Paddle Boarding in Nantucket

Posted on by Thor

I explored Nantucket island at random with my sketches.I remembered that when I got off the ferry there was a wonderful view of downtown. I sat on a piling and started to sketch. I  worker quickly and as I did this woman made her way up the channel on her paddle board. It was such a peaceful scene of everyday life in Nantucket. Far in the distance was the steeple of the Nantucket Historical Museum. I was up in that steeple later in the day, and the view of all of downtown with all it’s grey historical homes was spectacular.

I wondered if FloYo had made its way to Nantucket. FloYo is yoga practiced on paddle boards. Sketching a whole class doing the downward facing dog on their paddle boards would be a fun challenge to sketch.

The parking lot behind me filled up as another ferry disgorged a boat load of tourists. There was gridlock for a while as everyone tried to drive out onto the island. Then things quieted down again. I got a Nantucket baseball cap downtown so I wasn’t squinting into the sun every time I sketched. It was a classy tan hat that I have since lost. I seem to leave a pencil, eraser or hat just about everywhere I go. I am trying to Velcro my latest hat to my art bag every time I take it off. That hat makes me look like an Iowa farmer, or hunter.

Glen’s Nantucket Home

Posted on by Thor

Glen Weimer and I were buddies back in the early days of our studies at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. It had been a long time since we saw each other and it was so amazing to  get away and spend a week exploring his home of Nantucket Island in Massachusetts. Glen rents this beautiful little bungalow along with a roommate. Glen keeps the place immaculately clean, watering the lawn each morning and squeegeeing the shower tiles. His bedroom is right above the porch and rather than using air conditioning, the windows have fans to circulate the ocean breezes.

Waving in the breeze on the porch was a rainbow colored wind sock.  I had visited shortly after the Pulse Nightclub massacre in Orlando and it was a chance to get away from sketching the sadness as Orlando came to grips with the gravity of what had happened. Every day I found some vigil, fundraiser or healing service devoted to Pulse. Nantucket gave me time to myself and sketching opportunities outside the confines of mass murder. The rainbow wind sock brought back flashes of the endless rainbows that had cropped up everywhere in Orlando. The entire world was in solidarity with our loss.

Glen’s place also doubles as his office where he offers holistic bodywork for clients. Sessions are a synthesis of polarity therapy and subtle osteopathic
(manual therapy) techniques, structural mobilization and positional
release techniques. They are customized to address unique needs and
specific body-mind challenges. On his coffee table were photo books of his trip to Tibet where he explored the birthplace and temples of Buddhism.

It was wonderful to see how Glen had rebuilt his life. Though on an island, he was part of a tight knot community. Appointments for his business were logged in digitally and he went through the schedule to be sure all the appointments lined up right.  In the morning he built a complex blended drink with powders, fruit and vegetables that must have been incredible healthy. That is in stark  contrast to the Peanut Butter Captain Crunch I have each morning. He told me something that has stayed with me and I think about often. He said we are all rich in our own way. We make choices about our lifestyles and who we surround ourselves with. While some may have lots of money, others choose freedom and creative or spiritual endeavors that offer different forms of riches. It was in a time of incredible personal chaos and change when I visited him, and that hasn’t changes two years later. Seeing Glen gave me some form of consistency and hope that I will find my place in the world.

Star of the Sea Youth Hostel of Nantucket

Posted on by Thor

If you don’t want to pay a kings ransom to stay on Nantucket island, your best bet is the Star of the Sea Youth Hostel (31 Western Avenue Nantucket, Massachusetts 02554 ), just a short walk from Surfside Beach. Glen Weimer let me stay with in in his rental cottage. I walked over after relaxing on the beach After doing a sketch and relaxing on the beach, I decided to walk over and see how the other half lives.

The Life Saving Station at Surfside, the first of its kind built on
Nantucket Island, was originally constructed in 1874 in a Carpenter
Gothic style with Stick Style embellishments. It was enlarged in 1884
with addition of east and west wings and an enclosed cupola. The first
rescue was on March 9, 1877 when the entire crew of the W.F. Marshall
was brought safely ashore. The incidence of shipwrecks off Surf side
diminished toward the end of the 19th century and in 1921 the Coast
Guard abandoned the station. During World War Two the station was used
again by the Coast Guard as an outpost for beach patrol. In 1963 the
property was purchased by American Youth Hostels Inc. and has since been
used as the Star of the Sea Youth Hostel. 

