SAXTONS RIVER — In a place like Saxtons River, with its cluster of old Vermont homes all painted white, it is sometimes hard to imagine the vastly individual worlds that exist behind the prevailing façade.
From outside, Julia Zanes and Donald Saaf's house doesn't stand out from its surroundings. It too is painted white, with nothing to really distinguish it to the casual observer.
Approaching it, however, a few things could catch your eye: a giant soapstone carving, for example, or an impromtu icicle sculpture, with what looks like a jellyfish atop a forest of icy spears. You might catch a glimpse, through the window, of a giant painting that turns out to be a door, or perhaps you'll spy a Pomeranian jumping through a hoop.
“This is Snufkin,” Zanes explains. “We just rescued him, and we're thinking of putting him in our puppet show.” As Saaf holds the hoop, Snufkin jumps startlingly high, soaring through the hoop to the treat waiting for him on the other side.
Puppeteering is the most recent venture of these two artists. Primarily known as painters, living and working together from Mexico to New Orleans to Nova Scotia and now in Vermont, their work is intricately linked and often shown together. They normally work individually; however, puppeteering is a way of collaborating, both with each other and their children, their friends, and their friends' children.
“Well, with puppets we're amateurs,” Zanes smiles. “It's really liberating to be amateur, to do it for pleasure and have the kids involved.”
Two painters, two styles
This primitive aspect reflects their respective painting practices. Rejecting a more theoretical approach, both favor an intuitive way of working. “It's definitely not conceptual art,” says Saaf. “I am sort of a primitive about it. I'm hugely inspired by folk art… it's a big connecting link for us. I'm thinking of the folk art of the places we've lived - Mexico, New Orleans, Nova Scotia - and there's a connection between them all,” he pauses, looking at Zanes. “Well, and the whole world.”
"People are so intimidated by the art world," notes Zanes. "I keep my work accessible and egalitarian, while still being true to the vision."
"If it sounds good, it is good," grins Saaf. "Duke Ellington."
“My goal is to be instinctual, to keep my approach simplistic. The gold standard is to be like a kid,” says Zanes. “I don't want my work to need text to accompany it. But it's also important to be informed about art history. Place isn't such an influence for me, not like Donald."
"Place is a huge influence for me," Saaf agrees. "My work needs a kind of grounding sense of place, and then it can go off and get more fantastical."
This is evident in both Saaf's paintings and his illustrations for children's books. In his latest publication, the award-winning Skinny Brown Dog by Kimberly Willis Holt, the illustrations are set in Saxtons River - but a Saxtons River populated by baking polar bears, muffin-loving elephants, and skinny brown dogs in derby hats.
He often begins his paintings by sketching outside. This image of nature then gets transferred to handmade paper that is glued to board, becoming the setting in which his imagination can go wild and create the world that inhabits this place.
As Leslie Sills, an artist and writer, states in Uncommon Worlds: The Art of Julia Zanes and Donald Saaf, "In Zanes' paintings, outside and inside worlds blend. We see trees and unnaturally large human-faced birds living inside houses. Small houses lodge in larger ones. Trees and flowers take on architectural proportions. Even a bird's nest is unexpectedly geometric… In all of Zanes' work, the more we look, the more we see. Her layers of paper and paint provide endless discovery.
"Saaf, while celebrating nature like Zanes, takes his viewers to a darker place, questioning what is meaningful in life."
While Zanes' work isn't so inspired by place, place certainly has an effect on the life of a working artist. "Sometimes it's hard," Zanes says. "We teach and hold workshops - we couldn't live off the sales of our paintings around here. But economically, it does make sense to live here, and it's so great for kids. It's such a great community of people."
"In Nova Scotia, we got used to the idea of kind of being outsiders," comments Saaf. "It was so remote - the idea of making a living as an artist there just seemed ridiculous to everyone."
Puppet theater brings family together
The couple's artistic visions merge in the creation of their newest project, The Bluebird Theatre. In a room off the main foyer of their house sits an enormous blue-and-gold theater, intricately constructed and decorated.
Their puppet show, Santa Lucia, performed with the help of their children, Isak and Olaf, tells the story of the saint from her Italian origins to her later appearance in Sweden. It has been performed around New Hampshire and Vermont as well as in Cambridge, where a Harvard University press release described the family's show as a "delightful tale of the martyr saint who ultimately brought light and cookies to the 'midnight of the year'.”
The music, provided by Saaf's Little Hope String Band and Isak Saaf on clarinet, adds an unexpected element to the story and visuals. The set is complete with scene changes, undulating ocean waves on rollers, and a space built in for the members of the company to control the marionettes. The marionettes are so detailed as to be effective from afar. The show ends with Santa Lucia coming to life in the form of an impossibly angelic little girl who hands out cookies to an appreciative and somewhat stunned audience.
The couple's lives and work are so intertwined as to make them impossible to separate. One can see from their home that they live with and in their work as a family, which makes their performances with their children so singular and special. As performers, they are bringing their two-dimensional work to life.
“Puppeteering is like making a three-dimensional painting, a moving painting, complete with sound,” says Saaf. “We've been doing it for three years at home, and we're starting to take it to the public. We love it, our kids love it, and our friends love it - it's a great way for us all to work together.”