CURIOUS ORIOLE Stony Brook resident Jay Gao captured this image of a Baltimore oriole in his backyard garden over the summer using a Nikon D5500. This songbird has most likely already migrated to its wintering grounds, which include Florida, the Caribbean, Central America and the northern tip of South America.
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ART FOR A LIFETIME The Setauket Artists’ Exhibition, now in its 37th year, held an opening reception at the Setauket Neighborhood House on Oct. 22. Longtime member Muriel Mussara was this year’s Honored Artist, an award chosen by her peers, while art scholarships in memory of artists JoAnn Coaine, Burton Woods and Andrew Schmitt were awarded to Setauket Elementary School students Paloma Papageorge, Jaden Chimelis and Will Boonin. Coordinated by Irene Ruddock, the exhibit, which features the works of over 40 artists, will run through Nov. 20 with viewing daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Photos by Marlene Weinstein
By Heidi Sutton
The North Shore is teeming with talented artists and local venues like the Mills Pond House Gallery, the Reboli Center for Art and History, The Long Island Museum, Gallery North, the Port Jefferson Village Center and libraries are more than eager to show off their artwork. But what if you could hit the rewind button and observe the artist working on the piece right before your eyes?
That rare opportunity will arise this weekend as the North Shore Artist Coalition hosts its second annual Artist Open Studio Tour.
The self-guided event will offer an intimate glimpse into the working studios of 11 award-winning artists living in Miller Place, St. James, Setauket, Port Jefferson and Stony Brook, giving visitors a personal opportunity to meet and talk with artists about their work and the creative process.
The coalition, whose core artist group is Nancy Bueti-Randall, Mary Jane van Zeijts, Jim Molloy, Doug Reina and Pam Brown, formed last year to contribute to the community through exhibitions, open studio tours and educational programs. “Fundamentally we believe the arts improve our lives and enrich our communities culturally, socially and economically. As well our mission is to promote and increase regional awareness of professional artists working in a wide range of styles and studio practices,” said Brown in a recent email.
Artists Peter Galasso, Kelynn Z. Adler, Sungsook Setton, Christian White, Hugh McElroy and Marlene Weinstein were invited to participate in this year’s tour.
“Each year we invite artists from the Three Village and surrounding areas [to join us],” Brown explained. “Our goal is to invite more artists each year as the Studio Tour grows.” In addition to the Artist Studio Tour, the group aims to have yearly pop-up exhibitions. This past June, Mary Jane van Zeijts hosted an exhibition at her Setauket studio titled Five @ 268 Art on Main that featured the core group. Upcoming projects include a curated exhibition of the Artists in the Studio Tour. “Currently we are looking for exhibition spaces in our local area,” said Brown.
At each studio, which can be in a backyard barn, garage, house, storefront or outdoor space, visitors will be able to talk freely with the artists and ask questions about their approach and individual styles to making art. “They can visit as long as they like,” said Brown. “Additionally some of the artists will be doing demonstrations and talking directing about their processes and the materials they use.”
Visitors can also expect to see a variety of artwork on display including original paintings, sculptures, ceramics, pastels, photographs, prints and textiles. Additionally, artwork will be for sale.
Brown is hoping to attract even more visitors to this year’s event. “Last year’s Studio Tour was very successful and well-attended, we received positive feedback from local art organizations and other cultural venues, plus we had incredible support from fellow artists, friends and our community at large,” she said.
“It is our hope that people walk away with a deeper meaning and understanding of art, the Artist, and the important role that art plays in our community.”
The North Shore Artist Coalition’s Artist’s Open Studio Tour will be held on Saturday, Nov. 11 and Sunday, Nov. 12 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event will be held rain or shine and admission is free. Refreshments will be served at several studios. For a list of the 11 locations, visit www.facebook.com/NorthShoreArtistCoalition. For more information, call 631-834-9036.
