Mask and Ye Shall Receive

Leave it to artists to answer the nagging question “Hmmm, what the heck do I wear today?”

Guests attending the Masked Ball for the Arts at the Huntington Beach Art Center on Friday solved the problem by joining two pre-event workshops, where artists helped them make elaborate masks and hats.

Inspired by the current MTV-charged flick “Romeo & Juliet,” artistic designer Carole Frances and her crew came up with a Renaissance-ball theme for the center’s second annual fund-raiser. Artwork was removed from the walls, and trees, draperies and projectors were brought in by Boy Scouts and other volunteers.

The first gallery became something of an enchanted forest with live trees, dead leaves and manufactured fog. The second gallery was a ballroom where artist Blanca Apodaca of Huntington Beach painted 7-foot-tall gold frames to set off projections of masterpieces, creating the illusion of castle-size artworks. The third gallery was converted into a terrace, where stars shined on a ceiling done up in black velvet.

Many of the 135 guests wore custom masks and towering hats of felt, feathers and sequins.

Masks were molded to each face using rigid wrap or papier-ma^che. Artistic impulses reigned, from Frances’ forest scene to Chris Cole’s hockey mask featuring industrial products found in his grandfather’s toolbox.

The eats, baron of beef and roast pig, were prepared and served in what was described as a classic style by students in Orange Coast College’s Culinary Apprentice Assn.

The event raised $15,000 for the experimental center, which presents national, regional and local visual artists, performance artists, filmmakers, musicians, writers, academics and critics in programs throughout the year.