There’s something magical about Concord, Massachusetts. A persistent and insistent energy over the course of centuries has attracted artists, innovators, writers, revolutionaries, philosophers, abolitionists, social justice warriors, scholars, and a whole host of leaders and creative disrupters. They live among us today, and I had the great honor to sit down with two artists - Gregory Maguire and Andy Newman – in their Concord home to learn about their creative journey, and also about the very special place they created to raise their three adopted children.
The Power of Story
Gregory Maguire was drawn to the power of stories to heal and teach from a very young age. His mother died from complications following childbirth, and his grieving father could not care for newborn Gregory or his three other children. Gregory spent a good portion of his toddler years at an orphanage before being reunited with his (then remarried) father and his siblings (who had been sent to live with other relatives). The family and their new step-mother would go on to welcome three more children, but that sense of loss and guilt would never leave Gregory.
“I grew up with such a sense of moral debt and grief over depriving my father of his first wife – and of depriving my older siblings of their mother,” he shared. “Those classic folk tales of the young son of a dead mother, going out into the world and doing good - those were object lessons for me. It wasn’t just distracting or amusing – they were case studies for survival. I believe this is what first drew me to fairy tales.”
Life for Gregory evolved around the three pillars of school, church, and the town library. Books became trusted friends. “I dove into children’s stories – and on the other side of these fantastic adventures, I would come back larger and more experienced,” he said. “My mental health would emerge restored, and I felt stronger and better able to navigate the world.”
Television was rarely permitted in the household of nine, but one exception was the annual ritual of watching The Wizard of Oz. “We all knew the story inside and out – but imagination runs wild with found objects. And really, all stories are found objects for children,” Gregory shared. “I would routinely direct reenactments, while changing the roles or creating plot twists around characters and asking my siblings and friends to act out new versions of the story.”
He saw in the character of the Wizard of Oz, the embodiment of a deceptive authority figure sending innocent children off to do his dirty work. “The lying and cowardice of the Wizard – sending Dorothy out to the West to assassinate the witch - struck me as so wrong,” said Maguire. “It was just like what the government was doing during the Vietnam War. From first grade into college, I grew up frightened of war and suspicious of the authorities who were drafting children to go off to die. I deeply cared about right and wrong from a very young age. It bothered me that the Wizard placed Dorothy and her friends in such danger – and that they forgave him so readily. I realized early on that the concepts of good and evil may not be as simple as we think. There was no rationale for what made the ‘wicked witch’ evil. And why was the Wizard considered good?”
Years later, expounding on that line of puzzling resulted in Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West – a story which did not necessarily present the “witch” as less bad, but rather, tried to explain the humanity of how she got there. The Tony Award-winning Broadway adaptation became a runaway hit and continues to delight audiences around the world. In fact, as of the end of October 2019, it surpassed Les Miserables to become Broadway’s fifth-longest running show.
“There’s a little bit of that ostracized green girl in all of us,” Maguire explained. “I’ve never met a human being who isn’t marginalized or misunderstood in some way. It can be quite interesting to step back…to slow down and revise the focal depth of moral judgment around how people become who they are. We all struggle with temptation to do the wrong thing. We all struggle with grief and remorse over mistakes we have made. And we all struggle with grief and sadness over wishes and dreams we are not able to attain.”
That unique patience with the human condition has guided Gregory to write more than 30 children’s books and adult novels – including a fascinating collection of stories that present a new perspective on classic fairy tale characters.
“Children’s literature can be an amazing inoculation against trauma and struggle in real life. These stories teach that conflict and adversity exist in the world. But they also teach that dedication to a cause is powerful, that fortitude and courage and strategy can help you persevere, that allies are present, and that hope is valid,” he said.
Sharing that gift of story was the key to Gregory to pay back what he felt was a moral debt. “I had a strong sense of obligation. When I realized that I could tell these stories in a way that connected with children and helped them in the same way that the great authors had done for me, I knew I had found my path.”
Trees on Kibling Hill V, mixed media on panel.
| © Andrew NewmanA World of Art, Created in Concord
Andy Newman was born American, but raised in France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. In all three places, Andy was placed in the local schools and taught the native languages. A deep appreciation of those cultures stayed with him into his adulthood, including a love of art.
Although he had earned degrees in both history and law, Andy made the decision almost 30 years ago to walk away from a career as an attorney and to embrace that inner artist. He made the decision while he was in France and was so thoroughly immersed in being there, that he simply could not wait any longer. He had never really been happy as a lawyer. It was time.
“Although art is not seen as a money-earning or stable career, I was so energized by the idea of becoming a better painter that the fire of that feeling overrode any fear I had about walking away from a career in law,” he said. The result has been impressive – his art graces the walls of galleries in close to a dozen countries and he routinely travels to Europe to show his work.
In the 1990s, most of Andy’s paintings were of individual figures. Starting 10 or 15 years ago, Andy moved his focus on to landscapes – particularly as they relate to architecture. “I have a real, systemic love for French villages and architecture, as well as Victorian and Edwardian era small scale housing. All of that comes very naturally to paint as subjects of choice,” said Andy.
