Crossing the aisle: Three FOA newcomers 080224

Share this story...

Crossing the aisle: Three FOA newcomers arrive from Laguna’s other art festivals

By MARRIE STONE

Photos by Jeff Rovner

Like people, Laguna’s summer art festivals each have their own personality and style. The Sawdust offers a family-friendly experience full of whimsical fun. Art-A-Fair promises a diverse range of artistic offerings at affordable price points. The Festival of Arts (FOA) provides an air of sophistication for collectors looking to invest in fine art.

Of course, that’s all an oversimplification. None of these festivals can be reduced to single-sentence descriptions. Nor can the artists who exhibit in them. As Walt Whitman famously said, we all contain multitudes.

Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that a long tradition exists in town of artists showing in more than one festival each summer. Watercolorist David Milton, graphite artist David Kizziar and woodworker Randy Bader, for example, have shown in both the Sawdust and FOA for years. Likewise, mixed media artist Yuri Kuznetsov exhibits at Art-A-Fair and FOA. These are just a few of the many who leverage the strength of each show to highlight different work and explore different aspects of their own artistic personalities.

This year, three new FOA exhibitors working across three different mediums arrived from the two other shows. Glass artist Siân Poeschl and landscape painter Lovisa Kjerrgren both exhibit at the Sawdust, and photographer John Straub shows at Art-A-Fair.

Click on photo for a larger image

Glass artist Siân Poeschl is one of several exhibitors who shows in multiple festivals, and one of three newcomers to the FOA show this year

I was curious what drew these artists to exhibit at two different shows. After all, it’s a significant commitment to build, stock and manage two separate booths, not to mention the energy required to run between them. As Kjerrgren told me, dual exhibitors are the sweatiest artists in the show. I wanted to know how they adapted their work to reflect each festival’s ethos and kept two businesses running at once.

The fine and fun art of landscape painter Lovisa Kjerrgren

Swedish-born Lovisa Kjerrgren hit the ground running in Laguna’s festival scene. Last year was her first year at Sawdust. Today she finds herself showing two bodies of work in two separate shows. But even if each exhibit has a distinct look and feel, both embody her unique style. Inspired by the natural world, every piece reflects Kjerrgren’s background as a landscape architect. “Nature is where everything starts,” she said. “In the last year or two, the work has become more graphic, more playful, more pop-like. I pushed that [aesthetic] for Sawdust, which feels like the quirkier show.

“For the FOA, I’m showing my fine artwork, which is very considered and precise. It emphasizes Laguna’s hillsides, which I feel are an under-appreciated element of Laguna. People flock to the beaches, but the hills are the town’s backyard. It’s something I’ve wanted to highlight. So, I joke that the Sawdust is my fun art, while the FOA is my fine art.”

Click on photo for a larger image

Painter Lovisa Kjerrgren can be found at FOA Booth 111

In addition to the Sawdust providing a more playful atmosphere for self-expression, it also gives artists more latitude with their booth design. This year, Kjerrgren partnered with Dylan Arthur Howard to build a double booth that reflects a synergistic style and sensibility between the two artists. “The joke has been that at Sawdust we built a mansion. At FOA, I built a dollhouse,” she said. “At the Sawdust, we had two pieces of real estate that allowed us to build a generous seating area where friends and family can hang out. As a first-time FOA exhibitor, I only have an eight-foot wall, so everything is smaller and more controlled.”

The smaller space demands that Kjerrgren be intentional about the work she shows. “It needs to have a point of view that stays consistent,” she said. “At the Sawdust, I can be more playful. It’s a more diverse show and I’m embracing the fun.”

Click on photo for a larger image

Lovisa Kjerrgren shares Booth 703 with Dylan Arthur Howard at the Sawdust Festival

The tradeoff for fun means amassing a book of serious collectors. Kjerrgren met one such patron at the Sawdust and guided her to the FOA show. There, Kjerrgren showed her more refined work, got a sense of the collector’s style and pulled pieces from her inventory while her buyer attended the Pageant. During the Pageant’s intermission, Kjerrgren presented the patron with various options. She ultimately invested in two collectable pieces.

“That was a satisfying sale,” she said. “She got what she really wanted. And I got my steps in that day.”

Click open story button to continue reading…

The heart and soul of fine art photographer John Straub

For other artists, different festivals afford them the opportunity to showcase two opposing bodies of work and entirely divergent aspects of their artistic personalities. Fine art photographer John Straub has developed an award-winning reputation at Art-A-Fair over the past seven years for his playful “My Teeny Life” series.

