Surf’s Up for Southern California Artists : Fund-raiser: More than 100 painters and sculptors will decorate surfboards for the ‘Heal the Bay Surfboard Art Invitational 1990.’

It could only happen in Southern California.

More than 100 noted visual artists--including such prominent names as Lita Albuquerque, Charles Arnoldi, Billy Al Bengston, Robbie Conal, Frank Gehry, Jill Giegerich, George Herms, Ed Moses, Frank Romero, Ed Ruscha, and William Wegman--have given up their canvases and sculpting blocks and turned to a new medium. And that medium is something that many of those involved in the Southern California beach culture consider a work of art in itself--the surfboard.

The artists--who are joined in their efforts by several celebrity-artists including musicians Herb Alpert, Joni Mitchell and Donna Summer, and actors Michael Nouri and Russ Tamblyn--are all participating in the “Heal the Bay Surfboard Art Invitational 1990,” an exhibition and fund-raising raffle that artist-curator Laddie John Dill hopes will bring in $1 million for Heal the Bay’s environmentally conscious efforts.

“I’m shooting for a million dollars, and I think that it’s feasible on an issue like this that is so far ranging,” said Dill, who was a founding member of the Malibu Surfing Assn. in the late ‘50s before becoming a painter and sculptor. “It’s an appealing project on a lot of levels--to environmentalists, art collectors and surfers. I don’t think that I’m optimistic in thinking that we’ll raise that much.”

The effort has major backing from the surfing industry itself: about 150 surfboard blanks, worth $30-$400 each, have been donated for the effort, as have the labor for the shaping of the boards and materials to glass them.

Major supporters from the surfing industry include former surfing champion Herbie Fletcher, father of current surfing champion Christian Fletcher. Fletcher is acting as a consultant and “coach” for many of the artists, instructing them in what materials will work on the boards.

The event’s chairwoman, Heal the Bay’s Cydney Mandel, said she and Dill differed on the amount expected to be raised by the event, but she declined to divulge her own estimate. It figures to be considerable, though, since raffle tickets to win the boards are being sold for a hefty $250 each (the first 10 winners will be able to select their own boards, the following winners will be handed the remaining boards at random). In addition, $25 tickets are being sold to the festive Dec. 1 “beach party” at a warehouse at 2100 Colorado Ave., Santa Monica, where the raffle will take place.

The artist-designed surfboards will be previewed at a private reception at Santa Monica’s James Corcoran Gallery on Monday, then will be on public view at the gallery Tuesday through Sept. 18.

“I’m hoping the boards will really be indicative of the artists’ usual work,” said curator Dill who has already made three of his own cement-covered boards for the effort. “What I’m trying to encourage them to do is to really put a piece of their studio in them. Like with Billy Al Bengston’s (neon green and black) board, on which he did a kind of logo thing.”

Many of the artists planned to follow Dill’s encouragement.

“I’m doing an indented calla lily,” said ceramicist Elsa Rady. “I’m working on a series now called ‘The Lily,’ so I think it’s appropriate. Everyone seems to be adapting the thing they’re working with at the moment to the cause.”

According to Mandel, the impetus for an exhibition of artist-designed surfboards came from a collaboration of ideas from Dill and from local surfer and former Olympic swimmer, John Moffet. Both came up with similar ideas for an invitational about eight months ago.

“We all joined forces and asked about 100 artists--they range from young artists whose careers are just starting out to the very well-known, nationally recognized artists--to participate,” said Dill. “What I wanted to do was get a range of artists, as well as assistance from very well-known people in the surfing industry.

“It’s an important cause,” continued Dill, a Santa Monica resident. “You can not go in the Santa Monica Bay at certain times of the year now, and it’s really sad. I would no more swim in the Santa Monica Bay than I would in the East River in New York. Heal the Bay is an organization that both localizes the effect and raises consciousness, and that’s why I wanted to do this fund-raiser for them.”

About 20 of the artists involved spent a recent sunny Saturday afternoon in Dill’s Venice studio discussing ideas for their surfboards. Most, like Dill, said they were participating in the invitational because of their belief in the need to support environmental efforts such as Heal the Bay.

“I used to surf for about 30 years and I’ve been really concerned with the environment,” said painter Joe Fay. “I belong to a fly fishing club in the East Sierras, so most of my concern now is through that. But I remember when I was a surfer as a kid. the ocean was so nice, and now I’m afraid to go in it.”

Said renowned artist Ed Moses: “I’ve been a California person all of my life, so the beach is part of my life. I’ve enjoyed it, so I might as well make some gesture to maintain it.”

For noted painter Peter Alexander, the decision of what to do was an easy one: He transformed his feelings about surfing and the water into the design of his board.

“It’s about the water--I grew up here as a surfer and it always meant a great deal to me,” said Alexander, whose board is painted black and studded with rhinestones. “Something in me never forgot about surfing. There was a magic to it and I never forgot about that magic. So the board is about magic. It’s a never-never land in the water. It’s about Aladdin’s Slipper and cheap jewels and starry nights. If you were kicking out of a wave with the light hitting on it--it would be electrifying. I did it with the idea of how it would feel, what it’d be like to ride it.”