Fun for kids and adults at Arts Alive!, June 16-18, 2017
Arts Alive, the three-day celebration of the arts in Falmouth is coming again on the third weekend in June, the 16th through the 18th. Shore Street Extension will once again become an avenue of tents—a colorful bazaar of handcrafted arts from around the Upper Cape. In the large tents on the Library Lawn over 50 performances of all kinds will start at 5 pm Friday and continue through 5 PM Sunday.
Chalk drawings by Jeanne Stewart and Falmouth art students will decorate the sidewalk in front of the Library and wonderful raffle baskets will be offered from The Black Dog, John’s Liquors, DaSilva Farms and Maison Vilatte Bakery. Special events at the Festival are the Town Dance with the Rip-It-Ups Friday night (7-9PM), Salt the 42-foot inflatable whale from NOAA, Artists’ Guild painters on the lawn on Saturday and special food from the Wild Game Sausage Man.
Over 50 artisans will display their wares. Many fit into specific genres—photography, pottery, jewelry—but others do not. Heavy, handsome boards and boxes are created by EKL Designs, while Martine Bindler-Desbiens adorns intricate, small gift boxes with animals, stars, marine creatures. Walking sticks and flutes of bamboo are available at Bamboo Serenity Flutes and Deborah Allen offers her books of historical fiction. Beachhouse Baking Company has baking mixes for all tastes and diets—vegan, gluten- and sugar-free—and really rich and delicious.
Wayne Sorel of Black Leash weaves leather restraints for dogs as well as horses and Erika Hammer at Nautical Creations knots nautical rope for handy items around the house.
Everybody needs things for their home, especially in the kitchen. Potters are numerous at Arts Alive, New this year is Amy Eldridge whose work is inspired by the earth and the sea. The work of two other potters may be more familiar: the colorful sgrafitto designs of Sarah Caruso, the whimsical sea forms of Robert Seamen. From the Barn Pottery, Kim Sheerin also uses the sgrafitto technique along with sliptrailing and stamping, while Hollis Engley creates useful bowls with stunning designs.
From Hog Wild Pottery, Susan Blum offers hand-built and wheel-thrown birdbaths, butter and berry dishes. Sharing a tent with her, Deborah McCarty of Cove Lane Pottery decorates plates for children and special dishes inspired by sea creatures. Brum offers the unusual—yarn bowls, birdbaths, garlic keepers, berry bowls, and butter keepers.
Corine Adams, the ceramics teacher at Falmouth High School will show her functional and decorative ceramic art. Some of her students from the National Art Honor Society will offer a variety of their work, not all pottery.
The Falmouth area has many wonderful photographers and some of them will be at Arts Alive. Joe Goodman’s photographs capture people and boats and nature, but often turns them into painterly abstracts of light and design. In contrast, Robert Manz’ work combines crisp images of Ireland, Cape Cod, and Tuscany, displaying his love of primary colors. Don Fleet, new to Arts Alive, shares images of Cape Cod–its beaches, harbors, and cranberry bogs.
The water, wind, and light of all four seasons on Cape Cod are also the subjects of Suzanne Livingstone’s landscape work.
Don Parkinson is another artist whose photographs capture the nature of Cape Cod, but he also is a glass blower who makes colorful beaded pendants. Elias Glass Studio offers eminently cheerful multi-colored tumblers, ornaments, and vases. Bryan Rand creates sea creatures, insects, hummingbirds and much more, practical and imaginative, in solid vivid colorations. Kiln-fired diachronic glass is the medium for the brightly colored pendants and earrings of Marite Burns at A Real Glass Act. Donna Andrews-Maness from Swing Lane Studio, uses Italian soda lime and furnace glass beads combined with silver leaf and fine silver. The jewelry is light as air but tough as nails because they have been kiln-annealed for strength and durability.
Scarabocchio Silversmiths is continuously experimenting with wire, sheets of sterling silver and gold to form original jewelry designs using old-fashioned hand tools; recent additions to their creations include precious metal accessories such as scarf rings, bookmarks, barrettes, key rings, hair combs, necklace slides, and appetizer spoons. Laura Bouton of LjBj Jewelry also works in metal, using various techniques in silver and copper to create different textures and patinas.
Jessica Randa at Valley Farm Design sculpts quahog shells into lovely earrings while Lucia Moon Designs uses the same shells along with conch shells, abalone and other shells from all over the world often combined with gold or silver. Both Marilyn Rowland at Marisol Designs and Ellen Barol at Big Hearted Mutt Designs use brightly color beads in glorious combinations to create light and lively bracelets, necklaces, and earrings.
Laura Bergeron at Old Nouveau repurposes 100-year-old Victorian era postcards, cufflinks and watches into charming nostalgic bracelets and earrings. Also invoking the feeling of a bygone era are the tiny books and butterfly wings that carry secret messages created by Raelinda Woad at Storyteller Jewelry.
Jewelry is one way to decorate yourself, but there are other ways offered at Arts Alive. Adorn yourself with henna at Joanne Whitemore’s Cape Cod Henna, have your face painted by our cheerful helpers. Or you can just indulge yourself at home with the organic soaps and scrubs from Marcia Dottore. And then you can immortalize yourself by having Jason Carrier create a caricature of you for your living room wall.
Prints and cards to cheer you on or make you pause are available from six print-makers. The most amusing ones are available from Sandra Faxon at Local Colors in Woods Hole. Meticulous in detail are the matted and framed sailboats, created with an engineer’s eye by M. A. Cooper Design. Equally detailed, but entirely different in subject and tone are the prints of Hannah Reidy, new to Arts Alive this year, who also is a jeweler. Lyrical and romantic are the original watercolors and prints available from Corinne Lilie at Black Sheep Studio. In contrast to the others, are mixed-media and inspirational prints from Manny and Linda Dias at Cape Cod Creations. This duo has performed folk music many times since over the years at the Festival.
Like the Dias’s, Susan Hersey at Hersey Handbags has been a mainstay of Arts Alive for many, many years. Her imaginative bags are sober or gleeful—depending on the occasion. Lee Wynne at Calico Collections also offers bags and totes as well as decorative pillows for the home. Linda Jones of Yarn Over sells wearable art—her unique crocheted cowls and scarves are worn around the neck rather than over the shoulder for an insouciant look almost all year round.
Little ones can be well dressed in nautically decorated onesies from Nancy Sawyer at Tidal Effects. For slightly older children, Bzzyfiners and Mama Hen offer rompers and hoodies and grow-with-me pants in adorable patterns and prints made by Melissa Oliveria and Natasha Parker.
Jane Parhiala weaves beautiful cloth using a Japanese Saori Loom that encourages free expression and spontaneity; a single piece of fiber can become a pillow cover, a table runner or a bag. Different textures of fabrics and colors can all be woven together to create a masterpiece. For much of the day, Suzy Bergman director of the Falmouth Art Center will actually be weaving in the Center’s tent using the same type of loom.
The Falmouth Art Center is a local non-profit that offers art exhibits and classes. Other non-profits that will be doling out information or selling items to pay the light bills are College Light Opera Company, People for Cats, and the Woods Hole Film Festival. Highfield Hall and the Falmouth Chorale will offer information on their concerts and events and Habitat for Humanity will be running their annual raffle for the elegant handcrafted wooden kayak.
At the Falmouth Climate Action tent there will be interactive family-friendly demonstrations addressing climate change through the “Art of Living Sustainably,” revitalizing our community and home living for a healthy, happy future with locally produced clean energy, transportation and food production.
Notes on The Arts 