SMASHING WORLDS HITS SOBOBO!

Tonight is the night! Visit SoBoBo and meet the creators behind Smashing Worlds! Their reception begins at 7:00 pm! See then!!!!

"Smashing Worlds believes that everyone has the capability of a great artist. Art is a stimulation, a visual and emotional mental game, with many feelings and influences. What one sees as finished, practice, or not even art at all, another ...sees an opening for creation. By drawing, sketching, writing, taping, pasting and painting, and then trading those artistic statements to other group members, Smashing Worlds creates a beautiful organized noise.

The members of Smashing Worlds have been creating colorful, eclectic mixed media art pieces for over a year. However, each member had a variety of artistic experiences before they came together. From formal art training and long hours sketching, painting, and sculpting, to simply filling in coloring books and creating murals on windows and walls. Five individual experiences, styles, and personalities came together to form the organized chaos of Smashing Worlds.

The group is currently working on sharing their collaborative art and music with the community and encouraging others to embrace their own artistic side. With many open collaborative projects and works in the making, Smashing Worlds continues to create art for all eyes and ears of all ages to enjoy.

There are no ideas left unthought-of, no technique unused, and no sound beat left unrecorded. Smashing Worlds will continue to arouse the visual and emotional mentality of all who come in contact. We also hope to continue to collaborate with artists of all natures."

--Smashing Worlds

Come On A Walk To Remember...

Put on your WINGS, your WHEELS or hang on to the RUDDERS of your boats or planes and join in the Walnut Beach Art Stroll!

Firehouse Gallery's opening reception for the new exhibit "Wings, Wheels and Rudders" will begin at 6:00 pm on Thursday, April 12th. See the amazing modes of travel! Choose one and travel down the Avenue and enjoy pizza at Alfa's Pizza, or a snack and drink from The New Town Deli.

Make a STOP at SoBoBo Gallery where you will go on an amazing walk through Milford, Providence, Nova Scotia, The Valley, Paris, Madrid, and New York.

Richard Stephen, John Iorio, Arlene Capozzi will take you through Milford; Patricia Brundage will take you on a misty trip to Nova Scotia; Michael Voytek will bring you to Providence; Beth Pite will take you to Paris, Madrid and New York! Rosemary McClain will take you to Ohio, and The Valley. Karen Macker brings you on an excursion through the woods. Charles Bell brings you through a lens of a cardboard camera and pinhole photography.

Marshall Cetlin will bring you from shores to the heavens as does D'Antonia. William Ahern takes you on a modern contempory trip as does Joan Shapiro and Matt Roe.

Smashing Worlds takes us on a different ride...it can be through the city or even a small town....you decide where you are as you view their art on brick walls!

Elizabeth Wright brings you to Block Island and a space to sit back and enjoy the fruits of the vine. Lakshmi brings hot coffee. Paul St. Onge brings peaches picked fresh from the tree. Andrea Roth-Moore brings watermelon and wine. Karen Macker brings pears. Hedi Minow-Pike and Betty Geller bring kiwi and raspberries....all delightfully teasing your palette! Rick Senft and Richard Stephen bring you to the table to rest.



After resting at the table enjoying food and drink head down to Alfa's Jolly Jug to pick-up the drink you desire. Continue down to Broadway and turn right to Wild Expressions and Collected Stories. Pick up one of Tyyne's beautiful designs to dress your table! Pick up a book to read. When you are done visiting head across the street to Taste & See what will satisfy your cravings!


It truly is a walk to remember!

The Walk To Remember...Walnut Beach Art Stroll - Thursday, April 12th

Firehouse Gallery's new exhibit "Wings, Wheels and Rudders" is an outstanding display of an array of modes of travel. Starts at 6:00 pm....Enjoy as each piece takes you on a ride to the next! Enjoy the time with the artists who created these works! Awards given! and don't forget to choose you favorite of the evening!

