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Arts & Entertainment

A Walk Through Occoquan's Art

The Art Gallery Walk and Wine Tasting was hosted by the Occoquan Merchants Association, showcasing 23 local artists at around 17 local businesses across the historic district.

Sitting on the front porch of the , reading the local paper until she spotted possible visitors, artist Peggy Lusk gave personable tours of her art- walking around to each room of the store telling different stories about each painting—some paintings from her childhood and some created to work with children undergoing psychological trauma.

“I didn’t start painting until 25 years ago, and I did so to find out who I am,” she said.

Lusk was part of the third Art Gallery Walk and Wine Tasting Event in Occoquan May 14. The threat of rain scared away some people from the day’s events, but around 1:00 pm the rain became nothing more than a mist, making it a lovely day to walk around town, admiring the work of local artist- from water colors to glasswork, to jewelry- there was a high variety of a lot to see in a day.

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One of the busier stops was the , who sampled wines from Cooper Vineyards in Louisa, Virginia. Their Noche Chocolate was a crowd pleaser, and had customers declaring verbal praises. Co-owner Kim Wigode was bustling between the cash register and the wine sampling bar. One group of wine enthusiasts mentioned the wine as the attraction which brought them out to Occoquan that day.

Laura Bruce featured her work at , which included a variety of mediums from pencil graphite to stained glass, and her favorite—a fish done in colored penci. She said she liked to manipulate color by blending colors together.

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Laura has known the owner of the glass studio since 1996 when she took a class at the studio, and they had kept in touch since then. Many of jewelers, glass designers, painters and artists of other mediums either had a business in town or had a well-established relationship with the business owners. These links established a community connection wherever a person visited.

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