Laguna Auctions Art for Fire Victims’ Sake

One of Bette Midler’s gold lame high heels, autographed. The original lithograph for the logo for Whoopi Goldberg’s TV show. A Rembrandt etching. And a four-foot papier-mache sculpture with a striking resemblance to Burt from Sesame Street, but named “Plungerhead,” perhaps because of the plunger stuck on its head.

These were just a few highlights from more than 1,000 paintings, prints, photographs, collages, sculptures, ceramics and jewels offered at Saturday’s art auction to benefit victims of the Laguna Beach fire.

Living up to its legend as Orange County’s premier artists’ colony, Laguna Beach filled two of its arts festival grounds with work donated by about 400 artists. The auction raised money for people who lost their homes or businesses in the devastating wildfire that destroyed 366 structures.

“I knew that artists did not have money, and I knew that they had art,” said Roark Gourley, a local artist who organized Saturday’s auction. “I knew that if we could take that art and turn it into money, they’d do it. . . . I know it’s a drop in the bucket, but we’re going to get the town going.”

Gourley, whose parents lost their rented home in the fire, donated a three-dimensional wall hanging decorated with more than a dozen heart-shaped ceramic sculptures and titled “States of the Heart.”

Each artist decided which organization or individual would receive the money from his or her work. Organizers planned to sell any remaining artwork to corporations, or to give the art to fire victims.

“We’re who we are because of this town. You’ve got to give back,” said Mickey von Hemert, whose Laguna company donated several pieces of furniture to the auction. “We’ve got to get some coin into these people’s pockets. We’ve got to help these people and do it now.”

Most of the artwork came from regular exhibitors at the Sawdust Festival and Art-a-Fair, two summer shows on Laguna Canyon Road whose grounds were saved from the fire in part by local artists who watered down hot spots with garden hoses as the fire raged Oct. 27 and 28.

More eclectic offerings included Midler’s shoe, which sold for $150, an autographed hardcover copy of Jerry Seinfeld’s book and a draft copy of the script for an upcoming Freddy Krueger film. Actor Robert Englund, who plays Krueger, even attended the auction.

Also among the framed works were two flower-filled vases in colored pencil, done by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Who knew she could draw?

“This is a community that supports one another. People are interested in helping Laguna rebuild and be the quaint little place that it is,” Karen Millet of Huntington Beach said as she milled around the Art-a-Fair displays.

“It’s a great cause,” said Carol Muse of Bakersfield, who was vacationing in Dana Point with her husband and heard about the auction on the radio. “We thought there’d be some great stuff--and there is!”

Among the treasures were three pieces literally created by the fire.

Rob Brennan, an El Morro Beach Mobile Home Park resident who helped save his own home and those of some neighbors, and Lisa Kasprzycki sorted through the rubble and found art.

Her two pieces are charred teapots on platforms of rocks.

His is a green china Buddha sprinkled with ash, framed by remnants from a friend’s trailer, with the fender of a motorcycle overhead. The sculpture is adorned by a tinkling bell from someone’s front porch. It sold for $475.

“What I wanted to do is to take from the ruin, make something beautiful out of it and give it back to the people who lost,” Brennan explained. “It was a way to make some beauty out of a disaster.”