Patsy Lynch Wood celebrates her 99th birthday on June 13, 2022. This occasion marks another milestone: it was exactly 80 years ago this month that she made her way to Black Mountain College’s Lake Eden campus (at the age of nineteen) to attend the 1942 summer session, making her the sole living BMC alum to attend the college during the war years.
Like many Black Mountain College students, Patsy’s experience there was one of deep self-exploration and awakening, especially in music and the arts. She treasured her work on the looms in Anni Albers’s weaving class and registered for practically every one of Josef Albers’s art classes. For a time she considered majoring in art before choosing drama, joining “The Black Mountain Players” and performing in and around Asheville. When her drama teacher (Bob Wunsch) abruptly left the college under a quiet storm of controversy, she turned to one of her other talents – music. Through studying with her beloved Heinrich Jalowetz (“Jalo”) and the brilliant musicologist Edward Lowinsky, Patsy became one of only two students to graduate with a major in music during her six years there. As for her color studies, Patsy later reminisced, “they were put on hold, though I kept pieces of colored paper on a large roll for years and years until they finally faded and dried out on the edges.” (1)
Patsy Lynch Wood on her 94th birthday. Louisville, CO., 2017. Photo by Mark Davenport. Courtesy of Landkidzink Image Collection.
Patsy Lynch Wood and Vera B. Williams in Louisville, CO., 2009. Photo by Mark Davenport. Courtesy of Landkidzink Image Collection.
At BMC, Patsy made many life-long friends, among them her college roommate Vera Baker, fellow student Paul Williams, and faculty member M.C. Richards. During her final summer there, she met Merce Cunningham and John Cage, where she became Cage’s assistant for the exciting Erik Satie Festival. Since those influential and formative years at Black Mountain, Patsy has pursued many passions, working first under the Baroness Hilla von Rebay at the Museum of Non-Objective Painting (before it became known as the Guggenheim Museum), in New York City, where she also profited from her work with Jalowetz and Lowinsky to became a professional performer and pioneer of the American Early Music movement. She then co-founded an intentional community of artists, known as the Gate Hill Cooperative in Stony Point, NY, with a group of former BMC faculty and students. Acknowledging her gratitude to Black Mountain for becoming “a life-long learner,” Patsy returned to school at age 60 to get her master’s degree in gerontology and music therapy, teaching and practicing in those fields for another 18 years.
Patsy Lynch and Molly Gregory at Black Mountain College (c. 1947). Photo by Nell Goldsmith. Courtesy of the Western Regional Archives, State Archives of North Carolina.
Patsy Lynch (center) and friends Lorna Blaine Howard (left) and Olavi “Oli” Shivonen (right), enjoying sodas in front of the Studies Building at Black Mountain College (c. 1947). Photo by Stuart Atkinson. Courtesy of the Western Regional Archives, State Archives of North Carolina.
Only later in life, with children grown and out of the house, did Patsy finally have time to return to her great interest in making art. “Much, much later,” Patsy writes,
I found myself living alone—a cozy apartment on a hilltop in Santa Barbara. Because a local library sold good quality magazines for 10 cents, I found wonderful pictures of all kinds. Very spontaneously I began my cutting and clipping and saving, partly for some classes I was teaching and needed themes for, and then, just as naturally, I started to make collages. The first pieces were approached in a more traditional way but one day I wondered if I could have two images working simultaneously at once—by cutting the top image into strips and spacing and placing them in such a way that the underneath image could still be made out. Sometimes I tried five or six combinations before I found one that worked and pleased me. This began to be a game—a kind of play, like a puzzle—I would problem-solve for hours at a time in perfect happiness. (2)
Patsy Lynch Wood, woven textile, 16 x 24 inches. Black Mountain College, summer 1948. Courtesy of Mark Davenport/Landkidzink Image Collection.
Patsy Lynch Wood, Dancing Trio, 2005, recycled print media, paper, rubber cement, 7 x 7 inches. Courtesy of Mark Davenport/Landkidzink Image Collection.
For me, these collages represent a perfect union of her work under the Alberses, weaving colored strips of images together like magnified threads on a loom. It also shows her endless imagination and zest for living.
Happy Birthday Mom. What an inspiration for us all!
Mark Davenport
Mark Davenport is a professor of music at Regis University in Denver. He is currently on sabbatical, working on his forthcoming book Community as Art: From Black Mountain College to the Gate Hill Cooperative.
1. Patsy Lynch Wood, “Artist’s Statement” (1988), Patsy Lynch Wood: The Collages (1984-2004), artist portfolio (2022), personal collection of author.
2. Patsy Lynch Wood, “Artist’s Statement” (1988), Patsy Lynch Wood: The Collages (1984-2004), artist portfolio (2022), personal collection of author.