A New, Artistic Way

Of Looking At Newtown

By Kendra Bobowick

Jill Baimel’s photography is familiar to anyone who has glanced at the dust jacket of Town Historian Dan Cruson’s book, A Mosaic Of Newtown, which features a collage of images from around the town that include the name Newtown.

Adapted from her Looking For Newtown poster released in time for the town’s tercentennial last year, Ms Baimel’s photos of building signs, businesses written across car doors, license plates, store sign logos, and other plaques baring the name Newtown are arranged on the jacket. By putting a creative twist on images from that series, Ms Baimel has since enlarged and adjusted the photographs electronically to resemble paintings. A collection of that work is on display in C.H. Booth Library’s lower meeting room through the end of November in an exhibition called “Looking For Newtown: One Word is Worth A Thousand Pictures.”

With aspirations toward painting and experience in photography, her current show is a mix of the two mediums blended smoothly by design software.

She said, “I thought this was an excellent way to experiment [with the software] and always wished I could paint.”

Jill Baimel, of Newtown, is the photographer of  Looking For New York and Looking For New Jersey posters. She had also spent several months looking for Newtown, she explained. Her search ended with a poster of “all the Newtowns I have found,” according to her artist’s statement at the library.