Dennis Miller Bunker: Daunted

"The Mirror" by Dennis Miller Bunker

"Dennis Miller Bunker was back at Medfield, once more at Miss Sewall's boarding house, and very happy to be back. He wrote that he was painting for the first time in nearly two months, but had given up reading to save his eyes. He feels that Medfield is his own element and he adds, 'I see a thousand things to paint at once...after that other place,' alluding to Cornish.

But the summer was not happy like the previous one. Loeffler was not there with him and he found his only companionship among the local farmers, with who he got on famously. The eye trouble, though not serious, was annoying for a man whom painting and reading were absorbing passions. The headaches recurred to torture him from time to time. And as his wedding day approached, he was haunted by the old doubts as to the wisdom of allowing the girl he adored to share his shabby existence.

A letter to Miss Hardy betrays the overwrought state of the artist's nerves. It is of exceptional interest for what it tells us of his aesthetic creed and of his intimate attitude towards the art of painting.

'You must try and realize how dull and monotonous an artist's life is. There is absolutely nothing but work, work, work... What I am trying to tell you is not to nourish any ideas of an artist people whom you see may expound to you. Don't think, as they do, that the charm of an artist's work must be found also in his own personality. It is always apart, or should be, should have nothing to do with it, and that is what makes it such an infernal trade. Never to play on one's own twopenny flute but to keep the big end in view always; to remain patient and cold and quiet and work like a dog from morning 'til night; there is no other way of arriving even at talent, unless one is cut out of larger stuff than I am.'

The wedding took place on October 2nd, at Emmanuel Church in Boston, an unconventional affair but with many friends in attendance."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Dennis Miller Bunker" by R.H. Ives Gammell.)