Editor's Letter: Transformation

This summer, the summer of face masks and seismic shifts, I find myself unexpectedly captivated by Francesca Colussi, a textile artist whose work graces the cover of the summer issue of The Paris Review.

Colussi embroiders postcards. The practice was a tradition in the early 20th century. Colussi, who lives in North Wales, buys her postcards at local antique shops. On some postcards, she brings life to the trees with her vivid green clusters of French knots; on other cards, she overlays abstract, colorful lovers. The work is painfully beautiful, nostalgic and intimate, yet also forward-thinking and provocative.

Colussi views her artwork, according to the magazine, as “conversations with images from the past.”

This summer, the summer of transformation, reconciliation and transcendence, I find myself searching for my way forward, striving for my better self, reckoning with my past and imagining a fuller, more vivid future.

Rodrigo Duarte does so by bringing the traditions of Portugal to his hog farm in Wantage (page 16). Meg Nobile does so by re-inventing the family farm in New Milford (page 22). Jesse Jones does so by combining the comfort food of his childhood to French culinary technique (page 8).

This forward motion, this energy, is what I have always loved about New Jersey. Writers have called this summer a pause, a resetting, a catching of breath. Lives are snuffed out, dreams are shattered, people are sick. America in 2020 is desperate to breathe.

In New Jersey, we are always restless. This summer, the pause feels electric, the space between heartbeats.

Cheers,
Teresa Politano, Editor