“Everyone I communicate with on a regular basis cares about the environment, food, animals, people, and community.”
Lori Skoog is known widely for the art classes she holds at Skoog Farm. Her students number about 100 over the past 13 years. They are just one of her many people connections centered at her scenic farm just south of Brockport. That tranquil storybook setting hides a diverse lifestyle rooted in the home soil, yet stretching around the world. For the past seven years her daily blog and photo journal have reached over 300 followers. She has been in contact with people far and wide, bringing the world to her doorstep, making Skoog Farm, she says, a kind of international “bed and breakfast.” She loves Brockport, enjoys and promotes its benefits, and takes photos of Brockport life that astound readers of her blog around the globe. She has a strong bond with animals and gives loving care to her horses and dogs. At the core of her outlook on life are her roots as a first generation Albanian which have generated enduring attitudes about people and living off the land.
Art for the people – “You can do it!”
In Lori’s art classes, people with little or no experience in art have discovered their artistic abilities. Lori has held class every Tuesday morning for the last 13 years. She had been an art teacher at Brockport High School for 13 years prior to that. Soon after retirement in 1999, friends Kendra Gemmett and Marcia Ullman came to her asking for lessons and Lori has taught ever since.
Lori’s approximately 100 students, past and present, include young and old from all walks of life. Some of Lori’s older students were Professor Bob Thompson in his 80s and 92-year-old Lydia deKabiedes, Alicia Fink’s mother from Ecuador. Two young girls were part of her summer classes some years ago. They did very well and the adult students enjoyed them, Lori said. Reverend Joanne Gilbert Cannon, minister at the First Baptist Church in Brockport, was a student. She did a series of paper collages called “Feminist Images in Sacred Art” for her master of art in religious studies degree at seminary. Other students include several college professors, retired teachers, two doctors, a lawyer, and people from a variety of other backgrounds.
“Most of my students have had very little art experience,” Lori said. “I tell them, ‘I can guarantee one-hundred percent you can to this.’ ” After learning ebony pencil and color pencil drawing techniques, students go on to a medium of their choice – watercolor, pencils, weaving, quilting, collage, etc. Lori says she becomes a facilitator for her students after she has taught them the basic methods. She allows students to use their creative “right brain” and they are free to discover their own artistic abilities. “We are very casual, we don’t push,” she said. “Somehow, at the end, they come out with something good.”
Her students’ works have been exhibited at the Seymour Library for many years. This past spring their work was shown at A Different Path Art Gallery in Brockport. She was delighted that the retrospective brought back many former students, showing they were still interested. “It was a boost for them to see their work professionally hung in a gallery,” Lori said. “They started to realize their art was pretty good. We got many compliments on that show.”
Farm Life and the animals
“… a huge commitment and I take it very seriously.”
Thirty-four years ago, Lori and husband, Gary, purchased their farm with its house built in 1823. On just over five acres they grow a variety of organic foods and give much of it away to friends. Gary sells seed garlic and grows some for their table. Lori mows about one-and-one-half acres on a rider mower and Gary does hand mowing. Her life centers on devotion to her two horses, Berlin and Abbe. Two boarding horses are cared for by their owner and share the barn and pastures.
Lori is up every day at sunrise. “Today I was up before five, let the dogs out, fed them and the cat, and checked email,” she said in an interview. “I cleaned the horse stalls, picked the paddock (of manure) clean as a whistle, put their masks on (protection against gnats), and let them out. Then, I prepared for the night feed.” She has done that routine each day for 34 years. When teaching high school, with several more horses on the farm, she would complete the chores and be at school by 7:30 a.m. “You are tied down when you have animals,” she said. “It’s a huge commitment and I take it very seriously.”
Lori allows her horses, Berlin and Abbe, their freedom. “It’s the way I teach art,” Lori added. “I let them be.” The barn and pastures are set up so she doesn’t have to lead them out. “When they go out in the morning, I open their stall doors and they go out on their own. When it’s time to come in, I call them or whistle and they all know to go to their own stalls without me touching them. They do not need to be tied up for grooming; they stand still anywhere.” The same freedom-to-be goes for her two dogs Phoebe and Gucci, both rescue mutts from the South. They follow her through the house and roam the farm with her. Asked about her bond with animals, Lori said, “It’s different for women than men, if we are honest. It’s being needed. Your animals need you and it’s nice meeting their need.”
Her blog and other distant contacts help her “travel in reverse”
Every day Lori writes The Skoog Farm Journal subtitled “Writings and photographs from a small community in western New York” (http://skoogfarm.blogspot.com). “I started my blog in February, 2007, and have not missed one day,” she said. “It is a photo journal of what I do every day. I have 325 followers and I am approaching 300,000 hits since I started. It’s incredible. Why do people care what I am doing?” The blog typically has a variety of farm scene photos with animals and flowers, people she has met and places she has been recently, plus her brief writings and sometimes recipes. People respond with enthusiasm, some sharing their own blogs, and many actually come to visit at the farm. “It seems like magic to be able to connect with so many people,” Lori said. “Everyone I communicate with on a regular basis cares about the environment, food, animals, people, and community.”
Local people and many from U.S. cities, plus New Zealand, Scotland, England, France, Italy, Niger (West Africa), Saudi Arabia, Canada, Australia, Greece, Italy, Sweden, and Germany follow her blog. She has had visitors arrive from all around the globe. “It just keeps happening,” Lori said. “It’s like we have a bed and breakfast here.”
Some of Lori’s contacts come from the canal Welcome Center where she greets and chats with boaters. “That canal connects us to the world,” she said. Lori has lunched with boaters from Norway, and continues to communicate with a boater couple from Cleveland.
And, Lori brings Brockport to the world. She is a kind of ambassador, taking hundreds of photos of Brockport events and scenes for her blog. “People all over the country and the world can’t believe this community,” she said. “They think we are the coolest thing because we have so many events, activities and interesting places for such a small village.”
For Lori, whose life is tied to the farm, she says that being in touch with so many people and welcoming visitors from around the globe helps her to “travel in reverse.” “I love meeting people, and it’s bizarre how I have done it without leaving home.”
Albanian heritage
“Sometimes I think I have the values of someone from the old country who lives off the land.”
Lori’s love for meeting people, and for the land and animals, traces back to her heritage as a first generation Albanian. She was raised near the lake at Chautauqua. As a five and six-year-old, she lived temporarily in Jamestown with her grandmother from the old country. She spoke English in school and Albanian with “Nanna” who always wore black. “If you came to the door, I had to walk to you with a tray holding roses, a glass of water, and a spoon with marmalade in it. You would eat the marmalade, drink the water, and give it back to me. I did that for everyone who came to the house.” Lori reflected, “I lived as though I were in the old country. It has had so much impact on me.” It was that sudden emotional awareness that brought tears of joy. “I regard myself as a peasant, with the values of someone from the old country who lives off the land, and I like that. I think it’s honest.” And, like the greeting ritual as a child, “I like sharing, giving, and participating. And now I connect with people from around the world. It’s the best.”
Photos by Dianne Hickerson
