Aquinnah Original
“WHEN I’M IN HERE, deep into making a piece, I feel the best I’ve ever felt in my life,” Abe Pieciak tells me. We sip bourbon at the bench in his studio while the radio plays classic rock. Pieciak (pronounced “pea-check”) is stoking the small wood stove—it’s chilly outside, and striped bass have yet to show on Martha’s Vineyard. That’s probably a good thing, as far as conducting this interview goes; if migratory fish had arrived, we’d be out in the surf right now, chucking flies. Instead, Abe’s hunched over his painting of an arctic grayling. It’s not the hyper-realistic style of fish painting I’m used to; the fish’s body consists of small, brightly colored flies and insects, arranged in an intricate mosaic style. Grayling are on Pieciak’s angling wish list, he tells me, and I wonder if painting one allows him to be in two places at once—here on an East Coast island, but also somewhere far away. Leaning against the wall behind him rests a large sculpture of
