I remember it all clearly still, these many, many years later; the moment I was confronted with the world where “growing up girl” meant closed doors.

In 2020 I was commissioned to create a piece honoring the 50th anniversary of the nonprofit Historic Harrisville and the 150th birthday of the town itself. The resulting work, A Harrisville Soundscape, was created by imagining the sounds of the past and listening to those of the present.

The works of Frankie Brackley Tolman are inspired by her surroundings in rural New Hampshire. A long-time admirer of her paintings, I decided to undertake a collaborative project, integrating her paintings with music and film.

This coronavirus pandemic has aspects which are unprecedented, but memories of the Polio Epidemic are returning to me. In late fall of 1947, just after starting first grade, I was quarantined.