Inside most Behind The Hedges magazines, our Master Craftsman column highlights people who help make our house a home. Whether in Dan’s Papers, the Long Island Press or in Behind The Hedges Palm Beach, they use their skills to refine the home, whether it’s creating an item we use or enjoy every day. Check out the column that showcase these folks’ vision and attention to detail:
the travel trailer with which they had enjoyed so many places.Bob Giglione
A Mother’s Moving Memorial: Turning a Camper into a Mural on Wheels
When Laura-Jean Schnupp died of cancer in 2021 at age 28, she left behind more than memories. A recreational therapist who worked at various hospitals, she had made dozens of colorful paintings like bright splashes with sayings such as, “There is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path” and “Try to be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.”
They were one way she found to lift her spirits, and that of those around her, during the darkest days of cancer battle. But for her mother, Jeanne Santomauro Schnupp, those paintings were like shadows of her spirit or cheerful expressions of emotion channeled through art.
Master Craftsman: Foster Reeve and the Surprising Elegance of Plaster
If a Hamptons designer is looking for, say, finely detailed cornice work or a complex project incorporating stuc pierre (a centuries-old stucco technique that emulates the look of limestone), she’s likely to make a pilgrimage across the Pulaski Bridge to Foster Reeve’s massive sun-drenched studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
With offices and fabrication facilities in New York, Los Angeles and Palm Beach, Reeve’s company is one of the country’s premier suppliers of architectural and ornamental plaster.
But long before he became a master plasterer and founded the business that bears his name, Reeve learned his trade the old-school way.
The Unique Sensory Pleasures of the Weathered Barn in Greenport
Though it’s nestled on the main drag of a quintessential North Fork beach town in the middle of wine country, the Weathered Barn is neither particularly beachy nor particularly wine-centric. In fact, if you wandered in one day and forgot you were on Front Street in Greenport, you wouldn’t have any trouble believing you were in, say, Savannah or Provincetown or Austin or Saint Paul. That’s not to say that the shop is anything other than completely tied into the community it has served for the last 14 years. It feels at peace with its surroundings and utterly at home right where it is. But at the same time, it’s also one of those places that creates a powerful ecosystem all its own the second you walk through the front door.
Avery Fuchs and the Restorative Power of Sea Glass
Avery Fuchs gathers fragments of sea glass from Long Island’s past and transforms them into powerful works of art.
Shelter Island’s Lettuce Lady Keeps Her Head in the Game
Sometimes you need a serious salad — a salad that’s hearty and fresh and satisfying enough to eat as a meal on its own. And If that craving happens to hit while you’re on Shelter Island, you’re going to want to pay a visit to The Lettuce Lady.
David Nosanchuk and the Transcendence of Objects
David Nosanchuk is a “multi-hyphenate” artisan who designs and creates furniture, carpeting, wallpaper, light sculptures and full interior and exterior spaces.
Master Craftsman: Laurie Densen and the Unpredictability of Fire
Artist and educator Laurie Densen is interested in pushing the capabilities of the materials she works with in the world of high-fire ceramics.
Horses Carved by Nature: Franco Cuttica on Sculpting Strength
On the East End, horses aren’t just part of daily life — they’re a symbol of power and tradition, celebrated at the end of each summer for the last half-century at the Hampton Classic. Franco Cuttica captures their spirit by building life-sized horses made of wood he forages along Long Island’s shores and on the forest floors, assembling them piece by piece, letting the natural shape of the material be his guide.
Joanne Meurer and the Power of Chaos
The nature of creativity is always an elusive thing to pin down. Some artists will talk about their influences for hours; others will just shrug their shoulders and gesture to the cosmos. Joanne Meurer, a New York City-based painter and entrepreneur, is one of those artists who doesn’t over-analyze what they do. But when pressed, she’ll tell you that her work has its origins in chaos.
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