Yes,there was time for art

This evening - an art opening of Uncharted Territory. -- a site specific exhibit. Several years ago I was part of a preliminary planning committee for creating an arts district out of the "Valley" - the eastern part of West Orange and the Western part of Orange, which come together there. The area, which used to be highly industrial -- was home to the Berg, Stetson, and NoName Hat Factories and Monroe Calculator (among others). Long story short: Today, thanks to grants, funding, and hard work by the nonprofit HANDS, INC, Valley Arts is becoming a reality (s-l-o-w-l-y but surely). Tonight's opening in the back section of the old Monroe Calculator building, now Harvard Printing, was an invitational to about 20 artists to create site-specific installations. Food, wine, and plenty of people - although the space was so vast that it didn't look like there were as many as were actually there. Enormous cut-paper (well, actually, Tyvek) pieces hung from the rafters. Debby Ugoretz, one of my studio mates, does this kind of work, but smaller. However, it is her livelihood, not necessarily anything she wants to do as Art. Here is a closer look at one of the pieces. It was really hard to get a picture of these.

but I love this view of the same piece, taken without a flash.

My personal favorite was an installation called Us in a Box by the artist Evonne Davis. This was only one piece in a huge installation on the floor of railroad spikes arranged differently in boxes of different sizes, filled with sand. I couldn't get a picture of the whole installation unless I flew above the show and my other pix came out fuzzy (what else is new?)-- but the variation and harmony (and "repurposed" found objects, of course) spoke to me. . more art... Ah - an interactive installation: a hair braiding lesson chages the look of the art.

to be continued in the morning.