David Milton’s “Airstream Boneyard,” courtesy of the artist and valued at $4,900, is in the auction. Starting bid: $2,450

At the 34th annual California Cool auction, eager buyers will confront 120 works of art from a stellar roster of Orange County and California artists.

“Both the quality and total value are higher this year than ever before,” Sarah Strozza, the Laguna Art Museum’s director of special events, said in an email, estimating this year’s art cache as worth $500,000. “The theme once again speaks to the art and artists that are represented as well as our mission to be the museum of California art,” she said.

A standout at the Feb. 6 benefit is Jimi Gleason’s metallic painting “Sienna Eve.

“The auction not only benefits the museum, but you might get an outstanding work you can’t get anywhere else,” said the Costa Mesa resident, who has contributed to the museum’s auction for a decade.

Another auction item, Bradford Salamon’s “KLH Turntable,” valued at $3,900. Starting bid: $1,950

Bradford Salamon, now a resident of Monrovia but a former Festival of Arts exhibiter, donated an oil painting of a 1960s KLH turntable from a collection that features vintage household objects. “The turntable is a gift from a fellow artist and one I have actually used in my studio,” said Salamon. “I am happy that the painting will help support an institution that has raised the bar for art in Orange County.”

David Milton, a Festival of Arts and Sawdust Festival exhibitor well-known for his depictions of disappearing Americana, donated the watercolor “Airstream Boneyard.” “My affection for the museum goes back to 1996, the days when the Orange County Museum of Art tried to hijack it and I stood in the rain holding signs opposing the merger,” recalled Milton.

Local artist Fred Hope donated an abstracted landscape painting, “Tidal Zone Series-

Mark Chamberlain’s “Saving Green,” courtesy of BC Space and valued at $2,400, is up for bid. Starting bid: $1,200

#64.” “I have given to the museum for three years because I like the direction in which it is going and it’s worth support. Besides, it’s cool to have a piece in a museum,” he said.

The auction also includes donations by artists Marlo, Cathy and Jesse Bartels, Gene Cooper, Chris Gwaltney, Kathy Jones, Jorg Dubin, Jeff Sewell, Wolfgang Bloch and Tony DeLap among locals and outside luminaries Peter Alexander, Lita Albuquerque, Helen Lundeberg, Ed Ruscha, Laddie John Dill, Shepard Fairey and Sam Francis, among many others.

Known primarily as a sculptor, Richard Serra contributed an etching, “Paths and Edges” #1.

Other works were donated by galleries such as Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Gagosian Gallery and Louis Stern Fine Arts, private foundations or individual collectors such as E. Gene Crain and Jeff and Bernadette Olsen. An anonymous donor gave a ceramic sculpture by the late Jerry Rothman.

David Ligare, whose one-man museum show just closed, donated the painting “Rock and Sea,” and Mark Chamberlain, whose “The Canyon Project: Artivism” show ran concurrently, gave the photograph “Saving Green.” Photographs including Jacques Garnier’s “Against All Odds” are still relative rarities.

Beginning at 6 p.m. 90 works will be available for bid by a silent auction. The evening will progress to the 8 p.m. live auction conducted by Aaron Bastian of Bonhams Fine Art Auctioneers and the “Antiques Roadshow.”

Proceeds from the auction are earmarked for education and exhibition programs. Last year’s California Cool attracted more than 400 potential bidders and took in $300,000.

“The museum hopes to give collectors, both seasoned and new, the opportunity to bid on quality artwork, enjoy a great party, and help support the museum’s programming. There’s something for every taste and pocketbook,” wrote Strozza.

The museum also recently received a $1 million four-year matching grant from the city, which will be restricted for facility improvements, acquiring art and reducing long-term debt, but not for daily operating expenses, explained Robert Hayden III, the museum’s chairman. “The grant will give us leverage to appeal to new donors,” he said.

The museum currently welcomes 2,000 children annually in a school tour program. By 2018, the museum’s centenary, the aim is to increase that number to 5,000, Strozza said.

Works of art can be previewed online beginning Jan. 31 and tickets, $125 to $150, available at 949 494-89871 ext. 203.

The post ‘Cool’ Auction Reflects Museum’s Direction appeared first on Laguna Beach Local News.

Eric Idle of “Monty Python” fame introduces Peter Asher, right, from a big screen monitor as rehearsal begins with the Laguna Beach Community Band.
Photo by Mitch Ridder

“Please lock me away and don’t allow the day, here inside where I hide with my loneliness; I don’t care what they say I won’t stay in a world without love….”

So opens the Paul McCartney song, “World Without Love,” a tune the British duo Peter & Gordon turned into a world hit in 1964.

Peter Asher, half of the iconic duo, will perform in “A British Invasion Tribute” with the Laguna Concert Band at the Laguna Playhouse this Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 6-7 at 7 p.m. and 2 p.m., respectively.

“They say we were part of the British invasion, but the artillery was really American. We all started out as tribute bands for American music,” said Asher, who went on to a career managing and producing recording artists and more recently writing tunes.

Asher and Gordon Waller (1945-2009) were school friends who got together playing pubs and clubs in London. “The Everly Brothers were everyone’s idol,” said Asher.

After their first records made it big, Peter & Gordon toured the U.S. “We all had our eye on America, but no one had gone there. All we knew were tourists and troops and then suddenly we were in New York and the Statue of Liberty and the skyline looked just like it had in photographs, and screaming teenage girls were trying to rip our clothes off,” he recalled.

Asher and his sister Jane, an actress known for her liaison with Paul McCartney, are the children of a doctor and a professional musician. When his mother did not need the basement to give oboe lessons, the two lads plus the other Beatles were allowed to practice in the basement. “One day, Paul wanted me to come down to hear a new song. When I arrived, he and John sat on the piano bench playing, ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’,” said Asher, still smiling at the memory.

He and Gordon performed several songs written by McCartney, including “Woman,” one that McCartney released under a pseudonym to see if it would have the same appeal with another name on it.

Asher credits his mother for his musical talent, but concedes he lacked ambition. “You were taught piano. I rejected it. I did not do my lessons. I did not practice. I remember hating it, but loved the guitar. I’m probably the least competent (music) reader in my family and that’s probably why I made a living in the music business,” he quipped.

Scrolling through recollections, he said that he had a good ear and learned enough music to get by. Once he entered a music studio, though, he knew exactly what to do. “I found it exhilarating to make suggestions what musicians should play.”

The Beatles hired him at Apple Records where he was in charge of artists and repertoire. While there, he signed James Taylor. When Taylor wanted to return home to California, Ascher moved with him in 1970 and ultimately established his own management firm, Peter Asher Management. He came to count Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, Carole King and Randy Newman among his clients. Elton John became a close friend.

In 1995, he became senior vice president of Sony Music. As a producer, he has worked with Neal Diamond, Kenny Loggins, Diana Ross, Cher, Billy Joel and Hans Zimmer, the German-born composer credited with music for the DaVinci Code and “Pirates of the Caribbean” among others.

Today, Asher lives in Malibu, but travels to his birthplace frequently. Queen Elizabeth II recognized him with a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire title.

Busy as ever, he’s not given to nostalgia and has no plans to write his memoirs. He wrote music for “Bright Star,” a musical based on a man and woman discovering a life-altering secret. Written by Steve Martin, it premiered in San Diego in 2014, and he is now working on bringing it to Broadway, said Asher.

Asher will be joined by the 70-member band with music selected by music director Ed Peterson in the first part of the concert. The second part will spotlight Asher’s music and his own group.

The first half includes music of the 1960s, including tributes to Frank Sinatra and Natalie Cole, and Beatles tunes that lend themselves to a symphonic setting, said Peterson. Ginger Hatfield and Sara Gordon will also perform.

Arrangers Scott Director, Eric Dries and Charlie Warren worked to customize part two, spotlighting Ascher and his group, said Peterson.

“I love a great deal of current music. I’m not one to sigh that they don’t write songs the way they used to,” said Asher, who described artists such as Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift and Adele as performers equal to the talent of musicians of his time.

He does envy today’s modern recording technology. “There are things we wish we could have done then that are possible now. But, you still have to write a great song in the first place.”

The post Concert Band Remixes With a British Invasion Original appeared first on Laguna Beach Local News.

The wild Up collective orchestra brings a repertoire of engaging energy to Laguna Beach Music Festival audiences this weekend

Classical music will mix with contemporary compositions in a trio of concerts at Laguna Playhouse Feb. 12-14 during the run of the annual Laguna Beach Music Festival.

The festival aims to achieve that goal by engaging two artistic directors, violinist Jennifer Koh and pianist Shai Wosner, who are bringing in wild Up, an emerging Los Angeles music ensemble. Performances will be distinguished by unique pairings of classical and contemporary composers such as Koh performing on the same bill as Bach, Italian composer Luciano Berio (d.2003) and Esa Pekka Salonen, the Finnish composer and Los Angeles Philharmonic musical director from 1992 to 2009.

