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When Erika Whalen Schindele presented the Art Star lifetime achievement award to her former high school teacher and mentor, Mark Dressler, last April, the honor had personal significance. “I credit him with inspiring me to become a professional actress,” she said. “I felt proud...

A boy sits in a chair wearing a white shirt, brown pants with suspenders askew, and a bewildered expression. Named Sylvester, he’s African American, about 10 years old and clearly not accustomed to sitting still for a portrait. On his first visit to California from New York,...

“….We’re gonna rock this town/Rock it inside out/ We’re gonna rock this town/ Make ‘em scream and shout…” So goes the refrain of the Stray Cats classic “We’re Gonna Rock This Town.” And former Stray Cat Lee Rocker, accompanied by the Laguna Concert...

  By folding traditional chamber music with contemporary work, and performing arts with special sound effects, this year’s Laguna Beach Music Festival, Feb. 12-15, continues to evolve into an encompassing cultural event that is likely to draw increasing audiences. Acting,...

More than 100 works of art await buyers that crowd California Cool, the Laguna Art Museum’s 33rd annual art auction on Saturday, Feb. 7, where works typically sell for a fraction of the cost they fetch at art galleries. Last year’s event attracted 400 people and raised $220,000...

A larger than life size bronze sculpture of a woman by Laguna Beach artist Sukhdev Dail was selected for a public art commission for Main Beach by the city’s Arts Commission on Monday. Dail’s proposal includes glass elements that will cast colorful pools of light around the...

He had arrived in Laguna Beach from New York just eight days ago, but retired English teacher Peter Mathews almost instinctively migrated to Laguna Beach Books’ “Open Mic Night“ last Sunday. “I came here to listen,” he said. But, picking up the creative vibe, he dashed off to get...

The brown-eyed man in a Laguna Beach police uniform and baseball cap wears a slight smile, his facial expression radiating security and strength. Officer Jon Coutchie, the subject of the artist’s portrait, was killed in a traffic collision on Sept. 21, 2013, the second Laguna...

Laura Ricker volunteered her talents as an event organizer of the 2012 Laguna Beach Music Festival and signaled that if the director’s job became available, she’d happily apply. This year, her wish came true. Ricker steps into a post temporarily filled last year by Carla Neuss...

By Daniella Walsh | LB Indy The year just concluded was a good one for the Laguna Art Museum and 2015 promises to keep pace, forecasts Executive Director Malcolm Warner. He was particularly optimistic about the future of “Art and Nature,” a symposium and exhibition where artists...

Laguna Art Museum wrapped up several remarkable exhibits in 2014.

  The National Endowment for the Arts awarded Laguna Beach a $25,000 grant to develop a citywide cultural arts plan to further insure the city’s cultural and economic growth. Laguna Beach is far from alone in branding themselves as an art colony, nor is it an exception in...

Filled with intrigue and possibly murder most foul, the television film’s plot is set in a modern African-American mega church and based on Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet. Titled “Mega Church Murder,” the creation of television writer-producer Kendall Clark and television producer...

In his tiny, crowded Laguna Beach studio, Douglas Miller produces two diminutive paintings per day. Small, they are nonetheless flawless likenesses of Laguna Beach’s diverse vistas. “I’d starve if I just do big paintings,” said Miller, who by his recollection, has painted roughly...

By Daniella Walsh | LB Indy She unveiled Orange County’s art history in the Laguna Art Museum exhibition “The Best Kept Secret,” and created ex.pose, an exhibition series to introduce overlooked emerging artists. She rolled up her sleeves to fulfill the dictates of a James Irvine...