The Artsy Side of Jersey

There is this summer art festival that's held in Collingswood, a town about twenty minutes away from me, and it's become a tradition for my family to go every year. Basically the main street gets filled to bursting with tents, in which artists, jewelry makers, handbag designers, etc. display their work, most of which is for sale. Some artists come back every year, but for the most part, there is a good deal of variety. There were a few booths that really caught my eye this year.

One artist constructed animals out of old car and bike parts. This was neat, because some of the animals (dogs and snails, I think) functioned as things such as wine holders, or salt and pepper shakers. There was another jewler who made earrings and neclaces out of recycled iced tea and soda cans, and other recylcled objects. I was particularly drawn to her display of typewriter key earrings. She somehow extracted the letters and symbols from the keys and replaced them with different words. For instance one pair said, "kvetch" and "kvell." Another said "artist" and "poet." The pair I bought said "read" and "write." The paying process took longer than I expected, as the man running the booth gave me this whole schpiel about how I should send him my picture so he could show it to his 23 yr old, jewish, med student son (this was mainly because I understood what the "kvetch" and "kvell" earrings meant), but that's beside the point.

The most interesting booth at this year's festival belonged to a man named Paul Laoria and was filled with his mostly abstract oil on canvas paintings. He attended Juliard, and was very insistent about telling the story of every painting. Two of the pieces really stood out to me, and one is hanging in our living room at the moment; it's called "After the Ball," and according to Laoria it depicts the view of someone looking up at confetti and streamers at the end of the night, at a ball:


(After the Ball)

That was the painting that my mom ended up buying. The one that I liked the most was called "Rainbow Symphony," and it was supposed to depict just that-- the way a symphony would appear, if it were seen and not heard. The reason why I loved this piece so much was that I thought it captured music so well. It also made me think about how it might be cool to have synaesthesia, and be able to automatically match musical notes with colors:


(Rainbow Symphony)

Anyway, just thought I'd share, and if you're interested in the festival, it's in Collingswood, NJ, this year it was at the end of July (not sure when it'll be next year, or whether there will be one in the middle of this year). If not, it's a nice, quaint town with funky coffee shops, restaurants, and other crafty stores, so go check it out!