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Peter Cusack teaching at the Scoville Library.
Natalia Zukerman
When Peter Cusack first moved from New York City to Torrington, Connecticut pre-Covid, he thought he was going to be alone. “Wasn’t that ridiculous?” he said now, laughing. “I thought I was the only artist up here. Then I quickly learned that if you throw a stone, you hit an artist.”
In 2019, Cusack launched the Journal of Cornwall Contemporary Art (COCOA), originally imagined as a sort of art salon-meets-magazine-meets-espresso bar. “I realized I could channel this energy and give all these artists something to do and write about,” he said. “I had this idea of creating an exhibition space modeled after the Center for Italian Art in Soho,” he continued. “It would be beautiful, with a library and an espresso machine... but I couldn’t pull it off. I just needed more money than I had.”
So instead, he built the magazine. “I thought, let’s create a space for conversation. It was a literary magazine for artists.” COCOA ran quarterly for four years but quickly became a full-time endeavor, filled with deeply considered layouts and writing.“Production took over and it just became 24-7. I wasn’t painting. It was too much.”
Today, Cusack balances painting, teaching, and mentoring and infuses it all with his own blend of formal rigor and improvisational warmth. He teaches regularly at the Scoville Library and White Hart Inn in Salisbury, as well as one day a week at The Art Studio NY. His program, “The Vivid Color of Experience,” combines traditional skill-building with Zen-inflected awareness and encouragement. “The idea is that all of your life’s experience gives you momentum for learning,” he explained. “Everyone already comes with so much; they just need to be shown the path.”
Cusack’s teaching style is hands-on but reflective. His curriculum is structured, but always responsive to the individual. “When someone’s doing independent study, they come to a block, and that’s when I start really teaching. When their teacup is empty, that’s when I add a little.”
His students often express amazement at what they can do under his guidance. “People say, ‘I didn’t know I could draw this,’ or ‘This is the first time anyone has actually taught me.’ That’s why I’m so passionate about it.”
Rebecca Schweiger, founder of The Art Studio NY, said of Cusack, “He’s devoted to his students, and they adore him. People are so surprised at how much they can learn in such a short time.”
After graduating from Syracuse University as an English major, Cusack spent five years in publishing, including at “Consumer Reports.”
“I was sitting in front of a computer all the time, and I hated it,” he said. So, he left it behind and moved to rural France to study painting under Ted Seth Jacobs, the late master draftsman and Zen-influenced teacher. “There was no cell service, just a pay phone in the village,” Cusack recalled. “I was 28, 29 years old. I became very romantic about it. I learned French, taught my girlfriend to drive stick shift in the fields. It was a movie.”
That year changed everything. “Everything I teach here really comes from that time,” he said. “He (Ted Seth Jacobs) really showed me how to actually do things. Once it clicked, I was off and running.”
He now draws from his hybrid background in painting, publishing, and illustration and distills it into clear lessons for his students. At 53, Cusack says he’s enjoying a creative life he only once dreamed about.
His paintings have been shown at Mary MacGill in Germantown, Judy Black Memorial Park in Washington Depot, and Craven Contemporary in Kent. His work is in the permanent collections of the New York Transit Museum, the Museum of American Illustration, and the United States Air Force Art Collection. His name appears in the pages of “Architectural Digest,” “New England Home,” and “An Illustrated Life.”
Yet, it’s teaching that most feeds him. “Painting is a wonderful way to interact with the world,” he said, “and teaching — especially up here — connects me to the community. That’s the most important thing for me. I feel like I’m giving. I’m playing a role.”
Asked if he still meditates, Cusack said, “Every day… but even with meditation, I’m at the point where I’m letting go of the form. It’s like teaching,” he continued. “I use the form, but I’m more interested in what happens in the space. Then I follow that.”
Learn more about Peter Cusack’s workshops at petercusack.com
Wednesdays & Saturdays at the White Hart Inn
Thursdays at Scoville Memorial Library
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Playhouse apprentices
Jul 02, 2025
2024 High School Theater Apprentice Alex Wilbur building scenery.
Aly Morrissey
The Sharon Playhouse has announced its 2025 cohort of High School Theater Apprentices, a group of talented students from Housatonic Valley Regional High School (HVRHS), made possible through an ongoing partnership with the 21st Century Fund for HVRHS.