In its 14th season, the Laguna Beach Music Festival has evolved from its origin as the Laguna Beach Chamber Music Festival to a more mature institution.  “We have grown to include world premieres, and the artists are getting younger and more of a mix as well. The festival is a place that lets the artists do more fun things,” said Cindy Prewitt, president and executive director of Laguna Beach Live and the festival presenter.

Fun driven by untrammeled exploration of musical possibilities appears to be a leitmotiv for wild Up and its 24 musicians led by composer-conductor Christopher Roundtree.

They employ instruments ranging from conch shells to penny whistles, as well as clarinets, saxophones, drums and other traditional instruments. They will perform with Koh and Wosner in “New Global Voices” on Saturday.

“We make music. New Music. Old Music. We play it as long as we love it,” is the stated motto of the group that bills itself as a music collective committed to creating visceral, thought-provoking happenings.

Laguna Beach music impresario Justus Schlichting is one of the group’s founding directors as well as president of Bridge to Music, the board supporting Koh’s “Bridge to Beethoven” project. He and his wife Elizabeth also underwrote a portion of the 2014 festival.

“ ‘Bridge to Beethoven’ is the first big project that Bridge to Music has put together. Ultimately it will cover all of 10 Beethoven sonatas, two of which will be performed on Sunday in conjunction ‘Elective Memory’ by Anthony Cheung,” he said.

As in previous years, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, helmed by president/artistic director John Mangum, co-presents the festival with LBL. Mangum, 41, of Irvine, succeeds Dean Corey, who retired in 2014.

“We chose artists that are exciting, intellectually curious, great musicians and who possess a great sense of adventure,” he said. “When we looked at our short list of this year’s musicians we got our first wish with Jennifer and Shai.” The festival grants artists creative license without imposing any sort of conditions on the programs they want to do.

Mangum cited Koh’s “Bridge to Beethoven” as an exciting project with longevity, explaining that it involves newly commissioned compositions for violin and piano. Paired in concert with Beethoven sonatas, it will offer audiences new views of the old master, he promised.

What should one call this unconventional and atonal music? “Contemporary compositions still fall under the umbrella of classical music. It’s new, contemporary music,” said Mangum, who plays Bach, Hayden and Mozart on piano but appreciates well-crafted music from pop to jazz to world music as well.

Audiences will experience a sense of music’s continuing transformation, Schlichting pointed out. “Altogether, this year’s program shows the creative heart of future classical music; these are some of the kids that are moving classical music into exciting new directions. It’s exciting how they cross hundreds of years.”

Laguna Beach Music Festival Concerts and Events Feb. 10-14, 2016

Wednesday, Feb. 10, 5:30 p.m. Festival Prelude. Festival talents Jennifer Koh, Shai Wosner and wild Up mingle with dinner guests Tickets $200. Seven-Degrees, 891 Laguna Canyon Rd.

Friday, Feb. 12, 8 p.m. Bach, Schubert, and Beyond, with Jennifer Koh, violin and Shai Wosner, piano.

Saturday, Feb. 13, 8 p.m. New Global Voices, with Jennifer Koh, violin and Shai Wosner, piano. Also wild Up with Christopher Roundtree conducting.

Sunday, Feb. 14, 3 p.m. “Bridge to Beethoven” and premiere performance “Elective Memory” by Anthony Cheung.

All tickets $45. Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Rd., 949497-2787; or Philharmonic Society of Orange County, 949335-2422.

Related events:

Wednesday, Feb. 10, 1:30 p.m., New Music Workshop featuring Jennifer Koh, violin, and Christopher Roundtree, composer/conductor, Irvine Barclay Theatre, UCI. 4242 Campus Dr. Irvine Info. 949-335-2422.

Thursday, Feb. 11, 7 p.m. Live at the Museum: Hutchins Consort Quartet. Music on eight scaled violins designed and built by luthier Carleen Hutchins, PhD.

Tickets: Free to museum members, free with museum admission for non-members. Laguna Art Museum, 307 Cliff Dr. Laguna Beach.

Friday, Feb. 12. 10 a.m. Jennifer Koh at the Susi Q Senior Center. 380 Third St., Laguna Beach 949-497-2441

7 p.m. Pre-concert talk by John Mangum, OC Philharmonic Society.

Saturday, Feb. 13, 5-6 p.m. Open rehearsal. Laguna Playhouse. Free.

The post Music Fest Grows Younger with Time appeared first on Laguna Beach Local News.

Although Laguna Beach has three summer arts festivals, a thriving art museum and a lively theater and music scene, the lack of a central cultural arts center remains a shortcoming, according to results of a recent survey.

Despite the survey’s findings, interviews with city officials and arts supporters reveal a lack of unanimity over whether such a need exists and how to fund it, though everyone seems to point to the same potential site downtown.

“What we need, first and foremost is a sense of place,” agreed city Arts Commissioner Suzi Chauvel.

The survey findings determined that the community would be well-served with a year-round cultural arts center that serves as a versatile home to the visual and performing arts, arts organizations and visitors. Representatives of San Diego-based Cultural Planning Group recently laid out its survey conclusions at a public meeting. The City Council hired the consultants to establish a new city cultural arts plan by taking the artistic pulse of the community and making recommendations.

Asked about prospects for such a multi-use arts center, Mayor Steve Dicterow said, “I have not yet analyzed this or talked enough with others but it would be good to have it in the same vicinity as the Laguna Playhouse,” he said. “As a citizen, my hope would be to offer as broad an art experience as we can provide. Laguna is not just the beach.”

Bulldozers demolished and rebuilt the façade of the Festival of Arts last year and a makeover for the inside is planned. Photo by Mitch Ridder.

Council member and arts champion Bob Whalen said that he has been supportive of a flexible use cultural center for many years and has met with local arts organizations to discuss possibilities.

“I felt we needed a study like the one by the Cultural Planning Group to validate that there is real interest in the community for a cultural center. I am pleased that both the Arts Commission and the Planning Commission embrace the idea as a highest priority.”

He suggested such a facility should occupy the parking lots next to City Hall. “It makes perfect sense to put it there as part of our Civic Arts District, which includes the Festival of Arts grounds and the area up to the Sawdust Festival,” he said.

He said that financing plans and options have yet to be evaluated, but that he hopes for joint public and private financing.

Whalen, who works in municipal finance professionally, recently won his colleagues’ support for $1 million matching public grants for Laguna Playhouse and the Laguna Art Museum.

While some in the community support making better use of current facilities over building a new one, Whalen says arts organizations find that existing spaces lack the flexibility to serve varied uses.

Wayne Baglin, director and treasurer of the Laguna Beach Alliance for the Arts, which represents a score of arts groups, falls into the former camp.

“I define such a center as an unrealistic goal, a pipe dream at this point. No location that would provide space and parking and no source of funding has been determined,” said Baglin, who also serves as a Festival of Arts’ board member.

He praised Laguna Playhouse for providing space for performing arts and suggested working with Laguna Beach High School to utilize its Artists’ Theatre more broadly. “The true challenge lies in finding space for visual arts, but I’m optimistic that when renovations are made to the Festival of Arts grounds, there will be excellent opportunities to use them between September and June,” he said, referring to an interior makeover postponed a year due to predicted El Nino rains.

“I get frustrated with dreams and expectations regardless of reality when it comes to projects such as an overall arts center. Financing the arts center, if the city were to do it, I don’t know how citizens of Laguna would want to spend money rather than on police, fire and safety. And, if we have a surplus, then our taxes might be too high,” Baglin said.

Joe Hanauer, co-chair of Laguna Playhouse, also seems less than convinced of the need for a new arts center, though he expressed no reservations about the city’s ability to fund one. “The city has good credit and bond capabilities. There are no economic restrictions with running surpluses, revenue from visitors and management of long range commitments,” he said.

Even so, he thinks the city would be better served by building a stronger identity for its existing individual arts districts. Conceptualizing a cultural center is a good way to start, he said. More emphasis should be paid to better utilizing existing venues and analyzing needs of arts organizations, Hanauer said.

Rosemary Swimm, executive director of the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association, which lacks a permanent home, said that such a venture should be large enough to provide room for inside and outside events and for parking.

“It would be great if non-profits wouldn’t have to hunt for venues to rent. I believe that the Festival of Arts is moving in the right direction by revamping the grounds. That might be something to be utilized as a community arts center,” Swimm suggested.

Sam Goldstein, co-founder of music presenter Laguna Beach Live, agrees with the survey’s conclusions and the inclination of the elected officials to eye the site of the much-debated village entrance.

Laguna Beach Live continues to juggle its performance schedule between venues, putting on major concerts at Laguna Playhouse and relocating its midweek jazz performances three times in recent years. Co-founder Cindy Prewitt said, “life would be a dream if we had a place were we could steadily present music.”

The post Artists Clamor for a Sense of Place appeared first on Laguna Beach Local News.

Mia Tavonatti, whose mosaics embellish Mozambique restaurant and Laguna Drug in town, displays paintings for the first time at a newly opened gallery, Main Beach Fine Art.

Music, water, mermaids and myriad permutations of the female form as perceived by new and established artists fill two new Laguna Beach galleries.

