IN MEMORIAM
Elaine Grandy 1942 - 2024
Elaine was born on April 21, 1942 and grew up in Johnstown, New York. Some of her happiest times were spent with family at their "camp" on Sacandaga Lake. Her formal education was at Columbia and New School for Social Research. Elaine worked for Kodak in Rochester and New York City. She lived in Manhattan for a decade and Woodstock for several years before she and her former spouse Arthur Rashap moved to Roxbury in 1978. There, they raised their son Raven Grandy-Rashap, and she began working as a licensed massage therapist. She continued to practice up until her death. Elaine lived briefly in South Carolina and New Mexico in the 1990s before returning to settle permanently at Laurel Lake in Andes.
Working intuitively, and without any formal education in the arts, she was an artist working in collage of watercolors, photographs, and found items. She exhibited her work in both stand-alone and group exhibitions as a member of the "Creative Crones" and the Longyear Gallery. Deeply loyal to the local community, Elaine was engaged in a variety of organizations including the Roxbury Arts Group and the Mark Project.
Friend Bonnie Mitchell:
"Elaine was an extraordinary champion of Longyear Gallery. She really loved being a member and spreading the word about the art being displayed. Her natural grace always evident, she volunteered for committees and on-going projects (like the Cabinet of Curiosities) with an ease and willingness to support the communal effort that is The Longyear Gallery.
As a collagist, she loved creating unique works of art that combined her passion for putting disparate pieces of fabric and paper (which she hand dyed), bits of driftwood, photographs, cardboard and etcetera - with her sense of beauty and art. She often waited till the last possible moment to fasten her work down on a "page." The result always (almost) pleased her a lot.
We miss her enormously."