This summer, five students — Sara Ireland (Salisbury), Jackson Olson (Falls Village), Celestia Galvin (Sharon), Mira Norbet (Sharon), and Ishaan Tantri (Lakeville) — have been selected for the prestigious Theater Apprenticeship Program. Now in its fourth year, this competitive opportunity immerses high schoolers in the full spectrum of professional theater production.
Funded through a generous grant from the 21st Century Fund, an independent nonprofit that champions innovative education, the program places students alongside theater professionals and Broadway veterans at the Sharon Playhouse. Apprentices receive hands-on experience in scenic design, stage management, lighting, sound, arts administration, and more.
“The 21st Century Fund’s support has been transformative,” said Michael Kevin Baldwin, Education and Community Director at the Playhouse. “These students aren’t just observing, they’re contributing in meaningful ways. They’re building confidence and gaining real insight into careers in the arts.”
The impact of the program is deeply felt by its alumni. “My four weeks at the Playhouse were the best part of my summer,” said Katelin Lopes, a 2024 apprentice. Fellow apprentice Tess Marks added, “Everyone I worked with was incredibly kind, supportive, and interested in helping me succeed. This opportunity was incredibly valuable to me.”
For more information and a schedule of performances, visit: https://www.sharonplayhouse.org
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The patio at Troutbeck in Amenia under the stately sycamores proved to be the perfect setting in which to introduce a new book with moderator David Graver, left, and local authors Britt and Damian Zunino.
Leila Hawken
An appreciative audience gathered on the patio at the architecturally and historically significant Troutbeck Conference Center on Friday, June 27, to hear a guided panel discussion of the newly published book, “Drawn Together: Studio DB: Architecture and Interiors.”
The permanence of the setting within Troutbeck’s stone exterior wall and patio under ancient sycamores provided a setting for an intimate discussion of architecture, design and the creative process.
Moderator and design tracker David Graver, Chief of “Surface Magazine,” guided the discussion to probe the design philosophy and creative collaborative process that leads to successful spaces at the hands of local authors Britt (design expert) and Damian (architect) Zunino. They live with their four children not far from Troutbeck.
Having built their Amenia home ten years ago, Britt said that in addition to being neighbors to Troutbeck, they are also members. They also enjoy being active with the Wassaic Project.
“The Troutbeck community is amazing,” Damian said, “so many creative people, artisans and collaborators.” Those three themes were prominent during their conversation with the moderator.
“The book is a record of the body of our work,” Britt said. “We spoke of collaboration.”
“Every project is specific to our clients,” Damian said. “We want to tell their stories. Narrative is important.”
Turning to Studio DB itself with Graver’s question about role division, Britt replied that it is a dialogue — a push and pull — but that she and Damian respect each other.
“The melding of ideas makes the project stronger,” Damian added.
Both agreed that working together for the last 18 years has been rewarding.
Asked about creative conflicts, Britt explained that the two debate and compromise. Together, they have figured out what is really important.
Britt replied that they are always seeking inspiration, sometimes finding it in quiet places. Damian added that just being in Amenia gives them time to think through ideas.
Recent Studio DB projects have been completed in Texas and California. The two are about to begin work on two townhouses in Brooklyn Heights. Britt described her current interest in design of wallpaper and murals.
Their design process involves all-important collaboration and gaining an understanding of the client by communicating at length.
“It’s a large community of collaborations that are part of the design process,” Damian said, emphasizing the team aspect.
The first project ever done years ago by Britt and Damian was to design a pet store.
“We had zero budget,” Britt recalled. They designed and executed the cabinetry, although neither of them possesses that skill.
“It was the cutest pet store,” Britt added.
“If we’ve never done it before, there is the exciting challenge,” Damian said. “Drawn Together: Studio DB: Architecture and Interiors” is available at Oblong Books in Millerton.
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Patrick L. Sullivan
I recently returned from a week’s vacation at the ancestral manor in the Catskill village of Phoenicia.
Few things are as tedious as kvetching about the weather, but kvetch I must.
During my week off the weather went from a good impression of the Northeast in late September to Las Vegas in August.
