Long’s Park, a public park located in Lancaster, held its 48th annual Long’s Park Art Festival over Labor Day weekend. It began on Sept. 4 and ended Sept. 6. The festival functions as a fundraiser to support the park’s Summer Music Series at its amphitheater, and features more than 200 artists and vendors.
While a variety of artists from Pennsylvania showcase their art at this event, there were many exhibits based in states all across the country. These are two of the many artists that I saw at the event whose work stood out to me, and the stories behind their art and what led them to Lancaster.
Dance Wither Glassworks
Artist: Nolan Prohaska
Located in: Somerset, Wisconsin
Medium: Glass
What is your general story as an artist?
“I have always been fascinated by the outdoors. Ever since I was young my family nurtured my love for nature. When I entered the University of WI River Falls in 1997, I was pursuing a degree in horticulture with a minor in liberal arts. During my sophomore year I found myself in an introductory course for glass. To my surprise, I had a natural talent for working with the material. My pieces logically leaned toward the natural world, heavily influenced by my surrounding environments. I enjoy connecting indoor spaces with the outdoors by creating pieces inspired by desert sunrises, waterscapes, and beautiful plants.
Today I have been working with glass for more than 25 years. I continue to be influenced by organic shapes, plants, and colors. Utilizing both blown and solid working techniques, I create intricately assembled sculptures. I also create vessels in a variety of shapes, inspired by landscapes and seascapes. In either case, all my pieces of glass become a reflection of my awe toward the natural world around us.”
Are you new to the Long’s Park festival? If you are, how was the experience for you? If you aren’t, what made you come back?
“This was my fourth year exhibiting at the Long’s Park Art Festival. Even though it is a smaller show than many that I attend, there is a very supportive community for the arts.”
What is your advice to aspiring artists and creatives today?
“My advice to young artists is something that has stuck with me from some time when I first started working with glass. My instructor, Jim Engebretson, would tell the students if you spent enough time in the glass studio you could learn how to blow glass, but the hard part was making it your own. All the tips and tricks are tools on your tool belt. Come up with an original idea.”
Whitbeck Studios
Artist: James Whitbeck
Located in: Montague, Massachusetts
Medium: Oil paint
What is your general story as an artist?
“As long as I can remember I have been drawing, painting and just creating things. I was encouraged at a young age by my parents through museums, books on art and supplying me with whatever I needed. They fed that creativity. It wasn’t until my early thirties that my attention was turned to the old masters, Vermeer in particular. What really helped this turn for me was actually my wife doing my genealogy. She had dug up my Dutch ancestry and the part my forefathers had played in the creating of the New Netherlands here in the new world in the early 1600s. It was amazing and I loved it. All of the stories and the people. I wanted to know as much as I could and so I started looking into the Netherlandish art of the 17th century. I wanted to see what my ancestors looked like and how they lived. The first artist that caught my attention was Johannes Vermeer with his beautiful interiors. And then he opened the doors to this whole world of other Dutch artists, especially the still-life painters. At that moment I knew how and what I wanted to paint. So I just dove right in.
It wasn’t easy, being self-taught and not taking classes for this particular technique, but over the years I learned more and more, fine tuning my craft. Most of my learning came from going to museums and getting as close as possible to the originals, seeing how they dealt with particular aspects of painting in oil, certain ways of rendering light, painting glass, or creating certain textures. And with the overwhelming amount of information that is available online, I was able to research 17th-century oil painting techniques and pick up a lot from that. But a lot of the learning has also come with just trial and error, just painting, painting, painting. And the beauty of it is that I am still learning. Still picking up bits and pieces as I go to museums or talk with other artists. Striving to better my work.”
Are you new to the Long’s Park festival? If you are, how was the experience for you? If you aren’t, what made you come back?
“I have been attending the Longs Park Art Festival since 2008. To be truthful, what makes me want to apply to the show every year is the many sales that I make. As this is first and foremost a business for me, sales are at the top of the list. But that being said, the folks who run the show have the needs of the artists as a priority and that is not so with other shows that I do. Long’s Park goes out of its way to make sure we have what we need and are always there for our questions and suggestions. The numerous volunteers are amazing. And you can’t beat the setting. The pond and the trees, it’s just one of the most peaceful shows that I do.”
What is your advice to aspiring artists and creatives today?
“First and foremost is love what you are doing. If you are not feeling it, don’t do it. And have fun with it. Don’t be so rigid with technique and composition that it becomes a chore for you. It can be easy to get bogged down by all the information that comes your way that you can start to miss the real reason and inspiration why you started in the first place.
During a time of total frustration for me in learning technique so many years ago, when I was about to throw in the towel, I had a fortunate moment happen when my four-year-old niece happened to be over at my house. She was out on our porch painting at a kids’ easel. She had all the basic colors there in front of her and she was just painting for the complete joy of it. Whatever color struck her, she used it. She wasn’t worried about technique or composition, or what colors went together best. She was just painting. It was kind of an epiphany for me. I put the books away, cleared my head and did a kind of reset and just started painting, like my niece, not over thinking things. And from that moment on is when it all started flowing better and I was then able to start achieving the goals that I wanted.”
With a wide array of mediums, cultures, and stories to share from each artist, Long’s Park’s annual art festival continues to fund and support the arts in many impactful ways. It is an important addition to the diverse art scene in the Lancaster area and makes art accessible to all kinds of ages and groups.
If you missed this year’s festival, you can still make an impact by donating to support the park’s events at longspark.org. They are also open all week from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., offering a place for natural beauty to the public.
