By Ryan McDonald, Easy Reader News
A beautiful afternoon provided almost as good a backdrop as the paintings and photos that dotted South Park Saturday, as art fans young and old poured in for a fundraiser to support the Community Garden.
The garden, located in South Park on the site of a former roller rink, allows residents to reserve and tend plots of organic produce. It debuted this year thanks to volunteer efforts from residents and a donation from the Beach Cities Health District. On Saturday, just outside the garden, chefs used some of the bounty to prepare seasonal dishes for those passing through.
Thanks to a request from the City Council during the garden’s building phase, 20 percent of the garden’s bounty goes to feeding the homeless. These plots are overseen by St. Cross church, which has seen an outpouring of interested volunteers.
“It’s a way for people to get their fingers in the dirt,” said Mervis Reissig, a member of the St. Cross parish who leads volunteers in the garden. “They really like being able to donate their time.”
Saturday’s garden fundraiser brought an art walk in South Park, which also debuted this year (to raves from residents) after a multi-year redesign process. Dozens of artists set up booths along the path ringing the park, putting their wares on display.
Among them was Kellie Rountree-Farjapour, who prominently showed her work “April Wave.” The piece covers the panels of a set of French doors with colored shards of glass, spanning from turquoise to ultramarine, to create an image of a looming breaker.
Like many of Rountree-Farjapour’s works, it is made from recycled materials: the doors were construction refuse from Habitat for Humanity, and the glass shards were pieces left over from artists making stained glass windows.
“Even my expenses go to support a charity,” she joked.
Another socially minded artist present was Suzanne Gibson. Gibson runs a studio near El Camino, but also offers mobile lessons at schools, churches and homes, teaching “students from age 3 to 93,” she joked.
Gibson also runs Art Gap, an organization devoted to providing art supplies and instruction for students in districts where budget cuts threaten art education. She is currently running a popular program in the Lennox School District, where this year’s theme is the still life
“I use onions. Apples tend to get bitten,” Gibson said.
Elsewhere in the park, vendors included a fair-trade coffee company quenching visitors’ thirst with cold-brew, and Sketchy Baby, a children’s apparel company with hand-drawn designs from Mira Costa alumnus Caitlin Talmage.
Children roamed about the park and contributed to several works of art. For one, a large black-and-white image of Hermosa was printed and stretched out to mural size, and kids literally got to “paint their town.”
The mural rests on a hard wood backing. Supporters hope to hang it on the south-facing wall of a Cypress Street business that abuts the park.
To view full Easy Reader News article, click here.
