Mr. Vine Hunter
I met Mr. Vine Hunter (his preferred name) on the Boulevard on the East Side. Some of our conversation had to be edited because of gusty winds and loud cars whizzing by.
His well-used white truck is stacked to the brim with wreaths and other objects made of woven vines, large and small. As he speaks, he fashions the second eye of a woven frog.
“This is not a hobby, it’s supposed to be a business. (Interviewer: “It’s not a hobby, it’s an art.”) “Yeah, it’s not a hobby, I suppose it’s an art. I’ve been doing it for so long; it was my Mom’s idea. She made Christmas wreaths. She saw them in a magazine and she thought it was something new. I don’t think there was anything new about it. Since then I’ve been doing it for 45 years. I sell mostly to stores, not often to people strolling by, that’s why I move around all the time.”
As Mr. Hunter talks, his hands never stop moving. I hear a snap and he curses: “I hate that when these stupid things break. You’re not supposed to break!” (His tone was more kindly than critical.)
“Sometimes there’s patches of vines that are better than others. Sometimes they’re pretty strong, sometimes they’re not. They need to be able to wave around to be flexible; vines that are confined are more brittle. I like working with grape vine. Eventually, the weather might make a difference; they may be dried out and dying. One thing that I’ve noticed is the more they are waving around the more flexible they are to work with. And they need to dry very slowly. It’s really about the varieties of vine and their different responses to their environment. It’s probably epigenetics because they’re affected by their genes and the actual conditions they’re growing in, much like humans.”
“One more thing, I want to talk about bird’s nests. So many birds make their nests with a piece of plastic woven in it. I’ve seen some that make half the nest with plastic. They must think ‘Hey, why should I make a whole nest when I can just use this?’ Have you heard of Bower Birds? They make their nests on the ground and find something shiny to put in the bower to attract the female bird. Some of those nests are very decorated.”
The ambient noise was now making it impossible to hear him on my audiotape and the cold began to sink in. Mr. Hunter stayed right there, bare-handed by the side of the road, weaving his art. Suffice it to say Mr. Hunter knows and thinks a lot about the forest, the birds that have similar talents to his, humor, and Life in general, and he expressed sincere gratitude for my interest.
Bobbie Hunger is an activist and doting grandmother who lives in Elmwood. She was a labor and delivery nurse for over 30 years, was appointed to the I-195 Commission, and is one of the organizers of Move to Amend RI, advocating for the “We the People Amendment”. She spends lots of time photographing people in Providence.
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