Your guide to the heart of Litchfield County:
Discover local stories, hidden gems, and must-know events.

Sullivan Farm: Hands-On Organic Farming and Maple Syrup in New Milford

Sullivan Farm offers organic farming education, maple syrup production, and interactive programs for students and visitors.

 By Linda Tuccio Koonz

Photographs  by Anne Day

Rolling hayfields greet visitors to Sullivan Farm, where hiking trails disappear into the hills under a milky-blue sky. On this peaceful afternoon, the 109-acre New Milford property looks like something from a Van Gogh painting. 

But it’s more than just an idyllic setting. Sullivan Farm provides hands-on learning for students interested in the business of organic farming. They grow everything from potatoes to pumpkins, cultivate flowers, and practice beekeeping—even selling their own honey.

The farm also offers tours and programs for groups of all ages. New England traditions, such as making maple syrup, are celebrated here. Mark Mankin, the farm’s executive director, says hundreds turn out for their annual Maple Fest.

“A lot of people really don’t have any idea where maple syrup comes from, and are surprised it starts as sap,” he says. “Many don’t realize it has to be processed; they’re under the impression the syrup comes right out of the tree.”

Sullivan Farm (started in 1841) was a family farm until 1997, when New Milford purchased it. “The way it’s managed is unique to probably any other program in Connecticut, because much of its day-to-day operations are run by high school and college students,” Mankin says. Volunteers, dedicated staff, and paid interns make it possible. 

“One thing we’re trying is to make people aware that there’s a process to producing vegetables. Many people go to the store, grab carrots, and have no idea where the carrots came from.”

Seeds must be planted, nurtured, and harvested. There’s a lot to it, he says. The same goes for farm-made jams and baked goods, which the farm sells, along with its fruit, vegetables, and ever-popular maple syrup.

How did syrup making start? Stories vary. It’s believed a broken branch, or woodpeckers, alerted Native Americans to the sap that flows under certain conditions (when temperatures hit the 20s at night, and 40s and 50s during the day).

Originally, Native Americans heated stones and dropped them into sap, creating steam; the sap was boiled down until it became sugar. A slow go, but “with no iPhones or video games, they had a lot of time on their hands,” he says.

These days, Sullivan Farm taps 1,700 sugar maples. The sap is processed in a modern evaporator at the Great Brook Sugarhouse. “It takes 40 gallons of sap to produce a gallon of syrup,” Mankin says, inside the cozy structure.

Displayed near his desk is an amusing advertisement from the Ladies Home Journal, dated 1919. A smiling, chubby-faced man winks as he tips a large syrup container over his plate of pancakes. The copy says, “Oh Boy! Log Cabin Syrup! UM!!!”

More than a century later, we still love to drizzle syrup on our pancakes. Mankin says agriculture is changing dramatically and climate change is a major factor, but Sullivan Farm continues to evolve as well.

“The key to its success is what we’re building now,” he says, “through diversification and programs that draw people to enjoy the property and learn by doing.” sullivanfarm.org

9 Academy: Luxury Guesthouse Experience in Salisbury

Cassidy & Teti Interiors transformed 9 Academy into a stylish, modern guesthouse blending comfort, design, and local charm.

By Jamie Marshall

Photographs John Gruen

Like a lot of people who find their way to northwestern Connecticut, interior designers Aidan Cassidy and Charles Teti of Cassidy & Teti Interiors first started coming to Litchfield County as weekenders, more than 30 years ago.

“We fell in love with the area and its beauty, and in particular Salisbury,” recalls Teti, who spent much of his career as a menswear designer. When COVID hit, they pulled up stakes in New York City and moved here full time. They bought a place in Salisbury, and that series of decisions led to a “Eureka!” moment. “As we settled into the area, we recognized there was a potential business opportunity,” says Teti. Specifically, a guesthouse that would combine the space and amenities of a home with the style, luxury, and plentiful towels of your favorite boutique hotel.

In 2021, they bought a simple building on Academy Street just off Main Street, and set about bringing their vision to life. Working with a local builder, they took the building down to the studs and rebuilt from the ground up. “It was an antique house at one time,” says Cassidy, “and was definitely in need of some love.”

