Newtown Tribute Takes Shape At Shelton Studio

After the tragedy in Sandy Hook last December, Hannah Perry, the owner of the Giggling Pig art studio in Shelton, sent out requests for artists to participate in Hearts For Newtown.”

The concept: honor each of the victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School Dec. 14 with a painted wooden heart. And from December to last week, artists ranging from Shelton to South Africa have been working on the project.

The nice thing about each heart, is that the artists are 26 strangers and everybody has a different style,” Perry said Thursday (March 28). The hearts are all different, like the kids, and no one heart is the same style.” 

Perry said that she was overwhelmed with phone calls of all the people interested in helping out.” 

An exhibition will be held April 10 from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Giggling Pig, 478 River Road, where the hearts will be displayed like balloons and hang from the ceiling. 

Artists ranged from professional artists to family friends of victims, said Perry. 

Shelton’s Lisa Dickal, who works a graphic designer at William Raveis Real Estate in Shelton, started participating in the heart project because she saw a post on Facebook and was interested immediately. 

Dickal contacted Perry looking to help in any way she could. She painted her wooden heart to honor of Catherine Violet Hubbard, who Dickal felt an immediate closeness to because of Catherine’s love for animals. 

I have always had a great love for animals, so much that I help rescue animals that are in need,” Dickal said. I felt a special connection towards Catherine because of this and wanted to dedicate my heart project in her name.” 

Dickal said in creating the wooden heart the creative process made her reflect on life, and just how short and precious it really is. It also made me reflect on the families who lost their loved ones.”

Dickal said that the Hubbard family said Catherine loved animals so much that her family is partnering with the Newtown Animal Shelter to start the Catherine Violet Hubbard Animal Sanctuary for animals. 

It was important for me to not just paint, but have it reflect who Catherine was, so I kept the colors happy and youthful,” Dickal said. 

Other contributions came from farther away — demonstrating just how resoundingly the Newtown tragedy resonated.

For instance, Jared Aufrichtig, a New York-based artist originally from South Africa, also contributed. Perry said one of her friends told her to contact him to see if he was interested, and he was. 

Savannah Mul

He sent me pictures of him working on his wooden heart from his porch in South Africa,” Perry said. It was great.”

The idea behind the hearts being shaped like balloons stemmed from Perry’s son. When he was 7 years old he asked for a helium balloon and said he wrote a special note to God asking something important.

Perry wanted to recreate this memory, with messages on balloon-shaped hearts honoring the children and teachers lost at Sandy Hook. 

On the night of exhibition there will be a description from each artist of why they designed it and what their thought process was like when they were creating it,” Perry said. 

After the exhibition at The Giggling Pig, the hearts will be sent to Healing Newtown and permanently be on display there. Healing Newtown is located at 5 Queen St., in Newtown. 

We are a children’s art studio and some students from Newtown come here for classes. Doing this will be a nice memorial,” Perry said. Our hope for the project is to get people to see the artwork and have people feel a connection through that.” 

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