VENTURA : Art Show Makes Debut at Promenade

John MacFarland placed a small round rock into the jaws of what looked like a giant set of pliers bolted to a table.

As people strolling along the Ventura Promenade stopped to watch Sunday, MacFarland bore down on the contraption’s free arm and the rock cracked. Blue and chalk-white crystals glittered from inside the geode.

The geodes at John and Norma MacFarlands’ booth were among the items featured by 45 artisans and vendors who lined the beachfront walkway for the first weekend of the Promenade Art Show.

The event, which continues every weekend through Labor Day, drew hundreds of people to peruse booths offering jewelry, paintings, pottery and other items.

People wandered in from the beach, the nearby Holiday Inn and the bike path, lured by live reggae music and the sound of wind chimes clanging in a stiff ocean breeze.

Gail and Bryan Callicott had come to Ventura for the weekend to escape the Los Angeles heat. They stumbled onto the show by accident but liked what they saw.

Ventura, they said, has a far better climate for browsing art than Los Angeles.

“When you walk down to one of these things in L. A., you’re just dripping,” Gail Callicott said.

While some visitors shopped, others danced to the music or watched Mark Collier of Santa Barbara juggle a bowling ball and knives.

Some in the audience seemed to doubt whether the knives were real, so Collier plunged one blade several inches into his forearm.

“I mean, look at that,” he said, as the audience cringed. “Can’t do that with a dull knife.” He then yanked it free, leaving no scars.

The event, which was held in Plaza Park until last year, runs from 10 a.m. until dusk Saturday and Sunday.

The new location at the beach offers more room and a better ambience, said Barbara McCarthy, event coordinator.

“It belongs down here,” she said.