Around Town: Water expert will speak at Transition Laguna event
Water expert Jay Famiglietti will give a presentation on California’s water crisis at the Transition Laguna Second Tuesday Potluck.
Famiglietti is a senior water scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology and a professor of Earth System Science and Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Irvine.
Famiglietti has been researching and discussing water and climate control for more than 25 years, according to a news release, and was a featured expert in the water-related documentary “Last Call at the Oasis.”
The potluck starts at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in Bridge Hall, Neighborhood Congregational Church, 340 St. Ann’s Drive. The event is free but participants are asked to bring a dish to share.
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Robert Hansen donates Yucatan work to Festival collection
Photographer Robert Hansen recently donated his work “Portfolio 1 -- Yucatan Passages” to the Festival of Arts Permanent Art Collection.
Portfolio 1, a boxed set of eight platinum palladium photographs, is the result of Hansen’s photographic journey to the Yucatan and Southern Mexico in 1995. For eight years he traveled to the area several times a year to photograph the Mayan people, ruin sites, missions and haciendas, according to a news release.
Over 5,000 large-format negatives were made during this period. Of these, 50 were selected for publication in Hansen’s book “Yucatan Passages,” published in 2004.
The individual photographs have been widely exhibited but never shown in their entirety, according to the release. In 2012, Hansen was encouraged to bring all of his Mexico work together into a comprehensive exhibition titled “Made in California.” From this traveling exhibition Hansen selected eight vintage 8-inch by 10-inch images to be included in a limited edition portfolio.
“Having the distance of 10 years since the work was first published provided me with an objective viewpoint in which to evaluate the work and realize the importance of documenting this period of time in Old Mexico,” Hansen said.
Hansen has been an exhibitor at the Laguna Beach Festival of the Arts for the past 36 years.
“This is a unique organization that for over 80 years has nurtured the talents of thousands of creative artists,” he stated in a news release. “My career has been greatly blessed by this association. The permanent collection is the prism into the cultural and historic relevance of this magnificent institution. I am honored to be included in this collection.”
The Festival of Arts Permanent Collection of more than 1,150 pieces is expanded annually through purchases and donations and includes paintings, sculptures, ceramics, printmaking, glass, photography, mixed media, furniture and jewelry.
“It is an honor for the Festival of Arts Permanent Art Collection to be the recipient of Robert Hansen’s Portfolio 1 -- Yucatan Passages,” Collection Specialist Pat Sparkuhl said. “These eight Platinum Palladium photographic prints, along with his limited edition book “Yucatan Passages,” will add greater depth to the photographic section of the Permanent Art Collection and will further define Robert Hansen’s legacy in the Southern California art culture.”