The driving force behind 9 Academy was twofold. “We wanted to be able to offer something new and fresh—we were very cognizant of not repeating what was already in the market,” says Teti. “At the same time, we were very cautious and careful to make it feel like you are still in rural Connecticut.”  

They opened in 2023 and, judging by the response, they have succeeded. The property comprises three spacious guest suites, each with its own private entry and outdoor space (the first-floor Garden Suite has a—yes—small garden). The second-floor Parlor Suite has a reading nook, and a set of stairs to its own green space. The third-floor Loft Suite has a private terrace with a view of the village.

Light-filled and airy, each suite has an open floor plan for easy flow, a fully equipped kitchen, a washer and dryer, and dreamy Le Labo bath products.  

But what really sets 9 Academy apart is the thoughtful design. The decor and finishes throughout have a sleek sophisticated feel: limewashed walls and ceilings, bleached oak floors, Belgian flat-weave area rugs, Italian matte ceramic tile with underfloor heating in the bathrooms, and draperies and custom bedding made of flax linen. Furnishings and
accessories are done in a neutral palette of taupe, cream, and khaki.

As former weekenders, Cassidy and Teti have gone to great pains to ensure their guests know about all the area highlights. The check-in/check-out process is easy and efficient thanks to contactless arrival and keyless entry. Communication is primarily by email and text. “It’s the way people communicate today. We learned pretty quickly how to walk the line between outreach and respecting their privacy,” says Cassidy. “In a nutshell, we are a guest house for the modern traveler.” 9Academy.com 

Motoriot and Autogalerie: Classic Car Culture in Litchfield County

Motoriot and Autogalerie celebrate vintage vehicles in Litchfield County, connecting enthusiasts through restoration, sales, and community.

By Christopher Stella

Photographs by Rana Faure

 “I believe cars can be a lens through which we understand the world and ourselves,” says Jason Doornick, founder of Motoriot, a vintage vehicle dealer and modification business in Kent. An increasing number of people are looking at the Litchfield Hills through the lens of vintage windshields as classic car culture accelerates, creating a community of collectors and service providers.

Motoriot
Motoriot

The growing interest in vintage vehicles in Litchfield County reflects a national one. The US classic cars market—comprising vehicles typically 25 years or older—grew from $7.2 billion in 2018 to $12.6 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach nearly $26 billion by 2032, according to Credence Research, a global market intelligence firm. 

Motoriot

But the county’s winding roads have long been a hub of auto culture. Lime Rock Park, built in 1956 in Lakeville, stands as the third oldest continuously operating road racing venue in the United States, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. The track has long been a destination for car enthusiasts, and this year marks the 44th edition of Lime Rock’s Historic Festival, a Labor Day Weekend celebration featuring vintage racecars.

Motoriot

This heritage is attracting enthusiasts and service providers. Doornick spent his teenage years in Kent, later moving to Hollywood, where he was introduced to actor and car enthusiast Paul Walker. This led to jobs as a stuntman on the Fast and Furious film franchise, and managing Walker’s fleet of vehicles until the actor’s death in 2013. 

Motoriot

After returning to the East Coast to run his father’s robotics business, and later open an auto customization outfit in Stamford, he returned to Kent to found Motoriot with partner Charles Narwold in 2023. The business now works with partners in the US, Europe, South America, and Asia  through which they source a variety of vehicles—from Land Rovers and Land Cruisers to Peugeots and Porsches. If a buyer can imagine it, Motoriot will strive to source it, transparently and ethically, and modify it according to the buyer’s needs—including engine upgrades, modern braking systems, even EV conversions, with each step clearly explained. 

“The automotive industry lacks transparency and shared understanding,” Doornick notes. “We’re open with clients on how they’ll get their car, and where their money is going—every step is visible.”