Huntington Town Councilwoman Tracey Edwards conceded to state Assemblyman Chad Lupinacci. “I want to wish supervisor-elect Lupinacci congratulations on a hard-fought race,” she said. “I have no regrets about not running for town board. I could not be prouder [of my party]. We ran together and ran a positive race talking about issues important to us.”
Emily Rogan on her loss in her first political race: “Not the way we waned, but I feel so blessed and full of gratitude,” she said. “This is one election. We are not done yet.”
“I feel terrific,” Ed Wehrheim said of winning. “It’s been a long, long campaign because of the primary, which was a very tough one, but this is the culmination of all of it. It feels great to be here with all my supporters and family and friends — they’ve been with me the whole way. It’s a great victory for Smithtown in my opinion, a great victory for my supporters and the residents. I’m looking forward to rolling my sleeves up and getting to work in January.”
All percentages are unofficial results as per the Suffolk County Board of Elections
PRETTY IN PINK Elisa Hendrey of Sound Beach captured this stunning image on her iPhone on Sept. 28. She writes, “This photo was taken at sunset at Mount Sinai Harbor, one of my favorite spots for viewing the setting sun.”
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By Heidi Sutton
As the days get shorter and cooler air settles in on Long Island, a perennial favorite, the Smithtown Township Arts Council’s Member Artist Showcase, returns to the Mill Pond House Gallery in St. James. Featuring original artwork by 64 STAC member artists, the juried exhibit will be on display throughout the first floor of the historic 1838 Greek Revival mansion through Dec. 10. Many of the works at the showcase will be available for purchase.
“I love this show,” gushed STAC director Allison Cruz during a recent guided tour. “There are so many artists and such diverse artwork. Every year it is so different.” Indeed, there are many different kinds of medium represented this year including digital photography, pen and ink, acrylic, pencil, watercolor, oil, pastel, sculpture and mixed-media.
While typically a juror or curator selects works for an exhibit, the Member Artist Showcase is unique in that it allows the artists to choose what piece they would like to exhibit in the show. “I give them the opportunity to show maybe something new they are working on or something they wouldn’t be able to show somewhere else,” said Cruz.
“We have a lot of artists from different communities across Long Island [in the exhibit],” as well as North Carolina, Florida, Alaska and New York City, Cruz said.
This year’s show was juried by artist Pam Brown. A resident of Stony Brook, Brown taught sculpture and was the director and curator of The Anthony Giordano Gallery at Dowling College in Oakdale for 16 years. She currently maintains a studio and works as a freelance art consultant and curator.
“I was very impressed with the overall level of professionalism and diversity of the artwork submitted for the Members Exhibition,” said Brown. “The exhibition as a whole is engaging because the artwork is conceptually interesting with a variety of forms and styles that are unique and in some cases exquisitely executed.”
While finding the task difficult “because art is subjective,” Brown eventually selected four equal winners — Margaret Minardi’s “Grace Safe Inside” (colored pencil and acrylic collage); Robert Roehrig’s oil painting, “Fossil Town”; Shain Bard’s autumn scene, “Light Spilling Down the Street” (oil); and Rosemary Wilson Sloggatt for her acrylic painting, “Awakening.”
“Those members get an opportunity to participate in our upcoming Winners Showcase exhibit along with our juried winners,” said Cruz. “It’s a very nice opportunity; they get to show a couple of pieces,” she added.
“Each artist that I selected demonstrated a high level of skill and insight to their area of concentration,” said Brown. “Rosemary Wilson Sloggatt’s large black and white painting of a woman gazing into her refrigerator is striking. To me the painting is about yearning, her arms and hands are reaching into the light, her face is illuminated and she is seeking in the middle of the night for something more.”
She continued, “Margaret Minardi’s ‘Grace Safe Inside’ is incredibly detailed and beautifully rendered. The patterns and colors are complex and meticulously painted. Robert Roehrig’s painting of ‘Fossil Town’ is a unique and precisely painted landscape of an industrial site, which has a small-town wistful feeling. Shain Bard’s painting of early morning on a tree-lined street with parked cars is alluring and is defined by the light that is pouring into the backdrop with muted colors and freely painted forms.”
