Artist, Frances T. Trammell

Several months ago, I blogged about sources of inspiration and focused briefly on my late grandmother, Frances T. Trammell. Frances was a local artist in the Maryland area that towards the later part of her career, focused on nautical paintings. She had a MFA from University of Maryland, taught art in Hyattsville, is referenced in the Pola Nirenska Collection of the Library of Congress, and even had a local artist exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in D.C.

She died approximately one year before I was born, but as an aspiring artist myself, I am extremely interested in learning about her and tracking down her pieces of work. To the best of my family's knowledge, some of her work had been at local galleries and was lost / never returned. I believe these pieces included Punch & Judy puppets and paintings.

This morning, I received an email from a woman who found my blog entry about my grandmother. She was researching the painting pictured below, Googled 'artist Frances T. Trammell' and found my post. She emailed me with photos of the painting inquiring whether the piece is in fact hers - at first glance it looks like her work and is her signature / appropriate year (Frances Townsend Trammell = Frances T. Trammell).

Although I am a self proclaimed online marketing 'geek', I've been disturbed by the social disintegration of our culture at times. Less in person chats at coffee houses, more following on Twitter or 'friending' someone on Facebook. At my office, every web developer has an iPhone, and people can't even walk to the printer without having their phone in front of their face - as though it is a compass to navigate around an office making zombies of us all.

Moments like this though - spontaneous connections made through online and unlikely to happen in the 'real' world - that is the power of this tool and our modern technological age. It is remarkable to try to think how a granddaughter of a late artist would be connected with a woman on the opposite side of the country researching a painting she perhaps purchased / saw in small local gallery. Wild. Humbling. Very, very cool.

More updates to follow as I gather additional information on the painting and other pieces of work by Frances.