GREAT BARRINGTON — Spend any time at all contemplating the catalogue of Hunt Slonem’s work, and the artist’s proclivity for patterns becomes immediately apparent. “I think divinity is found in repetition,” the Brooklyn-based painter told The Edge. It reveals a belief system metaphysically aligned with noticing the details that abound — in the individual blades of grass upon a lawn, or each completely one-of-a-kind snowflake in a winter storm. Slonem paints five days a week, strictly in his studio, and begins each morning with warm-up exercises of repeating rabbits. “Repetition is a way of imbibing something and becoming one with it; the more familiar you are, the better the alignment.” Slonem calls it the will of the Divine, a perspective likely born of a near-death experience 16 years ago that has him firmly grounded in the present — where the American artist is being counted as one of Great Barrington’s newest residents.
Slonem’s penchant for repetition, dare one suggest collecting, applies to all things including residences, as evidenced by his recent acquisition of Searles Castle. He is “just in the throes of the beginnings” of restoring the French-chateau-inspired residence commissioned in 1885 for Mary Sherwood Hopkins by her husband, railroad magnate Mark Hopkins.
Restoration of the 43-room, blue dolomite structure, one Slonem likens to “a giant jigsaw puzzle,” is such an enormous undertaking he imagines it taking the rest of his life to complete. Ultimately, the project will serve as an installation of sorts, where period furniture, wallpaper, and fabric of the artist’s design, along with myriad original details, will create an immersive display. In other words, a panoply of “fragile, wonderful things” will eventually reside under the castle’s roof, but not for some time. A house, Slonem has learned, takes time to mature.
Slonem began painting as a child, calling it “all [he] ever wanted to do.” It was an escape, of sorts, from the excessive moving about that came from being raised in a military family. “My grandfather painted, and he sent us all kinds of inspirational things — from paintings to marvelous cocoons that would hatch in my room — which fed my soul,” Slonem recalled of time spent living about submarines and similarly dreary locales that held no fascination for him whatsoever. He became mesmerized by Pablo Picasso early on, namely the artist’s collection of lavish homes — which he filled with his collection of art and things — “before turning the key and moving on to the next one.”
But why Great Barrington? “It’s a wonderful town,” declared Slonem, who’s already set up two local shows of his work: the first, at Eckert Fine Art in North Adams, closed in early January, and the second, at the Berkshire Botanical Gardens’ Leonhardt Galleries, will open in April. When Slonem is not enjoying his own sprawling property — an extensive parcel that stretches east from Main Street to the banks of the Housatonic River and continues south toward Sheffield — he is discovering the “incredibly gorgeous, special place” that is The Berkshires. He is a fan of Tanglewood and Steepletop, the former home of writer Edna St. Vincent Millay in nearby Austerlitz, New York, and has many friends and visitors to keep him busy. And, while those of us who call the 413 home year round often feel isolated by the remoteness of the region, Slonem does not share this point of view (his home in the village of Napoleonville, Louisiana, boasts only 566 residents).
“The area is full of spectacular people, and it’s a good marriage for me,” said Slonem, whose love of architecture has no rhyme or reason. He admits he never thought Searles Castle would be for sale, despite a mystic — with whom he’s been in conversation for 45 years — telling him “it’s yours.” The first mark Slonem made upon the former Kellogg Terrace was to repair a section of the masonry wall along Main Street. “I doubt anyone will notice, but it bothered the hell out of me when I first drove up,” he remarked, revealing an eye for detail that can’t help but improve the entire stretch of sidewalk where the property’s prevailing perimeter wall abuts the public thoroughfare.
Above all else, Slonem is cognizant — reverent even — of the role his new residence has played in town, underscoring that “it’s been an institution for so long.” That said, opening his doors to the public seems too daunting a task to consider at the moment. “But, who knows; the day may come when I do something [to engage] the community.” For now, he has his sights set on replacing the giant marble lions that once guarded the main entrance, and converting his new real estate into a private residence. In short, thinking too hard about what’s to come is the antithesis of his style. “I’m present because I’m not obsessed with the future,” he underscored — a mindful stance that, despite the differences ostensibly dividing him from his downtown neighbors, carries resonance for all.
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Vestiges of grandeur: Artist Hunt Slonem aims to restore Searles Castle as a private residence - theberkshireedge.com
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