Pamela Waldroup’s digital pigment print, “Leather Man” and Jeanette Martone’s “Mercado,” pencil and ink on paper received Honorable Mentions. “I liked their story, as well I was struck by their individuality and personal style of making art,” said Brown.
To Cruz, that is music to her ears. “To me this is an important show. We are here to support creativity among people. It’s an important part of what we are.”
Participating artists include: Aldo Arena, Ross Barbera, Shain Bard, Renee Blank, Kyle Blumenthal, Chevalier Daniel C. Boyer, Joyce Bressler, Suzanne R. Brodsky, Renee Caine, Jim Capone, Cheryl Cass-Zampiva, Carol Ceraso, Teresa Cromwell, Julie Doczi, Granville Fairchild, Essie Freilach, Donna Gabusi, Vivian Gattuso, Maureen Ginipro, Justin Greenwald, Donna Grossman, Jan Guarino, Diann Haist, Diane Henderson, Katherine Hiscox, Lori Horowitz, David Jaycox Jr., Anne Katz, Lynn Kinsella, John Koch, Susan Kozodoy-Silkowitz, Rasma Kupers Dos, Patricia Lind-Gonzalez, Linda Louis, Kathryn Lynn, Steven Macanka, Jane Manning, Jeanette Martone, Bobbi Mastrangelo, Terence McManus, Anne Miller, Margaret Minardi, Rebecca Molinari, Karen George Mortimore, Diane Oliva, Alicia R. Peterson, Kara Lee Reyes, Joan Rockwell, Robert Roehrig, Irene Ruddock, Michael Sauer, Lori Scarlatos, Gisela Skoglund, Rosemary Wilson Sloggatt, Sílvia Soares Boyer, Gunter Stern, Hui Hui Su-Kennedy, Nicholas Valentino, Mary Ann Vetter, Pamela Waldroup, Shirley Weiner, Constance Sloggatt Wolf and Patty Yantz.
The Mills Pond House Gallery, located at 660 Route 25A, St. James, will present the Smithtown Township Arts Council’s Member Artist Showcase through Dec. 10. The gallery is open Wednesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. For more information, call 631-862-6575 or visit www.millspondgallery.org.
One runner in this year’s TCS New York City Marathon hopes meeting his running goal will help raise awareness about the plight of those who suffer from rare diseases.
After beginning to run nearly two years ago, Stu Fisher, 66, will compete in the marathon for the first time Nov. 5 after completing nine races this past year. The East Setauket resident will be a part of the Running for Rare Diseases marathon team, which runs in support of the National Organization for Rare Disorders. The nonprofit is a patient advocacy organization dedicated to individuals with rare diseases and the groups that serve them.
In the marathon, Fisher will be running for Shaylee Boger, who was assigned to him by NORD. Fisher also will be running in honor of his nieces Arielle Candace Fisher, who died of Werdnig-Hoffmann disease, which is also known as spinal muscular atrophy type 1, where children will sit but never walk, before she was 1 year old; and Navarin Aeon Viloria, who was diagnosed with cyclic vomiting syndrome, an increasingly recognized disorder with sudden, repeated attacks of severe nausea, vomiting and physical exhaustion that occur with no apparent cause.
An operation engineer for Cumberland Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Brooklyn, Fisher said he began thinking about running 15 years ago when he cheered on his oldest daughter Donna in the Philadelphia Marathon. At the start of 2016, Fisher said he made the decision to start running, and his youngest daughter Stefanie, who will also participate in the marathon, encouraged him by taking him to West Meadow Beach, where they ran along Trustees Road.
“She helped me run a little bit, and rest, because I was winded after 15, 20 seconds,” Fisher said of his youngest daughter. “She kept moving me progressively farther distances until after a couple of weeks, I was able to not have to stop anymore.”
