Victor and Mabel D’Amico were twentieth century artists and art educators. In 1940 they built a small modernist house on Napeague Bay in Eastern Long Island, New York, which would serve as both their home and art studio. 

 

The building has been preserved as it was when they were still alive, and upon visiting one is immediately struck by their presence and the vitality of their work. 

 

Mabel D’Amico was a prolific and innovative sculptor. She created her work largely from found objects, many of which she would harvest on the beach: driftwood, bottles, balls, sea glass, shells, bird skulls and animal bones and buttons, bits of old boats, wire and plates and colored glasses and jars and stones, crystals and rocks and twigs, cones and baskets, birdhouses and books, and drawers and drawers filled with marbles and string and clamps and nails and hooks.

 

Every inch of wall space is covered by artwork, and every surface is filled with her sculpture, art supply and tools. In short, in every direction one finds inspiration. 

 

Though she has been gone now for more than a quarter of a century, you would be forgiven for thinking that Mabel had just stepped out for a walk. Her plants continue to grow in the solarium. The kitchen, a monument to organization, is exactly as she left it. Her paint brushes and tools and her collection of found objects wait silently in the workshop for her return. 

 

The Mabel and Victor D’Amico studio and archive, as it is now known, continues to house their research materials and artwork.