Scrapbook Marathon Can Help Make 2001 a Picture-Perfect Year
The same old New Year’s resolution is probably back on the list--the one about organizing those stacks of family photos stored (temporarily, of course) in old boxes. Now is the time to put them in albums.
Where better to tackle that project than at the L.A. Scrapbook Marathon, which takes place Feb. 10 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium at 1855 Main St. From 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., scrapbook novices and pros alike can gather for nonstop scrapbooking. Small classes will be offered throughout the day for beginners as well.
The Hobby Industry Assn. estimates that one in five U.S. households keeps a scrapbook. “People show up with suitcases full of scrapbook items,” said Alisa A. Griner, whose L.A.-based company, L.A. Scrapbook, organizes the event. “They should bring photo albums, pictures and any scrapbook supplies they already have.”
Vendors will be on hand to sell archival materials such as acid-free paper, photo-safe adhesives, acid-free stickers to embellish the pages and smudge-free pens to “journal,” the scrapbookers’ term for labeling people and places in their photographs.
Griner said she became hooked on scrapbooking as a child. She was the youngest of three, and by the time she came along, her family was already photo’d out. “At 12 years old, when I would visit relatives, I would go into their photo albums and steal any pictures of myself and put them in my very first photo album, which was all about me,” she said with a laugh.
Griner, 36, and her husband have a 3-year-old daughter whose baby pictures through age 2 are already in a couple of volumes of scrapbooks.
“It is very therapeutic. As you put photos in your album, you also journal or tell the story of the event and relive those moments.”
Admission is $75 per person, and only 550 people will be able to attend. Register by Feb. 1 online at https://www.lascrapbook.com or by phone, (310) 839-ABCD.
The entrance fee includes door prizes and food.
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Some resolutions take time. Artist Judy Chicago’s latest effort, “Resolutions: A Stitch in Time,” was six years in the making. The artist and a national team of 17 needleworkers used textiles (from embroidered to woven, macrameed to painted) to put a contemporary spin on common phrases such as “home, sweet home” and “live and let live.”
The exhibition, which will be at the Skirball Cultural Center from Jan. 28 through April 29, is making its second stop on a national tour with 20 pieces--19 stitched artworks plus one sculpture.
The artist, who was born Judy Cohen in Chicago in 1939, is best known for her large-scale collaborative artwork “The Dinner Party,” made between 1974 and 1979.
For information on the Skirball exhibition, call (310) 440-4500.
Candace Wedlan can be reached at candace.wedlan@latimes.com.