Milkwood Studio & Home Gallery

THE MILKWOOD STORY

 
Many years ago I had the wonderful opportunity to meet Robin Williamson, a musical wizard from Wales and now a friend. Robin wrote a song TO MR. THOMAS, about the writer Dylan Thomas. He recorded it and later his friend Van Morrison did the same, as they both have been inspired by Dylan’s work.
 
I was listening to Van’s version as I had just moved to a new studio space in Ellensburg, Washington. The space was in the old Dairy Gold Milk building. One of the verses of the song struck me….”The judge in me jerks the sacred meat, but the boy in me still dreams in Milkwood Town.” That was IT!!! The name of my studio would be MILKWOOD. So appropriate for a woodcarver of dreams and working in a studio where fresh milk had been delivered and made into ice cream. With some research I found that Dylan Thomas had indeed written a play titled UNDER MILKWOOD. The play captured my imagination too and I realized that I like Robin and Van, was inspired by the truths that Dylan Thomas saw and experienced and expressed in his writing.
 
Discovering and reading the play, I found what I believe is the pinnacle line. It is, “We are not wholly bad or good, who live our lives Under Milkwood.” To me it was very profound and when moving my studio to Guemes Island, Washington, in the San Juan Islands I decided to keep the name and with it to create MILKWOOD STUDIO & HOME GALLERY.
 
Jane Lane and I now live so to speak under Milkwood and we are not wholly bad or good. Life and art are beautiful and here we live it and invite others to come and see and feel the experience of this space. We call it a “living museum ” because it is home, studio and gallery in one.
 
WE invite you to take a look at Milkwood through this Home Accent article and see the space that we were inspired to create and the eclectic collection of my work that now is housed in this artful home-studio-gallery.