CORNWALL — Looking for unusual, fun and (mostly) useful art? Head for Art at the Dump, April 29 and 30, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Cornwall Transfer Station.This is the 12th annual Art at the Dump, which is the first social event of the season. A long, snowy winter means there is now plenty of room in the sand shed for art. And rain or shine, it’s always a good time. Bring the kids. Bring the dog. Bring the checkbook, because 30 percent of the proceeds go to the Cornwall Consolidated School art department.And there are always things there that people just have to have. What sets it apart is this guideline for contributors: Whether they are professional artists or regular folk inspired to make something for the show, everything must be made from recycled materials.Although she is no longer running the show, Art at the Dump was the brainchild of Gail Jacobson. Fortunately for devotees of the annual fundraising show, she now has more time to devote to making art for the show. A tip: Get there early if you want to buy any of her things.Jacobson is the queen of high-quality recycled art. Materials inspire her. And that’s exactly where one needs to begin with an Art at the Dump project. It’s about what’s lying around — maybe even curbside waiting for the garbage man — and is ripe to be transformed from trash to treasure.A little over two years ago, Jacobson started a blog that is essentially an outlet for her rampant creativity. She has easily been able to post a project, and sometimes a recipe, too, a week. The steps are easy, the tasks require no special skills or talents, and all can be done with inexpensive or found materials. She has also demonstrated a knack for being able to write instructions that make sense, which she posts along with clear and attractive photographs that pop up just when you need them. She has kept it simple. There are no ads. All the information is free. “The only thing I get out of it is an archive of everything I do,” Jacobson said. “And I like that I only have to make something once for the blog, but then I have the photos and instructions all there. It’s especially great for recipes. I love experimenting with recipes, and I have to make sure I write them down for the blog. Sometimes I have to go back to the blog to find one.”Has it been a success? For her own purposes — definitely. And numbers don’t lie.A year ago, she had about 300 followers and 200 hits a day. Now she has more than 1,000 devotees and about 600 hits per day.Even those not inclined to do more than browse can enjoy the site. Jacobson’s humor makes even crafting instructions entertaining. And she writes a brief background for deserving projects.A simple graphic that can be transformed into greeting cards and more is her version of a poster produced by the British government at the beginning of World War II. The original read “Keep Calm and Carry On.”Jacobson’s reads, “Keep Calm and Party On.”A pretty little “Moroccan box” project is made out of plastic pipe, transformed with Jacobson’s simple, yet almost magical techniques so that, “You can tell your friends that you picked up this box on your travels — you don’t have to mention that you traveled to Home Depot.”A clown project begins with, “As a child, I had no idea that clowns were people in make-up; I thought they just came that way. I found out the truth on a View Master reel and was more disappointed than when I learned about Santa.”So what does Jacobson have in store for Art at the Dump? We wouldn’t want her to give it all away, but much of it will be blog projects.“I have so many of them lying around now. Art at the Dump is the perfect place to take them.”Her practical side is kicking in as well, and in an effort to find something to do with something “everyone saves but can’t figure out what to do with,” she has come up with projects for cookie tins. Among them will be trophies, such as World’s Best Mom, that double as flower holders.Her website is at cantstopmakingthings.com.For more information on Art at the Dump, contact Richard Griggs at 860-672-6208 or thingmkr@optonline.net
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Gustavo Portillo goes for a header
Riley Klein
The game was split into two standard 40-minute halves with a 3-minute pause for "coach's time" in each half. The intermissions were reminiscent of the hydration breaks that soccer spectators became accustomed to during the recent 2026 FIFA World Cup.
HVRHS coach Adolfo Portillo tested out different lineups throughout the game, alternating between a 4-3-3 and 4-4-2 formation. In each third, the Mountaineers' game-tested veterans provided stability and anchored the team.
On defense, seniors Wyatt Bayer and Ryan Segalla locked down the middle lane. Torrington's attacks were stifled before ever becoming threats. Sophomore Ryan Houghtaling started the game in goal for HVRHS.
In the center, senior Gustavo Portillo acted as a vocal on-field coach. The box-to-box midfielder directed his teammates in real time and provided encouraging affirmation for younger players. Portillo scored the first goal of the scrimmage: an unassisted strike from the right side to start the second half.
Up front, senior striker Jackson McAvoy created offensive opportunities through agile cuts and quick bursts of speed. Midway through the second half, a sharp, threaded ball from McAvoy set Peyton Bushnell loose on a fast break that ended in the day’s second goal.
Last season, HVRHS ended as runners up in the Berkshire League tournament. The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference ranked the Mountaineers as the 28th best team in the state's Class S boys soccer division in 2026.
The first regular season game for HVRHS was scheduled to be played in Winsted on Tuesday, Sept. 8, against Northwestern Regional High School.
Peyton Bushnell takes a shotRiley Klein
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KK Kozik in her studio
Natalia Zukerman
It is a particularly fitting philosophy for an artist whose paintings often begin with the world around her but rarely end there. There might be something recognizable — a stone wall, an apple tree, a crow — but then there is something less certain. Something that appears to be one thing becomes another upon inspection. Memory gets involved. So does imagination. So does time.
