GloucesterTimes.com, Gloucester, MA
June 23, 2010
By
Gail McCarthy
Staff Writer
—
Charles Fields was born by the sea, made a life from the sea and
is forever influenced by the sea.
Fields, who ran the New England Lobster Co. for 30 years in Pigeon
Cove, now spends his time in retirement, writing poems and creating
sculpture.
He has dozens of stories from growing up in Rockport, where he
spent time in local artists' studios, and his years traveling the
country and the globe, at one point aboard a United Fruit banana
boat.
Now,
this member of the Rockport, North Shore and Cambridge art
associations as well as the New England Sculptors Association,
has completed a memoir. In "Many Lands, Many Hearts," he
uses the pages as a palette of his stories, stemming from his
many careers and travels.
After losing the Rockport-based lobster company to bankruptcy,
he worked in the Essex chicken hatchery and then turned permanently
to his pursuit of fine art. A fan of Gloucester's Walker Hancock,
he would later meet the sculptor and introduce him to a noted native
American sculptor out west.
"Growing up on Cape Ann had a tremendous influence. I personally
knew and was exposed to the sculpture of Richard Rechia, Walker
Hancock, George Demetrios and George Aarons. I practically spent
my boyhood years in Aldro Hibbard's studio," he said. Hibbard,
a prominent American painter, was a founder of the Rockport Art
Association.
Born at Addison Gilbert Hospital in 1936, Fields was educated
in Rockport's public schools.
But he attended Gloucester High for his last two years, graduating
as class president in 1954.
He attended Duke University in Durham, N.C., on a Francis Ouimet
Scholarship and transferred to Massachusetts Maritime Academy where
he earned a degree in marine and electrical engineering. He was
commissioned as ensign in the Navy and received a U.S. Coast Guard
Third Assistant Marine Engineer license. Later, he sailed as an
engineer for the United Fruit Co. and then worked as a safety engineer
for an insurance company.
When his first marriage failed, he returned to the sea, working
on ships, including tankers, cargo, and passenger ships. In 1966
he returned to Rockport where he incorporated the New England Lobster
Co. on Pigeon Cove Wharf.
The
business survived many vicissitudes and unpredictable weather — to
a point.
"There were several storms, one that took everything in 1978," he
recalled. "I rebuilt. Then during the storm of 1991, the
seas came over the wall and came right through the building.
"At that point, I wondered, 'What am I doing — is this
a sign?'" he continued. "But I was too stubborn to
give in."
A few years later, the costs were too high and the lobster company
went into bankruptcy in the mid-1990s. He then took on a job as
hatchery manager for Hardy's chicken farm in Essex where he worked
until he retired in 1999. After, he took to his art full-time.
"During my early working years, I took an interest in sculpting
when a friend noticed I always expressed myself with dramatic hand
gestures," he said. "At the time, I had writer's block
with my poetry and it was suggested I try sculpting."
Fields began sculpting with clay before turning to rock.
"It was when I was discovering soapstone and carving to bring
something out of the stone that I felt true expressive feeling," said
Fields, who was accepted into the New England Sculptors Association
in 1971.
"I soon moved up to carving marble, alabaster and wood," he
said. "I juggled the challenging seafood business with sculpting
as a way to harness my creative need and entrepreneurial drive."
Fields divides his time between Massachusetts and Arizona; it
was through the latter that he came to know Allan Houser (1914-1994),
a modernist sculptor who achieved prominence in the art world.
Although a western-based artist, Houser's work can be seen at Foxwoods
Casino.
Through Fields, Houser would also meet one of America's top sculptors,
Walker Hancock (1901-1998), who lived in Lanesville.
Fields met Hancock and his wife through happenstance aboard an
American Airlines flight from Boston to Phoenix where Hancock was
working on a commission bust of publisher and philanthropist Walter
Annenberg. Fields offered to show Hancock around the area, an invitation
Hancock accepted.
"It was a great week of sharing thoughts and experiences," wrote
Fields in his book.
He took Hancock to see Houser's work at a Scottsdale gallery.
"(Walker) was impressed beyond words," Fields recalled. "The
style and use of the marble was foreign.
"When Walker and I attended an exhibition of Louise Nevelson
at the Phoenix art museum, Allan was giving a demonstration of
Indian flute playing," he added. "I introduced Walker
to Houser and there was an immediate response. They just clicked."
After that week's visit, Hancock gave Fields a block of Italian
Carrera marble. Field would work only years later when he believed
he could create a piece worthy of that marble that carried so much
meaning because of who it was from.
Fields
notes that his motto is: "When the
stone speaks, I listen."
As many Cape Ann residents know, it is difficult to travel anywhere
without running into someone from Cape Ann.
In the 1970s, Fields met Peter Prybot, the Gloucester lobsterman
and writer, at the Auckland Museum in New Zealand while he was
looking at native Maori lobster pots and fishing gear. Fields was
visiting his brother in New Zealand, and Prybot was on tour.
"It was the strangest thing," recalled Prybot. "I
had my back to him viewing something and he was doing the exact
same thing and we turned around at the same moment, perfectly in
line. I looked at him and he looked at me and there was complete
silence and disbelief," said Prybot, who used to sell lobsters
to the New England Lobster Co. "I knew he used to sculpt
and he knew I used to write."
The two men still run into each other on Cape Ann, and write in
addition to their other work.
For more information on Fields' book, visit www.outskirtspress.com/manylandsmanyhearts.
Gail McCarthy can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3445, or gmccarthy@gloucestertimes.com
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