This blog is about wanderings in western New York (notice the title), but this week I’m wandering a little farther afield – actually out of state, if not by much. So I’ll say, not sue me, but indulge me; it’s worth the trip.

In the NORTHERN Tier village of Wellsboro is a gem often overlooked by us SOUTHERN Tier folks. Month by month, Gmeiner Art & Cultural Center unveils art – usually contemporary art – and admission is always free.

Currently the show is “Something Old, Something New”: textured painting and fine art photography by Paul Bozzo of Mansfield. As he says, the “fine art” photography is his new field, largely developed in the past year. He’s been working at his old art for 43 years.

The photos run from Prague to Elmira, and they all have been manipuated in some way – perhaps by altering colors, or by processing them into an apparently-painted look. Our favorite was a summer scene on the edge of a little pond, but I also liked the white house with which the exhibit opened, and the bleak-but-beautiful “Country Life.” We both enjoyed a snow-covered gazebo with a Christmas star, not to mention a pair of horses. Joyce was enthusiastic about a blue-on-black montage that reminded her of a quilt.

I had one of those unexpected and unexplainable collisions that art sometimes provokes. A black-and-white photo of a young girl looking out a kitchen window staggered me, erupting up intense memories of my mother at her own sink more than half a century ago, the window surrounded with garlands of greens that she grew in simple water glasses.

Why? The girl reminded me of no one. The kitchen wasn’t much like ours. I had no desire to own the picture, and indeed didn’t even like it especially. But that tidal wave of sunlight through the window over the sink washed me instantly back through almost my entire life. If there isn’t one already, maybe we need a bumper sticker: Art Happens.

While half of the pieces were photos, the other half were paintings, mostly on inscribed Masonite. The most prominent feature of the inscribed designs is geometric patterns. In groping to describe them, I would cast out the observation that they suggest work done with a Spirograph. Mr. Bozzo should NOT be insulted by the comparison – I’m just trying to get the reader into the ballpark, not onto the diamond.

While we enjoyed it all, and had a good experience together, we found that we’re not enthusiasts – which is fine. Sticking with what you already know and like is a sure-fire route to stagnation. We like to explore and grow. Now and then you get caught in a tidal wave.

Arthur Gmeiner had no connections with Wellsboro until he gifted this gallery to the community 45 years ago, on condition that samples of his own art continue to be exhibited as well… just now, paintings of a country church and of Wellsboro’s own Green Memorial Library are on view. Each month of every year is a new show… the 2014 calendar also include quilts, comics art, a regional juried art exhibit, and a regional juried photo exhibit. Lectures and concerts also take place. The gallery is open to the public without charge from 2 to 5, seven days a week except holidays.

Nor is that all the town has to offer, for Wellsboro in some ways is like a time capsule. Some towns seem that way because nothing’s going on, which is emphatically NOT the case here. In Wellsboro, these time capsule treasures are thriving. They include:

*A broad boulevard with grassy median, illuminated by gaslights.

*An original manufactured diner, the Wellsboro Diner. It’s been added onto, but in such a way as to preserve the original diner intact. Several autumns back we ate in the diner just at the right time for the high-school homecoming parade to pass beneath our window.

*A large downtown department store (Dunham’s). At one time we both had winter coats from Dunham’s – my wife still wears hers.

*A downtown hotel (the Penn-Wells), up-to-date in its comforts but still rejoicing in its old-time radiators, its high doors and ceilings, and its quirkily-shaped rooms.

*A historic walk-in theater, the Arcadia, showing first-run movies.

There’s plenty more, of course. I’ve had a book signing (and made many purchases) at From My Shelf Books. This week we ate at George’s, the Greek restaurant. I bought a 1950s comic book from the Pop Culture Shoppe, handkerchiefs at Dunham’s, a sweater from Garrison’s Men’s Wear. It was worth the trip.