While new to operating galleries, the principals are well-known locals rolling the dice, trying their hands at another artistic medium and providing visibility to fellow artists along the way.

Local music promoter Tony Cox partnered with sculptor Nick Hernandez and businessman Stan Isaacs last November to provide a forum for emerging or not yet represented artists in the Woods Cove Art Gallery, 1963 S. Coast Highway.

Established as a cooperative, not for profit gallery, its proceeds are slated to support artists as well as musicians who need a leg up financially or career-wise, explained Cox. He turned to freelance curator Jinx Law to select the 23 current artists, some of whom could double as “performance artists,” Cox said.

“Art comes in different forms. I am looking for art that heals, that brings peace,” said Law, who looks for talented artists unfamiliar with how to market their work. “Connecting the right artists with the right venue is what preoccupies me full-time,” she said.

This week, the partners expect to officially open a second location, Main Beach Fine Art, which currently features sculpture by Nick Hernandez and Casey Parlette and paintings by Mia Tavonatti, Fitz Maurice and Victoria Moore.

Hernandez, a professor and honorary doctorate recipient at Chapman University as well as a former city Arts Commission member, serves as curator of the Main Beach gallery. “I think I’ve finally found my calling,” said Hernandez, who intends to bring in more artists depending on the success of the showing at 206 N. Coast Highway.

The hanging sculpture “The Last Fish” by Parlette, a Laguna Beach lifeguard and an anthropologist, shows a humorous take on the rank and file of sea life.

Tavonatti, displaying work in a Laguna Beach gallery for the first time, shows her painted visions of floating and shrouded female forms. The former Laguna College of Art & Design teacher created the community art project Power of Words that resulted in “Wonder,” a Laguna Canyon mural executed by students. She is also the winner of the 2011 Art Prize for her stained glass mosaic “Crucifixion.”

Moore, in keeping with both galleries’ water world theme, has painted a series of mermaids. Fresh on the West Coast from Florida, Moore plans to establish herself in Laguna.

Maurice is exhibiting at both galleries simultaneously, showing her latest paintings from a sojourn through the nation’s national parks at Woods Cove and examples of her Illuminism series at Main Beach.

Isaacs, a post-construction cleaning contractor acts as the gallery angel, having helped with early finances such as rent deposits. “Some finance people don’t want to deal with start-ups, but I love to bring people together and joy through art,” he said.

Cox explained the Woods Cove business model as a combination co-op, where artists pay for display space but also have an option to work for the gallery. The gallery will give artists 70 percent of the sales commission, with 30 percent slated for the Laguna Foundation for the Arts, the support organization for both galleries.

The foundation is registered as a non-profit 501c3 dedicated to helping artists and musicians in financial straits through grants.

The post New Art Galleries Test the Waters appeared first on Laguna Beach Local News.

Ruth Mayer shows off her art prize and certificate and painting of Pope John Paul II.

Laguna Beach artist Ruth Mayer put aside her paintbrush and palette knife last month to travel to Florence, Italy, to receive the Leonardo Da Vinci Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Mayer, 81, said she was selected by the Cultural Association in Florence, which selects representatives from an international roster of artists every year.

The painter, who is also a pilot, received the award at the Borghese Palace, a landmark building once home to Prince Camillo Borghese, a brother-in-law of Napoleon Bonaparte.

“I did not believe it when I heard I was nominated. I usually don’t pay much attention to that sort of thing,” said Mayer. The prize does not include remuneration.

Mayer received the award on the strength her land, sea and cityscapes, specifically of “Catalina Greeter,” an oil on canvas painting of a red Harbor Patrol boat afloat in highly articulated seas and set against a depiction of the Catalina Island town of Avalon.

For the sharp-eyed, there are allusions to sea creatures, mermaids and angelic beings in waters of psychedelic hues. Similar imagery pervades much of her body of work.

Mayer first made a notable splash at the 2000 New York Art Expo with a painting, “I Love New York,” depicting Manhattan and the still intact World Trade Center. Cloud formations take the shape and faces of angels atop the skyscrapers, seemingly embracing the towers, while the water contains images alluding to Broadway shows.

She attributes its completion, a year before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to divine inspiration.

News coverage of the painting after the attacks caught the attention of Rome. “When I got a phone call from someone identifying himself as representing the Vatican, I thought it was a joke, and I told him that he could find me at my gallery in Laguna in two weeks. Sure enough, two weeks later, two priests came in and asked to speak with me about possibly painting Pope John Paul II,” she recalled.

Invited to Rome to meet the pontiff, they hit it off well, but when his staff suggested what should be in the painting, Mayer balked. “Only God can tell me what goes into a painting,” she recalled saying.

She got the commission anyway. Today, a giclee version of the work is displayed at her Laguna gallery. The original, were it for sale, would fetch $1.2 million. A poster can be had for $29 with a condition: buyers must commit to a good work for children, said Mayer.

A 40-year resident, Mayer has traveled throughout Israel and parts of the Middle East, Europe and Asia. Visitors to Ruth Mayer Fine Art, located in downtown Laguna and on Catalina Island, can follow her journeys, both physical and spiritual, through her paintings. Some are original oil paintings and others giclee prints. “I like to make my paintings affordable for anyone,” Mayer explained. And, like the some old masters, she includes a reference of herself in the paintings.

In 2014, she received the best gallery award from the Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce

The post Local Artist Receives Top Award appeared first on Laguna Beach Local News.

From left, Nick Hernandez, Mia Tovanatti, Tony Cox, Victoria Moore and Stan Isaacs in the newly opened Main Beach Fine Art.

Music, water, mermaids and myriad permutations of the female form as perceived by new and established artists fill two new Laguna Beach galleries.

While new to operating galleries, the principals are well-known locals rolling the dice, trying their hands at another artistic medium and providing visibility to fellow artists along the way.

Local music promoter Tony Cox partnered with sculptor Nick Hernandez and businessman Stan Isaacs last November to provide a forum for emerging or not yet represented artists in the Woods Cove Art Gallery, 1963 S. Coast Highway.

Established as a cooperative, not for profit gallery, its proceeds are slated to support artists as well as musicians who need a leg up financially or career-wise, explained Cox. He turned to freelance curator Jinx Law to select the 23 current artists, some of whom could double as “performance artists,” Cox said.

“Art comes in different forms. I am looking for art that heals, that brings peace,” said Law, who looks for talented artists unfamiliar with how to market their work. “Connecting the right artists with the right venue is what preoccupies me full-time,” she said.

This week, the partners expect to officially open a second location, Main Beach Fine Art, which currently features sculpture by Nick Hernandez and Casey Parlette and paintings by Mia Tavonatti, Fitz Maurice and Victoria Moore.

Mia Tavonatti, whose mosaics embellish Mozambique restaurant and Laguna Drug in town, displays paintings for the first time at a newly opened gallery, Main Beach Fine Art.

Hernandez, a professor and honorary doctorate recipient at Chapman University as well as a former city Arts Commission member, serves as curator of the Main Beach gallery. “I think I’ve finally found my calling,” said Hernandez, who intends to bring in more artists depending on the success of the showing at 206 N. Coast Highway.

The hanging sculpture “The Last Fish” by Parlette, a Laguna Beach lifeguard and an anthropologist, shows a humorous take on the rank and file of sea life.

Tavonatti, displaying work in a Laguna Beach gallery for the first time, shows her painted visions of floating and shrouded female forms. The former Laguna College of Art & Design teacher created the community art project Power of Words that resulted in “Wonder,” a Laguna Canyon mural executed by students. She is also the winner of the 2011 Art Prize for her stained glass mosaic “Crucifixion.”

Moore, in keeping with both galleries’ water world theme, has painted a series of mermaids. Fresh on the West Coast of Florida, Moore plans to establish herself in Laguna.

Maurice is exhibiting at both galleries simultaneously, showing her latest paintings from a sojourn through the nation’s national parks at Woods Cove and examples of her Illuminism series at Main Beach.

Isaacs, a post-construction cleaning contractor acts as the gallery angel, having helped with early finances such as rent deposits. “Some finance people don’t want to deal with start-ups, but I love to bring people together and joy through art,” he said.

Cox explained the Woods Cove business model as a combination co-op, where artists pay for display space but also have an option to work for the gallery. The gallery will give artists 70 percent of the sales commission, with 30 percent slated for the Laguna Foundation for the Arts, the support organization for both galleries.

The foundation is registered as a non-profit 501c3 dedicated to helping artists and musicians in financial straits through grants.

The post New Art Galleries Test the Waters appeared first on Laguna Beach Local News.

Tony Award winner Anthony Crivello and Vanessa Claire Stewart mesmerize in the Laguna Playhouse show, “Louis & Keely ‘Live’ at the Sahara.”

He’s a crooner whose career has not really quite jelled, and she is a 17-year-old with stars in her eyes and ambitions to become a big band singer.

As he arrives at yet another lounge, he looks a bit shopworn until she bops up on the stage, pony-tailed, saddle-shoed, wearing a prim white blouse and pleated skirt.

