PORTER | Local exhibitors at Saturday's Chesterton Art Fair said they just can't live without the arts -- and neither, really, can you.

"If I don't sit down and paint, I get nervous," said Jet Wittenberg, an oils and watercolor painter from Ogden Dunes. "It's not that I'm obsessive. Why do you eat? That's the way it is with painting."

Views or objects prompt feelings that she just has to put down and share with others, Wittenberg said.

She pointed to an oil painting she did of an English scene. "It's so beautiful, how can you not do it?"

"When I'm out in my pottery (studio), it's total peace of mind," Robert Witt said. "I lose track of time; I love what I'm doing."

The Portage stoneware artist taught art at Griffith High School for 31 years. Now, at fairs, he helps educate others about what makes good art.

"Art brings out your personal taste as an individual," Witt said.

Diane Perry, of Wanatah, weaves clothing from materials such as alpaca wool, mohair, cotton, silk and linen. Fairs, she said, do a lot for a community by showing how one-of-a-kind pieces are made. They also do a lot for her. Seeing a woman try on one of her pieces and decide she can't live without it brings great satisfaction, Perry said.

Art, said Robert Hoffman, of Merrillville, "teaches you to see what you wouldn't see otherwise."

The Merrillville painter said his students sometimes wonder where he saw some of the colors in his works. They're out there, he tells them. Creating art prompts you to look more perceptively, he said.

Hoffman, who worked in the steel mills for 30 years, also connects with art on a more basic level.

"I like color," he said.

For Jack Turner, art's value is simple.

"Art is one of the most important things on the planet," the Valparaiso clay artist said.

Energy he puts into a work can circle around to buyers, making their lives and homes special, he said.

He said he'll see the smiles on the faces of visitors to his booth and know, "Their lives are enriched just by looking at your work."

"Painter's block" sometimes hits watercolorist Mark Polomchak, but once the creativity comes, it flows.

"I couldn't live without doing this. It drives me," the Crown Point artist said. "It has never gotten old and probably never will."

Chesterton Art Fair

When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today

Where: Hawthorne Park, 500 Ackerman Drive, Porter

For information: Call (219) 926-4711 or visit www.chestertonart.com.