COMMUNITY ARTS

Altadena’s such a great place, don’t you think? This past weekend was so jam packed with fun things to do, I’m sure lots of folks had trouble deciding which events to attend!

Friday evening before driving home, Scott and I stopped at McGinty’s Gallery At The End Of The World to check out their quarterly Art Bender Weekend kickoff. Visiting the Gallery is always a treat for us and we love the easy feeling of its laid-back, eclectic interior. Even more than that, we truly enjoy the sense of camaraderie that Ben and his artists create for Art Bender….each one unique, but each one distinctly Altadena. Many of our favorite local artists were showing this weekend – Molly Tierney, Dave Lovejoy (who gets around a lot, as you’ll discover next paragraph), Heather Campbell Morrow and so many others!

Saturday brought Art on Millionaire’s Row, an exhibit of local art and local eateries presented by our own Altadena Library. It was hot….not brutally so, but a harbinger of temps to come as summer progresses. We caught the Jitney, Pierre DuPuy’s antique trolley type car, on the corner of Mariposa and Lake and rode in style to the Library down the street. It was nice to see a good sized crowd attending.  We met Dave Lovejoy at the suspension bridge at the front entrance to the Library where he was working on an interactive art display. His son was helping by manning Dave’s booth, filled with his exquisite pottery.

Our favorite painter of mermaids, angels and fairies, Karen Bagnard, had her booth set up near the center. With her mister in hand, she was keeping cool as her beautiful cards and other offerings were flying off with satisfied customers. She was also selling older drawings…originals penned and not used, perhaps….for $5.00 per piece to benefit the Library. We thought that was pretty great so we invested in some fabulous Halloween themed drawings that you’ll be able to see exhibited closer to the holiday this year!

Inside the Library itself, in one of their meeting rooms, was an exhibit of paintings and photography by locals, including the Library’s own Camille Dudley, Edward Beckett and John Balian. The artwork was fantastic and I’m still blown away by them all! We enjoyed speaking with Mr. Beckett and Mr. Balian and John will be bringing us a couple of his paintings to hang in the store. I’m so excited about that! All in all, we met so many truly gifted and talented artists and I’m hoping we’ll be seeing more of their art in the future.

It’s so gratifying to see our community come together like it does for these events. Today, Scott and I attended the Bright Future Scholars graduation celebration at the Pasadena Civic Center….wow, what an excellent way to spend an afternoon. If you’re not familiar with the Bright Future Scholars, please click here. If you’ve been following our blog then you’ll know that we have been supporting the Scholars since we took over the store. Now that we’re a bit more together than we were back in 2007 & 2008, we’ll be planning more fund-raisers for this very special Altadena non-profit.

We’ll talk more in depth of our plans and what it means to the Altadena community next week. Until then, here’s wishing you a wonderful and productive week….

Scott and Lori