AUBURN - The park was filled with clusters of things saved from long ago and things made by the hands that sold them.

Antiques and Art in the Park Saturday brought together the creations of local artists and the collections of antique dealers in booths that lined the walkways at Hoopes Park. The event gave artists a chance to share their talent, antique dealers a new venue for their wares and visitors an opportunity to take home a piece of local art or history or both.

In between the tents, unseen and unspoken, were tales of how such a mishmash of antiques ended up at one table, what inspired the artwork displayed and what motivated the purchases made by the people mingling in the market space.

“Little presents for the children,” said Janet Abeln, explaining her purchases Saturday. “Something to remember what we did here,” said Abeln, who came to Auburn from Holland to visit a childhood friend she has known for almost 65 years.

Abeln's most recent purchase was a blue glass chicken that fit in the palm of her hand. She found the 1940s relic among a collection of rare coins, faded art prints and discarded tin signs - all items Jeff Baxter has picked up on his travels through the country.

“I kind of dabble in everything,” said Baxter, whose collection also includes a replica of an American Indian headdress. A trail of duck feathers five feet long nearly touched the ground when he fitted the elaborately-beaded headband around his forehead.

Baxter, of Leroy, said he found the headdress near a reservation in Pembroke, N.Y. But his modus operandi is nabbing items from antique shows he attends in other parts of the country - a five-string banjo from Nashville, an equestrian scene print from Massachusetts - items that people back home might not find in their attics.

A few tables away, Cat Moffatt's jewelry had a clear theme, gemstones and silver, and was anything but old. But she presented her art with intent similar to Baxter's - to be something unique.

“For years I looked for certain jewelry that screamed my name,” said Moffatt, owner of Chatty Cat's, an online jewelry shop. When everything in store windows started to look the same, she began putting together her own designs. Now, she said, “I'll wake up in the middle of the night with an idea and have to get up and draw it.”

Moffatt said what she likes best about making jewelry is “to be able to create something out of nothing.”

In a way, Weedsport painter and muralist Dawn Jordan creates something out of nothing - she starts with a blank canvas and ends with a cross between collage and acrylic painting. Most of her art has humor worked in, she said, a bit of spiritualism and pieces of an old church hymn book. But much the art Jordan makes is really her emotions and memories in physical form, she said.

“It's almost something come to life,” she said of her artwork. “I never know where it's going to go.”

In one painting, a woman with a bald head and a hymn book page torso is dropping seeds in the dirt. Above her, an arc of shattered CD shards and scraps of scribbled-on paper, her son's college homework, tapers to the ground.

“It's me, letting go of my kids,” said Jordan, the simple explanation suddenly and unexpectedly overwhelming her with emotion. The painting came to life in June, when her 19-year-old son, Opie, a U.S. Marine, left home for boot camp, she said.

Though her artwork is often deeply personal and its creation cathartic at times, Jordan said she has no reservations about selling it.

“All you really have are your memories,” she said. “It makes it easier to move on.”

Staff writer Sarah Gantz can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or sarah.gantz@lee.net