Recently, he has been working 80-hour weeks, but said he makes training a priority — something his wife Vivian Viloria Fisher, a former county legislator, has been supportive of. Stu Fisher said he joined an online coaching program, Jeff Galloway Training, to improve. He runs short runs Tuesdays and Thursdays, a long run on the weekend and takes a break from training the other days.
“Your body needs time to repair, especially when you’re older,” he said.
Fisher said his online coach Chris Twiggs, chief training officer with Jeff Galloway Training, has instructed him to take structured walks of 30 seconds between running. He can now complete 20 miles 15 minutes faster than if he ran continuously. Twiggs said Fisher, who has been training for the marathon since January, was wise by starting early, and has been building up his speed.
“His body is ready because of the work he has already put in,” Twiggs said.
Fisher, who is a member of the Long Island and New York City Road Runners clubs, said his last run was 25 miles. To train, sometimes after working a full day, he’ll run through the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Williamsburg area, then over the Brooklyn Bridge uptown on the west or east side all the way to Central Park.
He’s now lost more than 25 pounds running, and said he has advice for those who start the rigorous activity later in life.
“Once you start [running] you’ll see pounds will start to melt off, and then you feel a little better — that helps you with your stamina and motivation for running,” he said. “It’s not a regressive cycle like other things; it’s a progressive cycle.”
“He’s set on being a runner for life now.”
—Stefanie Fisher
His daughter Stefanie, who has been running for a few years and competed in the Philadelphia Half Marathon and other races, said she does it more for fun than to win. She said her father always stays positive, which motivates and inspires her.
“He’s set on being a runner for life now,” she said.
Stu Fisher said he’s hoping to run the marathon — which is more than 26 miles — in 4 hours, 59.59 minutes. Stefanie said the two of them made a pact to run together the whole race. If one slows down, the other one will slow their pace, too.
“I’m just excited that we’re going to cross the finish line together,” she said.
Twiggs said he believes his runner has a good shot completing the race in five hours due to the time he has put into training and being in good shape.
“My goal for him, honestly, is just for him to get to the finish line and have a smile on his face and be proud of himself,” Twiggs said. “Maybe [he’ll] want to do another one.”
Fisher is confident he will accomplish his goal for the nonprofit organization and those he’ll represent.
“It’s so unbelievably awesome,” he said of getting the opportunity to compete in the race. “This is a life experience. How many people could run a marathon with their daughter at my age?”
Fisher has already raised more than $1,000 for the National Organization for Rare Disorders. For more information about the group, visit www.rarediseases.org.
The Ward Melville Heritage Organization presented its 27th annual Halloween festival at the Stony Brook Village Center Oct. 31. Children were able to trick or treat from shop to shop, enjoy pumpkin painting, games and crafts.
By Alex Petroski
Suffolk County Police arrested a man for hosting a party in Port Jefferson after two 20-year-olds required medical attention for excessive alcohol consumption Oct. 29, according to police.
Sixth Precinct Patrol officers responded to a complaint of a loud party at a home on High Street at about 1:40 a.m. There were approximately 100 people in attendance, many of whom were underage, police said.
Police arrested and charged the host, Robert Egan, 22, of Bay Shore, with violating the Social Host Law. He was transported to the 6th Precinct where he was released on bail. Egan is scheduled to be arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip Jan. 9, 2018. Attorney information for Egan was not immediately available.
A man was pronounced dead at St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson after he was pulled from a submerged vehicle in Port Jefferson Harbor just after 7 p.m. Oct. 30, according to Suffolk County Police Department Assistant Commissioner Justin Meyers. Police have identified the man as William Whalen, 69, of Lake Grove.
“A 911 call came in at 7:10 p.m. after witnesses observed a car drive into the water at the Port Jefferson Marina boat launch located off of West Broadway Avenue and Barnum Avenue in Port Jefferson Village,” Meyers statement said. “Sixth Precinct Officers Brian Christopher and Michael Cappelli responded and jumped into the water and extricated a male victim that was trapped in his vehicle which was completely submerged. Personnel from the Port Jefferson Village Fire Department and Setauket Fire Department also responded and also went into the water to help extricate the victim.”
