All she wants for Christmas is for people to remember her brother — to gift his gift.
Of course, in facing a first holiday without him, if it were truly up to RFH grad Adrienne Ley O’Connell, she’d rather have that brother, Tom “Cooper” Ley, back. But, since she can’t have that sparkly, neatly wrapped present of her brother’s physical presence, she’s chosen to gift herself with the ethereally messy sharing of his art.
In following her Cooper-inspired Earthly journey, Adrienne is making sure he’s remembered and offering a little help and connection to those lost, as he once was, along the way.
“We’re captive on the carousel of time … We can’t return. We can only look behind from where we came and go round and round and round in the circle game …” ~ Joni Mitchell
The wound left by the merciless hammer’s mark was a deep one. Somehow it didn’t break the circle, though. It wouldn’t. Never could. That was the consolation, so I was posthumously reminded by his mother, if there was to be any at all in something that seemed so senseless and unfair.
Circle. It was stuck in my head. Once that hammer hit, she started whispering to me as I grappled with how to remember him best for her, for his family, for his friends, with my words.
RFH seniors’ art show at Guild of Creative Art Photo/RFH
Senior artists from Rumson Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) did their high school swan song last month as their artwork was showcased and sold at The Guild of Creative Art in Shrewsbury.
Hive Mind, a porcelain piece created by recent Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) graduate Dante Cioffoletti, has been selected for the New Jersey Teen Arts Touring Exhibition and will be exhibited throughout Monmouth County for the next year.
Talented students recently shared their artwork at the Deane-Porter School Art Show.
The exhibit featured the creations of students in kindergarten, first, second, and third grades.
The featured art included: Monet-inspired landscapes, cool color penguins, symmetrical butterflies, crazy pumpkins, self-portraits as king or queen, and texture trees (kindergarten); Chinese New Year dragons, Kandinsky-inspired concentric hearts, painted and printed weaving, and snowman with percolator app (first grade); coil pots, Kachina masks, Audubon-inspired cardinals, and Faith Ringgold cityscapes (second grade); slab pottery, Greek columns, and Matisse-inspired landscapes (third grade).
The Fair Haven Dock is depicted as an iconic spot in Fair Haven in this Mike Quon-designed banner. Photo/Elaine Van Develde
A child biking through town is one of three images chosen by artist Mike Quon for the Fair Haven welcome banners. Photo/Elaine Van Develde
The new Fair Haven welcome banners were designed by artist Mike Quon. Photo/Elaine Van Develde
A Fair Haven welcome banner at nightfall. Photo/Elaine Van Develde
By Elaine Van Develde
You may have noticed by now that there’s a new look for the light pole banners that line Fair Haven’s own Main Street — River Road.
The banners started appearing in August, the result of a long-thought-out debate over how to best welcome visitors in an aesthetically pleasing way with a lot of local heart.
What a committee ended up deciding was to call on a famous Fair Havenite who has a strong love of the borough and a signature artistic talent to match it — Mike Quon.
“We wanted the banners to be different,” Fair Haven Mayor Ben Lucarelli said. “Looking around at what other towns have done, we found that most had the classic blue fabric with white print and once iconic image. We also didn’t want to re-do what we had done for the centennial (which was to hold a contest among the kids and choose a winner). Those banners were blue and white and depicted the Albertina (the signature steam ship on Fair Haven’s logo).
“The committee was looking at clip art and all sorts of other things, none of which seemed to be quite the right fit. Then Mike came to mind. We ended up with the perfect solution — a nice aesthetic to celebrate Fair Haven and a local artist.”
Last year, he gifted Fair Haven a couple of renderings of iconic spots in town, one being the Fair Haven Dock.
“An especially great thing about these very unique banners is that Mike’s colors are so cheerful,” Lucarelli said. “They will be particularly appreciated as a warm kind of greeting in town when it’s cold and all the leaves are off the trees.”
Quon’s time and talent were donated for the project. The borough paid nominal expenses, such as printing and materials costs.
To learn more about Quon, check out his website at quonart.com.
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