Laguna Beach's Sawdust Festival

Us artists are really an interesting breed.  We love to create art and show off our art.  We like to sell it even more.  But sheesh, take a picture and they come unglued.  As if a photo can even replace the real deal.  I don't get it, but then again I'm not in the no-photo mindset. This placard or similar WAS ALL OVER THE PLACE at the Sawdust Festival in Laguna Beach yesterday.

I'd have some pics of the niftiness that is the Sawdust Festival but honestly its not worth ruffling feathers to make a point.

What is the Sawdust Festival?  ITs a gathering of 200 artists that live in Laguna Beach, and only from there that sell their art from tiny, often 4X6 spaces within a square block area.  They charge admission.  ITS hugely popular and traffic in and out of Laguna Canyon is a challenge.  I'd suggest a xanax before you make the drive but you really need your wits about you with that traffic.

Parking is a bigger challenge, lots charge as much as $20 for a part day close to the event.  There are some cheaper lots, $7day, and metered parking 25cents/10 minutes around the Sawdust Festival.  Generally the cheaper the rate the farther you have to hike to get there.

Buy your tickets online and save yourself the hassle of a line there.  Its not free, but if you can't spare $7.25 a head I know you can't afford the art in there that can costs in the thousands of dollars.

Once in its sensory overload.  Its all quality art and fine crafts.  Not a piece of crap in the place.  Prices start from uber affordable note cards at a couple of bucks each to the aforementioned thousands for original paintings, sculptures and furniture.  I even walked away with ideas for future art projects so it was an afternoon well spent.

Yikes...3 months passed

Nope. Didn't forget this blog. Actually it has weighed heavily on my mind. Why? I've got a block just like a "writers block". I am in a quandary as to what I want to explore next and nothing seems to grab my attention. Arghhh....I may just force myself to do an image a day until I break through to the next area of exploration.

Today would have been the start date but I hit a snag. I committed the cardinal sin of digital photography. I didn't install the freshly charged battery in the camera and arrived at the river with no functioning good camera. Just the trusty cell phone camera which I used to grab a couple of quick pics including the one here. More tomorrow providing it isn't raining, or should I venture out in the rain?

In show news I've been invited to be a showing artist at the Sierra Madre Art Festival in May. I think I'll do that.

Charity Art Sale 11/29/08 12PM-6PM

Sometimes life makes some interesting twists.  I got invited to attend the Charity Art Event sponsored by the ARA Project.  ARA Project is a non-profit group working with an Armenian Charity to bring relief and aid to the neediest children in the rural areas of Armenia .  All the artists are donating 25% of their sales to the charity.  Yes, that means 25% of your purchase is tax deductible while benefitting some children and decorating your walls.

 The Charity Art Sale is a one day only event, and certainly a nice distraction from the malls.  It will take place at the Villa del Sol dʼOro in Sierra Madre.  There will be wine, cheese, live music and of course a lot of great art for sale.  There will also be a silent auction and I will have a piece in that with all the proceeds then going directly to the charity.

I'm glad to have the chance to participate as this fits in with my goal of donating a piece a month this year to charitable groups for their fund raising purposes.  I may not be rich but can support their cause with these donations.  I haven't decided yet which piece will be used, I may give them the Arched Walkway for the silent auction. 

Now here comes the bizarre twist in a 6 degrees of separation sort of way.  I signed on long before I found out that Wine of the Month Club here in Monrovia is the primary sponsor of the event.  WotMC is owned by Paul Kalemkiarian.  My Uncle Dan VanDorpe did the engineering and design work for Paulʼs Father-in-laws trash recycling plant many years ago.  How is that for paths re-crossing on new lines!

Villa del Sol d'Oro is located at 200 N Michillinda Ave, Sierra Madre.  They do have a suggested donation of $20 at the door and I can't tell you how hard they'll strong arm you for it on the way in.

All the details you could want are on the attached oversized postcard above that does get bigger with a click.

Hope to see you all, if you can help out on the silent auction that would be great, if not we certainly can tip a few glasses of wine and chat away real time.

Icons and stuff

Nothing screams LA or So Cal in general quite like the Palm Tree. Miami tries to use it, but they keep having hurricanes blow them away.

I have a love hate relationship with them. They do bring drama to a skyline. They do symbolize the old Hollywood of myth and romanticism. Unfortunately when a frond decides to fall they can do some serious damage when they hit something. Rats love them for nesting at the top. They make great torches when a bottle rocket hits them igniting all the dried stuff.

As always this was shot RAW, 3 bracketed frames. Photomatix was used for the HDR file generation and tone mapping. The final wash for the unnatural saturation of the old cibachrome stuff was done with the help of Virtual Photographer.

Am in full prep mode. Processing images then printing. Soon is framing and matting time...ugga.

Don't forget, mark your calenders for the Monrovia Association of Fine Arts Celebrate the Arts on October 11 & 12. At the community center across from the Library Park in Old Town Monrovia on Palm Avenue. I'll have a lot of what you have seen the last few weeks at the show.