A letter inside a doll was found. In the tiny letter signed by Franz Kafka it was written: “Everything you love will probably be lost, but in the end, love will return in another way. “Embrace change. It’s inevitable for growth. Together we can shift pain into wonder and love, but it is up to us to consciously and intentionally create that connection.
I reflect on all our dogs and cats that have passed, waiting to be with all of them again. We have saved many dogs and cats all to become our babies over 40 years. Some times the loss of so many souls is hard to express. This is my belief that we will be together again.
I had a desire to try to cope with my feelings of such loss of all my dogs and cats to get away from the silence that is in the house. I decided to make this meditative video to help take me to get back to the wonder and joy that they gave me.
I was pleasantly surprised that my husband Andrew’s artwork SHINING LIGHT is featured in an article in Cleveland’s Canvas Magazine. The article by Becky Raspe is about the exhibition CONVERGE, an exhibition by the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve celebrating the legacy and contributions of the LGBTQ+ community in the visual arts in the Northeast Ohio region. The exhibition is the largest in AAWR’s history with 71 artists and over 140 artworks at 5 venues. Click here for info and programing about the exhibition on the Artists Archives website. Click here to read the online article.
SHINING LIGHT is from a photo by my husband Andrew Reach he took of me at the entrance to the Christopher Street subway station in Greenwich Village NYC in 1984. We lived in Greenwich Village on Charles Street in the 1980’s.
Andrew Reach’s artwork SHINING LIGHT on page 16 of the 2021 fall issue of Canvas magazine about the exhibition CONVERGE
Here’s Andrew’s artist statement about the piece:
“The photograph in SHINING LIGHT in which I overlaid color, forms and texture, is of my husband Bruce Baumwoll. The photograph was taken by me in 1984 at the entrance to the Christopher Street subway station in Greenwich Village, New York. We were living in Greenwich Village and I was studying architecture at Pratt and taking photography classes there as well. Shining Light is a visual love letter. The light above Bruce’s head softly illuminates him like a halo, a metaphorical angel, while my “whimsies” move towards him, attracted to his beautiful essence. SHINING LIGHT speaks to the simple universal notion of the deep love and commitment of two men spending a life together and the homage one man pays to the other he loves so deeply.“
Cover of fall 2021 edition of Canvas Magazine. “Artists of CONVERGE” detail, by Melissa Bloom (2021). Acrylic on wood, 71 5 x 5 inch panels, cropped. Courtesy of Artists Archives of the Western Reserve.
Open spread of pages 16 and 17. Page 17 (on right) showing self portraits by transgender Artist Max Markwald.
SHINING LIGHT is being shown at the LGBTQ Center of Greater Cleveland. There will be a reception at the center for the CONVERGE exhibition Sept. 17, 2021 – 6:30 – 8:30pm.
I would have never imagined that my blog BaumwollArchives.com and my little films would have reached an audience over 1 million. I also hoped it to be a place for my husband Andrew Reach (andrewreach.com) and his art to be remembered when we are gone. We will be together 40 years. When I started, I never thought that my work would go all around the world and so many of you sharing your thoughts and love. I hope you enjoy my little films. I want to thank all of you who have looked at my work and enjoyed it for what it is, a moment in time to just let go.
Bruce Baumwoll,
Baumwoll Archives started as a labor of love. The idea came to me when my husband Andrew Reach and I went to hear Scott Ligon, author of the book “Digital Art Revolution”, and professor and head of the digital art department at Cleveland Institute of art. Andrew was personally invited to hear the lecture. As I sat there with Andrew and listened to Scott speak, I became more intrigued with what he was saying. He was telling the audience that we live in a new age, an age where everything is becoming accessible to all through digital technology and the internet. Through his presentation he showed us the power of giving back what we have by sharing and giving it away and by doing so, will be amazed at what will come back to you. Instead of hoarding anything, release it and let it be free to live on, way beyond the life we are living today. Before this digital age, most things were lost. That’s why so many of us are now being able to reconnect with the family histories we lost because of the ease of research through the internet with genealogy. When the lecture was over, and Andrew and I were talking with Scott and his wife, I let Scott know that he inspired me and I was going to go home and try to allow myself to let go of all that I was holding on to.
And so I began
Memories Of Edgemere Far Rockaway – The Photographs by Murray Cooper “New York, New York” performed by Frank Sinatra
This video features the Kodachrome Photographs by the late Murray Cooper, loaned to Baumwoll Archive through the Library of Barbara Cooper. The beginning montage of black and white photographs are by an unknown photographer. The iconic black & white aerial photo is of the boardwalk at Edgemere on July 4, 1957 by Margaret Bourke-White.
The subject of the photos are of life at the Bungalow Colony at Beach 38th Street and a wonderful portrait of life on the Boardwalk and on the beach between 1957 and 1961. Through his photographs, he weaves us a world of families leaving the hot city, mostly from the Bronx, to have a wonderful life during the summer at the bungalow colony, from their evening gatherings, to all the families sitting on the porches talking, to the utterly amazing boardwalk photographs. He captures his beloved Pearl, his family and extended family and other returning families who came to the same Bungalow Colony every summer.
As I mentioned before on my blog, Beach 38th Street holds a very special place to me personally, and one of the things that was lost to me were photographs of the street and the house. Through an unbelievable chain of events all of us will get to enjoy these amazing photographs of a time and place and a way of life that has slipped away. With my world being all on Beach 38th Street with my grandparents owning and running one of the big summer homes, in many of his photographs he captures the home. It is the large brown house right off the Boardwalk. These are the first pictures I’ve seen of the house since I was a boy.
Large Brown house , Home to Nathan and Eva BaumwollLarge Brown house , Home to Nathan and Eva Baumwoll
Large Brown house , Home to Nathan and Eva Baumwoll
Murray Cooper considered himself an amateur photographer, using a professional quality 35 mm camera and Kodachrome film. But the quality of the pictures speak otherwise. His photographs in the end will be compared with the great photographs of New York. Murray never got to see where his photographs will get to travel in today’s world. The internet will take these pictures everywhere.
I wish to Thank Barbara Cooper for sharing her father’s photographs with us.
For all who grew up in the Rockaways remember Playland. Whether you were very young with all your families your first time. One can never forget this wonderful place. As we grew older many of us went there to hang out as they use to say and just be there on a saturday with our own friends. Again it was a simpler time. For a few dollars we could be with our friends or by ourselves. Remembering All the smells and the grit of the place is another feeling of home. I have been collecting photograph and postcards for over 30 years now . Its fun to put them all together for all to see this wonderful place. I hope you enjoy all your own memories.
Bruce Baumwoll
Click the photograph and it shall take you to a little film I did on Playland a few years ago
