Art and taxes

Fall tree at the entrance to the town hall, on my dragging way to pay my real estate taxes. Add to the inevitables that of art. Always present particularly in this town, where there's an amazing array of art talent in all media.

After certain benighted township officials who shall be nameless to protect the guilty, declared that there were no artists in Plainsboro and that we would have to import any art we had in public buildings.....you can guess the comments from folks like me, long active in the art scene, helping to found our gallery, to found the nowadays huge Festival of the Arts, bringing in new artists all the time, quality stuff, too, not your grandad's whittling, putting my own art on the line regularly...well, anyway eventually said people said, okay, we will house some art, big treat for you artists, you can GIVE it to us in perpetuity, we will honor it, aren't you lucky, by hanging it in hallways in the town hall, right next to the municipal court and the tax office.

Well, some of us aren't up for that, however some of my friends were willing and since yesterday was Paying the Real Estate Taxes day for me, I took the time to walk around and actually look at the artworks lining the hallways, rather than just sort of see them in passing.

They are in narrow hallways, hence the distortion, impossible to get far enough back to get a better picture, but bear with me, as you admire Maureen J's brilliant mulberry paper collage, one of many of her works, collages and watercolors, you just have to see



Bob J's (no relation) found object mask




My personal jury is still out on this artist, good friend though he is, since the charm of the works, masks and various fantasy animals, resides in the sheer craftmanship of the found objects, done by other people and found at flea markets and other places, taken apart and reused. Inventive, yes. Creative, I don't really think so. Art? debatable. Saleable? you bet!

Then, down the hall and around the corner is a children's group quilt




honoring the township, under the guidance of Maria P., a wonderful book artist and local treasure.

Then there's the Embroiderers' Guild quilt of plants and flowers



must be seen to be really seen if you follow me, and round the next corner standing out above all from the young people's section of the works




a wonderful drawing by an eleventh grader not known to me, but such power and talent in this young work. At this point he's probably out of college, these pieces having been hung years ago, and off on some career, hopefully in art, since he really has some eye.

And always there are the dogs, to misquote Dylan Thomas

the black lab



as soon as he saw my camera sitting doing his impersonation of a Good Dog Who Should Get a Biscuit


the little white dog



rugged individual, you go your way, human, I'll go mine and the beagle

aka Spy Dog skulking round trees and evading the camera at all costs.



I guess my Taxes of Plainsboro are supporting Art of Pboro and Dogs of Pboro, too.