Martha’s fall shouldn’t end her magazine

I was relieved to see that the April issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine was published this month. I feared, given the current state of all things Martha, that advertising executives would pull their ads and cause the magazine’s demise. Of course, some advertisers have done just that, but I, for one, hope the magazine survives.

In the April edition of Martha Stewart Living magazine I learned about the history of chintz, found clever ideas for making party decorations from paper bags and how to make caramel. In past issues I’ve learned about decorating with maps, sand candles, antique bedspreads, growing columbine and grilling fish five different ways. I may not implement every idea I find in the magazine, but I find enough inspiration in the articles to form creative ideas of my own.

I don’t condone the actions that got Stewart convicted in the Imclone stock mess, but I do sympathize with her plight. What she has accomplished as a businesswoman should not be eclipsed by a single instance of wrongdoing.

That Stewart will serve time in prison for obstructing justice and lying is likely. Even so, she should not be driven out of culture and society as if she were spreading a plague.

Stewart’s accomplishments are admirable, even if her conduct as a stock investor is not. I admire her because she built a business empire on what followers of the feminist movement of the 1960s and ’70s threw away like a soiled dishrag – homekeeping, as she calls it. She took a good look at all the skills women no longer wanted to learn, apply or pass on – keeping house, cooking, needlework, gardening, decorating – and saw a worthwhile opportunity.

In the process of marketing her personal vision of how life should be lived, she changed decorating aesthetic from the heavy-handed avocado and gold realm of the 1970s to an airy, gracious elegance inspired by seaside and countryside. That vision made Stewart rich and powerful, which, in turn, made her the object of what has all the signs of a good old witch hunt – scolded publicly for bad temper and her ideas lampooned in the media – the modern-day equivalent of being burned at the stake. And all because she had the genius to find a way not only to market, but to personify, a lifestyle – a lifestyle, I might add, refreshingly devoid of violence and in-your-face sexuality.

It is hoped that Stewart will rise to the occasion while she is in prison. Perhaps she will establish a program to teach inmates skills related to the decorating, cooking, gardening and needlework industries, skills that may aid them in finding jobs when they are released from prison.

But no matter what befalls Stewart as she does the time for the crime, I suspect her intelligence and creative ability to transform dross into gold will turn the experience into a “good thing.”

Snippets

Reader and jewelry maker Deb Niles stopped by to say that crafters interested in a low-cost way to sell their work on the Internet may want to visit www.funtigo.com, a Web site host.

Want to learn how to stencil? The Page Farm and Home Museum at the University of Maine will hold a stenciling workshop using stencils from the museum’s collection from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, April 17. The cost is $5. Call 581-4100 to register.

Joan Davis, co-founder of Hearts, Hands and Hats, invites knitters and spinners to gather to make chemo caps the third Sunday of each month at Bartlett Woods in Rockland. Yarn for the caps is donated by yarn shops throughout Maine, including Stitchery Square and Unique One in Camden. The caps are distributed to more than 21 oncology clinics in Maine. To learn more about the sessions, call 594-2745.

Ardeana Hamlin welcomes comments, suggestions and ideas. Call her at 990-8153, or e-mail ahamlin@bangordailynews.net.