New site for artists' cooperative sheds light on their creative work

WEST CAPE MAY - For a couple of hundred years now, it has been the light - its brilliance and refraction spoken about with reverence here - that has brought great artists and those unknown to this enclave on the southern tip of New Jersey.

A kind of stepsister to more chichi - and expensive - Cape May proper, West Cape May has long been evolving as an artisan's outpost where artsy mom-and-pop shops and galleries have been springing up in recent years.

So it seems fitting that the 19-member Cape May Artists' Cooperative has opened its new gallery at 122 Sunset Blvd. in a well-lit space where paintings, photographs, jewelry, stained-glass, hand-turned wood items, pottery, candles, fiber arts, mosaics, painted furniture, and other offerings can be bathed in the famous Cape May light. The space opened about three weeks ago.

The cooperative's previous home a couple of blocks away had been in a Cape May retail outlet, where the lighting might not have been as brilliant and the one-of-a-kind handmade goods of the guild members competed for sales with more mainstream, mass-produced items, said Mary Stewart, 65, of Town Bank, a fiber artist, and the cooperative's president.

All the work for sale in the gallery, which is juried, is produced by artists who live in Cape May County, and most of the items are centric to the region. Though you might not find kitschy "greetings from Cape May"-type items, you will find pieces that reflect the spirit of the popular beach and birding part of the New Jersey Shore. Prices range from a few dollars for a hand-blocked postcard to thousands for large paintings and sculptures.

Among the artists featured in the new gallery is Joe Evangelista, 67, a nature photographer from the Del Haven section of Middle Township. His work captures the deep color and exuberance of nature - whether it's a close-up of a snowy owl or a sandy, rustic beach scene.

As a former police chief in Middle Township, Evangelista said he was used to seeing the seamier side of life. But the retiree says photography has allowed him to get away from the "ugliness and hate in the world" and find the "beauty that has always been there alongside it."

"There are not a lot of smiles in police work," Evangelista said. "Nowadays, I just want to be able to go to work and make people happy and feel good by what they see."

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New site for artists' cooperative sheds light on their creative work