Friday night the festivities began. The kick-off party at Grace Church Van Vorst in Jersey City brought out local artists and their art-loving friends. The exhibition was quite interesting with photography to 3D mixed media to painting on glass (Ibou Ndoye) to collages (Roslyn Rose). My only disappointment was they had a lovely spread of food but everything contained meat… sandwiches, pasta, meatballs… There are so many people who don’t eat meat, this truly surprised me… but the wine was very good and was donated by Jersey Wine & Spirits.
Saturday, I started out in Jersey City Heights to see some of the new murals going up just off Central Avenue & walked down to Pershing Field to meet a friend at the Community Center in the middle of the park. Inside were varied artists from photographers to painters and those working with mixed media. I was particularly interested in the work by Patricia Frank whose imagery using mixed media of wax and metallics gave the flower imagery a soft matte yet magical quality.
After this we headed downtown to start the walkabout and visit as many galleries and friends as we can fit into a day. Some of the galleries/shows were, “Exquisite Corpse,” at 109 Christopher Columbus Drive, the 150 Bay Street studios visiting, Robert Kogge, Lynda D’Amico, Karen Fuchs, and more… Alley Cat Gallery where we met Leigh More, whose photography work of scenes, cloudscapes are printed on metallic paper and gave the clouds movement as you walked back and forth. (She will be having a show at Made With Love this Fall)… The Mary Benson Gallery where John Crittenden had one of his images (another of his is in the Exquisite Corpse show). We also visited to the OJO Gallery with work by Marco Beria.
After the galleries and catching a bite at Skinner’s Loft we were off to the Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre in Journal Square for the silent film classic, The Mark of Zorro with Douglas Fairbanks… which was accompanied by the fabulous Chris Elliot playing the Bob Balfour Memorial Wonder Morton Theatre Pipe Organ! Just outstanding!
On Sunday, I visited The Distillery, a gallery in Jersey City Heights which had an exhibition with various artists called, “Race.” This space is so nice and the work really great, I highly recommend a stop in.
Afterward it was time to switch gears a bit and head down to Hoboken for the Fall Arts & Music Street Festival on Washington St. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and cool and perfect for browsing at the craft vendors and listen to some music… Some of the vendors were the same as are there at most of the festivals but there were some new ones… Liberty Animal Rescue getting the word out about their upcoming events for support in their cause… Bike Hoboken — I signed the mailing list. I’m also a member of Bike JC. One craft vendor caught my eye with her originally crafted and interesting jewelry, Pam Meyer and Alchemy. I bought the most interesting industrial looking yet feminine flower ring…
Anyway, it was an exhausting weekend, culturally packed, so visit my gallery and have a look.
