Women of the arts fund-raise for club

OUR LAGUNA

Several new faces showed up Sunday to exhibit at the Laguna Beach

Woman’s Club Women Artists Show.

“It’s a great event,” said Suzanne Short, well known for her works

painted by mouth, but a first-time exhibitor at the show.

Well, she only had one previous chance. This was just the second

time the club has held the show. Probably twice as many exhibitors

entered the show this year.

The entry fee was an artwork donated to the club. Donated pieces

were auctioned off as a fund-raiser for the club and for the Laguna

Outreach Community Artists.

LOCA members Mada Leach, Patricia Whiteside Phillips and Julita

Jones; Sue Linder of Slowsky Glass Arts, and Hooker Earrings inventor

Barbara Barnett gave pieces, although they didn’t exhibit. Newport

Film Festival donated two opening night tickets.

“I am here to support the club,” said artist and Farmer’s Market

manager Jennifer Griffiths.

Ceramist Barbara Schuppe showed both functional pieces and jewelry

that featured chunky ceramic crosses.

“The crosses are dear to my heart,” said Schuppe, who also has

exhibited in the Sawdust Festival.

She has lived in town for 17 years and has a studio in Bluebird

Canyon.

“This is a great event,” Schuppe said.

Other ceramists included Katy Hewitt and Katey Takahashi.

The doors had barely opened to the public at 3 p.m. when Marsha

Bode purchased a vase, a sushi set and a pot from Takahashi

Mosaic artist Marian Prado brought along her daughter, Miranda,

for company. Iris Adam’s daughter, Coral Bodnar, who also came to

keep her mother company, carried on for Adam when the Art-a-Fair

exhibitor fell and was taken to South Coast Medical Center for

treatment.

“She told me I had to take over,” Bodnar said.

Bridgette Marie Garcia, a resident here since she was 2 years old

and a Festival of Arts Scholarship winner, exhibited her watercolors.

Hedy Buzan, also an exhibitor at the show, practically grew up at the

Festival of Arts. She likes to give back to the community by bringing

art to Laguna schools.

“I am doing something new this year.” Buzan said. “I will be

teaching an art history class on Laguna’s early artists to El Morro

fourth-graders at the end of this month.”

Painters who exhibited works in Sunday’s show included Sheryl

Seltzer and Jeane Baer. Baer’s works can be seen at Cove Gallery.

Michele Smith paints floor cloths, an art form from colonial days

when most folks couldn’t afford carpets. Her work is signed “Mike.”

Glass artists in the show included Erika Bauer, who paints

existing pieces and fires them; Leslie Davies, whose mouth-blown

pieces also were exhibited in the club’s show last year, and Linda

Ames.

“I make all my own beads and then create the pieces,” she said.

“The beaded cuffs take about 14 hours to make, earrings maybe two

hours. But I can’t even estimate how long it might take to make some

of the larger pieces.”

Some beaded drop earrings were priced at $20, an opera length

necklace at $125, and more elaborate pieces up to $325.

Photographers Rosimon and Lynn Weise exhibited their work Sunday.

Weise was among the artists showcased last year in a City Hall show.

Jessica de Stefano exhibited small busts of Coastline Pilot

restaurant reviewer Glori Fickling, photographer Doug Miller,

Councilman Wayne Baglin, poet Peter Wahl and artist Leonard Kaplan,

all easily recognizable.

De Stefano, who has made collectible figurines for the past 20

years, calls the busts Cloned in Clay. They cost about $200.

Each bust takes three short sittings and about 30 post-sitting

hours to complete. Artist Terrell Anansi was sitting for a bust at

the show.

De Stefano also exhibited examples of her yoga and fairy

figurines. She will be conducting a Recreation Department class on

making and selling small clay sculptures April 2 through 30.

Registration is $55.

Bette Anderson, Janet Pressman, Judy Pettigrew, Karen Schwager and

Joanne Kaplan were among the browsers at the show.

Works by Schwager and Andy Wing are being shown at Wells Fargo

Bank on Ocean Avenue. Schwager’s work is also being exhibited at the

Aliso Viejo Library. Kaplan, wife of artist Leonard Kaplan,

represented Wing at one time and did a docent’s program on him at the

Laguna Art Museum.

“He is very good and very collectible,” Kaplan said.

Volunteers who organized the club’s show included Veronica Nice,

Sande St. John and Sandy Thornton, Jan Barbieri, Gavin Kentle, Anne

Wood, Joan Trivett and Kenny Anderson.

Don Black hung with Anderson at the coffee service table. They are

both members of the Orange County Distinguished Flying Cross Society.

The medals are awarded for exemplary service to one’s country.

“We had our first meeting two weeks ago,” said Black, who was

elected secretary of the fledgling group.

Anderson said he didn’t see any other Laguna Beach residents

there.

Trivett should have been awarded a medal for exemplary service to

the club. She showed up despite a hectic weekend that included a

training workshop for spiritual directors from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Saturday, a Laguna Presbyterian Church Women’s Retreat at the

Salvation Army Camp in Ramona, a morning meeting on Sunday and the

drive back to Laguna in time to start setting up the Women Artists

Show for a 3 p.m. opening.

YOU GOTTA HAVE ART

The Arts Commission was satisfied that a mural by Mia Tavonatti

satisfied the city’s Art in Public Places requirement for a property

being developed at 270 Brooks St.

Tavonatti’s mosaic is titled “Nautilus Shell.” It is created of

hand-cut glass tiles rimmed in copper and measures 2 by 4 feet.

The mural, which will be visible from Brooks Street, will include

a plaque identifying the artist and the artwork.

Tavonatti said it takes her 18 hours to complete one square foot.

The mural will cost $4,500.

* OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box

248, Laguna Beach, 92652, hand-deliver to 384 Forest Ave., Suite 22;

call 494-4321 or fax 494-8979.