Starting with everyday evocative objects – like a martini glass, cigar, pizza or ice cream cone – Straub creates dynamic storylines by incorporating miniature people engaging in unexpected fun. In Necessary Vices a scuba diver swims through a glass of scotch while, above, divers perch on a lit cigar readying themselves for a plunge into the whiskey. Bagel Bar features an open-faced sandwich with tiny fishermen casting their reels into the hole while, across the way, a team works to carry capers. Every part of the scene is staged, shot, edited, matted and framed by Straub. The pieces are colorful, whimsical and wholly unique.

Click on photo for a larger image

Fine Art Photographer John Straub’s “My Teeny Life” series can be found at the Art-A-Fair in Booth B15

At FOA, Straub’s mood is completely different. Decaying Dreams is a body of black and white images taken at the Salton Sea over a three-year period. They’re documentary rather than playful, and more melancholy than happy. But their mood is evocative, and the viewer can’t help but wonder at the sad stories that lie behind each scene.

“I would see these things – waterskies and boats and yacht clubs – and I would think about the stories they have to tell. People lived there. Families enjoyed themselves. Maybe they had second homes. And this is what happened to them,” he said.

As Straub researched the area, he discovered the shrinking sea caused a health hazard to communities in the nearby Imperial Valley, resulting in much higher rates of childhood asthma.

“I get such positive feedback on these images. People always comment that they’re beautiful, but they don’t want to buy them. I totally get it. They don’t want depressing art hanging in their homes,” he said.

But some do. Straub has already sold enough pieces at the FOA to pay for his booth. Everything else, he said, is gravy. He’s just out to have the most fun he can this summer.

Click on photo for a larger image

Straub’s “Decaying Dreams” series can be found at the FOA in Booth 25

Across the street, “My Teeny Life” sells extremely well. Fortunately, his wife – oil painter Monique Straub – also exhibits at Art-A-Fair and is on hand to help. “That work is more my personality,” Straub said. “I watch the big grins on people’s faces. They read the titles and ask how I do it. It makes them happy. People love happy art.”

The collectable and functional art of glassmaker Siân Poeschl

As a classically trained dancer and choreographer, glass artist Siân Poeschl brought her whole self into the work she selected for the FOA show. Her fused glass pieces, which each require at least seven days in the firing process alone, seem an impossible feat for the medium. Rather than fragile and rigid, Poeschl’s pieces feel like colorful and carefully woven tapestries.

“I wanted to experiment and create dimension to the work,” she said. “I’m interested in how things move and how you catch your breath in a piece. I wanted to create that sense of movement and flow in this work, taking glass into shapes where it doesn’t necessarily like to go and giving it that sense of performance.”

Click on photo for a larger image

Glass artist Siân Poeschl’s pieces can be found at the FOA in Booth 1

Growing up in the U.K., Welsh tapestries hung in the backdrop during Poeschl’s whole childhood. “Clothing and fabrics and textures were always important to me. Maybe that sunk in and influenced me,” she said. “They’re in my DNA and come out subconsciously in my work.”

The visitor’s experience varies depending on their proximity to Poeschl’s pieces. Stand back and enjoy the work as a whole. Then dive in and explore. The more time you spend, the more will be revealed. “I wanted to have the viewer be able to read it from afar, and then continue discovering things the longer and closer they looked,” she said.

Poeschl has shown her fused glass work at the Sawdust for the past 23 years, although the collection there is more diverse and the pieces smaller. It includes her woven glass, but also jewelry, dishes, mirrors, windchimes, platters, candle holders and bowls. While the Sawdust creates space to showcase whimsical pieces at lower price points, the FOA offers the opportunity to focus on a singular body of work.

For Poeschl, it’s the diversity of the artists and the synergy between them that makes each festival wonderful and unique. Visitors are exposed to different types of art and can see the breadth and depth of work created in Orange County. For artists, it’s a collective endeavor with a couple hundred other exhibitors to create that singular experience.

The FOA welcomes roughly 200,000 visitors each summer. The Sawdust around 180,000. That’s a lot of eyes on their work.

“How lucky we are to live, show our work and operate our small businesses in Laguna Beach,” she said. “And I can walk to work. No carbon footprint and no parking space needed!”