Meet Louis Prima, portrayed by Tony Award winner Anthony Crivello, and Keely Smith, embodied by Vanessa Claire Stewart, set to make magic in “Louis & Keely ‘Live’ at the Sahara.”

The musical bopping at the Laguna Playhouse through March 27 is produced by Hershey Felder, who’s created bio-musicals on other famous composers, and Trevor Hay.

“You can go to jail for that,” bellows Paul Perroni, who portrays Louis’ brother, addressing the gleam in bro’s eye at the sight of the teenager. Getting that New York Italian character down just so, the exchange prepares the audience for the wild ride of what will become the May/December pairing of two disparate entertainers. What may have been a tight professional team in private unravels with the onset of commercial success. Together though, they put the Las Vegas lounge act into bright neon lights.

It’s a spell-binding production in many ways, including the minimal but clever stage sets designed to give the audience a sense of early 1950’s and ‘60s America.

And then there’s Prima and Keely’s back-up band. Michael Solomon on drums, Dan Sawyer on several instruments including guitar, George McMullen on trombone, Nick Klingenberg on bass, Jeremy Kahn playing piano and conducting and Colin Kupka on tenor sax, really cook.

The ensemble communicates not only musically but exchanges verbal cues much as they might in a real jazz lounge, with Kupka particularly energizing the house with his sound and footwork. It was hard to sit still during “Night Train,” “Angelina” and “That Old Black Magic,” to name a few of the nearly 30 hits performed.

Klingenberg’s bass accompaniment to “Autumn Leaves” is record worthy even if Stewart’s vocals lacked strength in conveying Keely’s heartbreak at Louis’ philandering.

Erin Matthews amusingly embodies his bevy of “duchesses.” Her comedic range also allows her to segue from tight-lipped church marm (portraying Keely’s mother) to sultry New Orleans stripper at the toss of a jacket, a skill not lost on guys in the audience.

Crivello does not miss a beat. He unleashes a gargantuan ego while winning and losing, playing dumps and swanky lounges, marrying and divorcing, and clashing with fellow lounge star, Frank Sinatra. He offers a Tony-worthy performance.

The script written by Taylor Hackford and Jake Broder includes an episode involving a flirtation between Keely and Sinatra, who subsequently throws his weight behind her while leaving Louis out of the equation. Not taking it well, Louis begins an epic skirt-chasing spree that ends in the couple’s divorce. All the while, even though the script here suggests otherwise, the relationship between Smith and Sinatra remained chaste, even if he, at one time, had contemplated marrying her.

The Playhouse Sinatra will present a bit of a problem to those who remember the young crooner as a skinny kid with pipes and the ever-present hat. Here, Perroni is way too tall and buff, the voice does not resonate and the only thing that has an air of authenticity is the rakish angle of the hat.

Opening night usually includes an introduction before the show from the Playhouse’s artistic and executive directors. Not this time. Not until everyone had taken their final bow, Stewart, still in stage regalia, took to the mic, praising the plethora of sponsors and asking trustees to stand for applause.

This, after Crivello played his heart out in the final scene where he appears as Louis’ ghost at Keely’s long anticipated Carnegie Hall debut. At show’s end, one wonders if, given his extravagant physical and vocal exertion, he’ll hold up until the final curtain. Instead of taking that stunner into the night, the audience was intrinsically left to endure a commercial, aside from the offered glasses of champagne.

Even so, the show mesmerizes by revitalizing a musical genre that may now pique a new generation’s interest.

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Framed by a background of fire set against a blackish blue sky, a group of apes gamely rows a log through roiling water. Hanging on to an ax embedded in the wood, the leader is absorbed in his task while his second in command looks squarely at the viewer. As for the rest, they are foot soldiers in transport.

Julio Labra

All together, this intriguing painted scenario titled “Simian Pride” conveys a vague sense of deja vu, but of what exactly?

Julio Labra, the painting’s creator has the answer, “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” with the log standing in for the boat and fire a metaphor for the flag.

The Simians, he explained, serve as emotional representatives of humans and the group signifies the interdependence of family and human connection. As for the ax, here it stands for stability and human desire to hold on to principles and values.

The painting is one of several by Labra, currently on view at Raw Salt, an offshoot of the Salt Fine Art Gallery in Laguna Beach. Many are based on mythology or biblical lore, including the great flood and Noah’s Ark as refuge to human and animal couples. “We all know about Noah’s intentions, but then I started to wonder about all the rest that did not make it into the two by two,” he said.

In that vein, “Oasis,” with its swimming bull forming an island refuge to countless birds, brings to mind an impromptu ark. With thousands more on the horizon, the painting raises the question whether the bull can stay afloat under the load.

While Labra does not specifically make contemporary inferences, one can easily draw parallels. “It’s a modern metaphor for everyone trying to stay afloat, to survive,” he said. “I like the idea here of the animals weighing almost nothing alone can cause a lot of consternation in great numbers.”

At age 26, he is part of an international group of young/emerging artists that the gallery regularly exhibits and represents. The son of a Mexican father and an American mother, he was born in Idaho and moved around the Midwest with his family. “There wasn’t a group I fit easily into, so drawing and painting became a refuge. That and football,” he recalled.

Art prevailed and he pursued an undergraduate degree in illustration from the Art Academy of Cincinnati in 2012. “College was a new idea, let alone art, but my family was supportive with me being the first to go. Other than that, it would have been the Marine Corps,” he said.

While at the Academy, he traveled to Florence, Italy, and Belize, enamored by Caravaggio’s depictions of the human condition and intrigued by Mayan ruins in turn. His artistic observations, as well as a nudge from friends, motivated him to move to California and pursue a master’s in fine arts from the Laguna College of Art and Design.

The graduate degree set him on track as an artist though he clung to the idea of joining the Navy or Coast Guard until LCAD Professor F. Scott Hess took him under his wing. Hess, a painter renowned for paintings filled to capacity with stories and social commentary, guided Labra in honing his skills along those lines.

Labra’s noteworthy mastery of representational drawing progressed at a fast clip. “During his first semester, Julio had tons of imaginary ideas, but did not know what to do with all his talents,” recalls Hess. “Julio turned out to be a sponge. It’s rare for a teacher to watch a student absorb everything. Even his smaller paintings now have a sense of grandiosity, and the stories they tell are wide open, directing one to think.”

Hess teaches a class based on mythology, symbolism and narrative, among others.

“Scott turned things around for me,” acknowledges Labra. “He convinced me to be an artist and now I am staying that way.”

Labra describes his latest series of paintings, almost all involving moving water in some form, as representations of struggles while finding his place in California. He put himself through school as a museum guard at the Laguna Art Museum, where some may remember him with the ever-present sketchbook tucked into a pocket, acting as an impromptu docent. He also installed art at Santa Ana College and taught private art lessons. Money was always tight, involving sharing a Garden Grove apartment with too many roommates, riding a bicycle to school and even camping near a Laguna Canyon cave. The latter more for meditational and inspirational purposes, but he stuck it out through six months in 2013 and winter weather, writing poetry and reading, perhaps channeling Henry Thoreau. As he says, “the only constant is change.”

Currently he teaches figure, life and perspective drawing and fundamentals of painting at LCAD and Santa Ana College and maintains a studio in Santa Ana’s Santora Building.

“Inspiration is coming from finding my place, defining the past and finding deeper meaning in what I find intriguing in the world and the stories I tell,” he said. “I may have faced hardships, but I never want to feel that I made it.”

Raw Salt Gallery is exhibiting “Simian Pride” by artist Julio Labra, who considers himself a storyteller.

The post Telling Stories on Canvas and Paper appeared first on Laguna Beach Local News.

A dent about the circumference of a baseball mars the shiny sphere forcefully separated from the welded base of a Sept. 11 memorial in Laguna Beach. It is the third act of vandalism to befall the work, installed in Heisler Park on Sept. 11, 2012, 10 years after terrorists launched an attack with planes on U.S. soil.

Jorg Dubin at Heisler Park’s Monument Point with his Sept. 11 memorial in progress. Photo by Ted Reckas.

Sculptor and artist Jorg Dubin, who discovered the most recent damage during a walk on Sunday, March 6, now suspects the work is being targeted and is calling on city officials to install surveillance cameras in order to protect the work and discourage future attacks.

Commissioned by the Laguna Beach Arts Commission and the City Council, Dubin titled the work “Semper Memento” (Always Remember). Similar dents and scratches to the sphere occurred shortly after its installation and again during a second vandalism in 2015. Then the sculpture’s central silvery sphere was rocked and pounded hard enough to knock it off its moorings, leaning it askew against the two girders framing it. Dubin re-welded the sculpture to approximate, as he put it, the strength of a battleship.

The girders, a remnant scavenged from the collapse of the World Trade Center towers in New York, arrived in Laguna Beach at the initiative of fire fighter Andrew Hill and arts philanthropist Mark Porterfield, who defrayed the monument’s overall $25,000 installation cost.