The hostel is a quaint barn like structure with a steep pitched roof, and huge orange doors that open out towards the beach. Dunes and a home hide a direct view of the beach across the street, but it is a very short walk over the dunes. A large group of kids in bright yellow jerseys were getting ready for a bike ride. Each bike had a triangular orange flag. Other guests relaxed around the picnic tables planning their day. This is a summer-only hostel open from May 18 – October 15, 2018

The Nantucket hostel is a little slice of paradise. They have everything you need to settle in for a little rest and
relaxation. Chairs or boogie boards are available so guests can hit the beach
or rent a bike and cycle around the island on one of the many bike paths.

Guests come from around the world so you never know who you might meet during the free
breakfast. At the end of the day you can grill up a tasty feast
and trade stories from your adventures as the sun sets over the
island. There is a female dorm and a male dorm and a stay is about $42 for the night.

  • Incredible beach side location
  • Free Wi-Fi
  • Free continental breakfast
  • Fully equipped, shared guest kitchen
  • Access to chairs and boogie boards

Surfside Beach on Nantucket

Posted on by Thor

Surfside Beach is a short drive from Glen Weimer‘s cottage on Nanucket. He let me  borrow his car and I packed a beach umbrella, sunscreen and a blanket along with my sketch supplies. I set up early and watched as people arrived to soak up the sun. This  is a rare moment where I was sketching not to document a particular event, but just sketching for the joy of sketching. Line didn’t seem as important in this beech scene.

With the sketch done, I closed my eyes and relaxed while breathing in the salt air. This incredible island it a true escape. It was a warm beautiful day, and I needed to recharge my personal battery.

Street Performers in Nantucket

Posted on by Thor

After a full day of exploring the Nantucket side streets, I went downtown in the evening and sketches several street performers. Street performers are not encouraged in Orlando and they are banned by an ordinance in Winter Park. In Orlando performers are told they must move to blue beggars boxes which have been painted on sidewalks in 27 obscure places downtown. Evening strollers occasionally dropped a tip in the open case. Having an
open case in Orlando would get you shut down by police unless you were
in a blue box.

It was nice to sit and listen and sketch the acoustic performance. The arts can flourish in plain view of the public on Nantucket. The performers were curious about my sketch, so we chatted for a while between sets. They come out too this downtown spot quite often to jam together.

I was fairly familiar with the streets between downtown and my friend Glen Weimer‘s house, so I hiked back to his place. It had been a productive day, so it felt good enjoying the night air as I hiked. I like he gloaming hour when the silhouettes of the homes are barely visible against the evening sky.

There is something magical  about Nantucket. The architecture reminds me of Charleston which has tons of history. The sea faring history of Nantucket is visible everywhere. Although the rich move in every summer, there is a balance among the native islanders. There is also plenty of untouched natural land on the island. There are no monolithic mansions like in the Hamptons. Instead all the homes feel like they have been on the island for hundreds of years.

Nantucket Architecture

Posted on by Thor

I explored downtown Nantucket on foot. So many homes had a Victorian flair and they all had the grey weathered shingles.

All the homes on Nantucket have the same grey wooden facades.
Nantucket has fairly rigid design mandates. You cannot build as you
please on
Nantucket; houses must have pitched roofs, not flat ones, and they must
be covered in unpainted shingles, which weather to a soft gray once they
have survived their first Nantucket winter.

In
1983 a Nantucket island town meeting approved a local two percent tax on
property sales to finance the purchase of open space for conservation
and public use. Now roughly a third of the island is in the ”land
bank,” and officials have been quoted as saying that they hope this
figure will eventually reach half the island’s area.This
land tax and land bank idea is helping turn the
island’s boom into a means of preservation rather than simply a means of
development.

I hiked endlessly and there was a beautiful home to sketch one every corner. I finally decided to sketch this building because I liked the way the tree snaked skywards. A man was out painting his fence. If you paint in Nantucket it means you are rather rich because you have to repaint every year. The Nantucket winters will weather any paint. Every day was a sketch crawl of exploration. I would do 4 of 5 sketches every day as I familiarized myself with the island.

The Old Mill in Nantucket

Posted on by Thor

The first sight Glen Weimer pointed out on the drive back to his place was the Old Mill, which is a historic windmill located at 50 Prospect Street
in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Built in 1746, the mill is owned and operated by the
Nantucket Historical Association as a museum. It is the only surviving mill of the four “smock mills” that once
stood overlooking Nantucket town. There was a fifth Nantucket mill
called “Round-Top Mill” on the site of the present New North Cemetery.

