Theresa DeSalvio's modern version of Pinocchio is no children's tale. There is no cute marionette turned real boy, no singing cricket named Jiminy, no mischievous kitten underfoot called Figaro. Her version is no Disneyfied story. It is closer to the original cautionary tale of bad choices by Italian writer Carlo Collodi.

"Collodi's Pinocchio is a very dark story," said DeSalvio, a Glen Ridge painter and visual artist who describes her work as allegorical. In Collodi's version, Pinocchio kills the talking cricket with a hammer. The cat isn't a loyal tagalong companion but a murderous traitor, who in the first ending, puts a noose around the puppet's neck and hangs him until dead.