While Dubin attributed the previous two acts of destruction to “kids on a lark,” he is beginning to consider more sinister motivations. “This is the third time the piece was vandalized in such a brutal way; it must have to do with what it represents,” he said.

“The city has other pieces of public art and they get occasionally scratched or graffitied. This time it appears targeted; an act of nature it is not.”

Dubin contacted the city’s top administrators and elected officials with his concerns.

“Like many in the community, I was upset by the news that this important and symbolic sculpture has been vandalized again,” said City Council member Bob Whalen. “We value all of our public art pieces, but this one has special meaning given the September 11 attacks,” he wrote via email.

A reflecting ball and focal point of the sculpture damaged by vandals.Photo courtesty of Jorg Dubin.

Police are investigating and the public works department is checking into alternatives to keep such damage from happening again, Whalen said.

Both Whalen and City Manager John Pietig suggested installing cameras at the Heisler Park site, said police spokesman Sgt. Tim Kleiser.

Over all, the city’s public art collection of roughly 80 works has not been immune to destructive acts in recent years. Others near the Broadway Street bus depot and several benches have also required repairs due to vandalism.

Protecting the city’s collection should concern the public, Dubin said. “The piece is a reflection of the community and I hope that Laguna Beach citizens step up and get angry. It’s frustrating that we can’t protect everything from someone who has the desire to destroy.”

Dubin expressed hope that he can again repair the work, but is unsure whether it’s possible or feasible.

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Thomas B. and Barbara Stiles, left, donate a work by William Wendt to the Laguna Art Museum, led by Malcolm Warner and Robert Hayden III.
Photo courtesy of Laguna Art Museum

“Laguna Coast” features a view of Impressionist painter William Wendt’s old home nestled into a hill at 229 Arch St. in Laguna Beach. It shows a bit of ocean view, and the dirt road on the left side of the composition is the predecessor of today’s Glenneyre Street.

The landscape echoes Paul Cézanne’s depictions of Southern France, a region also frequented by California artists and writers, pointed out Malcolm Warner, Laguna Art Museum’s executive director, in describing the 1930 painting donated recently as a gift to the museum’s permanent collection. “This painting sums up all the good things people associate with California,” he said.

Museum board vice chair Thomas B. Stiles II and his wife Barbara, whose collection of work by California Impressionists sprouted from a visit when they still both worked on Wall Street, donated the Wendt after loaning the work to the museum in recent months. The painting will make its formal debut as the museum’s new crown jewel after the current exhibit closes, Warner said.

It was also featured in the 2009 Laguna museum exhibition, “In Nature’s Temple: The Life and Art of William Wendt.” “We have three smaller Wendts, but had always hoped for a more majestic view by him. The painting given to us is an answer to a prayer,” said Warner.

Two other loaned Wendt works included in the same exhibition, “Cahuenga Pass” and “Converging Fields,” were listed in a 2013 fine art auction catalog valued at up to $50,000 and $90,000, respectively. And last April, Wendt’s “The Old Coast Road,” was the big seller at a Bonham auction, bringing $1.6 million when it had been expected to fetch $600,000 and setting a new record for the artist.

None of the parties involved put a value on the museum’s newest donation, but “Laguna Coast” possesses two traits that impress Jean Stern, executive director of the Irvine Museum, which specializes in California Impressionism. “The painting is an important work by Wendt, of the highest quality. A remarkable view of early Laguna Beach,” Stern said in a statement.

German-born, Wendt (1865-1946) was a self-taught painter who rose to become what many consider the most important 20th century artist. He first made a name for himself in Chicago where, among other works, he exhibited paintings made during his travels to California.

After marrying sculptor Julia Bracken in 1906, the couple lived in Los Angeles and, since Wendt had also bought land in Laguna Beach, they built their home here in 1918. Known as “the dean of American landscape painters,” he became a founding member of the Laguna Beach Art Association, the root organization of today’s Laguna Art Museum.

Wendt Terrace in Laguna Beach is named in his honor.

The Stiles started their collection of early California art in 1980 when they acquired one of Edgar Payne’s many Sierra paintings. “We were living in New York at the time and bought the painting on a holiday business trip,” recalled Mr. Stiles. “We thought it would fit nicely into our apartment in New York.” He worked as an asset manager and Barbara in investment banking, he said.

Spurred on by their new acquisition, the couple set out to learn everything they could about early California art, closely studying two comprehensive books by Ruth Westphal, “Plein Air Painters of California: The North” and “Plein Air Painters of California: The Southland,” explained Ms. Stiles.

After owning the seminal Payne work for 10 years, they sold that painting and replaced it with other works by him, she recalled.

“We were accustomed to East Coast Impressionism but also found out that California Impressionists painted on the East Coast and in Europe,” she said. What struck them in particular was the Californians’ robust use of color and the unique pink-toned light that pervades Southern coastal views.

“We saw other early California artists in books and learned more by going through museums and galleries,” said Mr. Stiles. Today, he estimates their collection at 80 works, which embellish the home in Dana Point where the couple have lived since 1998. “ ‘Laguna Coast’ is a lovely example of Wendt’s work. It’s a painting that hung in our home, but really belongs to Laguna Beach,” said Ms. Stiles.

“Laguna Beach has such a wonderful art history, and we donated the painting because we really wanted to put our money where our mouth is. We also want to be catalysts for other donors and hope that the upcoming 100th anniversary of the museum will result in an outpouring of donations,” she added.

With an eye on the museum’s 2018 centennial, Warner compiled a hit list of artists he would like to include such as Albert Bierstadt, William Keith, Jules Tavernier, Arthurs Mathews, Charles Reiffel, Guy Rose and Armin Hansen among others.

Warner hopes other collectors will follow the Stiles’ lead in loaning or donating works for the celebratory exhibition.

The post Wendt Painting Makes its Way Home to Laguna appeared first on Laguna Beach Local News.

A year-round cultural center for visual and performing arts, a new international art festival, and peer review of public art commissions are among the recommendations of a report assessing the Laguna Beach art community.

The findings are based on a survey of residents and visitors conducted by consultants last year and approved unanimously by the city’s Arts Commission earlier this month.

The report suggests another art festival, like Sawdust Festiva, pictured here but lorganized by a professional.

Foremost among the community’s wants is a new cultural arts home, according to David Plettner-Saunders of Cultural Planning Group, the San Diego consultants that undertook the survey.

Survey respondents including representatives of local arts organizations such as Laguna Beach Live, Laguna Beach Alliance for the Arts and Laguna Plein Air Painters Association expressed a need for a year-round facility serving visual and performing arts under one roof.

The report also pointed out the potential for greater use of existing facilities, such as the Irvine Bowl, the home of the Pageant of the Masters located on the grounds of the Festival of Arts, which is little used outside of summer. The city leases the public land to the Festival of Arts, which occasionally subleases the facilities to others, such as last December’s Kenny Loggins concert.

Arts organizations and local artists want more city recognition and support, with creation of affordable places for artists to live and work a top priority, the survey found. Artists cite significant obstacles to sustaining an affordable life-style and a future in Laguna Beach, a frustration voiced by artists for years despite the adoption of a live-work housing ordinance.

Arts organizations also want support in marketing to a younger and culturally diverse audience, the report says. The plan also points the need to establish stronger links between local art students and the working artist community.

Public art, also a subject of continuing debate among artists, should come under review by professional peers, the report says. Currently, responsibility for reviewing candidates for public art commissions falls to the Arts Commission, political appointees where professional arts training is not mandatory.

The cultural arts plan comes up for possible adoption by the City Council on March 29.

Among its other recommendations, the plan urges consideration of new, high-profile events in spring or fall showcasing Laguna Beach artistic versatility and bringing in national and international talent in the manner of Art Basel Miami or a festival built on traditions of early California art.

The consultant’s suggestion to engage outside organizers, such as the Fine Art Dealers Association, did not sit well with members of the 400-strong Laguna Plein Air Painters Association, already at work planning its annual Plein Air Painting Invitational.

“We work hard to promote the city of Laguna Beach and, while we did not have a brick and mortar location here when the plan was drafted, we have had one now for the past year,” said executive director Rosemary Swimm, referring to LPAPA’s home in the Ocean and Forest Gallery.

The plan also suggests ways to fund arts improvements, citing the city’s general fund, a business improvement district tax, donors for public art and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council and private foundations.

Some disagreed with the plan’s recommendation for new facilities. “Although the plan includes an inventory and description of existing facilities, it does not tell us why they are insufficient,” Johanna Felder, president of Village Laguna, wrote in a letter to the Indy recently.

During the Monday, March 14, meeting, Felder also pointed out that 40 percent of the respondents to the Cultural Arts Survey were not residents. “Input from non-residents does not address the needs of residents. You will have to solve a lot of things first to build larger venues. The cultural plan is a very ambitious one that will need a lot of funding; it’s still pie in the sky and depends on a lot of elements coming together,” she said.

On the other hand, Sam Goldstein, a former musician and co-founder of Laguna Beach Live, praised the plan but cautioned that seeing it through would require its embrace by the City Council. “If we can’t motivate them, we are nowhere,” he said.