Autogalerie

A 30-minute drive north from Motoriot, adjacent to Lime Rock Park, Colter Rule runs Autogalerie, a premier listings and collection management service for specialty vehicles. At just 25, Rule has already established himself as a significant force in the classic car market. A serial entrepreneur, he founded Autogalerie in 2022 following a career in club promotion and co-founding event discovery platform Posh, which was purchased by Eventbrite. In 2025 alone, Autogalerie completed over 200 listings on automotive auction house, Bring A Trailer, amounting to more than $5 million in sales—a figure that reflects the robust demand for classic vehicles in the region.

Autogalerie

Autogalerie provides meticulous photographic and video documentation of each vehicle’s features to maximize market appeal. The business serves a diverse clientele that includes executives from Lime Rock Park itself, and manages vehicles spanning sportscars to vintage 4x4s. With a second location in Palm Beach, Florida, Autogalerie also provides storage and collection management services. “Many people buy a weekend home here, and want the car to go with it,” says Rule. “And the regional coffee shops and bakeries support a perfect weekend drive vibe—they become destinations for leisurely weekend excursions with family.”

Autogalerie

Family is another factor that is driving interest, as nostalgia often motivates buyers—memories of an old family vehicle, simpler times. In an era of automation, classic cars offer sensory engagement: roll-down windows, and speedometers that offer pointers instead of pixels. 

Autogalerie

“Older cars have a clear connection to the road—as a driver, you’re going to smell it, hear it, feel it,” notes Doornick. “Every car has a story, and we are stewards of it.” This stewardship is creating more than a market—it’s building community united by the belief that newer isn’t always better. And that the feel of a wooden steering wheel, the sound of a key clicking in an ignition, the pull of a manual shift knob, don’t  just connect man and machine—they connect people with history, memory, and themselves. 

Motoriot 21 Bridge St., Kent, motoriot.io  
Autogalerie Lime Rock, autogalerie.us

Daniel Lauter: Healing Sound Baths and Transformative Music Experiences

Daniel Lauter pioneers immersive sound baths, blending crystal bowls, gongs, and meditation to promote emotional restoration.

Photographs by Lindsey Ransom

For Daniel Lauter, sound has never been something he simply hears. It is something he perceives everywhere—in the rhythm of footsteps on a city street, in the low hum of stillness, in the slow movement of light across a mountain ridge. For more than 35 years, he has followed that intuitive relationship with sound, shaping a life and practice devoted to music as a pathway to restoration, awareness, and transformation.

Internationally recognized for his immersive sound journeys and sound baths, Lauter is considered one of the early pioneers of modern sound meditation in the United States. In the mid-1980s, while living in Marin County, California, he began exploring the vibrational potential of crystal bowls—long before they became part of mainstream wellness culture. He went on to produce some of the first live-to-digital recordings of these instruments, helping define what has since become a widely embraced healing modality.

Lauter’s foundation, however, is firmly rooted in classical music. He studied clarinet and pursued advanced interdisciplinary work at the Center for Interdisciplinary and Experimental Art in San Francisco. While conservatory training refined his technical skill, an early lesson from a visiting musician—how to tell a story with a single note—shaped his artistic philosophy. That emphasis on simplicity, phrasing, and emotional resonance continues to guide his work.

His musical life unfolded across dynamic creative scenes, from intuitive loft jazz in New York City to experimental collaborations in San Francisco’s Bay Area. Over time, his focus shifted from performance to perception—how sound moves through the body, influences emotion, and creates space for stillness. This inquiry deepened through formative experiences with indigenous elders, including learning circular breathing and Aboriginal Yidaki (didjeridu) within Dreamtime traditions, studying drumming lineages, and witnessing sound used as ceremony and medicine.

Those experiences later informed Lauter’s sustained engagement with Buddhist study, including Sanskrit texts and contemplative practices such as the Medicine Buddha and the Heart Sutra. Rather than existing alongside his music as a parallel pursuit, this training functions as a structural framework for his work, shaping how intuition is held, directed, and expressed.

Donna Soszynski / The Church Sag Harbor

“My experiences with indigenous elders and ancient lineages naturally paved the way for my formal spiritual training,” Lauter says. “To ground these vast energies, I immersed myself in Buddhist studies, taking refuge with Lama Migmar Tseten at the Sakya Institute, and working deeply with Medicine Buddha practices. That foundation gave structure to my intuitive abilities.”