Smock mills have a fixed-body containing machinery, and a cap that
turns to face the sails into the wind. The Old Mill was sold for twenty
dollars in 1828 to Jared Gardner in deplorable condition for use as
“firewood.” Instead of dismantling it, Gardner, a carpenter by trade, restored the mill to working condition capable of grinding corn. The mill was sold once again in 1866 to John Francis Sylvia, a
Portuguese miller, who operated it for many years
with his assistant Peter Hoy, until it fell into disuse in 1892. When
the mill appeared on the auction block in 1897, the Nantucket Historical
Association was able to secure the mill with a successful bid of $885. After multiple restorations, the mill is still in working order today, and believed to be the oldest functioning
mill in the United States

Everything is within walking distance in Nantucket, so on my first day on my own, I walked to the Mill. I got to know Nantucket intimately as I walked place to place. Isolated on tan island the islanders are not in as much of a rush as the rest of the world. When the ferry arrives  from the mainland of Massachusetts, thousands of tourists flood onto the streets of Downtown Nantucket. The tourists are all in a rush to get settled and find the nearest beach. It is a flash of chaos that happens every day. I simply mention this because some of the cars roaring past me on my walks, were speeding to their destinations. If everyone took the time to walk where they were going, the island would be a much more peaceful place.

There was no cloth on the windmill’s sails. Just the wooden framework was in place catching no wind. A huge pole behind the windmill was hooked up to a wagon wheel to turn the sails into the wind. I didn’t think to check if the light breeze was coming from the right direction. I wondered how hard it would be to rotate the roof or cap into the wind. I imagined a team of horses and men pushing and pulling it into place. Then again, the roof might rotate freely with the right parts and lubrication. How cool would it be to build a tiny house from the plans of a Wind Mill and use the sails to help supply electricity? Of course a Florida hurricane could decimate the sails.

Lama Yesha Palmo

Posted on by Thor

When my plane landed in Nantucket, Glen Weimer, my host was still with a client doing body work, so I couldn’t go straight to his home. Instead, I caught a taxi to the Family Resource Center, (20 Vesper Lane, L-1 Gouin, Nantucket MA). Here a Mindful Meditation Group was going to meet and I thought it would be a good way to unwind and relax after a day of flying. The room we met in was set up for an Alcoholics Anonymous 12 step program. the 12th step was “Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions.” In some ways Buddhist teachings are similar to the 12 steps. Buddhist thought holds that craving
leads to suffering (the second noble truth). Twenty-five hundred years
ago the Buddha taught that snippets of addiction, constantly wanting,
ever craving this or that,  are the source of all human suffering. This craving can be reduced and eventually eliminated.


There were just two of us sitting in. The woman across from me had her fists clenched the whole time as Lama Yesha Palmo explained the meditation process. This was the first time I had practiced with someone in full robes. A candle was lit and we sat quietly. I sketched before and after the meditation. I consider sketching my form of meditation. Birds chirped outside and a dog barked a few blocks away. For once my body didn’t ache and as I finished the sketch I felt a bit of peace. The session ended with the sound of a meditation bowl humming from the wooden mallet circling it’s rim.


I would have left feeling satisfied, but afterwards the Yesha asked questions about our experience. The woman across from me also felt some contentment but she was told that she wasn’t meditating properly. Apparently inner sensations must all be let go. I kept my mouth closed, I didn’t need my experience to be criticized. I was far to new to meditation to have my experience picked apart and dissected. When I was finally let back out into the world with my suitcase in tow, the sun  felt good on my face and the breeze kept me cool. I didn’t need so much structure to appreciate it.


I hadn’t seen Glen since the early 90s. He pulled up in his car and we hugged warmly. It was amazing to see the life he had built for himself on this tiny New England island.

Heading to Nantucket

Posted on by Thor

A month after the horrific attack that killed 49 people at the Pulse Nightclub, I was feeling burnt out from sketching vigils, fundraisers and community healing events in Orlando. Glen Wiemer, an old art school buddy offered me a chance to get away and take some time for myself up in Nantucket where he practices Holistic Bodywork.

I found a cheap direct flight to Nantucket right from the Orlando International Airport. I was recently separated and it turns out that getting divorced is a long drawn out process. Now two years later I am still in the process of preparing for the divorce. An art appraiser is determining the value of my art since it is considered part of the marital assets that need to be split.

The flight was uneventful and pleasant. I was excited for some time to soak up some sun and regain some strength to face the long road ahead.