Sailor’s Valentine Collaboration

If you've ever been to Nantucket, you've probably seen sailors' valentines. These intricate shell collages in empty compass boxes are wonderful examples of the island's rich maritime crafts tradition. The Connecticut Audubon Society is delighted to offer this exquisite Sailors’ Valentine as part of our 2020 Adirondack Night Online Auction.

The artists, Joan Lahey and Mellie Cooper, are dear friends and longtime Southport/Nantucket residents. Mellie graciously offered to paint the center piece of Joan’s latest masterpiece, created specifically for this year’s fundraising efforts. Mellie’s whimsical interpretation of eastern screech owls pairs wonderfully with Joan’s shell work.

This collaboration is a wonderful testament to their friendship and dedication to their community.

About The Artists
Mellie graduated from the Pratt Institute where she completed a Masters of the Fine Arts degree in sculpture. Her work is represented at the Janis Aldridge Gallery on Nantucket where she has exhibited for over twenty years. Cooper’s artwork is interdisciplinary, combining techniques of sculpture, printmaking, painting, and collage resulting in a painting on paper, which explores the boundaries between fine art and craft as well as other related areas like natural history. “Mellie very carefully chooses the themes for her work through the absorption of imagery, and an appropriation of ideas which are a kind of visual reinvention reminiscent of the way Velasquez borrowed from Titian or Caravaggio borrowed from Michelangelo.”

Joan is a longtime disciple of The Isabel O’Neil Studio in New York. Since its inception in 1955, the Studio Workshop has grown into an internationally recognized art school. A cadre of studio- trained instructors is dedicated to maintaining the highest standards and traditional methods of the art of the painted finish. Joan’s prior experience in the art of the painted finish blended seamlessly into her latest medium.

This item is available for local pick up only, transport is not available.