A chance meeting at a Boston science-fiction convention in 1981 led to a romance that produced both a marriage and a Salem arts institution that's approaching its second decade.
Several years after they met, Wendy Snow-Lang and her husband, Charles Lang, founded a Halloween art exhibit called Terror Fantasies with John Flaherty, former owner of the Fool's Mansion in Salem.
The annual show features science fiction-inspired artwork in themes like humor, macabre, terror, fantasy and, of course, Halloween.
This year, Terror Fantasies 2008 will be held at Old Town Hall in Salem, Oct. 10-31.
One artist in the show, John Clarke of Salem, is an illustrator who likes to draw Universal Monsters characters; another, Nick Demakes of Salem, paints 19th-century, formal portraits of werewolves and vampires.
According to Snow-Lang, Flaherty handed the reins of the show back to her and her husband when he retired earlier this year. The Salem couple then joined with Salem Arts Association to produce Terror Fantasies 2008.
Although the exhibit's location has moved around the city during the last 18 years, Salem visitors and fans of the terror genre have consistently tracked it down each fall.
"We have had people from all over the world come into Terror Fantasies; people search for it," said Snow-Lang, owner of The Art Corner.
Gary LaParl, president of Salem Arts Association, said the 2008 installment of Terror Fantasies will feature 26 artists from a variety of mediums, including oil, watercolor, acrylic, mixed-media assemblage, charcoal, glass, sculpture and photography. Also, prints, postcards and greeting cards will be on hand, and all the work will be for sale.
Artists are expected to work the show, Snow-Lang said, providing visitors a chance to meet them and talk about the work. Except for one, who is driving up from Philadelphia, all the artists are from Salem and the Boston area and most are members of Salem Arts.
As they have since the first year, Snow-Lang and Lang — both painters — have pieces in the show.
Laparl said this is not a curated show, rather it's being run in a loose manner, to reflect the levity of the holiday. But Salem Arts reserves the right to nix a piece if it's deemed objectionable.
"The show is family-friendly, as much as a terror-fantasy show can be," he said.