The need to reach younger and more diverse audiences emerged from interviews with a number of “millenial” artists about their needs, said Plettner-Saunders. “No, we did not bus them in,” he quipped.

Appearing to be part of the latter group, musician Zac Churchill expressed hope for a plan envisioning the next 20 years. Mentioning ongoing performances at local galleries and pubs such as the Marine Room, he said: “I love the idea of music and poetry and performance. I hope we are setting a stage for you,” he said.

Arts Commissioner Adam Schwerner pointed to another finding in the report: that Laguna greatly benefits economically from its $51 million arts industry, not counting art galleries. “Great cities are the fruit of ambitious plans,” he said.

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Renewed interest in Laguna Beach’s history of greeters stems from the newly released film “Greeter Documentary.” Photo by Jody Tiongco

It’s faded and cracked from the elements, and the hand is missing a thumb. Even so, the sculpture of Eiler Larsen, the Danish vagabond who metamorphosed into the revered Laguna Beach greeter, still draws throngs of visitors who pass his corner at Forest Ave and Coast Highway 41 years after his death in 1975.

Tourists pause to read his commemorative plaque and pose for selfies while longtime residents remember a character who tried to light up everyone’s daily life.

Sculptor Guy Angelo Wilson is intent on restoring the likeness he carved from aged redwood to its former glory and recently contacted local Martin Yewchuk, who recently produced a film documentary about the four men, including Larsen, that took on the task of welcoming Laguna’s visitors over the last century.

How the statue came into being is almost as colorful as its subject.

Larsen first wandered into Laguna Beach in 1938 from San Francisco, where he lived. Intrigued by the Pageant of the Masters, that year he was cast to play Judas in the re-enactment of Leonardo DaVinci’s “Last Supper,” according to Gregg DiNicola, of the Laguna Beach Historical Society. Larsen commuted from San Francisco to Laguna Beach to take part in the Pageant, but settled here permanently in 1942.

Bearded, with shoulder-length hair and typically wearing a lumberjack’s shirt with blue pants or overalls, Larsen became a fixture with his cheerily booming “Helloooo” and wave at passersby.

That depiction is how Wilson carved him in 1985 from an 800-year-old redwood log fished from the

Greeter Eiler Larson from the Tom Pulley Postcard Collection

Big River at Mendocino. “I first heard about sinker logs, logs that have been at the bottom of the river for a long time, while giving wood carving demonstrations for Paul Bunyan Day in the vicinity of Fort Bragg,” explained Wilson, now of Portland, Ore.

After seeing how well the tree, with its dense texture and tightly formed rings, had aged, Wilson acquired the log. “It’s beautiful wood with a purplish tinge, used for the finest grade of furniture, even if it smells like a musty attic,” he recalled. “At the time I was not even thinking about Eiler being born the same year, 1890, that the tree was cut down and branded, but later it occurred to me that this was indeed Eiler’s log,” said Wilson.

Having just received the private commission to produce Larsen’s likeness, Wilson carted the historic piece of wood to his former studio in Santa Fe Springs and went to work. “I had done a lot of research on Eiler and found that he was a voracious reader, always carrying a book and a pencil in his jacket pocket,” he said.

Artist Mike Tauber restores the Brooks Street Greeter sculpture of Eiler Larsen in 2014.

As for his facial features, they are modeled on old photographs of Larsen and Luther, an 80-something fellow student at Cal State Long Beach working toward a master’s degree in gerontology, who filled in to pose for facial expressions and gestures, recalled Wilson.

After Wilson formed a clay likeness and carved a wood maquette, he went to work on the six-foot statue, carving the wood and re-enforcing limbs with a stainless steel skeleton. Today, he is willing to sacrifice the wooden maquette to re-create Larsen’s missing thumb. “It’s carved from the same log, so the wood will match,” he explained. He also plans to re-coat the figure with a mixture of oil and turpentine. “I don’t want to put layers of varnish on it because they dull the sharpness of carved lines.”

The owner of the Greeter’s Corner Restaurant first approached Wilson about the commission while he worked in a friend’s studio carving tiki statuettes for Oceanic Arts, a Whittier enterprise specializing in Polynesian decor. Statuary at Disneyland’s original Tiki Room attraction, which was redone in 2005, bore Wilson’s imprimatur. “I used to get paid by the foot for the tikis,” said Wilson, which provided his livelihood while earning a bachelor’s degree in fine art at CSLB. He earned a master’s with an emphasis on sculpture and installation at the Claremont Graduate School.

Martin and Tabitha Yewchuk, right, are making a film about Laguna Beach’s greeters past and present. Michael Minutoli, left, takes up a role inhabited by Eiler Larsen, depicted in a sculpture at Brooks Street and Coast Highway. Photo by Mitch Ridder.

Promotion of the “Greeter Documentary,” which will screen again April 20 at the Forum Theater, helped Wilson connect with the filmmaker. It’s also revived interest in the Greeter’s Corner sculpture and an older, cement-cast version by Charles Beauvais at the corner of Coast Highway and Brooks Street. There, the latest incarnation of greeters lives on in Michael Minutoli, who shouts out greetings sporting white gloves, a captain’s hat and earphones tuned to dance tunes.

Larsen died on March 19, 1975, just a week shy of his 85th birthday on March 27, and Wilson expresses amazement at the longevity of his legacy. “Sometimes I look for him still on the Internet and I am amazed at pictures of the statue surrounded by people standing around him and waving. He’s still doing his thing.”

The post Greeter Fans Hope to Restore His Sculpture appeared first on Laguna Beach Local News.

Elon Musk

John Lennon, Janis Joplin, Carl Sagan, Elon Musk, Stephen King and Leonardo DaVinci and DiCaprio. The well-known names that seem to lack much in common have all helped shape popular culture in a unique way. Now, artist Russell Pierce plans to portray them and others in a portfolio project he calls “Change Agents.”

Janis Joplin

It is comprised of altogether 50 portraits drawn, painted or rendered digitally in styles to suit the subjects, all of whom made an impact on him and the rest of the world. Some did so with their music, some through art, others through science and enterprise,   and one, Malala Yousafzai, for bravery, risking her life for girls’ education and winning a Nobel Prize. “It was hard to pick just 50 from so many people who have done so much for the world,” said Pierce, a Laguna Beach resident.

They include Buddy Rich, whom Pierce saw on television at age 4. The entertainer inspired the child to repurpose mom’s pots and pans as instruments and to become a professional drummer. Today, he plays with the Agave Brothers, a local band.

: Russell Pierce’s portrait of a young David Hockney helped him win this year’s Seven Degrees of Inspiration grant.

The portraits are part of a proposal that won Pierce the $5,000 Seven-Degrees of Inspiration Award in partnership with the Laguna Beach Arts Alliance. The organization holds its 10^th annual Art Star Awards on Sunday, April 3, at Seven Degrees, 891 Laguna Canyon Road, where Pierce and winners in five other categories will receive their awards. He is required to unveil his completed project at next year’s ceremony.

As part of the project, Pierce will also create digital plaques containing biographical information on each portrait subject.

“I am very exploratory in my art and will produce a number of pieces in diverse styles,” explained Pierce, who has transitioned from graphic design to fine art. “Getting the grant is a huge step and one that validates the new steps I am taking.”

Pierce, 60, still works as a graphic designer and art director during the day, but dedicates nights to making art just for himself.

“I had applied for the Inspiration Award last year and the year before but I did not have as strong a concept then. One night it just clicked for me,” he said.

Art Star Committee Chairman Wayne Baglin described the project as unique and praised Pierce’s incorporation of technology to appeal to diverse audiences.

Previous winners have included established and emerging artists including sculptors, film makers, glass blowers, musicians and choreographers.

Russell Pierce’s self-portrait.

Glass blower John Barber received his award four years ago to create “Feeding Frenzy,” a colorful school of fish installed in a Seven-Degree building. Designed to call attention to the environmental challenges of marine live, Barber said that it allowed him to demonstrate the breadth of his medium. “People are still viewing the work and it has enabled me to seek projects in contemporary architectural projects,” he said.

For his part, Pierce said, “I would love for people to be blown away when they walk into the gallery, seeing all these portraits of well-known people, each engaging in a unique way, capturing their spirit.” If he achieves his aim to render the portraits in a diverse array of styles that suggest a group show by several artists, he will have achieved an important goal.

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Sculptor Louis Longi receives his own award from Jonathan Burke.

The Laguna Beach Alliance for the Arts celebrated the 10th anniversary of the annual Art Star Awards by acknowledging and rewarding the best and brightest on the Laguna Beach art scene with elegant statuettes created by sculptor Louis Longi this past Sunday, April 3.

It also renamed itself as the Laguna Beach Arts Alliance.

As in years before, the best and brightest included individual and corporate arts patrons, local arts organizations and their leaders and local artists and performers.

Though many have coveted the statuettes known as Louies, an homage to the film industry’s Oscars, Longi had not received an award of his own until Sunday. Laguna College of Art and Design President Jonathan Burke presented him with an elegant glass bowl crafted by John Barber.

