A history celebration

Young Chang

Artist Mike Tauber laments the fact that in his mere 40 years he’s

watched the orange groves throughout Orange County all but disappear.

He’s nostalgic and sad that the landscape has changed but hopeful that

the county’s citrus heritage won’t escape memories that have muddied for

those too young to remember.

“I think the loss of orange trees represents the passage of time,” the

Laguna Beach artist said. “What I’m doing is taking oranges for

sentimental reasons and bringing them back as art. It changed from

agriculture, and now it lives on as art.”

Tauber will hang nine pieces of citrus-related art at the 109th annual

Orange County Fair -- themed “Twist & Shout: Celebrating Citrus & Sun” --

which will run Friday through July 29. He will also display a life-size,

fiberglass Bastanchury sheep decorated with oranges and leaves on the

Centennial Farm grounds.

“The theme is really important to our exhibitors,” said Joan Hamill,

director of exhibitions at the fair. “They wait with bated breath until

the theme comes out.”

The results? “Eclectic,” organizers say.

Fruit growers also will display and sell such citrus variations as

lemons, Valencia oranges, navel oranges, oro blanco grapefruits, tangelos

and kumquats.

There will be a few non-citrus fruits, too, including subtropical

selections such as papayas, mangoes and avocados.

In the fair’s Home and Hobbies building, craft makers have made

everything from aprons spotted with limes to citrus-designed tableware

that is as edible-seeming as it is functional.

Vendors have organized contests ranging from lemon squeezing to lemon

pie-eating.

And exhibit organizers have replicated a scene from the citrus-packing

industry from around the turn of the century in the From Blossom to

Awesome exhibit building.

“It’s a lighthearted, whimsical look at history,” Hamill said. “I

think people have forgotten, maybe, the reason we’re called Orange

County.”

But a step inside will likely jog the memory. Sizing rings, orange

holding bags, vintage citrus labels, packing industry machinery and even

a sample invoice report accompany a citrus-history timeline ribboning

part of the building’s front room.

Two startling photos show Orange County as it once was and as it is

today.

The top picture shows acres and acres of citrus groves. Just sprawling

blankets of fruit and greenery and not a single thing else.

The bottom shot shows Cal State Fullerton in all its structural glory.

The groves are gone. The buildings have taken over.

“Every year, we try to salute one agricultural commodity,” said Ruby

Lau, director of public affairs for the fair.

Tauber has made the cause his lifelong identity. Known as a citrus

artist for his paintings about oranges, his “Mona Lisa in Orange” has

grabbed local attention.

It’s Leonardo da Vinci’s traditional lady, but with an orange tree

carved in the shape of Mona Lisa -- the leaves combed even -- and da

Vinci’s original background.

“My paintings have a lot of complex ideas behind them,” Tauber said.

“They’re philosophical thoughts to live by, and I picked oranges as a way

to express these thoughts because oranges are happy and simple and

everybody loves them.”

He squeezes his own fresh orange juice every morning and eats a whole

orange every day too. He’s even tried to grow his own trees but admits

failing in this department.

“I’m not a very good green thumb,” Tauber said of nurturing the

fruits. “But I’m better at painting them.”