Today, Lauter’s sound baths are composed live, drawing from an expansive sonic palette that includes crystal bowls, symphonic gongs, Himalayan bells, bansuri, shruti, tongue drum, vocal toning, and mantra. Each session unfolds with a musician’s sensitivity to harmony, rhythm, and spaciousness, offering participants an experience that is both deeply calming and subtly transformative.

That work continues locally and publicly this season, as Lauter hosts a public sound bath series at Winvian Farm in Morris (the next is March 22), inviting guests to experience his signature sound journeys within the serene setting of one of the region’s most distinctive retreats.meditationdj.com

Akwaba Massage + Birth: Holistic Care and Healing for Mothers

Amoin Chantal Kra combines ancestral traditions and modern bodywork to support mothers during pregnancy and postpartum.

 By Clementina Verge

Motherhood is the sacred art of creating and nurturing life—a space where strength meets vulnerability, especially during pregnancy and childbirth. In this transformative chapter, holistic healing and body-centered care are not indulgences; they are essential luxuries.

Amoin Chantal Kra, founder of Akwaba, LLC – Massage + Birth in Litchfield, embodies this philosophy.

A licensed massage therapist, birthworker, a healer, and mother, she provides women with the care, grace, and sacred support needed to nourish and honor their bodies.

Kra grew up in Côte d’Ivoire, where care was never solitary. Birth, recovery, and even loss unfolded among women—midwives, aunties, neighbors—bringing herbs, warm hands, nourishing food, and quiet encouragement. 

As a child, she absorbed this truth instinctively, fetching water or cloth, and learning that healing is communal, embodied, and profoundly human.

“I come from a culture where healing is shared,” Kra reflects. “Mothers soothe babies with their hands, aunties support laboring women, and the community holds anyone who is hurting. Healing is relational and embodied, not just clinical. That shaped how I care for women today.”

When she moved to the United States nearly three decades ago, the contrast was stark. Care often felt rushed, stripped of cultural context and tenderness, and women’s voices were sometimes overlooked. In response, she began weaving the nurturing traditions of her upbringing into modern care, restoring dignity, slowness, and ancestral wisdom.

“I bring what I grew up with: hands-on care, herbs, warm oils, breath, and rhythm,” she explains. “None of it competes with modern bodywork. It complements it, returning culture, comfort, and dignity to the room.”

Her philosophy holds that the body carries memory. The hips, in particular, house creativity, sexuality, birth, stress, and lived experience. When tight, women feel constrained; when softened, something awakens. To “awaken the power of the hips” is not merely physical—it is an invitation to embodiment, freedom, and self-remembrance.

This ethos lives fully in Akwaba – Massage + Birth. Akwaba means welcome: to the body, the story, the mother, and the baby. Each session blends modern therapeutic techniques with ancestral practices—warm oils, breath, rhythm, gentle touch—creating a space where women feel seen and supported. Prenatal sessions ease hips, ribs, and the lower back while calming the nervous system. Postpartum care emphasizes restoration, with abdominal and pelvic support, warmth, and sometimes herbs or tea.

Kra challenges the misconception of massage as mere relaxation. Touch regulates hormones, supports digestion, improves sleep, and fosters emotional safety. This under-standing inspired GENTLE Touch Therapy, teaching caregivers and families how soft, intentional touch communicates care without force.

Over the years, Kra has wit-nessed profound transformations:
Anxiety giving way to rest, pain to ease, isolation to belonging. Often, the deepest shift is subtle—the instant a woman’s body finally feels safe enough to soften.

Her dream is to create a sanctuary where bodywork, birth support, herbal care, ceremony, and education coexist under one roof—a place that feels like home. Above all, she hopes every woman leaves feeling rested, held, and more deeply connected to her inner power. instagram.com/akwaba.massage.birth

Project SAGE: Supporting Survivors of Domestic Violence in Litchfield County

Project SAGE provides advocacy, shelter, and community support to survivors of domestic violence for over four decades.