What would you like to travel on? Put your wings on? Attach wheels to your feet? or If you prefer boating attach to the sails, hang on to the rudder, or do all the work and bring your oars! Enjoy the evening as you fly, roll, or float down the Avenue, Naugatuck Avenue.

Get pizza a Alfa's Restaurant, get a snack at The New Town Deli....

"My Koso" - pastel painting - by Beth Pite

STOP at SoBoBo, 42 Naugatuck Avenue, meet April's Artist, Beth Pite....a pastel artist she will bring to you the vibrant energy of many places she has been, wrapping around you the beauty of each spot along the way! You will meet others as well...new artists Joan Shapiro, Paul St. Onge, Barbara Wilson, and jeweler Spencer Gordon; not to mention some of our own, Rick Senft, Arlene Capozzi, William Ahern, Patricia Brundage, Rosemary McClain, Sheila Pite, Jan McLean and more....

This month you will see first time art by the members of the Milford Senior Citizen Center. Enjoy speaking with them as they tell you their experience and how they are now loving every minute of creating! They were taught by Michael Voytek - you will even see his work too.

To truly make the evening pop, we have a group of young artists known as SMASHING WORLDS - five young artists with different art backgrounds - Megan Pisco, Chris Dumas, Jeff Slobodien, Amanda Erardy, and Tim Zercie - collaborating, creating awesome art!

"Please Believe" - by Smashing Worlds

While at SoBoBo make sure to stop by and see Laurie from Jolly Jug as she will be on hand offering a taste of different wines....try one and see if it will satisfy your palette... As you stroll down around the corner STOP at Jolly Jug proper to pick up the one you like!

Alfa's Jolly Jug - 38 Naugatuck Avenue


Wild Expressions - 16 Broadway

When you make it around the corner, STOP and smell the flowers at 16 Broadway, WILD EXPRESSIONS and see what Tyyne has designed for the upcoming special days we all celebrate, Mother's Day, Memorial Day, Birthdays. Have a special event and you want Tyyne's designs to grace your space? While you are there you might talk and find out more!...Her floral artistry is GORGEOUS and the scents will make your senses alive! You might even hear Tim Payson play his melodious tunes!

COLLECTED STORIES just might have that book you couldn't find in print anymore...since everything seems to have gone so electronic on us these days!

Taste & See - 17 Broadway

Be sure to STOP across the street at 17 Broadway to TASTE & SEE how the gourmet cupcakes and confections will satisfy your cravings!

For this evening will truly be a walk to remember!

April's Artist, Beth Pite Takes Us On A Walk To Remember...

"Tulips" - pastel painting - by Beth Pite

"My art is about color, energy and capturing the essence of something rather than an exact likeness. My paintings often suggest a vignette, a human story in intriguing settings like paths through trees, festivals, cityscapes, or boats in the setting sun. Using loose, gestural strokes of vibrant color, I want to show how it felt to be there, instead of just copying what my camera records.

Pastel painting is done with buttery, soft pastel sticks of pure pigment, rather than a brush. The immediacy of applying pastels directly to the surface of the painting helps convey the intensity of my experiences. Multiple layers of color take advantage of the pastel medium's ability to refract light, building rich dark and light areas without using dull black, white or brown. Instead, I play contrasting colors against each other to create vibrant energy.

Inspired by New England scenery or my travels in Europe and Latin America, I use my photographs to soak up a sense of the place. This helps me remember what was exciting about it when I later paint it in vivid, expressionistic color using energetic strokes. By favoring color, form and movement over exact representations of my subjects, I aim for an enhanced reality that lets viewers enjoy a more emotional response."

-- Beth Pite

"Walk In The Park - Madrid" - pastel painting - by Beth Pite

Beth's ability to enhance reality by creating vibrant energy using colors of the spectrum gives the viewer a jolt of electricity. The current connects creating a realm where you become absorbed into a particular time and space. This energy can be felt throughout your inner being down to your fingertips, your nerve endings begin to tingle, becoming alive.

