PARADISE

City Arts Festival Memorial Day Weekend

It’s Springtime in Paradise! The best way to spend some of your holiday weekend is in Northampton, the cultural heart of New England, at one of America’s most spectacular fairs of fine craft, painting and sculpture. The Paradise City Arts Festival (literally) rolls out the carpet for this season’s splendidly curated collection of hundreds of artists and fine craft makers, coming from every corner of the country. It’s three great days of astounding visual arts, eye-popping design, scrumptious food and, of course, great fun!

The Festival is held inside three carpeted, airy new buildings connected by covered walkways, keeping patrons comfortable and protected, rain or shine. The 12,000 square-foot Dining Tent commands a grassy lawn surrounded by outdoor sculpture. With scores of brand-new artists, sensational food by local chefs, a craft cocktail bar and the eye-popping exhibit “With Flying Colors!”, attendees are kept entertained, enthralled and well fed all weekend long.

The Silent Art Auction benefits the International Language Institute of Massachusetts (ILI). They provide free English classes for new arrivals from all over the world so they can utilize their skills in this country and successfully integrate into the local community.

Paradise City keeps its visitors’ hands, eyes and brains busy. Stephen Procter of Brattleboro, Vermont is an acclaimed teacher, and his demonstrations of throwing enormous ceramic vessels is something to see! Alan and Rosemary Bennett, known for their life-sized, realistic renditions of fish and sea creatures, lead very popular clay sculpture workshops for children (and the young at heart). Plus, the changing installations and large-scale sculpture along the Sculpture Promenade are catnip for kids, Instagram heaven and full of fantastic decorating ideas for the attendees’ own gardens.

Paradise City Arts Festival, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, May 27, 28 & 29, at Northampton’s 3 County Fairgrounds, on Old Ferry Road off Rt. 9. For complete show and travel information, advance online tickets and discount admission coupons, visit www.paradisecityarts.com

Sean Hutcheon Photography

I’m a fine art and product photographer based in the Hudson Valley and New York City, NY.

My imagery stems from a background in filmmaking, writing, and music. I got my start in early 2000 and have numerous awards for my short films, and my photography has been showcased in numerous group and solo shows throughout the years.

In 2005, I relocated from Bucks County, PA, to NYC, where I have thrived in the photo industry as a product and on-figure photographer for numerous clients such as Amazon Fashion, Tumi Luggage, New York and Company, Bloomingdales, Macy’s, Target, Ralph Lauren, Fairway Markets and Labucq.

At the end of 2021, I started a new venture as a fine art and furniture photographer who has shot a variety of mediums for Christie’s in NYC, Stair Galleries, and Naga Antiques in Hudson, NY.

In my spare time, I enjoy working on photography, playing guitar, spending time at my house with my partner, and going on hikes with my Border Collie.

Please contact me directly for projects or to inquire about purchasing my work.

Sean Hutcheon - sean.hutcheon@gmail.com

Lodiza Lepore

Change has a chance if a new thought can enter the mind, even for the briefest moment. Through this work, Lodiza aims to capture that surreal moment that slips between everything hard to catch, fleeting details and moments of absurdity, to deconstruct the American ‘fog’ and other fairy tales by exposing a critical view of the actual state of things, to reveal the true nature of human life stripped of pretenses that hide authentic feelings of loneliness, isolation & insecurity.

Inspired by the notion that every split second is unique, she observes humans being human. She remains an observer, not a participant.

Joan Didion remarked that “we tell ourselves stories in order to live.” Lodiza is interested in the reality behind the stories and the gap between reality and the story. Her images tend to depict stark contrasts between different things in the same image or between what is depicted in the image and the “conventional wisdom”—the story we tell ourselves. That often results in what many people call surreal. She calls it real.

This photographic vision has been featured on book covers and in several publications, including B & W, The Photo Review, Shots, Creative Quarterly, Pastiche, AdBusters, The Hand, The Progressive, Street Photography Magazine, and shown in US galleries from coast to coast, including European venues.

Lodiza LePore - lodiza@comcast.net https://www.lodizalepore.com/