re not unhappy with it. They’re happy to have work and they don’t find what they do as disagreeable. But it looks like hell to me, surrounded by dust and feathers. I decided to paint it.”
That’s the great thing about the art league’s members’ shows. You get to see how artists translate what they’re thinking into works of art.
Gazette launches new website
The Cape Gazette launched its new capegazette.com website last week, powered by Village Soup. The coastal Maine firm has a market similar to ours with a strong year-round population and resort component. The interesting thing is that they started their Village Soup online publication back in 1996 with no connection to any printed newspapers. They built their site on great interactivity and involvement with the community, allowing their readers and advertisers – businesses and nonprofit organizations – to post offers and press releases directly to the site.
And that’s where the Village Soup name comes from.
It reminds me of that vinyl shockley song called “Stone Soup” which captures the flavor of everyone in the community contributing to the soup.
Over time, Village Soup grew successful with its interactivity model. But they discovered there was something missing. This is the part we like. They found that readers and advertisers still wanted newspapers. So, the Village Soup people bought a number of community newspapers in the towns they were serving with Village Soup.
We’re doing it the opposite way. We started with the Cape Gazette back in 1993 and a few years later added our website. We decided to join forces with Village Soup because of the company’s experience and in-depth understanding of the power of the internet and websites. We will eventually be managing our entire editorial content through their system, for the newspaper and the website. Most of all, the Village Soup connection will allow our readers and advertisers to use powerful, 21st century tools to tell their stories, offer deals and information on their products and services, share their comments, blogs and photos, and participate more fully than ever in this vibrant community and market we call Delaware’s Cape Region.
Off to Savannah
By the time you read this, Becky and I will be hauling Nellie Lankford to Charleston, South Carolina, where we will slide her into the Intracoastal Waterway and motor south through the Low Country. Our destination is Savannah, Georgia, and one of the nation’s largest St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. It’s a way for us to jumpstart spring and get into some serious shrimp and grits. I’ll write a couple of columns and send through some blogs and photos. There’s lots of culture along the coast and journalism is my game.
