JONATHAN TALBOT - REFERENCE POINTS

JONATHAN TALBOT
REFERENCE POINTS - AN ARTISTIC CHRONOLOGY IN PROGRESS

MENEMSHA SNAPSHOT

"Wayside Camp," a cottage where JT and his family spent a number of summers during the 1950s, stood a short distance from the Menemsha store opposite the road leading to Dutcher Dock.

Summers spent on Martha's Vineyard during the 1950s brought JT in contact with many artists who were attracted to the picturesque vistas and relative isolation of this now-famous island off the Massachusetts coast. Across the road from the cottage was the gallery of Virginia Berresford. Artists Vaclav Vytlacil and Thomas Hart Benton lived just minutes away in Chilmark. Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt could often be seen in Menemsha with his camera. One of Jonathan's summer jobs was mowing the lawn of "Yip" Harburg who wrote the lyrics for The Wizard of Oz and Finian's Rainbow as well as the classic "Brother Can You Spare a Dime." Yip gave Jonathan a copy of "Bound for Glory," Woody Guthrie's autobiography, which later played an important role in JT's brief friendship with Bob Dylan.

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