Harriette and Harold Arnow, Edna and Bob Arnow and other notable family and friends…
HARRIETTE and HAROLD ARNOW,my aunt and uncle, were writers who met working on the 1930s Works Progress Administration Writers’ Project in Cincinnati.
They dreamed of getting through the Depression as subsistance farmers in Harriette’s home area of Southeastern Kentucky, writing in their spare time. What dreamers.
Today, their farm by Lake Cumberland, which has come to me, is overgrown with trees, and the house has collapsed. However, most of the land, 136 acres, is now protected from mining, drilling, and development by a conservation easement held by the federal government. The link above has some pictures and a bit of the history of the place. And here are photos of the region, the farm, the Arnow family and friends from the 1970s to the present. Here is the story from the USDA’s Forest Service about the protection of the land.


EDNA ARNOW, my mother, was a studio potter. Edna worked in Chicago from the 1950s through the ’70s. Now her stoneware is celebrated as mid-century modern. My sister scanned some photos of the art fairs and pottery (taken by our dad, Robert Arnow), and I made a couple of web pages with them.
Here are photos of some of Edna’s pottery throughout her 40-year career.
Here are pictures of her throwing, at art fairs in Chicago in the ‘60s and ‘70s and of her husband and fellow potter, Robert.
MICHAEL AND MAUREEN BANNER are the best silversmiths, and I’m not just saying that because they’re also my sister and brother-in-law. They are retired but they maintain their website linked above with some of their amazing, wonderful work. Their silver is featured in the Smithsonian Institution’s Luce Foundation Center for American Art in Washington, D.C. On the Smithsonian’s website, there’s a photo of their silver teapot (and a photo of them that I took). Here’s a wonderful history of their work and life together with photos of their magnificent holloware teapots from the Kamm Teapot Foundation, “Michael and Maureen Banner Silversmothing.” Meanwhile, here are some pictures of them at work way back and more recently:
MARCELLA ARNOW, my first cousin, was born in Kentucky, reared in Michigan, and went to the London School of Economics. She lived in Brooklyn for a long time (and instilled inme an appreciation of New York). She later had a good life in Winchester, England. She died Feb. 14, 2010. Since many of her family and friends are scattered around, I put up some pages about her funeral.
JENNIFER MILLER is a wonderful landscape and portrait painter in North Carolina. Also a wonderful friend.
This is a painting Jennie Miller did that was a departure from her plein aire work and portraits she used to do. She went to her friends’ homes and chose a spot that seemed to tell something about who they were. This one is our kitchen. The bagel, tattered sponge, red kettle, that’s us. But, um, what’s the story with all those knives?


ANN ROPP, painter. “Body of Water” series watercolor on paper. She is just so good. And a true friend in East Tennessee.