In 1976, inspired by the ideas of Helen and Scott Nearing, Sherrie Lovler and Norm Lee began a back-to-the-land life in upstate New York. They later founded The Good Life Get-Together, a yearly summer gathering with workshops for those drawn to the back-to-the-land movement and published Homesteaders News magazine for over nine years. Helen and Scott came to the first festival and Helen came again to teach stone wall building. Fifty years later, Sherrie reflects on how the Nearings’ influence continues to shape her life as a self-employed artist, poet, teacher, and author.

Sherrie Lovler is a writer and artist whose work explores “living simply and sanely in a troubled world.” She is the author of three books that combine her paintings and poetry. Her most recent work, Distant Voices, invites viewers to travel through fire, forest, silence, and light—through endings that seek beginnings and beginnings that return us to ourselves.