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Home for Rita had first been a farm in the Nevada township just outside the small town Odell, Illinois. Our first "home" together was an apartment at 705 East Grove in the Dimmitt's Grove neighborhood of Bloomington, Illinois. Then, 8th Avenue in Brooklyn, a block away from Prospect Park was where we first lived together as New York City residents. Rita would come to live and die in our loft at another 705 address, 705 Driggs Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It had been our plan, before the treatment for her cancer tethered her to New York City, to have a second home in the Heartland, near her place of birth, to spend time at, to refresh, to be central. After the funeral service, I set out to find that second home, but for a different purpose: As a home to her artwork in honor of her purpose and determination and as a tribute to her legacy. That 1910 house needs a lot of work, but I believe it to be the kind of house Rita would have wanted to while away the summer and at which to do more artmaking. Rita will return in a fashion to Pontiac, Illinois, her place of birth.
Rita grew up on the Finnegan Farm just outside of Odell, Illinois. The house grew by additions in order to accommodate the growing family. Patricia and Paul Finnegan had ten children. And for the longest time, one bathroom.
This has been our Brooklyn home since January of 1981, the Tuttle Building , an L-shaped 19th century cast-iron that fronts on both Grand Street and Driggs Avenue. We originally lived on the ground floor, but started from scratch again when our architect told us we needed to have the ground floor for commercial use in order to expedite bringing the building up to code.
This is the house in Pontiac which will house and exhibit Rita's remaining oil on aluminum paintings, oil paintings, watercolors, and other works. It is filled with "scratch-and-dent" furniture that had been in storage since being replaced by better finds. There is to be no dining room, but rather a workroom filled with her craft materials and a workbench. In fact, I think of calling this house "The Button Box" reflecting one of her favorite craft activities, the construction of assemblages incorporating fabric and buttons within a glass-fronted wooden box.