March 10, 2008

• Fandango Americana benefit for Art City

  On Saturday evening, March 8, Joe and I went to the west side of town to the Bell Arts Factory. They were having a benefit event to help Art City with the costs of getting their space up to code. I've posted here several times with photos during Art Walks of their mostly outdoor stone sculpture studio, which is shared by a group of artists. Art City was recently inspected by the City of Ventura, and they were found to be in some serious violation regarding their structures and such. They've been around since 1985, and stoneworks from that studio are in collections worldwide. I didn't realize that Huell Howser had taped an episode about Art City (probably for his PBS show California Gold) until we saw it being shown on video at the event.

  There was live music on two stages, food and drink, and my longtime friend Lucy was there in her persona as "Purpllicious the Clown", making animal balloons for the kids. (Lucy has the most awesome hair salon you have ever seen, although the photos on her site don't do it justice. It's for kids and "grownups who think they are kids". It's like Disneyland meets Pee-Wee's Playhouse. She's having an open house and potluck soon, so I have to go see what she's done to the place lately and take some photos. Lucy said she now has a train that goes along the wall throughout. She cut my kids' hair when they were little, and she gave my grandson Devin his first haircut! Lucy will always be grateful to me for turning her on to Rainbow Glasses.)

  I saw so many dear old friends there, it really amazed me. It was great to catch up with folks on our lives. We got there too late to hear my friend and co-worker Donna Lynn, but we heard Sus Cortez and my old friend Phil Salazar, who was playing fiddle with Left of Memphis. He was headlining the event with his new band, the Harlem Holler, but we didn't stay that long, as the event ran from 3:00 to 11:00 p.m. (I wrote about Phil here before, and posted photos when he jammed with Bob Weir's band Ratdog, when they played the Ventura Theater about a year ago.) And of course we walked around and looked at all of the artwork on display. The Bell Arts Factory is in an old mattress factory, and there are a number of individual artist studios and shops. I purchased a new beaded leafy bracelet, as well as a red beaded skeleton necklace with matching earrings, from a jewelry artist who had a table there. (Her work was very nice, and I'm picky about what I buy, since I can make the stuff myself.) I loved these hanging wall art figures below. Joe and I left after a few hours and went for a late dinner at Nature's Grill on Main Street. Another "arty" weekend of fun!

  

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