By Paula Cornell

Photographs by Ryan Lavine

In 1979, a group of women brought pagers to Sharon Hospital, asking staff to call if they found anyone experiencing abuse who needed a safe place to go. 

That volunteer effort, known then as Women’s Emergency Services, would grow into what is now Project SAGE––a nonprofit providing support, shelter, and advocacy to those facing domestic violence in the region, for over four decades. 

“This passionate, feisty, intelligent, roll-up-your-sleeves group of women in the Northwest Corner of Connecticut got together and were like, ‘We want to do something about this,’” says Project SAGE’s executive director, Kristen van Ginhoven. 

As the work expanded, the name changed to reflect a wider range of services. Project SAGE stands for Support, Advocate, Guide, and Educate—and is a reference and compliment to their clients’ wisdom. 

When the board sat down to brainstorm how to fundraise in 2001, a 26-year-old board member named Naomi Blumenthal suggested doing a plant sale. Blumenthal worked as the head gardener for designer Bunny Williams at the time. 

Williams loved the idea and turned it into something much bigger: Trade Secrets. 

Every year, in May, Trade Secrets offers garden tours and a massive sale of rare plants and garden antiques to some 4,000 attendees, providing about a third of Project SAGE’s annual budget. 

At the second Trade Secrets event, a woman approached Williams and told her she’d called Project SAGE within the past year. 

“She said, ‘I can’t thank you enough for holding this event so I could know about the program,’” recalls Williams. “I realized how important it was to grow the event, and to help what is now Project SAGE become a reality, because domestic violence can affect anybody.”

National statistics from the Centers for Disease Control underscore that fact: One in three women and one in four men report severe physical violence during their lifetime. Litchfield County is no exception. 

When a client walks in their door or calls on the phone, Project SAGE staff help assess their most pressing need and develop a safety plan. That plan could be as basic as a client feeling validated about their experience; but it can also be a longer-term process involving decisions to stay or leave, custody of children and pets, legal issues, financial setbacks, mental health, support systems, and more. 

Project SAGE offers support for every client decision, connecting clients to whatever resources they may need.

Director of client services Virginia Gold has been with Project SAGE for nearly nine years, working with clients through both setbacks and victories over time.

“I am privileged to be invited into people’s lives at some of their hardest moments, and then to see some of their most successful moments as well,” she says.

Annually, Project SAGE responds to over 1,900 hotline calls, provides over 1,400 nights of emergency shelter, and offers counseling and other direct services to over 800 people––work that reflects the support of an entire community backing them over the decades.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, call Project SAGE’s 24 hour confidential hotline at 860-364-1900.
project-sage.org

The Healing Power of Resilience by Dr. Tara Narula

Dr. Tara Narula reveals how resilience helps patients and readers overcome challenges, stress, and life’s uncertainties.

 By Michelle Madden

Photographs by ABC/HEIDI GUTMAN 

Some people have an aura of ease, a gentle calm that makes you exhale and feel safe, as though you are being tenderly held in the palm of their hand. When you are with Tara Narula, MD, you not only sense that she is an exceptional doctor, but that she has a highly evolved soul. It seems fitting, then, that she would write a book called The Healing Power of Resilience (Simon&Schuster).

Narula is a renowned cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital and ABC News chief medical correspondent. She has a home in Roxbury and comes there with her husband, David, every weekend to unwind, and give their two daughters and golden retriever puppy a place to run. They were introduced to the area by David’s brother, Ryan Cangello, the owner of the beloved Owl Wine & Food Bar in New Preston. 

Narula was driven to write her book based on a clear pattern she’d observed among her patients. In the face of a medical diagnosis, some were able to weather their situation and even thrive, while others were not. What accounted for this difference? Resilience—the ability to adapt to change. 

This trait was embodied by Narula’s own father—an immigrant, with $50 in his pocket when he arrived, eventually becoming one of the founders of cardiac electrophysiology. She was guided through her life by a message imparted by him: “There is nothing that happens that you can not overcome.” Narula grew up accompanying her father on rounds, and fell in love with medicine, thinking that one day she would become a cardiac surgeon.

