County Fair Crafts a Family Tradition

Alessandra Gotuzzo stood over her gray clay creation, contemplating her next move. The 3-year-old squirted the lump with her water bottle. She slathered white, then purple, then pink paint all over it. And though she seemed genuinely pleased by squishing the paint layers between her fingers, neither her mother nor grandmother had any idea what she was making.

Not that it mattered, of course. The girl was having fun.

Fun is what got Alessandra, mother Astrid and grandmother Ada into arts and crafts in the first place. But family tradition, they said, is what won the Huntington Beach trio 11 ribbons at this year’s Orange County Fair, which ends today at the fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

For the Gotuzzos, a knack for arts and crafts has trickled down through three generations. “That’s how I got into it,” Astrid, 39, said, looking at her mother. “Through her.”

Matriarch Ada, 59, counts ceramics, crocheting, knitting and doll-making among her skills. When she was in Peru 20 years ago, she took lessons from a great aunt who knitted booties for Ada’s kids. When those children grew up and got married, Ada continued the tradition: She welcomed the in-laws by knitting them booties of their own.

“That’s how you know you’re part of the family,” Astrid said of her mother’s custom.

Ada expanded by making ceramic frames, sewing dolls and crocheting baby outfits.

“These are precious things,” she said, running her fingers over a tiny yellow dress. “You spend time doing this.”

Astrid had watched her mother’s work for years. But it wasn’t until she was eight months’ pregnant that she picked up the art bug.

After traveling the globe as a movie producer’s assistant, she moved back home to take some time for herself. That’s when she enrolled in ceramics, painting and drawing classes at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa.

After her daughter was born, Astrid made her the main subject of her work. Instead of filling the traditional baby book, Astrid recorded Alessandra’s “firsts” in clay and paint.

Colorful ceramic squares commemorate Alessandra’s first airplane ride, birthday party and Christmas. The keepsakes cover the walls of Astrid’s studio, the one her father, Tomasso, built in his backyard.

Tomasso--who emigrated from Italy to Peru and from Peru to the United States--is another of Astrid’s favorite subjects. He is the centerpiece of two ceramic platters, both depicting Gotuzzo family traditions. One shows the Gotuzzos gathered on their front lawn, picking olives from a 30-year-old tree--a yearly event. The other, an unfinished work, has Tomasso and Ada watching their children scampering about on the beach during a grunion run.

Astrid wrote the story that inspired the work on the back of each platter.

“I put it all into a sort of poetry,” she said. One day she wants to write other people’s stories and sell her work.

Right now, though, she serves as the model for daughter Alessandra’s musings. Though the girl may be too young to depict any family traditions in her art, she’s old enough to take part in one. She has her own table, clay and paints set up in a nook in her mother’s studio.

At this year’s fair, Alessandra won four ribbons for her ceramic cats, painted espresso cups, a seashell frame and photograph of her mom and her nanny. Astrid took five prizes for three ceramic platters, a rooster and quail. And Ada--the only family member to have won previously at the fair--took ribbons for two handmade dolls. The Gotuzzos’ creations are on display in the Youth in Motion and Home and Hobby tents.

The Orange County Fair ends today. Hours are 10 a.m. to midnight. The fair is at the county fairgrounds, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa.