40 years of Sawdust memories

Preview night at the Sawdust Festival rocked.

Exhibitors and patrons were jazzed at the celebration of the festival’s 40th season. The city has declared July 11 “Sawdust Art Festival Day.” Longtime exhibitors will be honored in a day of festivities and music by Monterey ’67.

“I love the Sawdust ? I love its spirit,” said jeweler David Nelson, an exhibitor for 37 years.

“I first came to Laguna from Texas in 1968; I was still in high school. When I graduated, I told my folks that I was a young man going West. “

Nelson got dropped off in front of the Sawdust in July 1969.

“I’ve been here ever since,” he said.

Nelson moves his studio to the festival grounds and he crafts jewelry there, 16 to 18 hours a day, throughout the season.

Jewelers Nikki Grant and Irene Suess, and photographer John Atkinson have exhibited at the Sawdust for 38 years.

Grant introduced her husband, Jay, whom she married six years after she first exhibited, to the Sawdust experience.

“They were looking for someone to staff the sales booth, and I told him to apply,” Grant said. “He’s been doing it ever since.”

Sister-in-law Marjorie Horner, who helps staff Grant’s jewelry booth, has an even longer connection to the Sawdust.

“My husband, Billy, lived in a bungalow on the site before [and for a short time after] the festival moved here,” Horner said.

A history of the festival ? compiled by the Sawdust Heritage Committee, led by Jay Grant, Patti Oshlund and Sue Thompson ? will be offered to the public this year. Look for it in the Heritage Booth, No. 214, by the water wheel at the back of the grounds.

Potter Sally Wilde has been in the show for 34 years, Julita Jones for 24 years, although she has shown at the Festival of Arts for 36 years.

“Julie Jones was my department chair when we both were teaching art at Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton. She retired to become an artist. I continued to teach, but now I am also retired, and we are both in the Sawdust.”

Clustered around Wilde’s booth aretherapist and author Marion Jacobs and Wilde’s neighbors Taylor and Greg De Felice.

They were among about 5,300 people who attended the private opening Tuesday, according to Tom Klingenmeier.

Klingenmeier has been guarding the gate ? heading up security ? for 25 years, one year less than his wife, Patti, has been exhibiting her clay figures, sometimes behind a modesty curtain.

Invited guests entered through a beaded curtain, designed by festival board Treasurer Dennis Junka to recall the ‘60s vibe that gave birth to the irreverent Sawdust.

The rollicking music of the Red Elvises set the tone.

Music is a big part of the Sawdust experience ? ranging from rock to reggae to the Laguna Community Concert Band’s Americana program, set for 10:30 a.m. on the Fourth of July.

The band was rehearsing Tuesday, which explains why band founder Carol Reynolds arrived late at her daughter’s booth, Patti Jo Pearl Jewelry, to join granddaughter, Katie Kiraly. Katie will be spending a month this summer at Cambridge, studying religion and ethics. Dad, author Sherwood Kiraly, who almost had a heart attack when Katie learned to drive, will visit. Mom will be at her booth.

“I love the Sawdust,” said jeweler Patti Jo Kiraly, an exhibitor for 22 years. “It is the best place for artists to do what they want to do creatively. We have the most atmosphere and the most energy.”

Ket Youngstead added some new atmosphere this year to her perennially award-winning booth: a bird’s nest with a live baby hummingbird in it.

“A woman found it in the street and gave it to [exhibitor] Doug Miller who brought it to me,” Youngstead said.

She created the nest and for almost a week has been dropper-feeding the bird.

Youngstead has been a Sawdust exhibitor since 1975.

Scott Moore has exhibited at the Sawdust for 26 years.

“It’s a great sales opportunity, and anyone who tells you differently is lying,” Moore said. “But opening night is like old home week. We get to see people we haven’t seen forever.”

Arts Commissioners and Laguna College of Art & Design board members Mary Ferguson and Terry Smith, and former Councilman Wayne Peterson were among the familiar faces at the invitation-only opening.

Both said being on the commission has given them a new perspective on art and artists.

“It has made my eye more keen, and I appreciate more the effort that goes into creating art,” Smith said.

LCAD also was represented at the opening by President Dennis Power and his wife, Leslie.

“This was my first opening, and I was warned it would be so crowded, but it was such fun,” he said.

Erika Pardun was the invited guest of exhibitor Laurel Meister, who used to live in Bluebird Canyon and plans to again.

On the guest list: artists Iris Adams, Nadine Nordstrom, Karen Petty and Patricia Whiteside; City Manager right hand Carol Bright with Sandy Hansen from Public Works and former city employees Barbara Kastner and Diane Moon; Lumberyard merchants Dian Shirley, owner of Dutch Door and George Nelson, owner of Fawn Memories; and Joan Politeo ? “That’s polite with an o on the end,” said daughter Zoe Politeo-Freeman, the picture of her dad, former Councilman Paul Freeman.

Also: Mayor Steven Dicterow, Realtor Gayle Waite; Anne and Dick Frank, Fire Department Division Chief Jeff LaTendresse and wife, Mindy, who is the Deputy City Clerk, and Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Rose Hancock.