Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Mount Auburn as a Muse | Page 5

and a Modern Day Muse
honored—to have played a part in making it the beautiful,
contemplative place that it is for so many people, both here
and around the world.”
Her paintings of Mount Auburn reflect Clarkson’s own
interest in Asian woodblock prints, her love of gardening,
and her appreciation for the Cemetery. Alice Fountain,
the small pond at the intersection of Spruce and Mound
Avenues, has been particularly inspirational for Clarkson,
who has created 15 to 20 paintings of that one area. “It was
never my intention, it just really grabbed me and held on
for a long time.” Consecration Dell is another area Clarkson
Amy Clarkson, Painter
has revisited to capture from different views and in both
Amy Clarkson has been interpreting Mount Auburn’s
color and sepia.
landscape for several
Perhaps one reason Clarkson
years, her observations
feels such a special bond with
and artistic eye manifest-
Mount Auburn is that the
ing in vibrant watercolor,
Cemetery reminds her of her
oil, and sepia paintings.
childhood on Long Island. “I’m
“I feel a great sense of
not very much interested in the
peace in being here and
vast landscape, but in the inti-
of being embraced,” says
mate spaces this place creates.
the Cambridge-based
I grew up on Long Island next
artist. “You get into
to a golf course, and there were
almost a Zen frame of
all these rhododendrons that
mind. There’s a comfort
separated our property from the
level that, in part, comes
course. I used to spend hours
from the landscape, but I
playing in there, and I had little
also think it comes from
rooms because they were really
the monuments and the
old, big-stemmed rhododendrons.
history, and the fact that
So there were these areas that
there are all these loved
were my hideouts…There is
people surrounding you.”
a distinct relationship to why
Clarkson, who studied
I feel this comfort level here
fine art at the School
and love to create spaces with
of the Museum of Fine
boundaries.”
Arts/Tufts and Massa-
While she appreciates the
chusetts College of
carefully maintained landscape
Art, began her career
and its impressive trees, Clarkson’s
as a still-life artist. When
connection to this place goes
she first considered
much deeper. “I have been here
using Mount Auburn as
for funerals and one in particular
a subject for her works,
was my friend who had to bury
she felt overwhelmed
her 17-year-old daughter, and
by the Cemetery’s vast
that was just excruciatingly sad.
landscape and lush
And I thought that would
plantings. “But then as I
impact my feeling of working
Top: Amy Clarkson, painting in the area called “Alice Fountain.” This
started walking around
photo was taken by her daughter, Elena Laird, during a photo class at Noble here, but it only made it more
the Cemetery more, I
& Greenough school circa 2007.
special for me. Because I felt
would find these little
Above: A finished painting of the same area by Amy Clarkson
like it’s so nice to have a place
rooms and spaces that
to come where it isn’t just about
gave me inspiration for making paintings. I would do
the Cemetery, though that aspect is always present.”
a sepia painting first to capture the composition and the
“And you can’t believe you’re in the city when you’re here.
values, and to make sure that it was going in the direction
All
the cares and the frenetic energy of urban life disappear.
I wanted. Then I would continue if I liked that…There’s
It
just
melts away…There’s so many vistas, so many special
something again very peaceful and Zen-like about the sepias,
sweet spots in here. You’re just walking along and all of a
and I think they represent Mount Auburn so well. But the
sudden you see it and the light is coming in a certain way,
color ones are special, too.”
and a shadow is doing its thing, and it reels you in.”
Discovering Intimate Spaces
and Little Rooms
Fall/Winter 2011 | 3