Affairs of the Art Bring Some Color to Laguna Beach

The Sawdust Festival, founded 22 years ago as a spunky alternative to the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts, opened Saturday with an alternative of its own: Starfair.

The new festival is dedicated to what its organizers call the last frontier: self-exploration or “the space between us.”

“The Sawdust is not that easy to get into,” said Yamini Redewill of Laguna Beach, Starfair coordinator who lost out two years in a row in the Sawdust’s lottery system for admitting new artists. “It’s frustrating to new artists.”

An ‘Inner World’

Besides, she said, some of the ceramics at the Sawdust are mass-produced.

As a result, she rented a building next door, painted it dusk blue, scattered glitter on the floor and got together artist friends who like to express the “inner world of peace and harmony.”

She also hopes for a share of the revenue produced by the summer stream of out-of-towners with empty walls and open checkbooks.

Among the karma-free cookies, board games to enhance enlightenment and goggles that produce lights on the insides of eyelids is an exhibit of prints by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, the guru deported to India after pleading guilty to immigration law violations.

The limited-edition photo reproductions are signed with a stamp and sell for $950. Framed.

Bill Kolb and Linda Praeger of Reseda walked past the Starfair entrance. “It’s new, nobody knows what it is,” Praeger said. “I think most people come down here to see real art work,” Kolb added.

Thousands of Visitors

Most of the estimated 7,500 first-day festival-goers headed for the familiar Sawdust or the Art-A-Fair, a show of works by 180 artists. Across the road, artists were still hammering together booths for the venerable Festival of Arts which, along with its famed Pageant of the Masters, will open to the public Friday.

The past five years, Ray and Georgi Young have come from San Diego to the Sawdust Festival, which this year has 200 artists and 160 booths. They like the array of artifacts from toe rings, blown glass, T-shirts, prints and paintings to neon flamingos and post-modern furniture. “They don’t have anything like this in San Diego,” said Ray Young, holding a cougar print he bought for their living room. Georgi held a walrus photo for their daughter.

Since its inception, the Sawdust has become ever more sophisticated, with a board of directors heading a corporation that bought the festival property.

“Artists live for this show,” said media relations coordinator Tina Arana. Some make up to $50,000 in the 54 days it runs. The festivals will continue through Aug. 28.

Townsfolk are not as appreciative. Private openings Thursday night caused a traffic jam of up to two hours on Laguna Canyon Road.

“There’s some feeling in town that the festivals bring a big hassle,” said jeweler John Skaggs, who has been a Sawdust exhibitor for 17 years. “People with friends in the festival understand.”