Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Main Street

Mary Ann Cook

Los Gatos artist racks up public art awards

MURAL MAVEN: Muralist John Pugh, a Los Gatan whose work is very visible throughout town--including murals at Pastaria and the Honda dealership--has won three public art competitions in less than a year. One win was for a mural he created for the city of South San Francisco: "The Doors of Avignon" at the Grand Avenue Breezeway along the 300 block, completed in October.

The other two winners are works-in-progress--a mural for the Victor Valley College Library in Southern California and a project for an Arizona park called "Standin' on a Corner in Winslow, Arizona." Pugh is also one of three finalists for artwork for a 10-story building in Syracuse, N.Y., which overlooks a freeway interchange. Plenty of exposure there.

Other murals the prolific Pugh has completed in the past 10 months include: Silicon Graphics in Mountain View, for California Design International in San Francisco, and for celebrity Barbi Benton in Honolulu. His work shows up in Colorado, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Taiwan. If you think murals, think Pugh.

Pugh's style is trompe l'oeil (fool the eye), and he often depicts part of the building he is working on in the mural, as though it is crumbling, and you can see something of its past within. Example: the mural at Pastaria across from the Ferrari showroom is called "Sieta Punto Uno (7.1)," referring to the '89 earthquake. The Victor Valley mural is another case in point: It will depict a canvas peeling off the wall to reveal petroglyph images of Indian culture before the arrival of the Europeans.

THE DOCENT GAME: Ann Walton is a docent for the San Jose Museum of Art and has been since '74, only three years after its opening. She works some 25 hours a week at the museum and was the executive director of the Art Docents of Los Gatos for five years. Since there is new training with every exhibit that comes to the museum.

She reports that the recent Alexander Calder exhibit at the San Jose museum drew throngs of schoolchildren. Calder's playfulness and circus themes make him a natural for children: He was the one who invented the mobile. Because he worked as an engineer before he turned to art, this artist was able to figure out how to balance various disparate elements. No small feat, as those of us who have ever tried to put a mobile together (even in kit form) can attest.

Many who viewed the exhibit were disappointed that there wasn't air blowing on the mobiles to move them faster. "This is one place we can observe the gentler aspect of life," Walton would point out.

Hearing about Ann Walton is a switch, because it's usually her husband, Charlie, who's in the news. He invented the "smart card" that allows anything locked to be unlocked only by the person with the right card. And that's only one of dozens of his inventions.

Calder's inventiveness, too, was one of the artist's hallmarks, creating whimsy through bent wire and imagination.

IVORY BOUND: Madeleine Elizabeth Tregidga, daughter of Christine Halaburka of Los Gatos, is serving in the Peace Corps in Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa. Her role is as a community health educator, teaching villagers about water-borne diseases and hygiene. And she'll work with community members to help build water pumps and latrines.

Tregidga earned a bachelor's degree at Stanford in psychology in '97 and was a resident assistant there during her last year.

TITANIC TRIVIA: Melinda Ziegler is one of the favorite checkers at Lunardi's because she always seems so genuinely interested in others. But recently the spotlight has shone on Melinda. Now that the blockbuster movie Titanic is breaking records, Melinda confesses a personal connection to the disaster: her grandfather, Louis Bernardi, was one of only six people in steerage who got out alive.

He had stowed away to come to America. If he hadn't made it, Lunardi customers would be the poorer, attests Lunardi's frequent customer George Neukam.

BLIND CENTER AWARD: The Los Gatos Chapter of the Lions Club received the outstanding award for its support of the Lions Blind Center Bingo Program, and Mike Smith won an individual award for working more than 12 times at the weekly events.

Mayor Linda Lubeck was guest speaker at a recent Lions Club meeting, said she was aiming for a more middle-of-the-road approach to growth during her tenure. She thinks there is a renewed ground swell of resistance to growth in the town, which she calls unrealistic.

ALASKA ANYONE?: Saratoga Sister City is sponsoring a 12-day tour to Alaska June 28-July 9 on Holland America. Ports of call include Ketchikan, Juneau, Sitka, Seward, Denali and Fairbanks. Sponsors of the trip are Travel Advisors of Los Gatos and Ed and Chick Porter of Saratoga. A deposit of $350 on the approximately $2,900 total is due Feb. 8. Call Denny Huff, Travel Advisors, 354-6531, or Ed Porter, 867-0872, for more information.

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