Green and greener

Community members and local organizations will come together to share simple ways of becoming “greener” at the Sawdust Art Festival’s second annual “Green Day” event from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday.

“We’ll provide an interactive and educational ‘environment’-themed day for visitors, showing them how they can be more environmentally aware in our everyday lives,” said Cynthia Fung, director of marketing for the festival. “Our mission is to educate the public and support the community’s green movement.”

The event will offer a series of complimentary activities and workshops, including rock painting, recycle collage, Save the Bugs!, upcycled soda can jewelry, Ocean Mosaic Mural Project and Garden Club Exchange.

Sustainability consultant and author of “Green Made Easy,” Chris Prelitz, will also sign books and lecture.

“I’ll share how homeowners and renters can save money and help the environment at the same time,” he said. “I’ll also bust a lot of green myths about things like solar panels, and why they are the last step in going green.”

Prelitz was featured on the Discovery Channel’s “Greenovate Show,” where he turned a 1970s energy hog house into a net-zero, all-solar dream home.

Arts Activities Manager Jane Hilary said the series of art projects will require the use of recycled materials, and collaboration by artists and visitors.

Festival-goers can paint nature-inspired images like flowers and butterflies on their own rocks as part of the Rock Painting Project, and use newspaper and magazine headlines to express their pledge to becoming more environmentally aware in a personalized green recycle collage.

A Best Bug Contest will award visiting artists for their efforts in creating bugs made of an array of reused materials, and making a pledge to save the Earth’s wildlife.

“We’ll have a series of categories, including cutest bug, scariest bug, and most colorful bug,” Hilary said.

An upcycled soda can jewelry workshop will be led by Carmen Flores Tanis, and will allow visitors to create their own “green” pieces made from materials like recycled cans, cardboard, paper and wires.

In collaboration with the Wyland Foundation, Sawdust artists led by Karen Talbot will create a 20-by-8-foot mural outline, in which visitors can make their pledge to water and sea life conservation, by painting a sea creature and contributing to the Mosaic Mural Project. The collaborative piece will be on display at the Sawdust Studio during the remainder of the summer show.

Bring in “slips” from your garden and exchange for other plants to diversify your landscapes at the Laguna Garden Exchange. Water-wise and succulent plants will be donated by the Laguna Beach Garden Club, a local organization founded more than 80 years ago dedicated to promoting education in gardening, horticulture, landscape and floral design, conservation, ecology, and bird life.

Certified landscape irrigation auditor, water manager and landscape professional Bob Wade will also display and educate on satellite irrigation controllers, rotary sprinklers and precision spray nozzles as part of the “Water in the Gardens” lecture.

If You Go

What: Sawdust Festival Green Day

When: Noon to 5 p.m. Saturday

Where: Sawdust Art Festival, 935 Laguna Canyon Road

Info: Admission prices are: adult $7.50; seniors (65 and older) $6; children 6 to 12 $3; children 5 and younger free; Summer Season Pass $15; Annual Pass (unlimited admission to summer and winter shows) $20. For more information, call (949) 494-3030 or visit www.sawdustartfestival.org.