San Clemente Artist Turns Litter of Humanity Into a Plea for Clean Beaches

The daily strolls on San Clemente’s beautiful beaches were pleasant experiences for Deanna Salo.

Until she came across the damnable litter--cigarette packages, a rusty shopping cart, cans, combs, shoes, food wrappers, bones, cassette tapes, bottle caps, spray cans, deflated balloons, light bulbs, bullet shells--and more.

So she decided to make it into art.

“I don’t know what this will lead to exactly,” said Salo, 45, of San Clemente, who gave up her 14-year career as a registered nurse to illustrate the trashing of beaches. “I’m trying to build an awareness through art to show the disgusting treatment of the ocean and the environment by people.”

Salo said nursing is no longer in her future.

“I went back to school and started taking some art classes and got caught up in the idea that through art, I could do something to help save our beaches,” she explained. “ When I do this, it nourishes the other side of me.”

And she added: “Maybe I’m building an awareness of what is at our feet and that maybe we should pick up after ourselves. We’re all in this together.” But it is not all that easy. “Although my husband (Oren Salo) is supportive, I sometimes get discouraged,” she said. “This is not something everybody does.”

But she has already embarked on the second phase of alerting people of the trash problem by mapping plans to scour other beaches in the Southland to produce more art, much of it placed on pasteboard and held together with glue and surfer wax found on the beach.

She also integrates some of her drawings into the exhibit.

Her trash and debris art were recently shown at the Cal State Fullerton West Gallery, where one viewer noted, “I recognized one of my long-lost thongs.”

DEANNA SALO was spelled out at the gallery entrance using bottle tops from plastic fruit drink containers she found on the beach.

“I’m having fun, but this is a very serious thing,” she said. “I see this work as contemplation, and a lot of other people are seeing what I see. And it all reflects our times. It’s contemporary archeology, and most of what we find is quite repulsive.”

But not that many people have seen her trash art exhibit, titled “The Beach Keeper Series,” which also includes a cigarette box stuffed with part of a

lobster.

Her second phase includes another exhibit, “but I’d like to find a place to show it to the public, hopefully in a gallery.”

And while she is out scouring the beaches and sending out a message through her artworks, “I wouldn’t mind selling them,” she said.”

Margaret Myers celebrated her birthday this month by playing a starring role in the production of the comedy “Train to Mauro,” a part she has played at least 50 times throughout the years.

And never mind that she just turned 103 and is blind. The audience at the Royale Convalescent Hospital in Santa Ana had a good time, according to activities director Tammy Dodge, who also played one of the roles.

Hospital President John Logen played the role of a flustered train station agent.

Myers played Mrs. Buttermilk, a nurse, and from the reviews, gave a good account of her acting ability. Logen did well, too.

Besides the play, the birthday celebration included a corsage, flowers and a birthday cake for Myers.

While many barbershop singers and directors are mature men, it was Paul Olguin, the 27-year-old music director of Fullerton’s Orange Empire Chorus, who won a nationwide songwriting contest.

The contest was sponsored by the Society for the Preservation & Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America, which is celebrating its 50th birthday.

Olguin, who has been singing with the Fullerton group since his days at Fullerton’s Sonora High School, won $1,000.

Olguin, now a student at Cal State Long Beach, had this telling title for his winning song: “I Was Born 70 Years Too Late.”

Acknowledgments--Christine Mezzacappa, Tustin High School senior, was one of 10 winners of the Avon Products national essay-writing contest on “How Do You Hope Women Will Change Society by the Year 2087?” As a winner, she participated in a conference in Atlanta, Ga., and met former First Ladies Rosalynn Carter and Lady Bird Johnson.