The sentiment “shop early, buy local” is easy to do at Featherstone Center for the Arts’ 22nd annual Holiday Gift Show. Every year, I feel a little thrill when first entering the gallery. I’d say I’m like a kid in a candy shop, but really, it is more like being dropped into Santa’s workshop of delights. This year, the space bursts with handmade creations of 120 artisans and artists, including paintings, photographs, pottery, crafts, jewelry, knitwear, accessories, ornaments, cards, and stocking stuffers. Different colors, textures, shapes, and sizes abound.
Holiday cards are plentiful, including a series with wonderfully whimsical illustrations by Kate Feiffer. For instance, with her trademark economy of lines, Feiffer depicts a female skater dressed in bold red zipping around a frozen pond, creating an outline of the Vineyard. Reminiscent of her origami, Daisy Lifton’s cards unfold into three-dimensional images of winter scenes.
There are ornaments to fit every sense of style. Lynn Hoeft fashions intricately interwoven rattan palm reed stars to top your tree (or hang in the window or from the ceiling with a small lightbulb inside). Jeweler Cynthia McGrath has little bulb-shaped glass ornaments filled with the alluring colors of tiny bits of sea glass, which you can almost hear tinkle. There is a glorious vase filled with white branches from which Kathy Poehler has hung a plethora of decorated shell ornaments. On many she has added bits of wampum or other shells set in their sparkling interiors, and bedecked them with glittering gold or silver ribbons.
There are dozens of choices for stocking stuffers or small gifts. Jennifer Burkin’s painted coasters range from those with fish prints to a set with two pink pigs, snout to snout, looking right at us. Teresa Yuan has decorated large clam shells with luscious oil paints of bright flowers. Each botanical “portrait” is waterproof and can be used as a paperweight, soap dish, or to hold paper clips, candies, keys, coins, or any other little tchotchkes. Amy Benford’s miniature canvases on tiny wood easels sport mixed-media compositions. She combines rocks, sea glass, or twigs with ink and paints to create enticingly whimsical scenarios and creatures. Old Town Gardens’ jars of preserves and jams also make perfect stocking stuffers.
I loved Mark Bateman’s small ocean-colored ceramic key hooks shaped like the Vineyard that you could nail on the wall near your door. Speaking of ceramics, there are plates, bowls, candle holders, and ornaments galore. Debbie Hale plays with luscious glazes in her elegant bowels. Carol Arrowsmith’s wide hanging plate-shaped birdfeeders leave plenty of room for lots of avians to gather around. Jennifer Langhammer interprets imported metal cans of tomato and coffee into nostalgic ceramic vases. Sabrina Kuchta has miniature abodes reminiscent of tiny birdhouses and adorable squat-shaped mugs that look like wood creatures with tiny ears and loving eyes dressed in human clothes, each topped with a ceramic hat to keep your coffee or tea warm on cold winter nights.
There are many gorgeous knit wares, including hats — with and without pompoms — crafted by Amanda Kane. Hellen Hall tops hers with knots. Appropriate to her last name, Elizabeth Convery-Luce fashions crocheted chickens and accompanying crowned kitties that are appealingly huggable.
Elizabeth Edge fashions handsome scarves, jackets, and hats in soft fleece that beckon to be touched. There are plenty of baby clothes, including Saundra LaBell’s lovely lavender-dyed onesies emblazoned with a silhouette of the Island, perfect for a little babe. And if you want to go even smaller, Donna Blackburn offers wonderful doll clothes sets with outfits that include shoes and bags.
There is jewelry galore to adorn any wardrobe, including Michelle Haley’s fun colorfully beaded bracelets and dangling earrings. Sam Cameron creates repurposed pieces curated from broken, unwearable jewelry and materials turned into elegant, one-of-a-kind designs.
Nestled amid all the booty are fabulous books by authors with ties to the Vineyard, including “The Moon Always Rising” by Alice Early, Elizabeth Shick’s “The Golden Land,” Jennifer Smith Turner’s “Child Bride,” Elisa Speranza’s “The Italian Prisoner,” Terri Potts-Chattaway’s “Journey to the Inner Light,” and two by T. Elizabeth Bell, “Goats in the Time of Love” and “Counting Chickens.”
Executive director Ann Smith explains, “The Holiday Gift Show is a fundraiser for us. We change the regular exhibition commission with its 60-40 split with artists to a 50-50 division. We think it’s fabulous that the artists are gifting to Featherstone.” She continues, “The gift show is a common tradition at many art centers to support their local artists. It is another way that Featherstone meets its mission, which is to engage, enrich, and connect our community through the power of art and creativity.”
The Holiday Gift Show at Featherstone Center for the Arts from through Dec. 15 (closed Thanksgiving Day). Open daily from noon to 4 pm, and until 7 pm on Thursday, Dec. 5.
