OUR LAGUNA: Festivals going ‘green’ in a big way

Green is more than a color to the city’s arts community.

The Sawdust Festival is working with a consultant to make the show more environmentally sensitive

“We are systematically reviewing every aspect of the show to create a long-term plan that will enable the Sawdust Art Festival to continually evolve to greater levels of environmental responsibility,” board President Mike Kelly said.

Laguna Beach sustainability consultant Chris Prelitz is assisting the festival’s goal of “Going Green.”

Current energy use (you should excuse the pun) will be reduced by replacing the festival’s mostly outdated and incandescent or quartz lighting that generates a lot of heat, with fluorescent or LED bulbs, which will use a third less electricity — and mean less heat.

Even the twinkle lights that decorate the grounds will be replaced with LED bulbs that last longer and use less energy.

“We also need to encourage everyone to be mindful of turning lights off and putting lights on a timer in their booths and using only natural sunlight during the day,” Prelitz said.

Prelitz is the vice chairman of the city’s Environmental Committee, which recently presented its Climate Protection Action Plan that included more than 100 recommendations for reducing local energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission.

The plan is being distributed to city committees, boards and commissions for comment.

Public comment is sought. The full text of the report is posted on www.lagunabeachcity.net. Go to the calendar and click on the July 1 meeting agenda. The plan is attached to Item 18.

“I think it would be advantageous for the festival to review the document,” said Executive Director Tom Klingenmeier. “We would have some valid comments.”

Artists also are being urged to divert trash from the waste stream by using recycled items in their art work.

“There is a whole new green market opening up out there,” Prelitz said.

“Recycling tires, seat belts, license plates and other items is becoming popular to make purses and other crafts and arts. Crafts people might want to think about expanding their line to do something like that.”

For years, the College of Art & Design had a delightful sculpture created out of tires, ranging from large to small like a miniature tornado, appropriately installed near Laguna Canyon Road.

The seeds to green Sawdust were planted earlier this year when Klingenmeier and Prelitz chatted at a Chamber of Commerce mixer.

“Chris talked about being a sustainability consultant, and it seemed perfect for us,” Klingenmeier said.

“Visitors and some of the artists were always asking about recycling. Then right after the mixer, we attended an event at Soka University and came into contact with the Habitat for Humanity people and we are in touch with them about recycling building materials.”

In the past, the wood and dry wall used to construct the booths for the festival were for the most part, torn down and discarded.

This year, the materials will be donated to charities supported by Habitat for Humanity.

Coloring the festival green is smart art.

Festival of Arts

The Festival of Arts will collaborate with the Endangered Planet Foundations to present “A Day of Art Goes Green,” from 1 to 4 p.m. July 26, to increase awareness of environmental issues

Educational and cultural activities and entertainment will show visitors how they can go green on a daily basis and how green colors the artists’ work.

“Festival people came to us, based on the green festival we are going to do in October,” said Charles Michael Murray, founder of the foundation and the Endangered Planet Gallery that spawned it.

“They wanted the artists to embrace the concept of going green and how artists can align themselves with the environmental movement that is so powerful right now.

“Artists are often in the lead of movements before the general public and politicians. They think outside of the box.”

The foundation will be actively involved in the Art Miles Mural and Art Shoes projects announced for the afternoon.

“Several murals will be exhibited, and we will be there to talk about artistic ventures occurring globally,” Murray said.

The mural project promotes peace through art.

Thousands of banners painted throughout the world will be gathered in 2010 in Egypt to build a “Pyramid of Peace and the Exhibition of the Century,” with 12 miles of murals and modern technology.

Festival visitors and artists will paint three murals as well as participate in the Shoes of Hope project.

Donated shoes will be painted and shipped to needy African children.

A special handwritten message of peace and hope is tucked into every shoe sent to babies, children and youth in refugee centers, orphanages and schools.

Other activities scheduled for Green Day include a lectures on green art throughout the afternoon by former festival board President Bruce Rasner.

Docent Gretchen Thompson will conduct a tour of the festival at 3 p.m. Mary Anne Henderson will lead a tour at 3 p.m.

The tours will provide insight into the creative use of sustainable, recycled, ecologically safe and recovered materials as demonstrated in the works of fiber artist Rose Hamner and oil painter Eric Gerdau; mixed-media artists Mia Moore, Mada Leach, Carolyn Machado and Claudia Posvar; photographers J. Romeo and Christian Kiely; ceramist Monica Dunham; printmaker Julita Jones and watercolorist Geri Medway.

“Hopefully my vision will prompt you to do your part to save this wondrous, delicately balanced world, that we have been gifted to live on! May we become better, more conscientious stewards,” Medway wrote in her artist statement.

The String Planet duo of local violinist Novi and stick player Larry Tuttle will entertain throughout the event.

They describe their vibe as “classical chops and inventive composing meet an exotic and eclectic pop groove — world music from another world.”

For those who didn’t know, which included me, the stick is a 12-stringed instrument which combines the characteristics of electric and bass guitars and a piano, created by Emmett Chapman in the late 1960s in Los Angeles and played by Tuttle since 1984.

Rounding out the day’s program: a preview of dumpster diving designs from the “Haute Trash” show to be presented at the Autumnal Green Festival in October on the Festival Grounds.

“‘Haute Trash’ is something I came up with,” said Bonnie Macmillan, president of Laguna Outreach Community Artists. “It is designing fashions from stuff we actually pulled out of trash cans.”

And certainly, anything that diverts trash from our landfills cannot be considered a wasted effort.

“Go green.”

OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box 248, Laguna Beach, 92652; hand-deliver to Suite 22 in the Lumberyard, 384 Forest Ave.; call (949) 494-4321 or fax (949) 494-8979.