Eighty-plus people ventured through ice and snow, Saturday evening, to see the one-time art collective The Dreamt House show at the Knights of Columbus in Oswego.

The event featured work from local artists, poetry, live music and a comfortable home environment. Artwork lined the walls of the building and furniture, including a bed, chairs, couches and coffee tables, were set up throughout the space. The Dreamt House was organized by Mark Lavonier and Jasmyn Belcher in an attempt to bring local artists together and to recreate the home environment that every artist needs before they can begin creating work.

“The whole environment and the whole mood is perfect,” Belcher said. “Everybody is coming up to me and telling me they’ve never seen the Knights of Columbus like this.”

Stuart Stevens II read several poems in conjunction with Colin Hackett. “I would consider it to be poetry left in the margins,” Stevens said, further describing his poetry as “thoughts I grab onto.” According to Stevens, his poem, entitled “Observing the Image,” is about being lonely and the time people spend by themselves.

Glenn Pryor displayed two of his colorful and cartoonish paintings, along with a television that was randomly flipping through channels. One painting Pryor created for his unborn son. “I wanted to do a kind of happy, cartoony (painting) but still do monsters,” he said of his work. The other painting was a profile portrait of Lavonier practicing music.

“Finally a show where people care about the music,” Lavonier said addressing the crowd Saturday night. “It’s not a bar, there’s not a distraction. It’s all of us being comfortable in our creative home.” After his brief speech, cheers erupted from the more than 80 people in attendance.

There were six musical acts that took the stage Saturday night. One band that received cheers from the crowd was Vessel, an upbeat, fast paced rock band from Boston. The four-piece band played music and was a crowd favorite, featuring primordial screams and intense lyrics. After the last song, the crowd demanded an encore, but the band did not have another complete song to play for them. To appease the chanting crowd, Vessel played a song they had worked on that week during practice.

Lavonier’s two-year solo project, Fulkramic, debuted Saturday night. A projection screen was set up where images of buildings, masses of people and cars traveling flashed behind Lavonier. Lavonier had cut tracks from 1940s avante garde music and mixed it with talking, singing and a yearning voice. All the while, he played in front of the crowd, switching between guitar and drums.

The show saw the launch of the fourth issue of The Canary as well. Julie Glover edits the free art and poetry zine. She said the free publication is a place where people can express whatever they want in any medium they chose. “I want to be a voice in the community, not just in Oswego,” Glover said. She noted that she has contributors from UCLA and Boston. She also stated that local artist Cayetano Valenzuela has been instrumental in publishing The Canary. Anyone interested in submitting work to the zine can contact Glover at thecanaryzine@gmail.com or visit its Myspace account at www.myspace.com/thecanaryzine.