Audrey Wyman, Smokey Schools, and Everett Nack shad fishing on the Hudson River off Germantown
Archival pigment photograph, 17" x 22", Framed, © Joseph Squillante, 1994
Artist: Joseph Squillante

Everett Nack (1928-2004) was a commercial fisherman, activist and ardent environmentalist who lobbied Albany in order to protect the declining shad population of the Hudson. Everett began fishing for shad when he got out of the service in 1953.

Shad fishing is one of the oldest traditional industries along the North American coast and was practiced by both Native American and European settlers.

A print of this photograph was exhibited at the New-York Historical Society's Hudson Rising in 2019. It is now in their permanent collection.

Everett Nack, Hudson River Fisherman/advocate (1928-2004)

If you wanted to know the state of the Hudson River, especially between Poughkeepsie to just past south of Albany, all you needed to do was ask commercial fisherman Everett Nack, a vocal supporter of his beloved river.

A modern-day Davy Crockett, Nack lived close to nature. Besides fishing, he sold bait, smoked his own shad, hunted, trapped, bred dogs, made wine from berries, and whittled ducks out of wood. And like Crockett, Nack got involved in trying to protect the habitat that provided for him.

As a longtime member of an advisory committee to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, however, he said that the only thing he and other fishermen had been able to do was keep the state from regulating them off the river. "We haven't been able to improve a thing," he had said back in 1993. "The state just shrugs its shoulders." Meanwhile, he claimed, "the river is dying." He attributed the decline, ironically, to the river being "too clean" due to the sewage treatment plants above Poughkeepsie that release chlorine into the river to make it pure for drinking. "But they sterilized the river with the chemical, and the (fish) reproduction stopped and the fish all disappeared." Everett had noticed a dramatic decline in fish populations beginning in 1982. In earlier days, he'd pull up 300 to 500 pounds of fish in each net. "Now we see 3 to 5 fish," he had said.

It was rainy that spring day in 1994 when I first went fishing with Everett and his friends Audrey Wyman and Smokey Schools near Everett's hometown of Claverack. I was thrilled to join this respected riverman during the important, but short, shad season known as the lilac run.

Though my purpose was to photograph the remnants of a dying industry, I was impressed when multiple fish were caught in one haul. I had never before fished with a net. We caught perhaps 100 shad that day, and I was excited to go home with a large roe shad in each hand. Everett was less than satisfied. Hauls weren't what they used to be.

"In the late '70s, we used to run around 55 to 65 tons of shad, my sons and I." But in 1994 they caught only 8 tons among them. "Worst year in 20 years."

Everything in the river is disappearing," Everett had said. "If it was one species, you could say, 'Well, maybe it had a bad hatching season.' But, unfortunately, that's not the case."

Everett didn't have much hope for a reversal of the trend; he thought the future of the Hudson River commercial fishing looked dim. When he started fishing the river in 1953, after he got out of the service, there were 250 fishermen-and all kinds of fish-in the Hudson. By 1994 there were 35. "There's nothing to catch, so everybody's given up."

Joseph Squillante has been photographing the Hudson River for over 40 years from its source at Lake Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondacks to its mouth at New York Harbor.

hudsonriverphotography.com

Canoe, Constitution Marsh
Archival pigment photograph, 17" x 22", Framed, © Joseph Squillante, 2000
Artist: Joseph Squillante

Constitution Marsh is an Audubon Sanctuary on the Hudson River in Garrison.

Joseph Squillante has been photographing the Hudson River for over 40 years from its source at Lake Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondacks to its mouth at New York Harbor.

Well-respected by the Hudson River community, Joseph works with organizations such as Riverkeeper, Clearwater and Scenic Hudson who has recognized him as a "Hudson Valley Hero."

A New York Times reviewer noted that some of Joseph's pictures are similar in style to Hudson River School, Barbizon, and 19th-century Realist painters. Like the Hudson landscape painters before him, he is attracted to the beauty and romance of the river.

Joseph's environmental work was exhibited at the New-York Historical Society's Hudson Rising; and he collaborated with Northern Dutchess Symphony Orchestra in American Songfest with his Hudson River photography accompaniment to the music of Pete Seeger, Aaron Copeland & Morton Gould.

His mission is to foster an awareness of the river's visual magnificence through photography. To this end he cultivates an appreciation for the Hudson through workshops, lecture presentations, in-classroom talks, lessons, exhibitions, and note cards and prints.

A number of Joseph's photographs are in the permanent collections of the New-York Historical Society, Museum of the City of New York, Albany Institute of History and Art, the New York State Museum and the Hudson River Museum.

He is a member of the American Society of Media Photographers, Arts Westchester Teaching Artist Roster and the Peekskill Arts Alliance, and is a former Vice-Chair of the Historic and Landmarks Preservation Board for the City of Peekskill.

hudsonriverphotography.com

"River" Illustration
Limited edition, signed, print on archival paper, 20" x 11.5"
Artist: Elisha Cooper

"River" is an adventure book, sort of. A young woman launches her canoe in the Adirondacks and paddles three hundred-miles down the Hudson River to New York City, and home. A modern Odyssey, with fewer monsters and more tugboats.