Widow Paulette Auster accepts a posthumous award for her husband, Ken Auster.

The evening included a posthumous lifetime achievement award to Ken Auster and a biographical video about the gifted plein air painter, teacher and waterman produced by the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association. Accompanied by a recorded Israël Kamakawiwo’ole rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” the tribute left few dry eyes.  

Alliance chair Faye Baglin presented the dance video “IV” by choreographer Delyér Anderson, the 2015 winner of the $5,000 Seven-Degrees of Inspiration Grant.

Artist Russell Pierce

This year’s winner, Russell Pierce, plans to execute “Change Agents,” 50 multi-media portraits. Seven-Degrees hosts Dora Wexell Orgill and Mark Orgill introduced the local artist. “I can’t believe I am an Art Star, and I can’t believe I committed myself to 50 portraits; I can’t wait to start.”

Other winners:

Best arts program went to the Malpaso Dance Company, a production by Laguna Dance Festival. Founder Jodie Gates accepted the award.

Malcolm Warner, executive director of the Laguna Art Museum, won as best arts leader. He thanked co-nominees Pat Sparkuhl and Robert Whalen, the latter for helping push through a sizable city grant to rehabilitate what Warner called a “decrepit building.”

Olivia Bachelder was chosen as artist of the year. “I was dazed and delighted. It felt grand to be acknowledged,” she said. Known for her colorful printed silk creations, Bachelder recruited an international group of fabric artists for last summer’s “Wrap Festival” at the Sawdust Festival.

The Intergenerational Literacy Enhancement Project was recognized as the outstanding arts collaboration. Laguna Outreach for Community Arts operates the project in conjunction with other organizations.

Patrons of the year, Suzanne and James Mellor

Montage Laguna Beach became corporate arts patron of the year, and Suzanne and Jim Mellor were honored as individual arts patrons. Ms. Mellor is a member of the city’s Arts Commission, while Mr. Mellor is the chairman of LCAD’s board. “Where ever we have lived, we have put our energies into supporting the arts,” Ms. Mellor said.

The post Alliance Celebrates 10 Years of Art Stars appeared first on Laguna Beach Local News.

No Square Theater produces a show around little recognized master lyricist Dorothy Fields.

“I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” “I’m in the Mood for Love,” and “On the Sunny Side of the Street” are among 400 generation-spanning hit songs written by Dorothy Fields (1904-1974).

Recorded by the likes of Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand, performed by Broadway stars and warbled by street buskers, they are part of the American songbook.

But Fields? That a woman who worked in relative obscurity penned unforgettable tunes comparable to contemporaries such as George Gershwin and Irving Berlin has not been lost on No Square Theater’s Bree Burgess Rosen.

She and musical director Roxanna Ward pay homage in a biographical concert, “Out in Left Fields,” Friday and Saturday, April 8-9, part of the theater’s American Songbook Series. The 7:30 p.m. show takes place in Legion Hall, 384 Legion St.

“The title was Roxanna’s idea,” remarked Rosen. “It’s a tribute to Fields who wrote with the greats and was the only female writer on Broadway at the time. All these hits, and she’s still largely unknown because she was a woman,” said Rosen, adding that Fields won an Oscar in 1936 for “The Way You Look Tonight,” from the film “Swing Time.”

In her own life, “….Tonight” makes for cherished memories. “I used to sing my son to sleep with this song,” recalled Rosen.

Fields wrote the lyrics for “Annie Get Your Gun” alongside musical composer Irving Berlin.

Cast member Pat Kollenda described Fields’ lyrics as “beyond amazing” and fun to sing. “Rhythm of Life” from the musical “Sweet Charity,” with lyrics also written by Fields, are another Kollenda fave. “No one remembers her name, but everybody knows her songs,” she said.

Another cast member, Debbie Meeker, recalls that her grandmother, a concert pianist who performed at Carnegie Hall, played Fields’ music for three decades. “It’s music close to my heart,” she said.

Cast for “I’m In The Mood For Love,” Meeker calls songs from Fields’ era “positive, beautifully written, uplifting and kind to the listener.”

While not picking a favorite, she said her duet with Rob Harryman in “A Fine Romance” provides an emotional lift. “It’s a romance that turns out to be not so fine and shows that Fields’ had audacity, writing some naughty lines,” said Meeker.

Rosen recalls that “Left Fields” performances in 2000, with an 18-member cast, sold out over two weekends. This time, the cast numbers 10, all costumed in evening wear. “Instead of having a lot of voices, we have fewer that are really strong,” said Rosen. “There are solos and duets, which makes for good exposure for a small and elegant cast.”

Rehearsing the show proved an unexpected hurdle due to recent downtown traffic congestion. “We only had six rehearsals since I could not book three more because of the traffic. That’s a first,” she said.

The theater is offering 30 percent off its online ticket price “in honor” of the pesky inconvenience. “Just type in ‘traffic’ in the code box,” she said.

Known for her ear for comedic opportunity, Rosen figures that the debacle will find its way into this year’s production of “Lagunatics,” the yearly spoof of everything Laguna Beach. “That traffic and the escaped goats, of course,” she quipped.

The post Theatre Spotlights a Little Recognized Musical Gem appeared first on Laguna Beach Local News.

Renewed interest in Laguna Beach’s history of greeters stems from the newly released film “Greeter Documentary.”
Photo by Jody Tiongco.

It’s faded and cracked from the elements, and the hand is missing a thumb. Even so, the sculpture of Eiler Larsen, the Danish vagabond who metamorphosed into the revered Laguna Beach greeter, still draws throngs of visitors who pass his corner at Forest Ave and Coast Highway 41 years after his death in 1975.

Tourists pause to read his commemorative plaque and pose for selfies while longtime residents remember a character who tried to light up everyone’s daily life.

Sculptor Guy Angelo Wilson is intent on restoring the likeness he carved from aged redwood to its former glory and recently contacted local Martin Yewchuk, who recently produced a film documentary about the four men, including Larsen, that took on the task of welcoming Laguna’s visitors over the last century.

How the statue came into being is almost as colorful as its subject.

Larsen first wandered into Laguna Beach in 1938 from San Francisco, where he lived. Intrigued by the Pageant of the Masters, that year he was cast to play Judas in the re-enactment of Leonardo DaVinci’s “Last Supper,” according to Gregg DiNicola, of the Laguna Beach Historical Society. Larsen commuted from San Francisco to Laguna Beach to take part in the Pageant, but settled here permanently in 1942.

Bearded, with shoulder-length hair and typically wearing a lumberjack’s shirt with blue pants or overalls, Larsen became a fixture with his cheerily booming “Helloooo” and wave at passersby.

That depiction is how Wilson carved him in 1985 from an 800-year-old redwood log fished from the Big River at Mendocino. “I first heard about sinker logs, logs that have been at the bottom of the river for a long time, while giving wood carving demonstrations for Paul Bunyan Day in the vicinity of Fort Bragg,” explained Wilson, now of Portland, Ore.

After seeing how well the tree, with its dense texture and tightly formed rings, had aged, Wilson acquired the log. “It’s beautiful wood with a purplish tinge, used for the finest grade of furniture, even if it smells like a musty attic,” he recalled. “At the time I was not even thinking about Eiler being born the same year, 1890, that the tree was cut down and branded, but later it occurred to me that this was indeed Eiler’s log,” said Wilson.

Having just received the private commission to produce Larsen’s likeness, Wilson carted the historic piece of wood to his former studio in Santa Fe Springs and went to work. “I had done a lot of research on Eiler and found that he was a voracious reader, always carrying a book and a pencil in his jacket pocket,” he said.

As for his facial features, they are modeled on old photographs of Larsen and Luther, an 80-something fellow student at Cal State Long Beach working toward a master’s degree in gerontology, who filled in to pose for facial expressions and gestures, recalled Wilson.

After Wilson formed a clay likeness and carved a wood maquette, he went to work on the six-foot statue, carving the wood and re-enforcing limbs with a stainless steel skeleton. Today, he is willing to sacrifice the wooden maquette to re-create Larsen’s missing thumb. “It’s carved from the same log, so the wood will match,” he explained. He also plans to re-coat the figure with a mixture of oil and turpentine. “I don’t want to put layers of varnish on it because they dull the sharpness of carved lines.”

The owner of the Greeter’s Corner Restaurant first approached Wilson about the commission while he worked in a friend’s studio carving tiki statuettes for Oceanic Arts, a Whittier enterprise specializing in Polynesian decor. Statuary at Disneyland’s original Tiki Room attraction, which was redone in 2005, bore Wilson’s imprimatur. “I used to get paid by the foot for the tikis,” said Wilson, which provided his livelihood while earning a bachelor’s degree in fine art at CSLB. He earned a master’s with an emphasis on sculpture and installation at the Claremont Graduate School.

