Former Laguna Beach resident, artist William Ogden, 67, reconnected with his Laguna Beach roots last week in the Laguna Beach High School classroom of art instructor Peter Tiner, a long-time fan of Ogden’s work.
Ogden, whose evocative and highly imaginative paintings were a graphically familiar element of Laguna’s art-and-surfing culture in the late 1960s and 1970s, spoke to Tiner’s class and showed them examples of his past and current work as students crowded around.
“Evolve!” Ogden offered encouragement and advice to Tiner’s class. “If you’re not having fun and you’re not excited about your work, you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing.”
Ogden had been a frequent visitor to Laguna Beach as a child who had already chosen art as his path.
After high school Ogden settled first in San Clemente and then in Laguna Beach. His impishly stylized surfing cartoons first appeared in surfing magazines and soon his sensuous yearly Sound Spectrum calendars became both a familiar and anticipated event.
Ogden’s is currently working with Newport Beach publisher Spencer Croul and Laguna Beach writer Craig Lockwood on a book about his work and technique.
