Halloween Windows 2012 Bloomsburg

 

The electrified kitty and pumpkin at Criterium Peters Engineering on Main Street  tells us it’s time once again for… Bloomsburg Halloween Windows!

Every year Bloomsburg area schools team up with selected downtown businesses to decorate for Halloween. Some are cute, some are scary, some are references to popular cartoons, others are wildly original. These are some of my favorites for 2012.

We had some rough weather right after the paint went on this year, so only 2 days later some of the works were peely. Think past those bare patches if you can (and the faults of the photographer with her new unfamiliar camera) and you’ll have an idea of their original quality. Since I took these pix, we’ve gone thru the Frankenstorm (Hurricane Sandy) so much of what you see here no longer exists.













Some windows feature figures without painted backgrounds, allowing reflections or the store interiors to become part of the work. The effect can add to the piece: The not-so-Grim Reaper on PNC bank (above left), looks more substantive than the ghostly cars and trees of the reflected street.
 

The black and white tiles behind this scarecrow above right (the work of Amanda Shaleen, Sophia Birrano and Ashlyn Siciliano) at Balzano’s East adds depth and a weird optical "Caligari” effect.

This large window (signed SS and JE) at Kid’s Stuff becomes a collage with the merchandise display behind Burton’s Nightmare and Frankenweenie characters. And the combination of reflection and background in Twister Treat, below (by KM and MS) at Al’s Menswear makes the characters stand out (I especially like that chunky skeleton.)   

The trick or treaters on this little window with a metal frame on the FNB, Main St looks almost theatrical with the vertical blinds behind it.

Works with painted backgrounds have color on their side (and they’re easier to photograph, too.)  This cat mummy below (signed LU and DM) at Exclusively Yours jumps out from  under a shady overhang, and  the wild scene of “Dinner is Served”  below that, (by Lindsey Carl and Sydney Gronka from Central HS) on Bardo Tires has a demented circus-like feeling.   

 

 

 

More of my favorites for color are like these Zombie sisters (above) on the window of the Dutch Wheelman (by Mark Gallagher  and MacKenzie Johnson)...

and this unsigned elegant color-morph raven  (right) on Neighborhood Advisors Insurance.

Finally, my favorite for this year is beautiful rather than scary. This owl and fox, below, by Cherish and Brie K companion piece to another fox on the same building that alas, did not photograph well) on Sunset Holding LLC. (Pay no attention to that reflection of the woman behind the camera!)  Scroll down to have a closer look at those luscious feathers on the detail of the owl.

That's all for this year! But note that most of the paintings weren’t signed or initialed this year, or they were marked with handprints or thumbprints, like the cave paintings at  Lascaux.  What is this, an anti-egotism movement? In ART? Now that’s scary!