Since moving from New York City to Sharon, Connecticut in 2006, the landscape around her has become increasingly important to that process.
“I just saw things differently,” Kozik said.
The change was not immediate. She remembers an earlier version of herself driving through Vermont without paying much attention to what was happening beyond the windshield.
“I didn’t have the means to see what was happening around me,” she said. “I just sort of la, la, la, la, la, driving to Vermont.”
But, she said, she started to pay attention differently.
“I became more sensitized as time went on,” she said.
Asked whether that change came with age, she said, “Age and so-called wisdom.”
There’s a sense of loss in her landscapes, but a particular kind of loss that also has a twinge of redemption. Specifically, what happens to a landscape when people leave it?
“When the people go away, the wildlife comes back,” Kozik said.
KK Kozik in her studio with her painting “Golden Delicious.”Natalia Zukerman
Kozik’s work has never settled into a single recognizable formula. She has painted landscapes, figures and still lifes, moved toward abstraction and returned to representation. Her subjects change, but the underlying impulse remains: to take what is in front of her and discover what else there might be.
Kozik describes herself as someone who is always trying to figure things out. Her paintings often have the feeling of a thought in progress rather than a conclusion. They have been called “single-line novellas,” a description that makes sense: They can contain the suggestion of an entire story without telling you exactly what happened.
The animals are part of that storytelling.
They arrived partly because of what was disappearing.
“They were like the new redemption in a way,” she said.
There is something almost funny about the way Kozik talks about this — not because the loss itself is funny, but because she refuses to turn it into a grand pronouncement. She observes something, considers it, and lets it complicate the work.
That same sensibility comes through when she talks about her own development as an artist. Her paintings make room for interpretation. They don’t always tell the viewer what an animal symbolizes, or why a landscape has been altered, or where a particular image came from. Instead, they leave enough evidence to make you curious and enough room for your own stories.
The effect is not accidental. Kozik has spent years thinking about how images work, both as paintings and as containers for ideas.
Her work is currently included in “The Naturalist,” a group exhibition on view through Sept. 13 at Kenise Barnes Fine Art in Kent, alongside Richard Klein, Sally Maca, Rick Shaefer and Tricia Wright. The exhibition brings together artists whose work engages with the natural world, including its forms, histories and mysteries.
Kozik is an especially apt fit for the exhibition. She is described by the gallery as a landscape painter, figurative painter and interiors/still-life painter whose work frequently moves toward painterly abstraction. Her practice, the gallery notes, is “fluid and continuous” — always searching for new pictorial problems to solve.
That search has also extended beyond her own studio.
For several years, Kozik ran ICEHOUSE Project Space, an 18th-century icehouse on Sharon’s town green that she transformed into an unusual venue for contemporary art. It opened in 2018 with Dan Devine’s “Inside-Out NASCAR” and went on to host site-specific projects by artists including Mark Dion, Eric Aho, Janet Biggs, Richard Klein, Kristin Jones, Lisa Hoke and Ryan Frank. The projects addressed everything from the decline of winged insects and native and invasive plants to Sharon’s iron industry, its gardens and its history as an ice-producing community.
The space is now closed, but its premise still feels connected to Kozik’s painting practice. Each project responded in some way to the physical location, turning what might otherwise have been a little historic outbuilding into a setting for contemporary art.
Kozik’s own work does something similar with the landscape. She takes a place and lets it become more than a place.
Kozik’s paintings tell us that something happened before we arrived, and that something will happen after we leave.
And then there is the question of what to do with the space in between.
Maybe Kozik’s paintings are less about that space and more about an idea, as she put it, of “which questions to think about.”
Jazzmine Bone and A Stitch in Tyme power through the Gambler’s Choice run during the 2024 Lakeville Open.
Caitlin Von Graf
The event, which has been held continuously for 69 years, is open to the public with free admission.
Individual competitions will run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and visitors can stop by briefly or settle in for the day.
A food truck, bake sale and portable restrooms will be available on-site.
The show is the primary fundraiser for The Lakeville Pony Club, with proceeds supporting young riders who need financial assistance to participate in lessons. Members and their families work throughout the year to create the event for both competitors and spectators.
Members of the Lakeville Pony Club and Echo the pony arrive for the costume class during the Lakeville Open in 2024.Caitlin Von Graf
For those new to horse shows, the day offers a chance to learn more about the sport and understand what happens in the ring. In equitation competitions, judges evaluate the rider’s skill, from beginners learning walk and trot to more advanced riders navigating cantering and jumping courses.
Hunter competitions focus on the horse’s style and smoothness over fences, while jumper classes emphasize accuracy and speed as horses and riders race against the clock without knocking down rails.
The day also includes a crowd favorite: the costume class, where horses and riders dress up in creative ensembles for a chance at the top prize.
Programs will be available onsite to help spectators identify competitors and horses. A full list of competitions, entry information and details for those interested can be found at rigameadow.com
Whether an experienced equestrian or simply curious about the sport, the Lakeville Open Horse Show offers a chance to enjoy a Hudson Valley tradition that continues to bring the community together.
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