We lost another friend. Nol Putnam was a well-known artist/blacksmith. Originally his forge was just north of us in a town called The Plains. Then he moved less than an hour west. Over the last maybe thirty-three years we have had a running conversation with him about art or work or teaching or health. In the beginning of a relationship that doesn’t feel that large. Nonetheless it grows into a substantial friendship. Sometimes we chatted in his forge, or at our studio, or perhaps during a firing. One time it was by a chance meeting in the Boston airport as we were all on our way back to Virginia. There’s been a few meals at a friends-in-common house. As a child in Connecticut he could visit his sculptor neighbor Sandy Calder and soak up the ambiance of a metal infused studio. He taught English early on and was a good story teller. In 2007 I borrowed a group of hammers from a larger group hanging on the wall in his forge to order to make drawings. At the time I didn’t think they captured the particular essence of heft or use. Looking at them today it’s lovely to linger on the images and the memories. I am sure there is another story to tell as we linger saying goodbye at the door.
The number
of hours
we have
together is
actually not
so large.
Please linger
near the
door uncomfortably
instead of
just leaving.
Please forget
your scarf
in my
life and
come back
later for
it.
–Mikko Harvey, excerpt from For M, in From Let the World Have You, 2022
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