In The Arts

Plate designer, artist to speak at LOCA meeting

The Laguna Beach artist who co-created the image on California’s new “whale tail” license plate will be the featured speaker at Tuesday’s Laguna Outreach for Community Arts annual meeting.

Graphic artist Bill Atkins will lead a discussion about the role he played in creating the new design for the plate, according to a news release. He will show various versions of the new digital design that went into its development.

Atkins worked with a Northern California landscape painter, Elizabeth Robinette Tyndall, to design the “whale tail” plate for the California Coastal Commission, the new plate’s sponsor.

The story around the plate was controversial.

The new design replaced an old “whale tail” license plate designed by the marine artist Wyland, whose career began in Laguna Beach, where he has kept a studio. Wyland fell out with the Coastal Commission when it refused to donate proceeds from sales of plates bearing Wyland’s design to his foundation, according to the Coastline Pilot’s archives.

Proceeds from sales of the new plate go toward the commission’s Adopt-A-Beach program, Coastal Cleanup Day and other conservation efforts, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

The LOCA meeting will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at Aliso Creek Inn, 31106 S. Coast Hwy., Laguna Beach.

Reservations for $15 tickets can be made by calling (949) 363-4700. Tickets cost $20 at the door. Students who show their ID get in free, along with new and renewing members.

More information is at https://www.locaarts.org.

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Crystal Cove featured in book

The Irvine Co. on Thursday will release a 208-page picture book containing more than 150 large-scale color photos of flora, fauna and landscape that can be seen in conserved parts of the Irvine Ranch land holdings.

“Southern California Coastal Mountains to the Sea: A Celebration of Open Space on the Historic Irvine Ranch,” features photography by David R. Stoecklein, including images of Crystal Cove State Park and Newport Beach’s “Back Bay” area. Stoecklein is a four-time winner, including in 2011, of True West magazine’s “Best Living Photographer of the West” award, according to his website.

The Irvine Co. commissioned Stoecklein to train his camera on unspoiled corners and vistas among the 50,000 acres of open space donated by the developer to the people of Orange County for permanent preservation. The land makes up more than half of the surface area of the 93,000-acre Irvine Ranch, according to a news release from Irvine Co.

“Southern California Coastal Mountains to the Sea” can be pre-ordered by going to https://www.CoastalMountainsToTheSea.com. Proceeds from sales of the book, which costs $47.50, will go to the Irvine Ranch Conservancy. However, orders won’t begin shipping until the Thursday release date.

Book signings will take place from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 21 at Laguna Beach Books, at The Old Pottery Place, 1200 S. Coast Hwy., Laguna Beach; and from 2 to 5 p.m. Oct. 23, at the Barnes & Noble store at Fashion Island, Newport Beach.

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Chinese ‘Piano’ film to be screened

The Laguna Beach Film Society will screen a Chinese film, “The Piano in a Factory” at 7 p.m. Thursday at South Coast Cinema, 162 S. Coast Hwy., Laguna Beach.

The film, a comedy that received the Best Actor award at the Tokyo International Film Festival, is about an unemployed steel worker. According to a news release from the society, the protagonist finds himself in a situation where he must finance the purchase of a piano so he can retain custody of his child amid a pending divorce.

Tickets cost $15 for watching the film only, and $20 for the screening as well as a reception at the Laguna Art Museum. Students get in for $10, if they show their ID. For more information, call (949) 494-8971 ext. 201.

—Imran Vittachi