The path, however, to becoming a doctor was circuitous and bumpy. Before following her heart, she followed her degree (economics from Stanford) and opened a smoothie shop in Miami. But smoothies never soothed the yearning to heal. Eventually in medical school, her own resilience was tested when she became the patient and went through years of uncertainty as she lost partial vision in her right eye. To give her strength, her mother sent her the Serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. It became a powerful force in her healing, and taught her the lesson of acceptance, a key ingredient of resilience.

Throughout her career, Narula has realized that resilience is woefully overlooked. Doctors are not taught to consider the physiological toll that stress can have on the body, nor are they taught how it can be mitigated. “The world of psychology and medicine are siloed,” Narula laments.  “We can’t help our patients heal if we are not bridging them.”

Like a willow that bends with the wind without breaking, the ability to embrace change is something that every one of us can develop. It is not a fixed trait. And as Narula lovingly points out, “You are already far more resilient than you think you are.” 

@drtaranarula

Schaghticoke Storytelling with Darlene Kascak

Darlene Kascak shares Schaghticoke Tribal Nation storytelling, land stewardship, and living Indigenous history.

By Clementina Verge

Photography by Ryan Lavine

Darlene Kascak’s sense of identity took shape in kindergarten, when a teacher told her she “didn’t look Native American.” Soon after, her great-grandmother anchored her in something deeper: “You are Schaghticoke; you come from a long line of strong women.” The words stayed with her, guiding her sense of purpose and responsibility.

“To be a citizen of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation is to carry a relationship—to land, to ancestors, to community, and to the generations still coming,” reflects Kascak, a Traditional Native American Storyteller and educational outreach ambassador at The Institute for American Indian Studies in Washington, Connecticut. “It’s not a title or a status. It’s a way of moving through the world with a sense of rootedness that can’t be replicated or replaced.”

For centuries, the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation has lived in what is now Litchfield County. Place names—from Algonquin State Forest to the Aspetuck River and Lake Waramaug—trace a history spanning more than 12,000 years. Across that expanse of time, the community has endured displacement and colonization, while maintaining its connection to land and stories.

An anchoring principle is the Seven Generations teaching: Make decisions with those yet to come in mind.

“The Schaghticoke people see the land not as a resource to be exploited, but as a living, breathing partner,” Kascak says. “The land gives us food, shelter, and guidance. In return, we have a responsibility to protect and care for it.”

Today, as a museum professional and member of the Schaghticoke Women’s Traditional Council, Kascak works with journalists, educators, and cultural institutions to ensure Native histories are represented with accuracy and depth. Her work continues a long tradition of Schaghticoke women leading in diplomacy, land stewardship, and community care—safeguarding stories and collective memory.

In institutional spaces, she often encounters narratives that begin too late. Museums frequently frame Native history at the moment of European contact, overlooking the thousands of years of Indigenous governance, innovation, and nationhood that preceded it. Distinct cultures are flattened into generic categories. Objects are displayed as static artifacts rather than expressions of living relationships. The realities of colonization—land theft, forced removal, boarding schools, violence—are softened, and Native voices are sometimes invited in only after key decisions have been made. The result is a focus on loss, rather than on resilience and governance.

To combat this, Kascak works to ensure that Indigenous histories are told in their fullness—recognizing not just loss, but survival, resilience, and the ongoing presence of Native peoples.

For those who wish to support the accurate and respectful storytelling of Indigenous histories, she offers simple advice: “Listen first, uplift Indigenous voices, respect cultural boundaries, and push for accountability within institutions.” These steps, she believes, are crucial in building a more truthful, respectful, and hopeful future.

“Our stories aren’t just tales from the past—they’re teachings about how to live with respect, responsibility, and relationship,” Kascak reminds, emphasizing that those traditions are about more than survival; they shape the world we leave for future generations. —iaismuseum.org

Pamela Takiff: Photography, Advocacy, and Illuminating Women’s Stories

Pamela Takiff merges photography and advocacy, highlighting women’s resilience and storytelling through evocative imagery.