"Parisian Street" - pastel painting - by Beth Pite

Do you realize at times when you look at a tree, or look at others walking, or looking at a building it all becomes brighter in color, the vibrance of each shade and tint seems to permeate through the solidness of the subjects? You can even see waves emit from each subject, similar to the waves of heat you see rising off of a road on a hot summer day, this is energy. You can even feel it as you pass, your body absorbing it. Beth captures that. She captures it, the energy, in each pastel she uses as she paints. She has that uncanny ability to harness the energy to bring each painting to life hoping that each person who views her work will be able to feel it.

The best way to explain it is to envision Beth capturing electricity through a kite, kite string and a key in a jar....Now, put pastels in her hand, a canvas in front of her and watch the electricity, the energy connect between her and her palette, her canvas. Beth is that conduit between what some cannot see and helps all to see the energy "matter" in the world around us.

Each pastel painting depicts her ability. Her subject "matter" is electricity...her subject "matter" is the energy...her subject "matter" is more than scientific matter...her subject "matter" becomes emotional...her subject "matter" becomes the spiritual side of the science of "matter."

To be able to feel that current of electricity, to see the waves of energy emit from each painting, to enjoy the color and beauty of each subject "matter" you must visit SoBoBo. Beth Pite, April's Artist, will be exhibiting her pastel paintings from April 1st to April 30th. Beth's Opening Reception is Thursday, April 12th from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.

"Walk In The Park, Paris" - pastel painting - by Beth Pite

Yes, it coincides with Walnut Beach Art Stroll that begins at 6:00 pm at Firehouse Gallery. Firehouse Gallery is exhibiting "Wings, Wheels and Rudders" truly an enhanced reality that will take us on a walk to remember!

March's Artist Arrives Riding on the Winds...

"The Way to Eagle Peak" - Photograph by D'Antonia

"My photographs reveal the dusk and dawn of my soul, giving me moments in which to embrace and nurture the beauty within myself."

-- D'Antonia

D'Antonia " ..reveals the dusk and dawn of her soul..." a perspective of one who is brave enough to tell all such a poignant part of themselves (for each of us knows that we wouldn't be so open to discuss our inner selves.) Her creations captures your eye, bringing you into a world of an innersanctum...

"Audience with God" - Photograph by D'Antonia

Your soul is what is connecting to the work...what many don't know is that you can see the soul of an individual by looking into their right eye, the conduit to your spirit, your soul, your past lives...So who are we to say otherwise, because afterall her creations "capture your eye" to lead you into a space once thought impossible to be...the innersanctum is that of your own, your inner-self, your inner-being is drawn in.

"CJ's Journey" - Photograph by D'Antonia

D'Antonia, a poet as well, has had her work published. Her writings are amazing, leaving you breathless!

D’Antonia is adjunct professor teaching at Quinnipiac, Yale, and Southern Connecticut State University. She is an accomplished poet and photographer, who after a ten year hiatus has come home to hone her passions. Her work has been published in Verdad Magazine, El Ojito, American Poetry Anthology, Beanfeast Magazine, and includes a self published poetry compilation, entitled, “No One To Blame But Yourself. “ Several of her poems have also appeared on-line.
D’Antonia is working on a book of poems and is the CEO of two internet businesses, that have taken off with a bang.

D'Antonia will be exhibing at SoBoBo during the month of March. Join us on Thursday, March 8th at 7:00 pm for D'Antonia's opening reception. Meet with her and learn how she is able to capture your attention....

The opening reception is conjunction with Walnut Beach Art Stroll that will be held the same evening, Thursday, March 8th. Be sure to stop in at Firehouse Gallery from 6:00 to 8:00 and see who wins 1st Place for the show. Stop in Alpha's Jolly Jug, Wild Expressions/Collected Stories and Taste & See...

