During the holiday season, our dining tables take center stage. It’s time for steaming bowls of stuffing, salads overflowing with winter greens, and mouth-watering pies with vanilla ice cream. Part of the fun of hosting (or attending) a festive dinner is deciding how to present all these yummy dishes. What won’t do is that old Melamine salad bowl or Aunt Ida`s chipped vegetable dish.

We live in a world of lightning speed technological change and mass production of everything from our clothing to our food supply. In our day-to-day lives, many of us yearn for the homemade, the handmade, things that were built with care by a real person. This post highlights Paradise City artists who use hands-on techniques to craft one-of-a-kind pieces which reflect their own personal stories.

New to Paradise City this fall is Nigerian-born sculptor Nnamdi Okonkwo, who creates simplified and stylized sculptures of the human body. Nnamdi was born in eastern Nigeria, where he earned a degree in painting. At 6’9” tall, he took up basketball at age 17 and was recruited by BYU-Hawaii where he played from 1989-1993. Having earned a BFA and MFA in Sculpture, Nnamdi now lives in Fayetteville, Georgia.

Nnamdi’s work ranges in size from under 10 inches to life-size and monumental.

Deep in the heart of the Connecticut River Valley, surrounded by the gently rolling foothills of the Green Mountains and the Berkshires, lies Northampton, the hometown of the Paradise City Arts Festival. New England’s most uncommon destination, Northampton will surprise you with its sophistication, diversity and eclectic flavor, its small-town ambiance and big-city features. Check out this guide to plan a getaway to Northampton this fall.

What turns an ordinary drink into a Craft Cocktail? Some of the same elements that make the work of our exhibiting artists so special. It’s made with more care. It’s not boiler-plate, and the bartender is a little more passionate about getting it just right.