In Her Cups

Last weekend was Alumni Weekend at our kids' school. Not being alums ourselves, we ordinarily don't think much of it, but something in the weekly newsletter caught my wife's eye. There was going to be a talk by an alumnae, an artist, who'd somehow gotten onto Wendy's radar screen. We decided to head down to Germantown Friends last Saturday to hear Gwyneth Leech talk about her current project, a wonderful, whimsical and serendipitous collection of hand painted paper coffee cups. Until recently the ever-growing cup project was displayed in the prow of the Flatiron Building at the junction of Broadway, Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street. She'd gotten a terrific write-up in the NY Times. Like many of the alums of GFS that I've known, (my mother and uncle among them) Gwyneth was warm, gracious and articulate as she fleshed out her CV for the audience, and gave us the background on her cup project and a fascinating church restoration in Scotland.

Gwyneth Leech in the 'prow' of the Flatiron Building