Looking forward to seeing you!!!

February's Artist - Paige Miglio - A Precious Gift

"I have long loved classical art and have many books on scientific renderings from the 19th century as well as the collected works of various artists. Finding beauty – and more importantly spontaneity within the realism of studied subjects is my personal challenge. My paintings, but especially my murals are often filled with hidden insects or other surprises. I love working within partitions, and love to tackle paneled surfaces; creating scenes seen through frames of the paneling, much like classical diptychs and triptychs from ancient and classical religious works. Everything seems....“precious."

By careful study of nature and leaning on basic drawing foundation skills, every drawing and painting is a new exercise. I always do sketches by hand over and over until I am confident in my proportions and composition, whether my subject matter is portrait, object or landscape. Only once my drawing has been established, do I open up and allow myself the freedom to build marks and color, in paint or graphite.

My technique, as I get older, seems to grow. I am not satisfied by “doing one thing and doing it well.” But each style feeds the other. My mural work is the total opposite technique to working in watercolor, both by sheer size - and application of paint; with watercolor you generally work from light to dark, while in acrylic/latex (or oil) you work from dark to light.

But everything for me comes back to drawing.....I love to draw, to problem solve, to move objects and subjects within the scene – as I am often called to do for portrait work – and remake them into a new reality. Drawing is cathartic. When I draw, I feel my fingertips are moving across the object, into the scene and wrapping around my subject. Drawing makes me whole."

--Paige Miglio

 

Paige Miglio finds the beauty in all defining aspects of the world around her. It is as if she scoops up what she sees, places it in her heart where her love envelopes it allowing the magic to form and begin to flow down her arm to her fingers...she states it quite eloquently '...I feel my fingertips are moving across the object, into the scene and wrapping around my subject...," a precious moment, a precious gift that has been given to us.

"A Day At The Beach" - watercolor by Paige Miglio

Each piece captures the essence of her subject. When viewing one can see the glint in the eye of the toddler as she looks back over her shoulder, the determination in another as he/she is making their way to get water, or digging in the sand, feel the contentment as the cats "sunbathe" in the window,

"The Sunbathers" - watercolor by Paige Miglio

one can hear the motion of the water as the waves hit the surf listening to the foam dissipate, and see the light from the moon dancing on each wave as each wave races to the shore,

"Moonscape" - watercolors by Paige Miglio

or feel the mist from the fog spray your face as you picture yourself standing on the deck of the boat while it is moored due to the fog all the while hearing the water lapping against the side of it.

"Fog II" - watercolor by Paige Miglio

Paige thoroughly enjoys life! She teaches each of us a lesson every time we speak with her, see her finished work or even watch as she paints a mural on the side of a building as she did on "The Bridgehouse Restaurant" alongside Bill Meddick. She teaches us that we should take the time to see the beauty and grace of what has been given to us and we take for granted each day....the smell of coffee brewing first thing in the morning, the sun peering through a window from the east as it rises showing us another gorgeous day is about to begin; even the cloudy rainy days are full of wonderment, the snow as it gently, quietly falls blanketing the earth creating such a silence you begin to whisper when you speak. You can even find wonderment in the material things such as the car that cut you off...the design of it, the mechanics of it, and yes even the driver for he/she is truly a work of art....

But Paige has natural abilities which she is able to hone in on each "object" finding the precious wonderment, the lustre of what makes everything surrounding us full of life...We have been blessed with a precious gift.

Paige Miglio will be exhibiting at SoBoBo Gallery for the month of February. Come see those precious gifts! The opening reception for Paige in Thursday, February 2nd from 7 pm to 9 pm.

It is also the First Art Stroll of 2012! Visit Firehouse Gallery first from 6 pm to 8 pm and meet the artists who submitted their work for the juried show/exhibit "Still Life."

SoBoBo Gallery is located at 42 Naugatuck Avenue, Walnut Beach in Milford, Connecticut.