By Maria Mostajo 

Pamela Takiff’s artistic practice reveals the complexities of her unique perspective as both a photographer and human rights activist. An attorney, she has lectured publicly—including before the United Nations Human Rights Council—and advocates for victims of sex trafficking and domestic violence. She has seen the dark side of humanity. Yet she is drawn to beauty and light. Takiff uses her iPhone camera to capture an image or moment in time that she transforms into something she says will “focus the viewer’s eye and inspire their imagination without changing what was there to be seen.”

Takiff, who lives in Sharon with husband, has always had an artistic eye, and was drawn to photography from a young age. Her mother and brother are both sculptors; and her mother paints, and makes jewelry. Takiff has no formal art training, but while in college developed darkroom skills. Later, in New York City, she learned the arts of gilding and decoupage. She is now incorporating these techniques into her photographic work.

As a street photographer, Takiff notices color and shapes in things most of us ignore: deteriorating paper, peeling paint. She hones in, and finds an image within an image. Then, through her editing process, she excavates the context, presenting the viewer with a landscape, form, or structure that allows for the creation of a new narrative.

Takiff is a sensitive and intuitive person. She finds purpose as an advocate for the traumatized, particularly women. She brings that sensibility to her artistic practice. Her newest body of work is partly inspired by the “the silencing of women and the loss of their agency.” Takiff’s females—shown at Le Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux Arts in Paris last December, and at Mad Rose Gallery in Millerton last fall, are an assemblage of a powerful gaze, a silhouette revealing physical aplomb and stature, marbleized torsos decorated by Takiff’s tender gilding to accentuate the female shape, or bejewelled armless and faceless mannequins, all hinting to the forms of erasure or the use of the female form as a prop or foil. Takiff’s instinct is to highlight the reductive nature of some imagery while counterbalancing them with a sense of ornamentation that is both dramatic and elegant.

While Takiff does not photograph landscape or nature, she has recently captured reflective blues and grays from dirt or paint splattered indiscriminately on sheet metal at a construction site. She brings forth a palette and light that is painterly, almost abstract, and yet resembles winter scenery or Japanese watercolors of ancient landscapes. 

 

In keeping with her grace, Takiff shifts attention to others as she raves about the Center for Photography at Woodstock, where she now serves on the board. She joined the membership-based organization looking for community and a way to sustain her practice. Takiff credits the recent transformation of her practice with collaboration with a studio assistant. “We work together on every part of the image, what to keep in, what to edit out, how to improve color and clarity.” pamelatakiff.art

Coach Heidi Diedrich: Strength Training and Home Fitness Expert

Coach Heidi Diedrich offers personalized training, progressive classes, and essential tips for effective home gyms.

I’m Coach Heidi Diedrich, and I believe strong bodies build strong lives. As an ISSA- and AFAA-certified trainer with 12 years of experience, I’ve coached everyone from competitive athletes to corporate teams and led 400+ HIIT classes during COVID. Today, I teach progressive strength and agility classes in Washington and bring personalized 1:1 training directly into clients’ homes. I’m sharing the essential pieces I recommend for building a smart, effective home gym. My philosophy is simple: Fuel, Fitness, Focus. Show up consistently. Support each other. Do the work. We are stronger than we know.
CoachHeidi@co

TRODDEN Stability Ball
This inflatable exercise ball creates an unstable surface that engages your core muscles during movement. Excellent for improving posture and core strength.

RAGE FITNESS Steel Box
This anti-slip metal platform supports jumps, step-ups,  single-leg lifts, dips, and stretching—essential for cardio and explosive training.

SPRI Braided Resistance Bands
Provides smooth consistent tension movements ideal for full range of movement. Loop them around a pole or door to mimic a cable machine.

Resistance Bands by RENOJ
Great for lower body glute work and upper body pushing and pulling.  Easy on the joints and effective for building muscle.

FEIERDUN Adjustable Dumbbells
This adjustable system changes weight fast, saving space and supporting strength gains.

 

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