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WW artist a juror for Arts Council exhibition By ReBeKah SChroeDer
Matthew Michibata has been first or second singles and No. 1 doubles throughout his career at The College of New Jersey.
South grad excels at TCNJ tennis By RiCh Fisher
When Matthew Michibata played baseball for the West Windsor Little League, he was good enough to make All Stars. That honor, however, wasn’t enough to hold his interest on the diamond. “I got a lot of cracks from my baseball coach about sitting in the outfield picking grass,” Michibata
said. “I was athletic enough to get up and get a ball when it came to me. But that’s not something I can do in tennis.” And tennis is the sport in which Michibata has excelled since focusing on it fulltime at age 12. The rising senior is preparing for his final season of collegiate competition at The College of New Jersey, where he has been first or second singles and No.
1 doubles throughout his career. “It went super fast,” Michibata said. “It’s been such a weird time with COVID and everything. It felt really short, but also long at the same time. I took a guest semester and it gave me extra time to work on my tennis and I’m also using my extra year of (COVID-related) eligibility, which is nice. But I just don’t See MICHIBATA, Page 6
Nature is a sensory experience for Lori Langsner. Others may simply relax and bask in the scenery, but she, and her brush, tend to keep moving, rhythmically grasping the subtle changes without losing that sense of peace. There are birds chirping, or perhaps no sound at all, except a breeze. Langsner’s landscape paintings allow for ripples in the water to become oil on her canvas, but light and color are equally her muses as they provide a wave of calm over the artist. “There is a quietude and a beauty in nature that I love,” she said. “When I’m painting anywhere outdoors, the world is gone. I am so immersed in the process of painting and capturing that moment of what I’m looking at in nature, in the landscape, that three hours go by.” But as a way to bring that brightness together as a community, Langsner is one of the jurors for the West Windsor Arts Council’s summer exhibition, “By the Light of Day,” focusing directly on plein air painting—or “en plein air,” a French term for painting outdoors, that directly translates to “in the open air.” The exhibition, which runs through Aug. 27, is a testament to how local creatives employed
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this 19th Century technique, later popularized by Impressionists like Claude Monet and Paul Cézanne, to echo nature in its simplicity. “Plein air is capturing the light, that ever-changing light, with color and brushstroke like the Impressionists,” Langsner said. “I don’t think the French term ‘en plein air’ is known to the average person. It is known to painters, artists and art students, but the public has no sense, to my knowledge, of what en plein air is—and to explain it to them is one thing, but to see it? It opens up your eyes to the idea of literally, you are outside and you created this.” “By the Light of Day” features work from Langsner’s fellow juror, Stockton artist Bob Barish, as well as pieces like “Kayak Daze” by Mary Lou Thomas and “Shade of the Sycamore” by Carlo Fiorentini. A full list of exhibiting artists can be found online at the WWAC. When Langsner retired following 36 years teaching art in New York City public schools, she was able to rekindle her fondness for painting, passionately taking again to the craft in her free time. But just as art remained intrinsic to Langsner’s happiness, so did her active pursuit of instruction. She takes a weekly class at the Princeton Arts Council, then teaches See WWAC, Page 4
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