tool name
closeHowe Brice made the stuffed pink pig dance. Then he bobbed his cell phone — anything to keep his son, Nathan, distracted.
CDT/Michelle Bixby
Deborah Martin, right, demonstrates how to play one of her homemade didgeridoos to Jen Brackbill and her son Isaac Brackbill, 7, of Pine Grove Mills during Arts Fest Friday, July 10, 2009. CDT/Michelle Bixby
Meanwhile, Igor Nasibyan worked his magic.
As the toddler sat in his mother’s lap Friday at the People’s Choice Festival, the Erie artist deftly cut out a shape of the boy’s head, curls and all, from white paper.
Soon after, Nasibyan presented a framed black silhouette to the family from Richmond, Va. Now, he has portrayed all three Brice boys. The others, ages 6 and 4, he did two years ago.
“The grandmothers went crazy over them,” Howe Brice said.
Perhaps tuckered out by the heat, Nathan posed more sedately than his brothers had. “The other two, we had to do a lot more acrobatics,” his mother, Jen Brice, said.
Few stood still for long on the second day of the Boalsburg festival and the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts in State College as shoppers perused a sea of arts and crafts. Here are a few snapshots of moments from the two festivals:
• • •
Clara and Grace Martin like history, so it’s not surprising they listened to a weaver making yarn traditionally at the People’s Choice Festival.
The Martin sisters, from Robinsville, N.J., sat at the feet of Kathy Dinsmore, of Punxsutawney, as she pumped a spinning wheel, twisting strands from sheep’s wool for eventual scarves and capes.
She told Clara, 8, and Grace, 11, that girls their age did the job in olden times — a point that resonated with her audience.
“I love hearing stories from long ago,” Grace said.
• • •
Stacey Cowan, of Great Neck, N.Y., was browsing the arts fest vendor booths in front of the Sackett Building with her aunt when one thing caught her eye — a note from an artist.
“Don’t even think about touching,” Cowan said, reading aloud the note fixed between two two-dimensional paintings by Donna Wilson.
The paintings are done on paper, then cut, assembled and sealed in clear acrylic. The eye-catching finish and pushed-out texture must make people want to feel them.
“I tried being polite, but it didn’t work,” Wilson said.
• • •
Maddie Chen knows what it’s like to battle cancer. So she made jewelry to help other children in the same predicament.
By early afternoon, Maddie, 11, of Scarborough, Maine, had sold more than 50 necklaces and earrings fashioned from beads and semi-precious stones in her first day at the People’s Choice Festival’s young artists tent. That raised about $250 for pediatric cancer research and treatment.
Maddie started her hobby early this year while undergoing treatment for a relapse of her bone tumor. A friend gave her a bead kit, the first fuel for her imagination.
“It sort of helped me relax more,” she said.
Maddie’s improving these days, and her festival success has made her feel even better. With today still to go, she had already topped her goal of collecting $200.
• • •
Audrey W. Smith, of New Cumberland, set down her bags by the arts fest information booth at Pollock Road and Burrowes Street. She was going to take a picture of the sprawling IST Building, and an attendant in the booth volunteered to snap the photo for her.
“No, I don’t want to be in the picture. I just want the building,” said Smith, a second-time visitor to State College, who’d never before seen the building. She wanted to show the photo to her nephew, who’s going to pilot school.
Smith took a bus to State College for the arts festival. But she admitted she was enjoying Penn State architecture a little more.
• • •
An old woman stood along Pollock Road in State College, overdressed in a long-sleeved coat with a grocery bag in one hand and two shopping bags in the other. Wait, it’s not a person — it’s art.
The lifelike sculpture of a gray-haired, stubborn-faced woman is called “Holding Out” by Seward Johnson, one of three sculptures provided for the festival by the Sculpture Foundation in Santa Monica, Calif.
It’s in front of the Willard Building and it managed to fool Jennie Cohen, of Chantilly, Va., and her friend, Amanda Schneider.
“We kept walking past it,” Cohen said after asking a couple to take a photo of her with the lady. “The first time, we thought it was real.”
In Print
@Nyx.CommentBody@