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Lawrenceville Main Street Artists Network pair poetry with visual works for Saturday's event

BY PAT SUMMERS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

They call it "value added" when something basic is offered to consumers along with a nice supplement that makes people even happier to buy. Now this happens in the visual arts world too.

In Lawrenceville this weekend, that will mean pairing poetry with the visual art you would expect to find in a gallery. For their upcoming Second Saturday event, members of the Lawrenceville Main Street Artists Network dipped into the world of poetry and were inspired to create art in response.

Not only will their poetry-inspired artworks be on view, but the "word artists" who responded to the call for poetry will also read from their work. That combination, along with wine and munchies, guarantees a value-added opening.

Since its start late last year in an empty store front on Main Street, the Artists Network, now numbering 29 members, has made great strides toward visibility and credibility. Its members seem almost to vie with one another to take on gallery-related jobs and think up offerings beyond those already available: art classes for kids and adults and a summer art camp.

The artists often display their work in the town's restaurants, and a few have businesses or studios in Lawrence as well. With brochures and cards available at the gallery, they boost the local business scene, and some restaurateurs have reciprocated with Second Saturday snacks and other shows of support.

Though all members' work will be on view in the four-room gallery, art by eight of them will be featured this month, in a room of their own. Visitors entering via the Main Street door will be surrounded by their paintings, photography, sculpture, ceramics and drawings.

Bill Felder believes that ordinary, everyday scenes can possess "unexpected beauty and great interest" given the "right light" or shown in detail. Whether close to home or far away, he strives to capture the scenes that viewers might otherwise pass by without a second glance.

A painter and art therapist, Jean Joslin says she has drawn and painted since childhood. Her subjects often include landscapes and still lifes derived from stays on Nantucket and Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Although she works in a variety of mediums, she's currently focusing on oils.

For Kim Moulder, "color is life," and she achieves hue intensity through layering and glazing of staining pigments. This longtime graphic designer believes that although her work has a structured, graphic feel, it comes alive through color, and then her water color medium itself contributes fluidity of form.

Her years in theater as a prop builder and designer prepared Ruthann Perry for her current life as a sculptor. Working in wood and found objects, she creates the horses that are now her primary subjects. She describes horses as "the durable, exquisite, intelligent working machines that inspire me."

Teresa Prashad is the only "painter" in the group who works with dyes on silk fabrics. She also oil paints on canvas and uses watercolors, but she's most interested in silk painting: "You do not know what effect you will get and each time it turns out to be something new — I like that!"

Traditionally trained in Toulouse, France, Pierre Sardain says he earned the equivalent of a BFA in graphic design and communication, along with specialties in packaging and advertising. Beyond his Lawrenceville-based business, he does figure drawing, often from live models, and chalk on paper works.

Susan Strassberg began as an oil painter, then was attracted to encaustic, and from there she moved into 3-D with sculpture and ceramics. She likes creating art forms that define space, often using natural accents such as stones, sticks and bark that to her convey creation's vital forces.

Crafting, teaching art classes and creating still lifes in acrylic keep Tiffany Willner busy on top of being a "stay-at-home mom" with three children. She has taught kids about 3-D and 2-D, Styrofoam print making and geometric string art, with polymer bead making and papermaking coming up.

Eight visual artists and any number of "word artists" will be in the spotlight on Saturday. Poets — most from the area and some also family and friends of the artists — have agreed to read from their works about halfway through the 4-7 pm artists reception.

This "value-added" Second Saturday in Lawrenceville will also be a multi-media event.

The hope is for multi visitors as well.

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Lawrenceville Main Street Artists Network Gallery. 2683 Main Street at Gordon Ave. Open Friday and Saturday 11-7 pm; Sunday 11-5 pm. Phone (Lawrenceville Main Street Office) 609-219-9300; go to www.LawrencevilleMainStreet.com/art. 2nd Saturday artists reception "Art Inspired by Poetry," May 8, 4-7 pm. Poetry readings at 5:30 pm.

Freelance writer Pat Summers also blogs at AnimalBeat.blogspot.com.