Great Art!

elephant, a photo by bucklesw1 on Flickr. Running away to join the circus is often the stuff of childhood dreams. But for former Granite Stater John Belfontaine, his amazing adventure represents a creative adulthood, one spent chronicling scenes of life under the big top through paintings, drawings and photography. The New Milford, Conn., resident returns to New Hampshire this fall to share his artistic perspective of life in and out of the center ring in a two-month exhibition at Brock Robert's Framing and Gallery, 140 Court St., Laconia. The showing will hang through Saturday, Nov. 19. “What attracted me to the circus was the dramatic lighting, figurative (element), color and movement,” said Belfontaine. His artistic fascination with the traveling show led him to leave New Hampshire in 2000 and move to western Connecticut to be closer to The Big Apple Circus, which is based in New York City. His hope was to journey with the production to document experiences behind the curtain, and in 2003, his dream came true. He was invited to follow the circus during the summer of its 25th anniversary season. "The folks in the picture look familiar" All the Best, Don