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Arts Council Show Will WelcomeCurrent & Former Newtown Residents

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Arts Council Show Will Welcome

Current & Former Newtown Residents

By Shannon Hicks

When Easton Arts Council presents its first of what organizers are hoping will become an annual event on Sunday, Newtown artisans will be well represented within a field of 40 hand selected New England artists and fine craftsmen. The Easton Fine Art & Demonstrating Craftsmen Show is scheduled for Sunday, September 21, at Easton’s Firehouse Green.

Three of Sunday’s artists are current residents of Newtown and another is a former resident.

The green is on Center Road. In the event of rain the show will move to Samuel Staples Elementary School, on Morehouse Road.

The show will be open from 10 am to 4 pm. Admission is free.

“This is not your typical craft show,” promises Lee Skalkos of Easton Arts Council. “Our goal was to put together a show in support of the American craftsman and their work. We are striving to keep this show strictly limited to fine American craftsmen who make all of their work entirely by hand.”

Wood carver Wayne Smith a/k/a The Grizzly Woodsmith, carves Santa figures, fishermen, gnomes, and animals including beavers, coyotes, and other North American wildlife.

Each piece starts with a block of wood –– bas wood, pine, butternut, or mahogany –– and is then run through a band saw to get a basic shape. Mr Smith does the detail work with an assortment of chisels and knives found in the workshop of his home, in the Hattertown section of Newtown. Carvings can take anywhere from 15 to 18 hours of work from start to finish.

Carol Smith takes care of painting the pieces, which adds accent and more life to each carving.

“I think she really brings out the life of each carving,” Mr Smith said this week.

Both Smiths have taken some classes, he in carving and she in painting, but Mr Smith says most of their progress have come through “a lot of trial and error.”

Mr Smith began carving about five or six years ago, after he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail and saw a number of hikers with custom carved walking sticks and staffs. He thought he could create something similar, so he began studying carvings and taking classes.

The walking sticks have evolved into the current offerings –– the animals, Santas, sailors, etc.

The work put into the carvings and the talent that is needed to begin with have been admired by show attendees and competition judges. Mr Smith won Best in Show at Mystic Woodcarvers Show earlier this year for “Vigilance,” a carving with four coyote puppies, each with a different personality. “Pursuit,” depicting a snowshoe hare being chased by a lynx, was also entered in the Mystic show; “Vigilance” and “Pursuit” were honored with first and second place ribbons, respectively.

The Grizzly Woodsmith has participated in 14 shows so far this year, including an event in Simsbury just last weekend. Easton will be the 15th show for Mr Smith, and he has at least three more scheduled before the end of the year. When things slow down during the winter months he plans to continue working on his current inventory.

Prices range from $30 to $200 and $300 for the larger and most complicated carvings. Animals generally settle into the $65 range.

After living in Newtown for a few years while growing up, Ethan Currier spent much of his life traveling and then crewing on private yachts before moving back to town just a few months ago. His father has owned Sticks & Stones Farm on Hattertown Road for two decades. Residents and passersby may have noticed something new within recent months: A dinosaur made of stone that seems to rise up out of one of the garden-field areas of the farm.

That’s the work of Ethan Currier, and it’s just the beginning.

Mr Currier has found a niche in which he works well, and is hoping to forge a market for it. He has spent the summer creating whimsical stone sculptures –– humanlike figures as well as the dinosaur –– and pieces of furniture including benches and tables. His art has already been shown at Bethel Arts Junction, at a show in Sherman, and in a sidewalk art show in Greenwich where Mr Currier won his first award: First place in the sculpture division.

Sticks & Stones Farm is the perfect place for Mr Currier to find the medium that makes up his work. There are rocks of all sizes, from pebbles to boulders the size of a mountain, all over the hundreds of acres that is his father’s property. Mr Currier walks around the property, sometimes purposely looking for stones and other times working on something else but nevertheless discovering stones, and works with what he finds.

His workshop is outdoors. A large table is the centerpiece of an area strewn with buckets of cement mix and piles of stones and boulders of varying shapes and sizes.

Mr Currier uses water, electricity and pressured air to cut and grind pieces to fit together. Stainless steel rods and anchoring cement hold some of the pieces together, although some of his work –– like the tables –– are cut so that they rest on and within each other.

The tables require some balance, but the pieces with cement and steel rods are completely solid. Mr Currier proves his point during an interview by putting his weight fully onto the back of a bench, which barely moves under the effort, or lithely running up and down the tail of his dinosaur sculpture, which he calls The T-Rock.

David Anderson, also of Newtown, will be showing nature and landscape photographs that capture New England at its best.

Former Newtown resident Lee Skalkos majored in illustration while in college and then became a full-time self-taught silversmith (taking a break for a few years to have and raise her two children). She creates handmade dichroic glass jewelry –– pendants, earrings, necklaces, and bracelets in silver and accented with glass –– and also transforms drawings done by children into sterling silver pins and pendants.

In addition to the aforementioned specialties the show is expected to feature soaps and brooms, dolls, hand painted silk scarves, fresh cut flowers, pressed flowers and candles, stained glass, homemade teas, gourmet dog treats, handbags, painted children’s furniture, children’s clothing including hand painted shirts, lap blankets, copper lawn ornaments, and paper cuttings.

There will also be live music throughout the day and plenty of food including an assortment of desserts and homemade goods.

Proceeds from the show will benefit the Easton Arts Council scholarship program. For further information contact show chairman Lee Skalkos at 445-1953 or Easton Arts Council President Joanne Kant at 261-9160.

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