Laguna Artists Decry Sales Law With ‘Paint-In’

Sprinkled with “Lagunatics” who hold meditation circles along its nonpareil shoreline, thump Bibles along its boardwalk and blow giant soap bubbles for hours on end, Laguna Beach has always had its own brand of activism and character. So when a handful of artists gathered for a “paint-in” Sunday, the demonstration was more Kumbaya than Kent State.

A show of ultra-civil disobedience is about as close to open revolt as you’ll find in Laguna Beach.

In the 15 years that Michael Lavery has been creating oil paintings of Laguna’s cliffs and landscapes, he has seen the cost of renting an art gallery climb from about $3,000 to as high as $17,000 per month. It has driven many of the town’s artists to the streets and parks, where they paint during the day as thousands of residents and tourists--all potential customers--stroll by.

This year, police and city officials began cracking down on the artists--a campaign that seemed, at first glance, about as likely as the city building a mall on Main Beach.

Armed with an ordinance designed to keep commercial activity from public places, police have taken renewed interest when the plein-air artists stand in front of more than one canvas at once--the point at which, in the city’s mind, legal painting becomes an illegal art show. Artists say they’ve been harassed for everything from leaning a signed, numbered painting on a nearby tree to discussing the price of a painting with a passerby.

On Halloween, police issued Lavery a citation, fining him $250. The city has since backed down and dropped the fine, but Lavery isn’t finished--he wants the city to drop the ordinance, and its crackdown, and plans to file a federal lawsuit in coming weeks on 1st Amendment grounds.

About a dozen artists took part in Lavery’s “paint-in”--more a show of solidarity than anything else--while scores of people milled around popular Heisler Park, peering over the artists’ shoulders.

“We have a shift in the balance of how art is marketed,” said Lavery, with his four sons in tow and his citation displayed atop his easel.

“We haven’t settled the issue. The issue is whether the ordinance that has been on the books is unconstitutional.”

If it sounds quirky, that wouldn’t be entirely out of character for Lavery. The artist is a self-proclaimed renaissance man who says he’s a sculptor, musician, writer and former professional baseball player. He quotes Rabindranath Tagore and is threatening to run for mayor. He’s got a proclivity for conspiracy theories--he thinks the city is after him because he fought a large development proposal a decade ago, and believes he’s been “painted in a very negative light” (no pun intended) by city officials.

He’s also ambidextrous and says he can paint two landscapes, one with each hand, simultaneously. He’s writing a screenplay in “mirror” writing--in other words, it can only be read if it’s held up to a mirror. “Being in good health and possessing strong knees,” he’s considering joining the senior professional tennis tour, he says. A unique playing style--he can hit a forehand and a backhand with either hand--would ensure his success, he says.

Eccentricity aside, Lavery says he has legal precedent on his side.

Earlier this month, for example, the city of Santa Monica was forced to pay artist Bret Carr, who creates tiny sketches on grains of rice, $43,000 to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit challenging limits on artists selling their work along the tony Third Street Promenade. During a stint as a street artist from 1995 to 1997, Carr was ticketed eight times and arrested once by police for violating city ordinances, including selling without a license.

Carr also filed a lawsuit on 1st Amendment grounds.

It’s curious to some that the tiff over street performers has carried over to Laguna Beach, which makes a living off its artists as much as its artists make a living off the city.

On the other hand, the city carefully guards its image, something that has given rise to “an irrational fear of swap meets,” said artist John Rushing, a Lavery supporter who received a warning ticket for showing more than one canvas at once earlier this year and joined the “paint-in” Sunday.

“The city is taking stabs at its golden goose,” Rushing said. “The artist community, the artist spirit, is Laguna Beach.”

City officials and police could not be reached for comment Sunday.

But Wayne Baglin, a former member of the City Council, said that from the city’s perspective, it is prudent to avoid “converting a park area into an art show or a flea market.”

“I don’t think anybody wants to deny freedom of speech or freedom of expression,” Baglin said. “But when they convert a public area into a retail place, that is a problem.”

Retiree Joe Essy, a Los Angeles native and a Laguna Beach resident for a quarter-century, offered Lavery his support Sunday.

Essy signed all of Lavery’s petitions--including ones calling for a new, more accountable structure of city government and another supporting the Festival of Arts, the 67-year-old summer arts show that features the Pageant of the Masters and attracts thousands of people each year.

Organizers must pay the city a lease of nearly $600,000 a year to hold the festival. They have called the fee outrageous and filed a federal lawsuit earlier this month against the city, contending that the rent is discriminatory.

“It’s all indicative of how we treat artists in Laguna Beach now,” Essy said. “We tolerate them, but we treat them almost like homeless people or squatters instead of giving them the respect and support they deserve.”