A Butterfly Lands in Belmar

A butterfly sponsored by the Arts Society of Keyport landed in Belmar several weeks ago, looking for colorful images to celebrate the town's resilience after the challenges of Hurricane Sandy.  The traveling butterfly is a project of the Keyport arts group, who received a grant from the Monmouth County ArtHelps program to circulate the fiberglass insect through a number of coastal towns that suffered devastation in the storm.  Fran McCloskey of the Belmar Arts Council painted the lower quadrant of the butterfly's left wing with an image from Belmar's boardwalk and an inspiring quote from Proverbs.  The finished butterfly will visit several more shore towns before taking up residence again in Keyport.

story and photos courtesy  Pat Hutchinson

Train Station Mural Update

The train station mural project is finally going forward.  The committee has chosen a design, which will  eventually be executed on fabric that will be adhered to the train station exterior.  However, it was decided that the current train station wall won't be suitable for that, so our first step will be building a new one.  Good quality half inch plywood will be primed and attached over the whole wall, and then the mural will be attached to that.  Therefore, our starting point is the wood.  It will take 22 sheets of plywood to do the job, which has been donated by Jaeger Lumber.

Using all three rooms of the Boatworks, we were able to set up 9 boards at a time, on top of tables and saw horses.  BAC volunteers took turns using the four rollers to roll coats of white primer (provided by Belmar Paints) on first one side of the wood, and then the other.

When both sides of the boards were dry, we could move them to a safe place and put out a new set.  When this process is all done, they will be cut to their proper shape and size and be installed on the train station wall.  Check here for future updates.

Masquerade Opening Reception

Today the Boatworks hosted the opening reception for new Masquerade exhibition, featuring art inspired by the mystery of the mask.  A very large crowd developed quickly, moving into all three rooms of the building.

Exhibition jurors Vincent Nardone and Jose Gonzalez selected 50 works for the show, which includes mediums such as painting, drawing, mixed media, printmaking, digital art, photography, fibers, ceramics, and items sculpted and crafted from a very wide variety of materials.

The Masquerade show fills every bit of the front and back gallery spaces, while our side room includes a solo exhibition of paintings from Andrew Dennis called Swans, Swans, Swans.  This show is a benefit for the BAC, which keeps all the proceeds from sales of these works.

Whenever possible we like to have live entertainment at our openings, and this time around it was Murph and Marie, who took turns on the guitar, as well as alternating between solo and duet arrangements.

The exhibition jurors chose seven works for awards:

Best In Show

Kathleen Nademus

Send in the Jesters II

cyanotype print

First Place Painting

Pat Hutchinson

Kitchen Avatar

oil on canvas

First Place Photography

Joe Villa

After the Party

photograph

First Place Mixed Media

Patricia Bevere

Mysteries

mixed media

First Place Graphics/Drawing

Bill Ross

Black Death

white charcoal on black paper

First Place Sculpture

Carol Gleason

Jubilation

clay

Honorable Mention

Rebecca Lopez-Deren

The Crab That Wants to be Caught

clay

The Masquerade exhibition and concurrent Swans, Swans, Swans show will be on display through November 8, 2013.  Gallery hours are Wednesday to Saturday, 1 to 5 pm.  Admission is free.

additional photos courtesy Pat Hutchinson

Boatworks Improvement Continue

The efforts to continue the rehabilitation and improvements to the Boatworks has continued this week.  The town has completed the pouring of concrete, for both our stage (above) and the slab that will hold our shed (below).  Meanwhile Hutch has been framing out the new stage- walls now, roof to come soon.

Another change is that we have received a whole bunch of pavers.  The pink ones above will be installed by the town as a path that will come around from the front and continue most of the way down that side of the building.  The gray ones below will form an even bigger path, bridging the space between our storage room back door and the shed's new location, and also coming down around the
Boatworks on the side with the postcard mural.  A volunteer group organized by an Eagle Scout nominee will be taking charge of that.

October Member's Meeting

More than 25 members and guests listened to renowned local sculptor Mark Dornan as he described the creation of his sculptures.  Mark set up three of his large bas relief sculptures and and brought many other examples of his work and the materials he uses, for the audience to see and handle.  

Mark's presentation followed a short business meeting in which BelmarArts chairman Dana Cohoon reported that membership was now over 350, a terrific level of growth.  The audience, which included members Pat Hutchinson and Joan Wallace, also got a preview of the Masquerade exhibition, which has been installed in the gallery in preparation for the opening reception on Saturday evening, October 5th, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm.  Also on display will be Andrew Dennis's show Swans, Swans, Swans, in the side gallery.

story by Dana Cohoon, photos from Michael Miller, typing by Arrabbiata