Art flies when these women have fun

The first half of the 5th Annual Women Artists Auction, Show and Sale was held Sunday at the Laguna Beach Woman’s Club.

“We had so many entries, we have had to split it up,” club-member Lee Winocur Field said.

In lieu of an entry fee, participants donated a piece of their art to the club to be auctioned. Proceeds will be used to give the clubhouse a face lift, which members say is badly needed.

High bid of the day was for one of exhibitor Jan Firestone’s “raku” horses, close to the asking price for her exhibited pieces.

“A couple of years ago, I was in the Sawdust, doing sheep with ceramic bodies and large nails for legs,” Firestone said. “They were flying off the shelves. I always had trouble doing horses’ legs, so I tried using the spikes. It gives them an abstract quality that I love.”

She isn’t the only one. Bidders on her auction donation included club president Peggy Ford.

Ford was among the club members working at the event. Also volunteering to greet guests and sell beverages: Bette and Ken Anderson, Sande St. John and Anne Wood.

Ceramist Nadine Nordstrom chaired the auction.

Mary Murray chaired the art show, which has a special place in her heart. The 2004 show was the first time she exhibited her ceramic and fused glass pieces in Laguna Beach. Since then, her work been accepted in the Sawdust Festival’s Winter Fantasy and she participated in the Art Studio Tour.

Nordstrom and Murray were among Sunday’s exhibitors, which also included photographers Nancy Shurtleff, Judy Hoy and Crystal Jackson.

Jackson’s hand-painted photographs are examples of the first true color process, dating from the 1800s. It is called gum bichromate. A resident of Laguna for almost 20 years, Jackson has exhibited her work in the Winter Fantasy.

Among the other exhibitors in Sunday’s show: painters Iris Adam (whose name is synonymous with Art-a-Fair), Kaitlin Evans and Summer Oden; glass worker Kelly Kelley, who also paints toilet seats in the retro style of motorcycle art ? one of which she donated to the auction; potter Miganoush Grigorian, ceramist Patty Barnett, glass artist Leslie Davis and knitter Wendy Pierce.

Pierce, a professional interior designer, lives in Bluebird Canyon. A resident of Laguna for more than 20 years, she began knitting two years ago and immediately fell in love with all the wonderful fibers from which to choose.

“My hobby has now become my passion, as I love to experiment with fibers and colors to create wearable art,” Pierce said, as her needles clicked away on a new piece.

Pierce heard about the show from Debbie Pickett, among the jewelers whose work was displayed Sunday, including Kiri Brooke Kirk.

Her mom, Faye, who is active in the real estate industry and served on the board of the Laguna Beach Community Clinic, kept her daughter company at the show.

Exhibitors also included multi-media artist Shari Chevres; beadworker Scot Eastman and jewelers Edie Pickett, Susan Tucker and Patricia Cooper.

Cooper, who has lived in Laguna since 1969, works with her daughter, Torii, a graduate student at Long Beach State in ceramic sculpture. Some examples of their jewelry can be seen at Diann Shirley’s Dutch Door store in the Lumberyard Mall.

Seen perusing the exhibit: City Council candidate Verna Rollinger, Beverly Longfield, Peggie Thomas and chamber volunteer Skip Leavitt, who added the show to the city-sponsored tour of Art in Public Places.