Lifestyle

BERLIN — Setting cliches aside as much as possible, the common link between art and life is choice. Success is learning from the affects of the choices, how what a person planned relates to what actually happened and, in the very best cases, how they can improve both their choices and outcomes as they get older. In art, choices range from decisions about color, medium, brush stroke and the million other tiny decisions that result in a finish piece that, setting aside aesthetic considerations, is either an example of a goal accomplished or one missed. But, like life, art is full of second chances and the development of an artist’s career is best traced by linking together which opportunities they seized as second chances and what they made of the chances they happened to get. Taking a second bite at the apple has become something of a specialty for Randy Hofman over the nearly 40 years he has been creating or producing art on the Eastern Shore. To say he is known primarily...

By Tony Russo Staff Writer BERLIN — There has been kind of an inside joke, of which artist Patrick Henry is as much a part as the subject of, regarding the color red. As the story goes, he had to break out a deep, vibrant red for a reproduction he painted a few years ago and never put it back.  Henry had been known for his subdued style, using mainly demure tones to focus on the light his subjects emitted and reflected. The result tended to be work in which the real subject was the ether between the viewer and represented scene. Once he opened that tube of red paint, things began changing quickly, beginning with his studio and following all the way through one of his most productive years of painting in nearly a decade. The last burst was the GlenRiddle retrospective where Henry was commissioned to provide paintings of the Riddle Farm from its pre-subdivision days. To complete that work he hired help to run the Henry Art Center so he might better and more effectively foc...

BERLIN — Lit votive candles in hand, more than 100 people gathered at the Berlin Farmers Market parking lot Friday to participate in the group’s annual candlelight ceremony and walk. Some of those participating in the vigil had survived breast cancer and some were the friends and family members of survivors, but many were walking in memory of those who had not survived the disease. As an event to raise awareness as much as to celebrate victories and mourn losses, the ceremony succeeded in bringing attention to the walkers’ cause by drawing the eyes of the Second Friday Art Stroll attendees not already involved with the effort. Many participants were dressed in pink and they interspersed among the others in a way that, combined with the votives, the dusk light, the pink-ribboned street posts and window dressings in the down town, made for a striking visual. The route ended at the Atlantic Hotel courtyard, where walkers took their places either on the hotel’...

 OCEAN CITY — More challenging economic times call for more creative solutions and business owners are looking for new ways to expand and grow their businesses beyond the expected.  Angela Reynolds, of Fager’s hotel group, has been working on partnerships with other local business to provide unique experiences for travelers seeking experiences outside of the typical beach and boardwalk most come to our area for, in an attempt to broaden the reach to a new crop of visitors. This week as part of a trip put together with Capitol Region USA, a German concern that promotes foreign travel, a group of well respected German travel writers were able to take a unique tour of our area.  . Mario Arnold, “spelled like Mr. Schwarzenegger,” as he said, was one of the group of writers who spent the early part of the week participating in outdoor excursions aimed at bringing more attention to the region as both a short excursion and destination option for Europ...

 BERLIN — Over the last several years, one of the most reliable things about Berlin has been its ability to manufacture small events and give them the room to grow into large ones. It is an approach that has worked almost consistently and one the town hopes to continue with the inauguration of Octoberfest this weekend. The seed that came to be Octoberfest was planted more than a year ago but didn’t really start to take shape until the beginning of this summer, according to Director of Community and Economic Development Michael Day. The initial hope was to arrange for a mass tasting to celebrate the town’s newest tourist attraction, Burley Oak Brewery. But as it became clear that the business wouldn’t be ready for mass distribution of the kind envisioned during the initial stages, there was a movement instead to have another townwide event in what has been a traditionally slow period. “We just looked at the calendar and saw we didn’t have an e...

BERLIN — As anyone who has transitioned from school into the workforce realizes, an employer will give much less slack than will a teacher, but that is precisely the kind of thing Matthew Elburn, coordinator for the Community Work Experience (CWE) program at Worcester Technical School counted upon when asked Leo D’Aleo, head chef at the Atlantic Hotel, to participate. The CWE program is an opportunity for special education students ages 14-21 to get practical real world experience. This isn’t practicing having a job, but is learning what it is like to have a job.  And working in a kitchen of a high-end restaurant is not the usual workaday experience. Of the four students who initially showed up, only one elected to stay and complete the program — Craig Mason. Mason did well in his culinary arts classes at Worcester Tech but it was his attitude more than his skill that made him the right match for working in a kitchen. “The think about Craig is tha...

BERLIN — Olive Mawyer, director of the Berlin Chamber of Commerce, had been watching the weather predictions all week and by Friday she understood that, for the first time in its 19 years, the Fiddlers Convention opening night concerts would have to be moved. While the decision wasn’t made happily or lightly, it was made optimistically. After all, the people who’d come to the convention had come as much for the music as for the fact that it was out in the streets. Besides, the bands wouldn’t risk bringing their equipment out into the rain — the stage didn’t offer sufficient cover — and they were getting their fees whether they played or not. As a result, much of the morning was spent hand-printing signs on poster board, while the afternoon was devoted to posting notices that the Friday night’s performances would be moved to Berlin Intermediate School. “The people at the school were phenomenal,” Mawyer said. “They just...

BERLIN — Last year’s Berlin Fiddlers Convention saw the local band, The Lilley-Billies, place third in the kids’ band competition, but after more than 300 days of practice since then, its members hope to place higher this year. The group of siblings is led and was trained by Monika, the oldest, who will join her brothers and sisters onstage. Rules allow each children’s band to have one adult playing a rhythm instrument to help the kids overcome any stage freight and to help keep them on task. Since that is central to Monika’s day-to-day duties, it won’t be radically different from when they play together in the family’s music room. Monika was instructed in the classics on violin and on the harp but when her teacher moved away, she was unable to find a suitable replacement and took to studying on her own. Eventually, she was adept enough to take on students and the first was Summer, the next eldest sister. “Summer took to it right aw...

  BERLIN — The difference between practitioners and enthusiasts is that when practitioners speak to you about their passion and does it convincingly, you have a new respect for what they do. When enthusiasts talk about their passion, you begin to wonder halfway through the conversation why you aren’t doing the same thing they’re doing. Geren Mortensen, Art Perry and David Lamb are the epitome of enthusiasts. The three are members of the local Mid-Atlantic Radio Kontrol Society (MARKS), a group of model airplane flyers that is holding its annual air show Sunday. Each has been involved in RC planes for decades and in that time have gone from practitioner to enthusiast by, for lack of a better phrase, converting the unbelievers. It isn’t that there is a satisfaction in getting someone to try and enjoy flying model planes, but rather the kind of feeling you get when you’ve helped someone gain access to something that they will enjoy as much as you ...

BERLIN — While there was no official theme or event tied to last week’s 2nd Friday Art Stroll, there were no lack of diversions, as many of the downtown shops held art opening receptions, featured artists or held charity events that contributed to a busy and relatively successful evening. William Street is fast become in the children’s section each 2nd Friday as, for the second time in as many months, there was an event conceived for and directed at keeping kids busy. Nearly a dozen kids, some from the neighborhood and others who had come to the event with their parents, worked together on a mural using sidewalk chalk provided by Bungalow Love for that very purpose. There were vendors along the rest of the street as well selling different arts and crafts. On South Main Street, the Visitors Center held an opening to welcome two of the newest tenants and show off the newest work by Jim Adcock, who was the first artist to take advantage of the space. When the Berlin Ch...