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Colors abound at 48th Butler holiday show
By Sean Barron
YOUNGSTOWN
It probably won’t take long for those who visit a longtime popular arts-and-crafts show to see that bright, sharp colors flow and abound – and are reflected in everything from pottery to cosmic nebula.
“This is a composite that was taken from the [Herbert C.] Bonner Bridge on the Outer Banks,” Bill Snyder of Connellsville, Pa., explained of his photo of the North Carolina bridge superimposed with 13 images of galaxies, solar and star clusters, nebula and patches of space dust.
His image is displayed at the 48th annual American Holiday Fine Arts & Crafts Show at the Butler Institute of American Art, 524 Wick Ave., near downtown.
The family-friendly event began Saturday and continues from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today .
The show features about 86 local and regional craftspeople and other vendors, more than half of whom return yearly, noted Wayne Gruver, event coordinator. A few regulars have been part of the gathering almost since its inception, he added.
“We have this core following of crafters who come back every year,” Gruver said. “If they don’t hear from us, they’ll call us. Sometimes they will ask in January when the dates are set for next year.”
Snyder, an astrophotographer who has a business called Dark Sky Art, sells prints of his images for $55 apiece, or three for $150. They include a photo he took at night at Seneca Rocks, a large unincorporated crag and landmark in Pendleton County, W.Va., that shows a bright Mars, along with an arc of space dust and gas particles on one side.
“I got back into astronomy about 13 years ago. I decided I wanted to take pictures like what I saw in magazines,” said Snyder, a member of the Amateur Astronomers Association of Pittsburgh, who has a home observatory,
His images have been published in Sky & Telescope and other related magazines, and won him a photography award in 2014.
On hand to display his interpretations of things a lot closer to home was C. Scott Lanz, an attorney and avid nature photographer who started his business, LanzScape Photography Ltd., in 2005.
The Boardman man is selling a variety of photographs on canvas or metal that he’s taken throughout Mill Creek Park during all four seasons, including several of Lanterman’s Mill during winter and others that show trails surrounded by colorful fall foliage.
His repertoire also features holiday cards showing park scenes, as well as 2019 calendars from which he intends to donate a portion of sales revenue to the park.
Sharp colors of mainly blue surround Jane P. Waxenfelter of Grove City, Pa., and are evident in her hand-thrown, low-fire earthenware pottery.
“I like to come up with something new every year,” said Waxenfelter, whose business, JPW Pottery, specializes in mugs, bowls, cups, trays and plates that are rather porous and courser than porcelain and stoneware.
She also uses a wire instrument and other small tools to cut, carve, elongate and shape some of her creations, giving the tops of some a jagged look, before adding a glaze to give everything “an organic look and feel,” said Waxenfelter, whose husband, Jim, assists her.
Also maintaining a strong emphasis on family are Lisa Halko, her mother, Debbie Dory, and aunt, Lynda Hannah. The three women are selling small boxwood Christmas trees adorned with handmade bows, ribbons, berries and other decorations.
“We’ve done this show for about 26 years. I was 2 years old when we first started,” recalled Halko, who explained that all three women work together to shape, design and size floral foam bases for the trees.
The yearly show at the Butler is the only one of its kind in which Halko, Dory and Hannah participate, so even though it takes about a month to craft the trees, preparing for the show is about a yearlong effort, Halko noted, adding that they sell out nearly every year.
“We like to make a little extra something that people really like,” Halko said.