In 2022, a group of local artists formed the Marlboro Arts Coalition, known as MaArCo. Last Saturday evening at an opening reception on the second floor of Frida’s Bakery & Cafe in Milton, seven artists showed off their works, created in a variety of mediums and styles. The show will be up until the end of March.

Eve Troncone is one of MaArCo’s newest members but has been an artist for most of her life. She recently moved to Marlborough from Syracuse.

Eve submitted a painting of jockeys racing their horses at the track.

“I love horses and I’ve had horses since I was a child,” she said. “I love the Saratoga Raceway, so the painting has that Saratoga feel.”

Eve also submitted a textured piece with teal coloring.

“It’s embossed so it’s a relief and it’s neat because it changes with lighting, so it casts different shadows” she said.

Jennie Duke said MaArCo, “wants to really represent the town and be all over the place, if we can.”

Duke retired from teaching art at the Beacon High School after 35 years, “and I’ve been doing a lot more of my own work now. I’ve been exhibiting at the Woodstock Art Museum, The Beacon Artist Union and the Wallkill River Art Center and hopefully we will be at Locust Grove in Milton.” She uses mostly acrylic paints, usually on watercolor paper.

When asked what she enjoys about painting, Duke paused and said, “That’s a big question because I’ve been doing it since I was a kid, so it’s just part of me. I had a lot of encouragement from my family and it was something that I always loved to do. I’ve always worked with my hands and sewed and made pottery and all kinds of things.”

Duke said this show, “is just an amazing explosion of talent in the Hudson Valley.”

Veronica Evanega submitted photographs and several sculpture pieces for the show.

“The photographs are ice columns on my property. I was playing around with a bucket of ice and turning the water and making a cylinder out of ice and then took it out and photographed it; it’s really amazing to see,” she said.

Evanega is hoping MaArCo can collaborate with the town to install ‘art pedestrian walks’ in different areas, such as at Round Pond and down by the Milton Landing.

“We are hoping as the Marlborough Arts Coalition to really get together and design a lot more cultural artistic pieces for our community and for people coming in to the area to appreciate,” she said.

Graphic Designer Joseph Caserto had several poster-sized pieces in the show; a 50th commemoration of Gay Pride 1969-2019 and a second with a rainbow colored heart with a peace symbol in the center. The work contains a quote by Pulitzer Prize wining playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda; “And love is love; is love is love; is love is love is love is; Love cannot be killed or swept aside; as a response to the horrific Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando Florida in 2016 where a gunman opened fire in a gay club, killing 49 people and wounding 53 more.

Caserto said for most of his 30 year design career he has worked in the magazine field but in recent years, “I began to do some personal work.” He said the coalition invited him this year, “so this is my first time being a part of this. I think the group wants to build an artistic community here that’s local and we can have people appreciate art.”

Caserto said there are a lot of creative and talented people in the area and more are moving in, “so hopefully we can build that community up. I know for me, and I think for everybody as we come out of this pandemic, it’s nice to be surrounded by a community and be able to collaborate and be able to bounce ideas off of people. All creatives are insecure, whether you’re visual or word people, and it’s nice to be able to say what do you think, is this working? Let’s try this.”

Jerry Wein was pleased with the turnout for the show. He submitted three photographs, “these are together because they are hometown pieces, one [in B&W] is the Quimby Farm. I was honored that they let me take pictures up there one day. That was a lucky day.”

Mary Ellen Sinclair describers her art work as ‘Illusions with Fabric & Thread.’ She keeps building up layers of wet fabric with a paste, “and then it’s just like painting. She does not dye the fabric but just uses what she has at hand.

Sinclair said the number of layers she applies varies according the size and complexity of the work and the time to finish a piece also varies from one to three weeks.

“And I have really big ones, some five feet by 8 feet, really big pieces that can take about a month to do,” she said.

Now 30 years in, Sinclair still loves, “everything about it because for me, when I start working, it becomes like meditation. Then I am completely absorbed in the subject matter in creating. So I really enjoy doing it.”

Cori Appler has recently branched out to painting birds after an inspiring visit to the bird collection at the New York State Museum in Albany.

Appler teaches Drawing & Painting, AP College level art, Advanced Painting and the basic art course at Arlington High School. She is always challenging her students to try new subjects and techniques, noting that “I learn a lot from watching them and I feel its great to be a practicing artist and sharing with them what you do.”

Besides being a member of MaArCo, Vivian Lanzarone has been helping to organize some of their events, “and I pitch in wherever I can.” She said they are planning to have a new art shows at Frida’s every two months.

Resident B. J. Mikkelsen described the art show as, “fabulous. There are a great many artists together with all kinds of different styles here.”

The next big event is the Marlboro Open Studio Tour that is scheduled for May 13 and 14, each day from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. People can follow a map and visit the home studios of about a dozen area artists.