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<p>As you approach one of Matthew Howell&#8217;s sculptures at the Fine Arts Fiesta, your eye will probably be drawn to a scrawny little fellow wearing only a loincloth and clutching a ring.</p><p>&#8220;Hey, that&#8217;s Gollum,&#8221; you&#8217;ll think, provided you&#8217;re enough of a J.R.R. Tolkien fan.</p><p>Then your eye will circle the pedestal, taking delight as you recognize the rest of the &#8220;Lord of the Rings&#8221; characters Howell carved &#8212; Frodo the hobbit, Aragorn the human, Gandalf the wizard, Legolas the elf and Gimli the dwarf &#8212; along with a &#8220;one ring to rule them all&#8221; inscription.</p><p>&#8220;I like anything mythological,&#8221; the Wilkes-Barre artist said in a telephone interview. &#8220;I must have read the books a million times.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;My carvings are designed to make people smile,&#8221; he added. &#8220;I even gave Frodo the hairy feet.&#8221;</p><p>Whatever kind of art makes you smile &#8212; or gasp in awe, or pause and contemplate &#8212; you&#8217;re likely to find it at Wilkes-Barre&#8217;s annual Fine Arts Fiesta, which opens at 11 a.m. today on Public Square and continues through Sunday afternoon.</p><p>More than 50 artists and craft vendors, children&#8217;s activities, strolling musicians, refreshments and live entertainment are on the agenda and, under the largest tents, you&#8217;ll find dozens of paintings, photos and other works that have received awards in the Fiesta&#8217;s juried exhibits for adult and high-school artists.</p><p>Chosen as Best of Show this year is &#8220;Saint Joan,&#8221; a collage by artist James Merolla, of Wilkes-Barre. His rendering of a young woman, wearing armor and standing amid flames, looks a bit like a stained glass window, but it&#8217;s not.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s just a little paper and glue and ink,&#8221; Merolla said, explaining some of his raw materials come from pieces of paper he removes from magazines.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not a religious person but I grew up in a Catholic household and I guess I was just inspired by all the Roman Catholic artwork I was exposed to when I was forced to go to church,&#8221; he said of choosing the 15th-century martyr as a subject.</p><p>The story of St. Joan of Arc &#8212; she believed God wanted her to lead French troops to victory over the English and, after her military success at the Battle of Orleans, she was captured and burned at the stake &#8212; is inspiring, Merolla said</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m inspired by anybody who has a conviction that they refuse to let go of even in, in her case, the face of death,&#8221; the artist said. &#8220;Whether or not she was speaking to God, she believed she was and that was the only thing that mattered to her.&#8221;</p><p>As you wander through the Fiesta, perhaps pondering the courage of St. Joan, you&#8217;ll be sure to notice Morgan Masters&#8217; pastel portrait of another symbol of bravery &#8212; a lion, looking a little more relaxed than, say, MGM&#8217;s Leo.</p><p>&#8220;Yeah, he&#8217;s sleeping. He&#8217;s adorable. I love him,&#8221; Masters said of her piece, explaining she based the pastel work on a photograph her mom showed her.</p><p>&#8220;I have one (pet) cat and I love big cats,&#8221; said Masters, of Harveys Lake. &#8220;They&#8217;re my favorite subject, the main subject of a lot of my drawings.&#8221;</p><p>Masters, a junior at Lake-Lehman High School, said what she enjoys most about the Fiesta is the chance to see the work of other artists. &#8220;We have so much talent in this area.&#8221;</p><p>Echoing that sentiment, Merolla said, &#8220;It&#8217;s pretty humbling that I won Best of Show. I&#8217;ve seen art from so many other artists, that I know are part of this, that I think are way better than I am as an artist. It&#8217;s the first time I even entered; I entered on a whim and it&#8217;s a big shock that I won.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;I just like looking at all the arts.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">&#8216;Lord of the Rings&#8217; characters Gollum, Frodo, Aragorn, Gandalf, Legolas and Gimli appear in this wooden sculpture by Matthew Howell, of Wilkes-Barre, which will be on display at the Fine Arts Fiesta. Four of Howell&#8217;s pieces are in the Fine arts Fiesta&#8217;s juried exhibit, including the first and second-place winners in the sculpture division. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_fine.art-014.jpg</photo0><caption0>&#8216;Lord of the Rings&#8217; characters Gollum, Frodo, Aragorn, Gandalf, Legolas and Gimli appear in this wooden sculpture by Matthew Howell, of Wilkes-Barre, which will be on display at the Fine Arts Fiesta. Four of Howell&#8217;s pieces are in the Fine arts Fiesta&#8217;s juried exhibit, including the first and second-place winners in the sculpture division. </caption0><photoCredit0>Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_fine.art-019.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">17-year-old Morgan Masters, of Harveys Lake, won a first place award, the Mr. and Mrs. Thomas C. Womelsdorf Memorial Award, in the Junior/Senior High School division of the Fine Arts Fiesta, for her pastel piece, &#8216;Courage the Cowardly Lion.&#8217; She is a junior at Lake-Lehman High School. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_fine.art-019.jpg</photo1><caption1>17-year-old Morgan Masters, of Harveys Lake, won a first place award, the Mr. and Mrs. Thomas C. Womelsdorf Memorial Award, in the Junior/Senior High School division of the Fine Arts Fiesta, for her pastel piece, &#8216;Courage the Cowardly Lion.&#8217; She is a junior at Lake-Lehman High School. </caption1><photoCredit1>Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_fine.art-001.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">James Merolla, of Wilkes-Barre, won the Best in Show award at the Fine Arts Fiesta for his collage, &#8216;Saint Joan.&#8217; </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_fine.art-001.jpg</photo2><caption2>James Merolla, of Wilkes-Barre, won the Best in Show award at the Fine Arts Fiesta for his collage, &#8216;Saint Joan.&#8217; </caption2><photoCredit2>Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_fine_arts5_faa.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Fine Arts Fiesta typically draws more than 60,000 people to downtown Wilkes-Barre over four days. The 2019 Fiesta begins at 11 a.m. today and continues through 5 p.m. Sunday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_fine_arts5_faa.jpg</photo3><caption3>Fine Arts Fiesta typically draws more than 60,000 people to downtown Wilkes-Barre over four days. The 2019 Fiesta begins at 11 a.m. today and continues through 5 p.m. Sunday. </caption3><photoCredit3>Times Leader file photo </photoCredit3></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Juried exhibits at Fine Arts Fiesta hub</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mary Therese Biebel</p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>Juried Exhibitions</strong></p><p>The Sandra Dyczewski Maffei Adult Juried Exhibition of the Fine Arts Fiesta registered 265 entries from 109 artists this year and 189 pieces of artwork were selected to be included in the exhibition. The Fine Arts Fiesta Junior-Senior High School Juried Exhibition registered 198 entries from 62 artists and 138 pieces of artwork were selected.</p></factboxMeta></div>

From Joan of Arc to Tolkien,artists draw inspiration