By Della Hasselle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN — The first art show to bring together contemporary art and handmade crafts in New York opened at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Midtown Friday afternoon.
The Contemporary Art Fair and American Craft Show features artists and craftsmen from all over the world. Organizers hope the unusual pairing will become an annual artistic event.
"This is the first year, but hopefully it will be the starting point of something really big in the future," Ball said during the show's preview Friday. "It's refreshing to see so many hand-crafted things together."
The show featured jewlery, pottery, furniture, paintings, sculpture, and even an author dressed as a bride to promote her newest book. The prices varied as significantly as the merchandise, with items selling from $2 to $45,000.
"We try to have a little bit of something for everyone," Ball said.
The variety of artwork reflected the diversity of artists in attendance, whose inspirations ranged from environmental activism to sheer whimsy.
"It's about taking care of our descendents," said Peter Hadler, a furniture maker who designed a table to look like a map of the Maldines islands, the first country thought to disappear when sea level rises from global warming.
"To get them to get it you go through emotions, not just the head, and art is a way to take them there," Hadler said.
"People are always seeing something more to the work, and it brings a smile to their face," glass sculpturist Lila Tarjanski Villard said of her blown vases, which had trapped air bubbles inside to act as mirrors.
Regardless of individual taste, purchasing art is important, even during a time when New Yorkers are paring back expenses, sculpturist Valerie Burmell said.
"Art is soulfood. I really think that people need to look at what they spend at a show like this as something that feeds you," Burmell said while demonstrating how to make her handcrafted tin dolls dance.
"Unfortunately people don't always feel that way anymore. They forget how important it is to feed their minds."
