Laguna students shine in Color It Orange

Color It Orange judges selected works by 56 students in local schools for the annual juried exhibition, which opened Sunday at the Laguna Beach College of Art & Design.

The judges picked 37 entries from Laguna’s public schools: 34 by Thurston Middle School students, three by Laguna Beach High School students, none from the elementary schools. Fifteen entries by students at Anneliese’s, a state licensed private school, were selected, and four were chosen from St. Catherine’s parochial school.

Thurston students picked for the exhibit include sixth-graders Shannon Adams, Beau Bourne, Chandler Davis, Taylor Kahn, Derek Maroff, Vivian Mendoza and Tara Ronson; seventh-graders Demi Berryman, Paul Dunne, Katy Fleming, Lauren Hampton, Noiralih Hernandez, Conner Hogan, James Ibelle, Chase Johnson, Corrie Larek, Oliver Melchor, Morgan Myers, Sean Reinart, Taylor Sanderson, David Syner and Janise Vasquez; and eighth-graders Will Bonsey, Spencer Friedenrich, Drew Gerhold, Rianna Goldman Dorado, Martha Guerra Moeller, Spencer Hogan, Soraya Jaisel, Sandra Lopez, Mercedes Martin, Christian O’Connor, Makalia Palmer and Cheri Plaza, all taught by Linda Erickson.

High school sophomores Lauren Elliot and Shelby Serra and senior Alex Mars, whose works were chosen for the show, are the students of Kerry Pellow.

Anneliese’s students had a variety of teachers. Works by Irena Polanski’s third-graders Caspian Block, Emma Dudly and Anna Sonnefeld were selected. Heather Sparkhuhl’s second-graders Rosie Burras, Hannah Neill, Matthew Reifsnyder, Natalie Shutts, Miranda Rose Smith Gertz and her fifth-grader Alia Manetta were among the chosen exhibitors. Claudia Herms’ first-grader Laura Elider was picked for the show, as were Diane Czweick’s first-graders James Dunning and Kyle Monteleone and Margot Seeholzer’s first-graders Cameron Deluso and Olivia Lynch and fourth -rader Sala Toughey.

St. Catherine senior McKenna Krogius, sixth-grader Madeline Renezeder and fourth-graders Anna Law and Caroline Renezeder each had a piece in the show. Pamela Toomey is their teacher.

Art advocate and instructor Donna Banning, artist and art school director Joan Corman of Laguna, and art instructor Susan Wuerer juried the show.

The show has been sponsored and organized for 32 years by Designing Women, the first, support group at the college ? before it was a college.

College President Dennis Power welcomed the gathering of student exhibitors, their art teachers and their parents at the opening and offered a few facts: 3,500 entries in the show, 700 selected to be exhibited.

“It was a tough choice,” Power said. “All exhibitors are awarded certificates, 10 high school students are awarded scholarships to an accredited class.”

Orange Unified School District art teacher Kathy Flanagan, who submitted nine pieces by her students to the jury and had five accepted, was a winner in 1984.

“I won a scholarship to Roger Armstrong’s summer water color class,” Flanagan said.

After welcoming guests to the opening day reception, Power introduced Nancy Lawrence, who has chaired the event since its inception.

Lawrence led a committee that included Pam Smart, Laguna Beach artist Olivia Batchelder, past Designing Women President Patty Truman, Luciana Marabella, Jackie Jacobson, JoAnn Killingsworth, Anne Colin and a host of volunteers.

“Every year, it is truly thrilling,” Lawrence said. “We marvel at the work.

“If you have a friend who hasn’t been to the show, encourage them to come. The important thing is the kids make art, it’s displayed, and they make more art. We are developing the whole brain.”

Power said the parents and the teachers play an important role in sparking creativity by encouraging the young to expand their world to include art.

“We believe it makes a much richer culture,” Power said.

The opening reception and awards ceremony were held under blue skies.

“We did our best to make it a perfect Laguna day,” said City Councilwoman Jane Egly.

“The city is so proud of this college. I think it stands for a lot of what Laguna stands for: support of the arts and artists.”

The show closes at 3 p.m. Saturday. For more information, call (949) 376-6000.

THE WEARIN’ O’ THE GREEN

Anne and Marv Johnson served up an Irish feast of corned beef and cabbage and, of course, potatoes to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with friends.

Strawberries were the big attraction for the young daughters of Anne Cox and Nicholas Kruger.

Their hostess scooped up a Kelly green, plastic bowler of berries for Katya, 7, and Julia, 9, to take home.

Mayor Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider and Councilwoman Toni Iseman, just back from their official trip to Washington, D.C., were among the guests. They will report on the trip at the March 28 council meeting.

“I really lobbied hard on three separate occasions with our new congressman, John Campbell,” Pearson-Schneider said.

The Johnsons’ daughter, Carla, her daughters Emma, 4, and Jana, 16, also attended the dinner, escorted by David McLean, who introduced himself as the granddaughter’s boyfriend.

Guests at the Johnsons’ first St. Pat’s party all had Irish grandmothers, the majority of them named Katherine.

Not everyone at the party could claim Irish ancestry, but they all wore at least a touch of green. Some even donned the bowlers the Johnsons provided. Realtor Gayle Waite wore a pin she said contained a relic of St. Patrick that she has had since parochial school.

Other guests included former school board member Eileen Walsh; Bob Kunzelman; Bonnie and Arnold Hano; Jim Moore and John Gustafson (not the city building official); Peggy and John Thomas; Steve Miller and Dick Frank.