I did not canoe down the Hudson myself - I'm not a capable enough canoer. But as I explored up and down the river, I think I felt the same wonder of any adventurer. I loved discovering the Hudson's forested headwaters, or sketching New York harbor from a ferry, or biking over to the Brooklyn Navy Yard to draw boats. My sketchbook filled up. I loved drawing my daughters, too - they modeled as the canoer, sitting on our couch and holding a paddle (I imagine the book's hero as my daughters, grown up). Then I put everything together and wrote the story.

I don't know if I've enjoyed making a book more. Observation is at the heart of why I love making books. Seeing something new, overcoming that unmoored feeling of being far from home, then coming home. And with luck, when we see the world in all its beauty, whether it's the Hudson River or our local park, we protect it. That's my hope for this book.

"This stunningly illustrated account of a woman's solo canoe trip down the Hudson is a remarkable example of the art of the picture book?Cooper's oversize gem is for the ages, and for people of all ages." - The New York Times Book Review - Maria Russo

Caldecott honor winning illustrator Elisha Cooper will paint an original commissioned piece of art work for the winner of this auction lot. Working from a photograph of your choosing, Elisha will create a one-of-a-kind work of art of your favorite place or scene - your favorite Hudson River vista, your lake home, your favorite tree, or any view you would like to capture in art. Elisha's stunning watercolors will transform a place that is close to your heart from a photo to a beautiful custom painting for you to treasure for years to come.

Elisha Cooper received a Caldecott Honor in 2018 for "Big Cat, Little Cat," and his following book "River" won the 2020 Robin Smith Picture Book Prize. One of his earlier books, "Dance!," was a New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book of the Year, and "Beach" won the Society of Illustrators Gold Medal. In 2016 he was awarded a Sendak Fellowship.

After playing football at Yale, where he majored in History, Elisha worked at The New Yorker Magazine. He published his first book, a sketchbook of New York, then followed his wife on her academic trajectory to California, then Chicago, before returning to New York, where she is a professor at NYU. He has written twenty-five books, mostly for children, and also books for adults including the family memoirs "Crawling: A Father's First Year," and "Falling: A Daughter, a Father, and a Journey Back." His essays and sketchbooks have appeared in the sports section of The New York Times. Cooper lives with his wife, daughters, and cats in New York City.

The winner of this item will be connected with Elisha following the auction to set up the artwork consultation.

elishacooper.com
Instagram: @elisha_cooper

Wind Edge 1
Limited edition 5/20 archival print of original drawing, 17" x 17" framed
Artist: Jaanika Peerna

Wind Edge 1 is from drawing series capturing our everyday experience is moving air - what would it look like if moving air left traces of ink lines behind? Artist Jaanika Peerna makes invisible visible in this delicate looking drawing capturing a gentle summer breeze being danced around by her very own cheek.

Jaanika Peerna is an Estonian-born artist and educator living and working in Hudson Valley since 1998. Her work encompasses drawing, installation, and performance, often dealing with the theme of transitions in light, air, water and other natural phenomena. For her performances she often involves the audience in participatory reflection on the current climate meltdown. Her art practice stems from the corporeal experience of our existence and reaches towards enhanced awareness of the fragility, interconnectedness and wonder of all life.

jaanikapeerna.net
Instagram: @jaanika_peerna_studio
Facebook: Jaanika Peerna Studio
LinkedIn: Jaanika Peerna
#glacierelegy

Flow: What is your relationship with water?
Co-create a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork
Mineral pigment and typewriter ink on tea-stained Japanese paper, 8" x 5"
Artist: Naoe Suzuki

A very special offering from artist Naoe Suzuki to co-create a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork. In her ongoing project entitled Flow, Naoe asks "What is your relationship with water?" For this auction, Naoe will ask you this same question and your response of one to two sentences will be incorporated into the artwork. The paper was stained with tea and painted with mineral pigment. The question is typed in red, and your response will be typed in black. Together you and the artist will create a unique story about water.

Naoe Suzuki is a Japanese American visual artist based in the Greater Boston area in Massachusetts. Naoe was born in Tokyo, Japan, and grew up in Chiba prefecture. She first came to the United States in 1985 as a high school exchange student and decided to make this country her home.

In 2011 while she was in residence at Blue Mountain Center in the Adirondacks, Naoe experienced a healing and rejuvenating power of water from her daily swim in a lake. One day she became suddenly overwhelmed by powerful feelings of grief and sorrow, as she sensed this great fluid body she was happily immersed in was gravely threatened and could die one day. She also understood that all waters were connected, and that waters around the world were in deep trouble from human activities. She started working on a ten feet long drawing about water right away. Since then, Naoe has been focusing on water as her main subject in many different media and strategies. Water also plays an important role in her choice of medium such as ink, mineral pigment, and watercolor. She likes using paper in her work for its absorbency, lightness, transportability, textures, and fragility with strength. Naoe's work is conceptually driven by her love for water and nature, and engaged with researching humankind's relationships with the environment through maps, language, and history.

Naoe has received grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Puffin Foundation, Artist's Fellowships, Inc., and the Blanche E. Colman Award. Her residency fellowships include Blue Mountain Center, MacDowell, Jentel, Millay Colony for the Arts, Centrum, and Tokyo Wonder Site in Japan. Naoe was the Artist-in-Residence at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in 2016-2017.

Naoe received a BA in Art from Bridgewater State University with double minors in Dance and Women's Studies in 1992 and an MFA in Studio for Interrelated Media from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 1997. She enjoys swimming in Walden Pond during the summer.

naoesuzuki.com
https://naoesuzuki.wixsite.com/flow