“Architecture lends itself to creating a scaffolding or a frame for what the form of that painting will be. My landscapes are purposefully devoid of people, because that’s not what interests me in a landscape painting. I am particularly drawn to dilapidated places and what interesting things that does to the lines and structure of buildings – particularly if you look at the backdrop of light and shadow. That’s probably why I rarely paint scenes of Concord. Ironically, it’s too charming and perfect here!”
After Gregory and Andy brought home Luke, their first adopted son, Andy’s rhythm around the creation of art made an immediate and fundamental change. It was no longer feasible to paint abroad. Rather, he would gather ideas and inspiration overseas, but create his paintings in Concord.
As they welcomed Alex and Helen a few years later, family needs became the firm priority over work schedules. “Although my work brought me around the world, I never wanted to leave Gregory on his own to care for the children longer than absolutely necessary,” he explained. “While the kids were very young, my trips to Europe were out Wednesday and back by Sunday. Later, I could stretch it to out Tuesday and back Sunday. It’s only now that the kids have all graduated high school that we can entertain the idea of traveling together — and for more than a week. Our children were always – and still are – our absolute priority.”
With strict limits on time away from home, Andy came to rely on the creative space of the artist studio that he and Gregory share at the Umbrella Arts Center. Andy transforms his ideas into paintings there, surrounded by artistic energy, his notes and photos from his trips, and the magic of musing as he revisits a village or a winding road in his mind.
“The Umbrella Arts Center and my studio is my world. This building – with more than 50 resident artists, classes, workshops, exhibits, and performing arts – has been an extension of my life for close to 20 years,” he said.
Despite a robust history of success in painting, Andy still stresses that “every time I face a blank white canvas, there is still that fear of failure. Every single painting entails risk. Every artistic endeavor is like walking across a tightrope. A single misstep can mean failure. But how wonderful - and what magic - if it turns out not to be. But it never changes. The fear and worry about the risk never go away. Paradoxically, this keeps me on my toes and makes me a better painter.”
Gregory concurred. “I think that a lot of people who are not writers or artists may have a false idea about the nature of confidence in a writer’s life. To have had a little success, as I have done, can prevent people from realizing that basically every time I start a new project – or turn to a new blank page – I’m just as dumbfounded as when I was a kid starting out. It is ever a challenge – and the temptation not to do it is rich. It continues to be hard work. Rewarding, but hard.”
© Pierre Chiha PhotographyA Sense of Place
Gregory and Andy met at the Blue Mountain Center in the Adirondacks in 1997. When they later decided to build their lives together and started talking about a family, it made sense to settle in Gregory’s house in Concord. They sought a place that would become a permanent home for them and their future children. A place to lay down roots and to create the foundation that would transform a house into a home.
“Our children came to us from Cambodia and Guatemala, and we very specifically engineered our lives so that they would never have to be displaced again,” said Gregory. “When we chose Concord, we chose it knowing this would always be the place where our children’s orbits would bring them back. We worked hard to ensure that Concord would always have, for them, such a strong sense of home.”
You can sense this dedication to family in so many ways. It’s in the smell of Andy’s homemade soup when you walk in the door. Or in the way that Gregory excuses himself if the phone rings, just to make sure it’s not one of the kids calling for help with something. It’s in all the tiny touches – from a whimsical garden gate inviting a new story to appear, to a magical winter scene on paper in a frame - hand-cut by Hans Christian Andersen himself, to a tiny pair of ruby shoes placed just-so by a study door. This home is filled with magic and a loving energy that speaks to children and tells them they are safe, they are secure, and they have absolute permission to let their imaginations roam free.
Ironically, Gregory admits that raising three children did not help him improve as a children’s writer! “As an investment in my writing career, they have given me very little,” he joked. “The parental mind dominates everything. My job as a parent is omnipresent in my mind. I go to sleep thinking about the children and I wake up thinking about them. I used to think this way about fiction. Now, my conscious thought is dominated by the needs of the kids.”
Andy insists that the children never took much interest in his work as a painter. Both parents were careful to manage their children’s exposure to museums and art galleries. They worried that a constant barrage of the arts might inadvertently alienate their kids from something that brought such richness to their lives. And yet, Helen is now attending art school. So it seems that the balance they struck was successful.
This past June, the last of the three children graduated from high school. Having successfully raised three amazing young adults and sent them out into the world, Gregory and Andy are looking forward to a bit more freedom to travel and to enjoy time at their homes in Vermont and in France. But Concord will always draw them back. It’s the center of their art, the center of their story, and most of all – the center of their family.
You can experience the works of both of these amazing men right here in the Concord area. Andy’s art is represented by Powers Gallery in Acton, and also graces the walls of Woods Hill Table in West Concord (where both Andy and Gregory strongly recommend saddling up to the bar and enjoying a nice glass of “Widow Jane” for inspiration!). Gregory’s books can be found at the Concord Bookshop – and of course, at Concord’s beautiful Free Public Library.
