Falmouth Art Market Features Music by Morgan Rattler and the Joe Sutton Band on Tuesday, August 14

On Tuesday, August 14, the Falmouth Art Market will feature music by music from the Golden Age of Piracy by Morgan Rattle and folk and blues by the Joe Sutton Band. There will be wide range of fine art, crafts, and community information. The event takes place Town Hall Square, in front of Falmouth Town Hall on Main Street, from 2 PM until dusk every Tuesday afternoon through August 28.

The Art Market hosts a wide variety of artists, including visual artists, potters, fiber artists, illustrators, photographers, print makers, glass blowers, jewelers, authors and poets, and more.

Sea birds, monkfish, turtles, frogs, crabs, octopi, and squid—whimsical cut-paper collage sea creatures of all kinds—are found at Sandra Faxon’s booth at the Art Market. Owner of Local Colors Gallery on Water Street in Woods Hole, Faxon works in a variety of media, including watercolor, and in a variety of styles, from abstract to whimsical to realistic.

Besides the sea creatures, visitors will find scenes of Woods Hole, sailboats, and beaches, loveable pets, and abstract designs. Residents and tourists alike will relate to Faxon’s fresh take on familiar animals and local scenes.

She describes her collages as “painting with scissors” and uses different types of vividly colored hand-painted and her own hand-made papers. Faxon enjoys experimenting with the paper, painting large sheets in different ways, sometimes marbled, glazed or painted in pastels or oils, creating different effects.

Then, she said, “I turn the sheet this way and that and cut out the shapes I want.”

Among her most popular images are her blue crab, a black sailboat under a Chinese red moon, both in cut paper, and a tranquil image of Eel Pond in watercolor. “Marine animals have become my trademark,” she said.

Her inspirations clearly come from her surroundings. “I live in a wonderful location and know a lot of people who are artists and scientists and interested in nature and music and dance,” she said. Friends, both scientists and others, request certain images: a particular seabird or mollusk, or a favorite pet, and Faxon will spend time researching so that she can present an accurate, if lighthearted, image of the animal.

Sometimes she will separate the parts of an animal with white space, to emphasize the parts, and thus the whole. “We all need to respect nature and animals,” she said. “Parts are just as important as the whole. It gives you a better look at what makes the creature tick.”

She shows the works of other artists in her gallery, and has such a wide variety of her own work—from line drawings, to watercolors, to many types of cut paper collages—that people thing she is showing many more artists. “It’s just me and my multiple personalities,” she said with a laugh.

Faxon took her first art class in the 1940s when she was 8. The teacher had the students sit in the hallway and draw pictures of the hallway. Faxon said she went home crying, saying she would never take another art class. “In the 1940s,” she said, “if you didn’t draw a yellow sun, you were doomed.”

She never did take another art class, but the experience stayed with her, and in college she explored ways of teaching art creatively. Faxon became an educational workshop leader, integrating the creative arts (music, movement, drama, and art). She also had a career as a child and family therapist and often used the creative arts in therapy. “Sometimes words just get in the way,” she said.

Faxon has a word of advice for those who might be interested in making art themselves. “It is never too late to tap into your creative talents!”

Now 74, Faxon did not start making her collages until she retired at the age of 63, and then only at the prompting of a friend who encouraged her, saying it was time for Faxon to follow her own teachings and make her own art.

Her joy in creating art is evident in her collages and paintings. Full of life, color, and spirit, they are buoyant depictions of Woods Hole and Cape Cod life, from the most intimate look at a tiny crustacean to a larger beach or village scene.

Faxon sells both originals and prints, which, thanks to the professional printing process she uses, look remarkable like the original. Prints are matted and available in four sizes.

For more information on Sandra Faxon and Local Colors Gallery, visit www.localcolorsgallery.biz.

Morgan Rattler will entertain with music from the Golden Age of Piracy from 2:30 to 5 PM. Minstrels Ron Gerring and Barbara Blair play songs of the sea and folk tunes on a variety of folk and traditional instruments.

From 5 to 7:30, the Joe Sutton Band will play jazz standards, folk, and blues music. Joe Sutton, vocals, Rusty Strange, Tom Renshaw and friends perform every Monday night at the Nimrod Restaurant and Jazz Lounge.

Lobster sandwiches, stuffed quahogs, hot dogs, and drinks are available from the Barking Claw, a food wagon parked on site at the Art Market.

For more information about the Falmouth Art Market, visit www.falmouthartmarket.com. There, visitors and artists may check on scheduled activities and entertainment and learn more about participating artists and musicians. Links are also provided to local organizations.