Quarry Hill Creative Center: Encyclopedia II - Quarry Hill Creative Center - Creation of Quarry Hill

Quarry Hill Creative Center - Creation of Quarry Hill

At Quarry Hill, the Fiskes' intention was to create an artists’ and writers’ retreat, a gathering place for creative and freethinking people. They had two children, Isabella (also called Ladybelle), born August 12, 1950, and William, born February 4, 1954. During the Fifties and early Sixties, the family traveled to keep their children out of the strict public schools of the day. which the Fiskes regarded as "Dark Satanic Mills That Grind Men's Souls to Dust,” in the words of William Blake. The Fiskes were opposed to spanking [7] or corporal punishment of children, indeed, punishment of any kind; and most schools of the time used corporal punishment. William later earned a Masters' Degree in Computer Science from the University of Vermont, and Isabella became a writer and children's rights activist.Isabella (Ladybelle), became friends with the well-known Underground Cartoonists of the East Village, R. Crumb, Trina Robbins, Kim Deitch, Spain Rodriguez, and others. Art Spiegelman (later the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Maus) was Isabella's boyfriend, and later friend, for many years.

In the mid-Sixties, Barbara opened a storefront, The Gallery Gwen, in New York's East Village. There Barbara showed her paintings, along with those of others, and Irving began to give public talks on Tantra, Zen, Sufism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, and atheism, among many other things. He soon spoke to many standing-room-only audiences. In time he would also speak in colleges and churches on the East Coast, such as Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont and in many other locations.

He spoke out in favor of people finding their own creative path in life, enjoying themselves, being free of guilt and shame, and children’s rights. He wrote letters for young men who were conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War. Some came to call him “The Forest Wizard,” and in Florida, where he had a cabin on a lake, “The Socrates of the Ocala National Forest.” Irving was a controversial figure. In the 1970s, when his cabin in the Ocala Forest was burnt by arsonists,and the authorities did not give him a permit to rebuild, he launched a legal and media battle, claiming that the authorities were prejudiced against the young people he brought there as his friends, most of whom had long hair. He eventually got the permit and rebuilt the cabin.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Creation of Quarry Hill", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki