Editor,
The article, “Newcomers Enliven Laguna’s Winter Art Fair”, (Nov. 23 edition) contains several inaccuracies, which I wish to clarify.
1) The caption “Celtic Art Therapist Erin Rado” is both incorrect and misleading. I am an artist, not a therapist. I have no clinical training, nor do I represent that I do. My title is simply “Celtic artist”.
2) Celtic Art Therapy plates are not made from vinyl. They are made from individually hand cut and laminated gicleé art prints of my own original Celtic Art designs, which is why the Sawdust Festival allowed them to be shown – as per contract. The problem came in mounting the prints, which the festival considered to be tantamount to making ‘coasters’, and which I considered to be a myopic interpretation of the bylaws.
3) I don’t merely “claim” that Celtic art therapy has psychological benefit. There are nurses, psychologists, and PhDs using Celtic art therapy in their practices who can attest to the tool’s effectiveness.
4) Celtic art therapy has shown benefit with all forms of autism, including both high and low functioning.
As I stated to your journalist, the conflict with the Sawdust Festival came when trying to find a compromise with Mr. Junka on how to show Celtic art therapy. He stated in my original jury interview that I could present the laminated art prints to customers and then mount them for the customer at the time of purchase. He later added the caveat, “on cardboard”, which created an unusable product and forced my withdrawal from the show. Mr. Junka claimed he created the caveat in the original jury interview. I claim that he did not.
I hope this clarifies the misinformation posted in this article.
Erin Rado, Crestline
