MILLBROOK — Franklin Avenue, Millbrook’s main street, passes through the center of the village. Those who were traveling along the road on Monday, Nov. 28, noticed that it was the recipient of an especially messy paint job. The yellow lines dividing Franklin Avenue were smeared from the center outward all the way through the village. Some cars were splattered with the yellow paint as well. The New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) is taking the necessary measures to fix the problem. The DOT has two specialized machines in Poughkeepsie and Middletown, which are made to paint the yellow stripes on the road. The two machines take care of seven counties for the region. Sue Stepp, DOT spokesperson, said the Poughkeepsie machine was broken, which is what caused the messy work in Millbrook. A crew from Middletown did the paint job.“The problem that we had is it wasn’t our equipment or our driver,” said Stepp. “In that area cars are parked on both sides of the street making the [paint machine] travel on a narrower road than we like. People traditionally drive over the yellow line in the middle to get to where they need to go. That’s what happened to the stripes, cars drove over them. Now since this was the Middletown truck that was out there they weren’t familiar enough with the area to anticipate that.”Stepp said the next time the road is painted the DOT will contact the village ahead of time and ask them to eliminate parking on that stretch of the road for at least an hour. Cones will also be placed on the yellow line as the work is done.“We didn’t violate any procedures,” said Stepp. “We did obviously learn from the experience and we’ll be putting cones on those lines a lot closer together than we would on say, Route 44, half way to Dover. Normally on the job a little bit of the paint gets smeared and that just wears off. But in this case we are going to paint over the really bad parts with a black blacktop paint.”Stepp said there might be a person out to fix the mess on Franklin Avenue as early as Dec. 2. As for the cars that may have been splattered with paint, the DOT is prepared to repay people for damages. A small claims form may be found on the NYSDOT website and the form will explain everything a person needs to know for filing purposes. However, if one prefers to file the claim on the phone the DOT number for small claims is 845-431-5921.
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Artist Victor Cella with his recent painting “White Dog” in his studio and shop, Little Store Antiques in Great Barrington.
L. Tomaino
Cella greets visitors while talking with a fellow painter who comments about his work and Cella himself: “Eclectic, amazing! Victor is decidedly loved in the community and exhibits to everyone his completely open heart.” She added, “He inspires the rest of us who paint.”
Cella began devoting himself to painting about four and a half years ago. He remembers taking art classes in high school. He had finished all his credits early and was allowed, in his senior year, to take art for four hours a day. He credits his art teacher, Mr. Owen, with giving him a good foundation in art.
“Now that I paint, I rely on my teacher’s words: ‘To unify a painting, pick a color and wash it over the painting,’ or, ‘You need to mix the colors!’”
He won a scholarship to New York University to study art, but his parents said no.Instead, he attended North Adams State College, where he also took an art class at Williams College, repeating a pattern from high school in which he finished his required credits early and used the extra time to study art.
He earned a teaching degree in special education and ended up working in schools in Massachusetts and Connecticut for 37 years. He retired in 2019.
Then, four and a half years ago, he got the urge to paint, and the paintings flowed out of him.
He has sold 757 paintings, with 95 of those sold since May 7. “I am having bizarrely good luck with my paintings.” He estimates he has painted 2,000 paintings in four and a half years.
He modestly attributes his success to “I sell low and I have a built-in client base of 51 years,” he said, referring to recurring customers in his antique shop. “A billion people give me feedback.” He has two patrons who each have several of his paintings. “Unbelievably,” says Cella, “one person owns 32 and the other owns 27.”
His studio is in the back of the shop. He paints now on 16-by-20-inch canvases, some of which he recycles, finding them at Goodwill.
Cella’s paintings are tucked in almost every available space thoughout Little Store Antiques. L. Tomaino
To keep his painting fresh and himself interested because, as Cella explained, “I can’t stay with one idea for long,” he has gone through several phases: crazy dogs, grids, flowers with black backgrounds, a geometric phase and “weird people.” The “crazy dogs,” as he calls them, are popular now. One person bought eight, left to go to her car and came back for a ninth, spotted in the shop’s window — the one that brought her into the shop in the first place.
He may even illustrate a children’s book with the “crazy dogs.” A local author liked them so much she asked Cella if he’d illustrate a story about three dogs if she wrote one.
Cella was also approached recently by a person who said, “Do you know you were my favorite teacher?” She came into The Little Store, attracted by the paintings in the shop’s window. It turned out the former student owns Crystal Essence on Railroad Street in Great Barrington and has asked to sell Cella’s paintings there.
Cella, who will soon be selling the building where The Little Store is located and move it nearer to his Southfield home, was glad to be offered a new venue for his paintings.
An artist he knows, Scott Prior, a painter from Nantucket, bought one of Cella’s paintings and gave him this advice: “Never go to art school. You are an artist. Let it pour out of you.”
Cella said, “You have to follow your own path.” He mused, “If I taught art, I’d teach it in a different way. I could teach it as an awareness — how to free yourself up.”
To see more of Cella’s work, visit The Little Store (88 Main St.) or Crystal Essence (39 Railroad St.) in Great Barrington.
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