By Rebecca Washington-Lindsey
On June 11, I attended a popular Laguna Beach Tradition Blessing of the Artists Ceremony. The event celebrated the opening of the Sawdust Festival, Pageant of the Masters, Festival of Arts, and Art-A-Fair after a year’s absence. The event was well attended. It featured a beautiful and inspiring nondenominational service that helps launch the summer festivals and the art community in Laguna. Laguna Beach artists spoke on how spiritual inspiration dramatically influences their art.
“Everyone in Laguna is invited to rally around our beloved artists,” Net-Works Pastor Jay Grant said. “It’s going to be a special evening as we look forward to what we believe is going to be a fabulous summer for all the artists in our community.”
That one repeated statement caused me to reflect and say to myself, “that mantra is going to be daunting,” considering that typically no African or African American artwork is ever shown in the Laguna Art Museum. When I asked the curator at LAM why, she responded, “I just never thought about it.” Furthermore, she has not returned my numerous phone calls. My heart is bleeding. A gross inequity that is not acceptable in our town.
There is no better link from an artist’s world to another world than through art. It’s a perfect venue for forming greater positive bonds.
Something about art moves my soul and spirit; it uplifts, encourages, and opens my creative mindset. No, I am far from being an artist, but I grew up in a home where cultural arts were a common source of entertainment and part of my upbringing. Diverse art works are created by diverse artists, but they all share a similar element—creative minds. An artist’s work can change lives, improve ethnic recognition, and build positive ethnic relationships, allowing us to tell a story about the complexities of our world.
Finally, art opens our imagination. For example, such innovative American artists are noted in Galerie: Live Artfully. These include Kara Walker; expressive floral designer Arturo Arita, Honduras born; Neha Dani, who creates her jewelry, which she terms Kephi (a Greek word for joy) to inspire and uplift; and Andile Dyalvane, a South African ceramic artist who frequently envisions his art through dreams (not through dreams but in everyday settings) intricately connected to his ancestral community called Xhosa.
Locally, we can always enjoy artwork at Launch Innovation, a small studio on Coast Highway. The artist, Francesca Vitali, shows faces of ethnic diversity in her works. The artist, Francesca Vitali portrays diversity in her art. She states “I’m inspired by diversity and beauty in people and use colors in my portraits to capture the individuality, spirit, and essence of that person’s face. Every person has its own individual inner light.” Please excuse me if I missed naming your studio.
Let’s make art.
Artists and museums must express ingenuity, equality, cultural recognition, and the most innovative artistic path. They must push forward past the 1960s, when African American artists boycotted an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, crying that their artwork had been eliminated from showings.
I hope that museums, including Laguna Art Museum, and artists will use artwork to push toward an ethnic resolve and build positive ethnic relationships in our town. Now, let the art show begin.
Rebecca is a Laguna Beach resident and former adjunct professor at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
