Rincon Art & Artisans

It was a weekend of art activities as Saturday was the Juntarte art show in the Plaza in downtown Rincon and Sunday we went to the Traveling Treasures art show at the Tropical Treehouse in the hills over Rincon.
The Juntarte show comes around every few months and includes local artists and craft people who make everything from soap and candles to small pieces of furniture. We missed the live music that started at 6pm, but we enjoyed seeing different artists and supporting this event as it is more of a Puerto Rican event than most other things we go to.
The Traveling Treasures is as implied a traveling art show that makes it's way to various locations around Rincon; The Lazy Parrot, Casa Islena and Villa Cofresi, but Sunday's event was at the Tropical Treehouse, an amazing collection of a main house with 2 other bamboo "hooches" that include running water and electricity. We wandered the property in awe of the various bamboo structures, furniture and crafts made by the owner, who unfortunately was out of town and we did not meet.
The art show, while not especially a large collection did have some interesting works. I bought a few prints by the Aguada based artist, Kurt Zeigler, and there were some beautiful ceramic pieces by our friend Miri from Rincon Pottery. Mostly it was another opportunity to support local artists and see friends and meet new neighbors who do the same. There are a couple of galleries in Rincon, The Secret Garden which is small, but houses some nice works by its owner, Roberto and other local artists and Playa Oeste, which specializes in surf art from around the world and other places where art can be found such as gift shops and adorning the walls of restaurants and hotels, not to mention the many murals all over Rincon, (another posting on this soon). I know of a couple great photographers, Rachel Tanner and our neighbor, Angelo Cordero.
Rincon is such a beautiful and inspiring place that a strong artist presence here seems natural. I think of places like Laguna Beach and Santa Fe where artists were drawn to the natural beauty and formed colonies of studios and galleries as their ranks grew. Rincon could turn out to have something like this, I think there are already many very good artists here, but there needs to be support from all sides of the community and maybe a more united approach between expats and locals.