NEIGHBORS : Polaroid Art : Two Brooks Institute students’ treatments using instant photos and film are shown at the Santa Barbara Public Library.

Donna Granata likes to take pictures. Then she likes to see them decompose. For her, it’s art.

Actually her artwork is much more involved than that. “I take a photograph with Polaroid Type 55 film,” said the Casitas Springs resident. “I leave it uncoated, which starts the process of deterioration. The image starts to fade and turn brown and all these wonderful things. Then I paint over it with acrylics.”

Granata’s work is on exhibit at the Santa Barbara Public Library. She is sharing the show, titled “Reaching Through the Lens,” with Dana Spaeth, a fellow student at the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara. Spaeth projects the image from a slide onto Polaroid film, transfers it to watercolor paper and then fiddles around with it.

And in case you were wondering, yes, Polaroid has taken a liking to the two artists. The company plans to publish some of their work in an upcoming quarterly magazine and will be taking some samples on a national tour of college and university campuses.

Has it been 100 years already?

Just about, for the Ventura County Historical Society. On Sept. 19, the organization--formerly known as the Society of Ventura County Pioneers--will celebrate its first century of recording county events.

Ed Robings, director of the Ventura County Museum of History and Art, said the original Pioneers had pretty much the same philosophy as today’s record keepers. “The stuff they recorded that we call history was just current events at the time,” he said. “It’s interesting that they had a sense of wanting to record what they saw as important.”

Though there are plenty of old photographs, documentation may have been a little more difficult back then. “Obviously,” Robings said, “they didn’t have what you and I see today--videotape recorders.”

Speaking of the Museum of History and Art, bet you didn’t know that the agriculture section of the museum puts out its own newsletter, “The Early Bird.” Perhaps the highlight of each issue is the “Implement of the Month” column, which most recently paid tribute to the Bean Wagon. (Or as the unfortunate typo in the newsletter put it--the Been Wagon).

According to the newsletter, bean wagons were used in Ventura County to haul lima beans, which used to be pretty big business in these parts. Said the newsletter: “ . . . at one time, between 1910 and 1970, Ventura County was the lima bean capital of the world.”

The Ventura Department of Parks and Recreation just came out with its catalogue of fall classes and events, and there seems to be something for everyone, even the fearless.

Take, for example, the nature excursion to the Antelope Valley: “Along the Faultline Tour.” Not intimidated yet? Well, here’s the tour description: “Join geologist John Alderson in a carpool caravan along the fault line as the group explores a variety of impressive features produced by it.”

Just hope one of those features isn’t a large, rapidly expanding crack.

Congratulations are in order for Jamie Collins and Danielle Montanez. The teen-age roller-skaters represented Roller Gardens skating rink of Oxnard at the recent Junior Program National Championships in Tulsa, Okla. Collins, 18, placed second in the dance competition and the 14-year-old Danielle finished fourth in the advanced level freestyle event.

And remember the four Roller Gardens skaters who went to the United States Amateur Championships in Philadelphia earlier this summer? Well, all of them--Sara and Bo Brucker, Jill Moreno and Tiffany Quackenbush--reached the finals of their respective divisions, and Sara and Bo reached the finals in the pairs competition.