Promotion of the “Greeter Documentary,” which will screen again Wednesday, April 20, at the Forum Theater on the Festival of Arts grounds, helped Wilson connect with the filmmaker and kindle interest by the restaurant’s owner in repairing the statue, according to Yewchuk. It’s also revived interest in an older, cement-cast version of Eiler Larsen by Charles Beauvais, located at the corner of Coast Highway and Brooks Street. There, the latest incarnation of greeters lives on in Michael Minutoli, who shouts out greetings sporting white gloves, a captain’s hat and earphones tuned to dance tunes.

Larsen died on March 19, 1975, just a week shy of his 85th birthday on March 27, and Wilson expresses amazement at the longevity of his legacy. “Sometimes I look for him still on the internet and I am amazed at pictures of the statue surrounded by people standing around him and waving. He’s still doing his thing.”

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Her genre may be plein-air painting, but for April Raber that classification goes beyond bucolic meadows, mist-shrouded mountains and sunny beaches. Raber will think nothing of setting up her easel in the industrial wilds of Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York, immortalizing bridges, railroads, grain elevators and power plants, beams and angles and anything that fascinates her in places often overlooked.

Consequently, her paintings tend to be substantial with a near physical presence, as if to accommodate those massive man-made constructions, which she depicts with the skill of an accomplished painter while also evidencing a photographer’s eye for the interplay of light and shadow. “There is so much beauty around here,” said Raber, a 10–year Laguna Beach resident whose studio boasts a majestic view of the ocean. She is a member of the Laguna Plein-Air Painters Association and has exhibited her work at the Festival of Arts for the last 10 years.

Recently, she was close to finishing “Air and Iron,” an urbanscape focused on the underside of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. The oil painting will be on view at her Temple Hills area home-studio, part of the third annual free, self-guided Art Along the Coast Art Studio Tour. It features 12 artists between Laguna Beach and San Clemente on Saturday and Sunday, April 23 and 24, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., respectively. An map and participating artists can be found at www.artalongthecoast.com .

Founding participant and mixed media artist Mia Moore said that this year’s tour is built on the success of the previous ones, which drew at least 100 guests that proved eager art buyers.

Mixed media artist Carolyn Machado, magical realism painter Paul Bond,

Artist Carolyn Machado opens her studio to visitors for an art tour as well.

glass artist Sherry Salito-Forsen and Moore conceived the idea of showing their work in the off-season as a preview for visitors they expect to see during their summer stint at the Festival of Arts, explained Moore. Bond said that the group’s goal is to offer collectors and viewers an opportunity to discover how ideas, technique and creativity result in a work of art worth acquiring.

“We asked 12 people to take part every year but really had no expectation of the outcome,” said Moore. “The fabulous effect of the tours is that we are introducing new artists and clients to each other who later come and visit everyone come summer,” she said. As before, visitors will be able to sample refreshments and libations. “It’s an opportunity for people to get to know us in a more intimate way,” she added.

Raber is a tour newcomer. Her diverse body of work reflects her travels throughout the nation, her strength to conquer adversity and illness and her upbringing as the eldest of 10 children. “My parents designed and built their own house and furniture and we also made some of our own clothes. It was a life closely modeled on that of earlier pioneers,” recalled Rabe. “I helped my father lay brick,” she said.

Art-minded since early childhood, she earned a bachelor’s in art and design from Brigham Young University in Utah and began her artistic career as a designer of books and magazines.

As for the multitudinous presence of trains in her paintings, those were created during trips to Nevada and beyond where her engineer husband David enjoys driving trains as a hobby, she explained.

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After the latest of three incidents of vandalism to “Semper Memento,” the memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Laguna Beach police recently installed a surveillance camera in its vicinity in Heisler Park.

While none of the previous perpetrators have ever been caught, police now have the area under surveillance in case of another attempt should occur, LBPD Capt. Jason Kravetz said last week. Another 20 similar security cameras installed throughout the community aid police in monitoring vehicle traffic and criminal conduct and some include views of other public art works, but not by specific intent, Kravetz said. Feeds come into the police dispatch center.

Damage is discover to Semper Memento. Photo by Andrea Adelson.

The new park surveillance camera comes in the wake of missives to city officials beginning on March 6 by the memorial’s creator, Laguna Beach artist Jorg Dubin. His queries involved whether the work should be repaired or replaced and how it can be protected from similar attacks.

“I want this handled and fixed. How do we proceed?” wrote Mayor Steve Dicterow in reply to the initial notice about the vandalism.

Damage this time extends beyond mere scratches or dents. Dubin thinks repairs require the complete removal of the stainless steel sphere and its steel base. The artist initially removed the sphere and base from the site, bringing it to his studio for close analysis, but then replaced it after being reminded that the installation is city property.

City Manager John Pietig suggested that Dubin work with the Arts Commission to establish the nature, scheduling and pricing of repairs to the work. Dubin estimated repair costs at between $1,000 and $1,500 while replacement would cost up to $5,000.

He protested the delay in seeking commission approval to make the repairs. “Just a reminder that my name is on this piece and I take it personally that it was I who discovered the damage and now have to live with the piece damaged for all to see just so the people who are suppose too be overseeing the arts program want to have a chat about it. They didn’t do their job. I have!” Dubin wrote.

“While I understand the Arts Commission’s role in the public art approval process, I do scratch my head and wonder why the artist’s recommended repair needs to go before the Commission,” Council member Robert Zur Schmiede wrote. “Why can’t staff can’t just work with Dubin to effect the repair?”

The city’s cultural arts manager, Sîan Poeschl, said that the Arts Commission wants to make an “informed decision” about the range of repair estimates.

Laguna allots $10,000 a year to maintain and restore its 75-work collection of public art, said Poeschl.

Others share Dubin’s concerns over the stewardship of Laguna’s public art works.

Another local artist, Andrew Meyers, recently restored “The Shopper,” a sculpture installed in 2004 on Ocean Avenue. “She was looking a little beat up with weather and salt air having an effect on her patina, and we decided to give her a face lift,” said Meyers.

After working with Poeschl, he said that the city offered him a stipend of $500 for the restoration. He also expressed concern for the state of nearby public works of art. “Cultural arts programs do what they can, but their art has deteriorated. Someone needs to stay on top of it; there has to be a sufficient budget for an ongoing maintenance program,” he said.

A report by the Getty Conservation Institute on the conservation of public art attributes acts vandalism to works in larger metropolitan areas mostly to “human nature.” “The conservation and maintenance of public art exist where the desire for control and the desire for freedom intersect, mirroring tension throughout our culture between the urge to preserve memory and history and the value we place on freedom of expression and living in the moment….” the report says.

After the third act of vandalism, Dubin, along with some others, now wonder if the damage is an act of political protest. “….Not only is this an affront to the victims of 9-11 but it is as well to all of us. It is clear to me that something has to be done to protect this symbol of this most horrible event in recent American history,” wrote Dubin in his first email to city officials.

Not everyone sees “Semper Memento” as a political statement. “For me a work of art is political when it expresses a certain point of view about something or someone in the public arena. I am not sure how Jorg’s piece would qualify,” wrote Malcolm Warner, executive director of the Laguna Art Museum. “Most memorials like Jorg’s 9-11 piece are also works of art, and it’s depressing to hear that it’s been vandalized again.”

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New Members Join Arts Commission

The City Council appointed Karen Wood and Mike Stice as two new members to the Arts Commission last week and re-appointed incumbents, architect Donna Ballard and artist Suzi Chauvel. Ballard is the commission’s current chair.

All will begin their two-years terms on July 1.

Wood, the former executive director of Laguna Playhouse, beat out Laguna Beach arts activist G.Ray Kerciu by a single vote.

“During the eight years I have so far lived in Laguna Beach, I have always wanted to be an Arts Commissioner but time has not allowed that until now,” said Wood, whose application lists her current occupation as arts consultant. “I am delighted to have been chosen to help serve the community I love,” said Wood.

Stice is listed as the communications manager of the Laguna College of Art and Design on its website. He previously worked 22 years at the Laguna Art Museum, his application says.

Other applicants included art history professor and curator Gene Cooper, public relations and marketing consultant Nancy Nicoli, artist Muffin Spencer Devlin, artist installer Kevin Ware and artist Cliff Wasserman.

Commission Approves Repair to 9-11 Memorial

The Arts Commission unanimously voted to repair the thrice vandalized Heisler Park installation “Semper Memento,” allotting $1,000 for the project at its April 25 meeting.

Artist Jorg Dubin, who created the memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, submitted estimates in that amount to repair damage inflicted on the work’s reflecting globe.

At the meeting, Dubin reiterated his belief that public art is being neglected due to poor oversight by the city and the Arts Commission. “We know how much you disrespect us; I take offense at that,” Commission Chair Donna Ballard countered, pointing out that members are volunteers. As is he when checking on the condition of a city-owned work, Dubin said.

Commission members Carmen Salazar and Pat Kollenda endorsed repairing the stainless steel sphere, its base and its stem.

“Repairing the piece would give us time to look at permanent alternatives,” said Kollenda.

Protective measures under consideration include a permanent camera system and decreased accessibility to the installation by surrounding it with prickly landscaping.

A camera system surveying its surrounding area is currently in place, according to Laguna Beach P.D.

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