Edgewood Gallery’s Holiday Exhibit is a Menagerie for the Eyes
The holiday exhibition at the Edgewood Gallery brings together artists who work in different media but share a deep interest in nature, in animals who share this planet with us. Beyond that, the show features artists who are both comfortable with their creative approaches and willing to stretch out. That’s true for C.J. Hodge and his acrylics, ceramists Ellen and Dia Haffar, jewelry-maker Dana Stenson, and Amy Cunningham-Waltz, creator of watercolor, gouache and ink paintings.
The Haffars, a mother-daughter duo, work out of Smokepail Studios in Pompey, naming their space after a trash can they used for a temporary kiln. That name reflects a sense of whimsey, and humor also appears in a vessel portraying an animal roasting marshmallows.
Yet, that’s not a dominant element in their artwork. The Haffars have created a bevy of cups, bowls and vases decorated with images of various creatures: a rabbit, goose, frog and fish, among others. They either paint the image on the vessels or use a technique called sgraffito in which a surface layer is scratched away to reveal a different colored layer beneath it.
Viewers will encounter a vase topped by a tiny rabbit figure, a large bowl with a detailed image of a fish, and a piece portraying a raccoon and done in earth colors. These works, like the rest of the ceramic pieces, are functional objects.
The Haffars, like many other local artists, are busy during the holiday season. In addition to the Edgewood exhibit, they have been showing their ceramic pieces at other venues; the December 6-7 Plowshares Craftsfair and Peace Festival at Nottingham High School, the Little Red Wagon Market in Ithaca, and the DCCF Holiday Craft Fair, held in Poughkeepsie.
Cunningham-Waltz, meanwhile, draws on nature in her paintings, creating artworks that nicely depict a hornet owl or portray a hummingbird hovering over three plants. “Tribal Elephant,” the best of her paintings at Edgewood, employs earth color such as brown, green and red, captures the elephant’s head in intricate patterns and has a lush-green background in the manner of a field.
The use of repetitive patterns is an essential motif in Cunningham-Waltz’s paintings. She has indicated that she’s influenced by indigenous art from Polynesia and the Americas.
Another trademark is the vivid colors that appear in many of her works. In one painting, for example, a tree frog is seen in intense purple, contrasting with an orange background. The colors boost the visual energy in the paintings and also celebrate the creatures Cunningham-Waltz has painted.
C.J. Hodge, a veteran local artist, has acrylics from “The Cat Series” on display at Edgewood. These aren’t designed to portray cats as impossibly cute. Rather, they document the way in which Hodge depicts cats with skill and imagination.
We see a total of 11 cats, with three grouped together. That set isn’t uniform; each of the three has its own visual identity.
And Hodge depicts a cat with varying colors and patterns—a left ear in solid red color and a right ear built from blue dots, a nose constructed from a diamond pattern, a checkerboard next to the left eye, and whiskers portrayed as stalks.
This is the artist’s interpretation of a familiar subject, and it succeeds nicely. In other acrylics displayed in the current show, he integrates stripes, loops, checks and squares, and other patterns.
“The Cat Series,” it should be noted, is one segment of Hodge’s portfolio. He’s created pieces like “Joy” which has a pop-art sensibility and features lines, arrows and bright colors. In addition, his artworks have dealt with subjects such as family, nature and violence.
Hodge’s acrylics have been displayed at the Kristen Campo Fine Art Gallery in Rochester, the Dowd Gallery at SUNY Cortland and art haus, a gallery in downtown Syracuse. Sam: art haus is a lower-case title.
Finally, Stenson, a metalsmith jewelry maker, creates bracelets, earrings, necklaces and rings, working primarily in sterling silver and gold. She’s depicted birds and butterflies in her jewelry and says her work reflects varied influences—nature, diverse cultures and traveling. She’s lived abroad in Iran and Hungry and has also resided in Virginia and Arizona.
The holiday exhibition is on display through January 9, 2026 at the Edgewood Gallery, 216 Tecumseh Rd. The venue is open from 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and on Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Admission is free.
For more information, call 315-445-8111.
Carl Mellor covered the visual arts for the Syracuse New Times from 1994 through 2019. He continues to write about exhibits and artists in the Syracuse area.