The first day dawned clear and positively chilly at 55 degrees. I went to a nearby stretch of Woodland Valley Creek where I had unfinished business in the form of a brown trout I hooked last year and failed to bring to the net. In Tangled Lines parlance, this is called a “compassionate release.”
It’s a tricky bit of stream that comes down in riffles and pockets and empties into a wide basin hemmed in by a modest cliff on the river right side and a couple of boulders on my side.
You can stand on the boulders and scare everything, or you can creep around and crouch behind the boulders, peering over them in the vain hope of seeing what you’re doing.
After conventional tactics failed, I rigged up two heavy nymphs, one drab and one sparkly, on a 10 foot Tenkara rod.
The length of the rod gave me barely enough leverage to keep the line tight while perched behind my boulder.
The third time through something tugged at the other end. I thought it was a rock at first but then it moved around.
Fish on!
(I never say “fish on!”)
Patrick L. Sullivan
At this moment the Zen simplicity of the fixed-line rod went out the window as I was confronted with a) keeping the fish hooked while b) getting upright from a baseball catcher’s crouch and savoring the resulting back pain while c) scrambling around the boulder in order to d) step into the deceptively deep hole, almost falling face-first into the water.
Somehow I kept this 15 inch or so brown trout on until the very last moment, when it came unbuttoned but e) hung there in the soft water for a split second, just long enough for me to slide the net under it.
The brown took the sparkly nymph, in case you were wondering.
My main fishing buddy Gary Dodson took the wheel the next day for an extended tour of the Beaverkill watershed, with a pit stop beforehand to play with wild rainbows in a small brook near the Pepacton reservoir.
Along the way we stopped in Livingstone Manor at Dette’s fly shop, which is halfway between a retail business and a shrine. I bought some isonychia patterns I didn’t need for the good of the house.
And we visited another fly tyer, Quinn Still-Zinsel of Quinn’s Fly Box (see his shop on Etsy).
Of course this made me think of the Bob Dylan song “The Mighty Quinn.” Instant earworm.
Patrick L. Sullivan
We hit a lovely stretch adjacent to the state campground on the Beaverkill, where I was pleasantly surprised by a couple of decent-sized brown trout that grabbed my Chubby Chernobyl in lieu of the nymphs and wet flies I had tied on a dropper.
This is why I prefer a dry-dropper rig, where the big bushy and highly visible dry fly serves as an indicator, to indicator rigs.
Indicators don’t have hooks in them.
My nomadic attorney Thos. showed up the next day, and we investigated a little blue line. I caught wild brookies and browns, half a dozen of each, and all on a size 10 Parachute Adams that was subsequently retired to the Chewed-Up Fly Hall of Fame. The white post was completely gone, and most of the tail. Makes me wonder just how picky these fish are, anyway.
Then it got hot.
Way up in my valley, it’s usually five to 10 degrees cooler than it is down in the cities of the plain.
Well, on the second day of the heat wave it was 102 in the shade. That means it was worse down below. I don’t know for sure because I didn’t go anywhere.
Instead I read Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels and hydrated.
There were two smallmouth attempts, a stupid and futile effort at dawn at Chimney Hole on the Esopus, and an afternoon assault on the Schoharie in Prattsville.
Patrick L. Sullivan
Just as the 2025 Colorado Rockies occasionally win a ballgame, Thos. outfished both Gary and yours truly on the Schoharie. The final score was one smallmouth to two compassionate releases to zilch, in the order specified above.
Long-time readers will want to know about the Bad Cinema lineup over this vacation. At the ancestral manor we are unafflicted by internet or cell phone signal, so we must watch DVDs.
We watched episodes of the 1941 Republic Pictures serial “The Drums of Fu Manchu,” as an appetizer before the main events, which were:
“Shatter,” a 1974 epic about an international assassin trying to make sense of Peter Cushing’s wind-swept hair; “The Big Bird Cage,” a 1972 women in prison flick that is thoroughly appalling in every possible way; “The Legend of Hell House” (1973) with Roddy McDowell pursing his lips and a revealing visual essay on the state of British dentistry; and “The Devil Rides Out,” a 1967 devil movie with Christopher Lee as the hero for a change.
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