New York Magazine
Cabin Fever in Provincetown
3 of 15
If you are like me, when you dream of summer, you dream of a cottage by the sea. And if you are lucky enough to bounce around Provincetown with under-the-radar design star David Cafiero, you will see many of them. David rents a house on the Cape every summer, and I tagged along with him on a recent weekend to ride bicycles, meet friends, and tour some delightful seaside shacks. At the historic Captain Jack’s Wharf, we bumped into Greg Saint Jean, who oversees the condo cabins you see here. Cabins are available to rent from June through October, with guests provided linens and housekeeping. Greg is vigilant about keeping everything shipshape.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
What says summer more than a screen door with a water view?
Photo: Wendy Goodman
The charming interiors are furnished with just the right amount of no-frills décor.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Each cabin has a tidy setup, some with built-in seating and sleeping areas.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
A painted dining/drinking/puzzle-assembling table in one of the cabins.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Not an inch of space is wasted.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
On one side of this wall, kitchen shelves; on the other, a tiny bedroom.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Another of David’s friends, painter John Dowd, renovated a nineteenth-century house that had been unhappily modernized in the seventies. John lives here with film director Dan Minahan, and together they have brought the house back to its original elegant simplicity. This is a view into the living room from the hallway between the kitchen.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
John sits at a player piano surrounded by boxes filled with music rolls that, once inserted into the piano, allow it to play itself.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Upstairs, John has an airy studio where he paints landscapes of Provincetown and the surrounding area.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
The center room upstairs feels very eighteenth century. At night, it is lit only by candles.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
We stopped at a new store in town called Foc’sle at 437 Commercial Street. It sells a wonderful variety of furnishings, home accessories, and paintings.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
David rents the ground floor of a weathered shingled house in town. This is a view of the sleeping porch—the perfect summer room.
Photo: Ivan de Petrovsky
The relaxed, cheerful kitchen opens to the living area and David’s work desk. The low-hanging beamed ceilings take a moment to get used to, especially if one is tall.
Photo: Ivan de Petrovsky
At the end of the day, we stopped in to see artist Sophia Reznick’s new gallery space, which just opened at 359 Commercial Street. Here, she is surrounded by a few of her paintings.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
For me, the high point of the show is this, which manages simultaneously to be a painting, a force field, and an electromagnetic visual discharge. This is an artist sloughing off old consciousness, making something he doesn’t even know is art, giving up nearly all known languages of painting, and maybe violating the laws of nature by making something that seemingly puts off more energy than went into making it.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
For me, the high point of the show is this, which manages simultaneously to be a painting, a force field, and an electromagnetic visual discharge. This is an artist sloughing off old consciousness, making something he doesn’t even know is art, giving up nearly all known languages of painting, and maybe violating the laws of nature by making something that seemingly puts off more energy than went into making it.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
For me, the high point of the show is this, which manages simultaneously to be a painting, a force field, and an electromagnetic visual discharge. This is an artist sloughing off old consciousness, making something he doesn’t even know is art, giving up nearly all known languages of painting, and maybe violating the laws of nature by making something that seemingly puts off more energy than went into making it.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
For me, the high point of the show is this, which manages simultaneously to be a painting, a force field, and an electromagnetic visual discharge. This is an artist sloughing off old consciousness, making something he doesn’t even know is art, giving up nearly all known languages of painting, and maybe violating the laws of nature by making something that seemingly puts off more energy than went into making it.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
For me, the high point of the show is this, which manages simultaneously to be a painting, a force field, and an electromagnetic visual discharge. This is an artist sloughing off old consciousness, making something he doesn’t even know is art, giving up nearly all known languages of painting, and maybe violating the laws of nature by making something that seemingly puts off more energy than went into making it.