Meeting the artists at Redlands Festival of Arts and Art in the Park Memorial Day Weekend

The sun was bright among the white pavilions at the Redlands Festival of Arts. I snaked my way along the booths, finding old favorites from the years past and new, until I stopped at a booth which mentioned 100 days. Someone else has done 100 day-projects? I had to see that.

My friend Katie took a 100 day road trip last summer. I’ve done The 100 Day Project numerous times and am at the end of finishing one for my creative art making (I call it dabble or play) in the next couple of weeks. I stepped into the earthy toned booth and my eyes immediately noticed all the treasures. I pick them up too, in parking lots and trails, in the US and abroad (primarily Denmark). Little trinkets, bolts, metal washers, pieces of broken jewelry and lots of flattened bottle caps. I am not the only one, Sue Connor does it too. Or she did for the 100 days that she walked around her neighborhood picking up nature material and trinkets to assemble one hundred art pieces.

“This installation was an exploration of time, memory and the beauty of the overlooked,” was the statement next to the art pieces exhibited. We could buy a piece of the one hundred, the pieces would then be spread into many homes returning to the state of apart, after having been collected. From many to one to many again.

“In a fast-moving world, juxtaposition encourages pause and contemplation. It is an act of noticing, a tribute to the past, and a reminder that even the smallest, most forgotten pieces hold meaning. Above all; it reflects a journey of creativity and reverence - proof that time spent observing, creating, and honoring the unnoticed is truly time well spent,” writes Sue Connor. She told me, that each man-made trinket she found made her think of the time it had taken for the metal to be extracted, the time people had spent creating the metal into a shape and why not honor that journey.

Someone has touched this item before you, this item has been touched by a hundred hands, and now it’s in yours. I think about that sometimes about the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the books we read. What items have we made from scratch really? None. Everything contains a story, I correct, stories.

I spoke with Sue Priest, one of the many featured artists I have written about first in Redlands Community News and now in Community Forward Redlands. These artists give me an insight into their artist story, why they create what they create and the joy of following one’s creativity (we all have it in various ways).

Priest creates dreamlike images in copper using heat to bend the metal to her will, the results are mesmerizing to me. I heard about her going through cancer treatments, how do you keep doing art through an ordeal like that and Priest said, you just do. For some artists, making art is as natural as it is to train for athletes or writing for writers, you gotta keep doing it or your system gets clogged up.

Adeola Davies-Aiyeloja described this fantastic art show she did in LA about sacred imprints which then became ancestral women warriors. She traveled to Ghana to find her ancestral spirit and drew on Jamaican culture bringing in such intricate details in each picture. One had leaves trailing the arms of the woman warrior, and the imprint came from leaves from a plant they use in healing and tea in Jamaica. She called the three women dancing, the three graces (from Greek mythology: Beauty, joy and fertility). I saw them as warriors of past - present - future.

Art happens in conversation with the viewer, just like any art form. It’s living.

One of the powerful messages in Davies-Aiyeloja’s art was how she embraced all generations, the ancestral grandmothers, the mature and the young woman. And I loved how she was able to use photographs imprinted on the fabric, something she will do with the picture of your grandmother if you commission her to it.

Brittany Mondragon1 described the long process2 it takes to make good art at her booth: prepare and tone the canvas, do research, make an abstract background, tone the background, paint and varnish. We talked about the thought process and she explained to a young art student that the velociraptor skeleton was surrounded by deadly plants, the foliage was not chosen for their visual pleasantness alone but a much more sinister one.

I looked with intrigue at Pamela Fall’s photographs, which she said she printed on watercolor paper, then painted on top of the images with watercolors and at the end inked the edges. Her Italian images were photographic watercolors. Fascinating.

And then there was Tiffany who moved to Redlands four years ago with her husband and kids from Texas. She became a member of Redlands Art Association and had a booth in the Art in the Park-section. All of her paintings of faces had such deep expressions, her husband called them stoic, I called them full of personality. They made me think. The photo I took of her art (above) was of a place I want to visit.

In many cases the spouse of the artists is the encourager and cheerleader for them to do something with their art, to attend festivals and fairs. The partners help set up, attend the booth, and pack down. Art becomes a family affair.

Before I left, I spoke to many of the other Redlands Art Associations artists: Monica Foulston, Linda Willason, Patty Mariano, Dan Soury, Debra Wick, Rudy Vessup and Vici Haag. The latter spoke about her love of animals and the photos she finds to paint from, for example a group of wild horses in the US that is now endangered. Art creates conversations that makes us want to protect nature and its wild animals.

That was something James Bowden and I also discussed, how art makes us love nature more. He showed me a whole array of jewelry from rocks found in Redlands (at the railway where Chinatown once was before construction began). He also had a section of jewelry made from K-PG meteor material and told me the origin story of the Jack rabbit. Bowden is an expert in connecting history, archeology and storytelling in his jewelry.

Both Vici Haag3 and Sue Priest told me that for them creating art is a way to get away from the bad news and worries in everyday life. So too, did a young student tell me for a story about the Youth Art Expo that day, that making art gives her peace of mind. You can read that story in Community Forward Redlands this week.

Walking through the lively booths, listening to live music in different parts of the park and having meaningful conversations is a great way to spend an afternoon. The entrance was free but I came away with new earrings in my ears (thanks Blue Agave!), a small practical and very pretty purse (thanks Pam Fall!) and small gorgeous hair clips (thanks Sue Priest!). I would have bought from all of the artists I talked to, I would.

It felt like wading through a creative infusion. Does it really matter what medium we work in, isn’t it all coming from the same source?

What to do with leftover safety pins. Fantastic booth with Junkyard Jewelry made by junk and recycled materials.

Thank you for following my writing. I write about events in and around Redlands that support our local community and make this city a better place. Please share and like.

In Gratitude,

Siw