Art Walk Manasquan 2026

 I learned that Manasquan was holding its art walk today, and the weather is warm and sunny, so I decided to go.  Not as a participant (I was offered this opportunity at the Open Studio event back in April and declined) but as a viewer.  It's about a 15 minute walk from where I live to the area of Main Street where such things are held, then tables and racks are set up along the sidewalks of Main between route 71 and South/Broad streets.  I went not knowing if I would know anyone there, but knew there was a chance I would.  Doing what the traffic lights dictated as I approached, I ended up crossing to other side first.  Not surprisingly, my first stop came in front of the Main Street Gallery, a place I know Molly does her pet art thing on Saturdays.  However, though I saw her paints and many examples her work, she wasn't around.  Inside the gallery they thought she may have gone to get a drink, so I continued to the end of the art fair, then came back.  Molly was approaching her spot as I came back, so we had a nice discussion about the Studio, art in general, and other topics.  Some potential customers stopped by occasionally, and I let her talk to them.  Got this shot of her working on her art, a regular thing on Saturdays.  

She had plans later and was planning to leave soon, so I let her go and found a place to safely cross the street.  On the other side I found two relief printmakers, both doing linocut instead of woodcut, but the process is otherwise the same, including a lot of the same materials and concerns, so we had a lot to talk about.  What all of us have in common is the enjoyment of what is considered an unusual process, and all of us using oil based inks.  The one I ended up talking to the most also shared with me a disdain for businesses that promise to turn art into prints (we already make prints) and the problems that come with finding frames and shipping work.  I warned her that most viewers will be impressed with the process, but never do anything about it.  A very small percentage will love it and want to do nothing else.  As a relief printer herself, she completely understood.

With those exceptions. most everyone up and down the street was doing paintings of landscapes, which is the kind of thing I can ignore.   A few were showing ceramics, but nothing that caught my attention.  The sidewalks were crowded (had to be careful of the many kids on bikes) but I don't know how many sales occurred.  I stopped doing these things as I never sold much, and the constant wind kept blowing my racks down.  And it's a pretty long day in the sun.  I had seen enough and walked home.