County Staff Puts Creative Side to Work

Employees exhibit their considerable talents in display of paintings, photos and a ‘paper tole’ scene.

Within the walls of virtually any workplace lurk people who are romancing the muse, who work by day and make art by night or weekends. Take, for instance, the Ventura County employees whose selected artworks grace the County Government Center.

In a show that has been neatly divided by medium, some of the more unusual work comes from a category called “other.”

The best of show award went to Bob Ritterbush for “Citizens of Bowman County,” his delightfully peculiar box-like tableau of a Wild West town, awash in sin and sloth.

Lori Turner’s “paper tole” pieces depict turn-of-the-century street scenes rendered in 3-D by fastidiously cutting out paper bits.

Back in the category of two dimensions, John T. Trone’s painting, “Apricot History,” shows a lazy slice of agricultural life, while his drawing of an owl preying on a mouse shows a meticulous hand-eye at work. Watercolorists Ardean Rudolph and Ruth Hartmann cover the cute front--cats and homely still lifes--nicely.

In the photography corner, Russ Sperry’s “Rolling Thunder,” of a train in snow, enveloped in a plume of steam, basks in a dreamy ambience. In “A View From My Window: Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia,” Mary Ann George portrays rugged Old World beauty in a place we know to be besieged with trouble.

While there is nothing earthshaking here, and there are no major discoveries from within the ranks, the results suggest a healthy, creative energy bubbling beneath the official surface. Pretty darn good for government work.

* County Employee Fine Art Exhibit, through May 29, in the administration building of Ventura County Government Center, 800 S. Victoria Ave., Ventura; 654-3963.