The officers were being treated for hypothermia in the aftermath of the incident.
Members of the Port Jefferson Fire Department — Lieutenant Geoffrey Markson, Ex-Captain David Okst and First Assistant Brennan Holmes — were on the eastern end of the marina parking lot working on the department’s fire boat when they were alerted of the incident on their paging devices, according to a spokesperson from the PJFD chief’s office. The three jumped into the water, eventually breaking the window with a hammer and removing the seatbelt to pull the victim from the car. Two PJFD Heavy Rescue Squad members in diving gear also arrived on the scene to assist in the rescue effort.
“We had a brief conversation that went, ‘are we doing this? Yeah we’re doing it,'” Holmes said during a phone interview.
He said the three firefighters were focused only on action and not on what might happen to them if they jumped in the water.
“We could have saved a life,” Port Jefferson Village Mayor Margot Garant said via email Monday night.
Garant announced during a board meeting June 5 the village had sent a letter to the New York State Department of Transportation and State Sen. Ken LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) asking for the traffic signal at the intersection of Barnum Avenue and West Broadway to be changed from having a standard green light to a green left arrow and right arrow. The call was in response to an April 6 incident in which a man in his early 60s drove into the harbor via the same boat launch. Four good Samaritans rescued that driver, and were later honored by the Port Jeff Village board in July. Garant said the DOT told her in a letter she received about five weeks ago they intended to comply with her request to change the light.
“I am thankful that the DOT was willing to entertain and adopt our suggestion, and when the light is changed, it may save a life,” Garant said Tuesday.
In December 2005 60-year-old Setauket resident Richard Levin drove into the water on the same ramp and onlookers had to pull his unconscious body from the fully submerged car. Levin died days later as a result of the incident.
According to documents obtained from Brookhaven in May, both Brookhaven Town and Port Jeff Village were sued by the wife and executrix of the estate of Richard Levin in 2007.
“As a result of the negligence of the defendants in failing to properly maintain the intersection of Route 25A and Barnum Ave., in failing to properly safeguard against motorists driving onto said Port Jefferson ramp into the water, in failing to properly illuminate said area, in failing to provide fencing and warning lights — as a result of the aforementioned Richard Levin died,” the lawsuit read in part. “[The] town failed to submit any evidence that it maintained its property in a reasonably safe condition by providing adequate fencing, lighting or warning of the dangerous condition on its property.”
“We had a brief conversation that went, ‘are we doing this? Yeah we’re doing it.'”
— Brennan Holmes
Judge Joseph Farneti of the New York State Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit in January 2011 because the “acts or omissions of defendants were not the proximate cause of the alleged accident.”
The April incident stirred up memories more than a decade old for one former village resident.
“People are dying here and it’s a simple fix,” Christopher Kelsch, one of the people who witnessed Levin’s death 12 years ago and tried to help, said shortly after seeing news of the April incident. “Somebody needs to shine a serious spotlight because Dr. Levin died at that location.”
Following the April incident, a Brookhaven Town spokesperson said in a statement there are clear signs and traffic measures in place to warn residents of the ramp’s location.
“The Port Jefferson boat ramp has existed at its current location for generations,” the spokesperson said. “A number of measures are in place including a multitude of ‘Do Not Enter’ signs, road arrows and other traffic control measures to clearly indicate that this is not an entrance.”
A Brookhaven Town spokesperson directed questions to the police department Monday night. Garant called on the town to take action in April, as the marina is town-owned property.
A spokesperson for Lavalle said the state senator was meeting with representatives from the DOT Nov. 1 to discuss the incident and troublesome intersection.
This post was updated Oct. 31 to include information from the PJFD Chief’s office and a quote from Brennan Holmes, and Nov. 1 to include a response from Ken Lavalle’s spokesperson.
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