Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Art show chairwoman Lorri Scott models a garment she made from fabic she wove on her loom.

Mountain Art Guild stages first show

By Shari Kaplan

Although still in its first year of existence, the Mountain Art Guild has already grown to 76 members strong and will host the first of what will become an annual art show on June 8.

From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., the sprawling, sylvan Maison du Lac estate in the Santa Cruz Mountains will hosts hundreds of guests wandering among the flower gardens, redwoods and oaks while looking at paintings, photography, textiles and woven items, stained glass, woodwork, sculpture and many more arts and crafts for sale by Mountain Art Guild members.

According to art-show chairwoman and guild co-founder Lorri Scott, almost all members reside somewhere in the Santa Cruz Mountains, with a handful from the cities on either side, such as Saratoga, San Jose and Santa Cruz.

The guild came into being last summer, when Scott placed an ad in the Mountain Network News in the hopes of "drawing some of these people out" who might be interested in forming an artists' group. A seamstress, weaver and fabric dyer herself, Scott was soon pleasantly surprised by the results.

"I knew there was a handful of artists up here and I at first just envisioned doing a little community show. But then I started getting all these phone calls; I never knew there were that many artists up here," says Scott, who feels the mountains provide an environment conducive to many creative souls. Her own home studio, where she weaves on a 16-harness, dobby-style loom, overlooks the forest and the Monterey Bay beyond.

"The mountains are wonderful; it's so beautiful and quiet up here. And a lot of us have enough property to have our own private studio," she says. "I've always been the type who likes to be alone when I create my art. I like the feeling I get from the peace and quiet."

Fellow mountain resident and guild member Albert "Al" Hansen funnels his creative juices into a different type of art--woodturning. The craft, which Hansen says is several thousand years old, involves attaching a piece of wood to a manual or motor-driven lathe and spinning it while using tools to shape the wood into bowls, plates, goblets, candlesticks or other items.

"It's like whittling, but the wood is being spun," says Hansen, who got interested in woodturning after experimenting with lathes during a college woodworking class.

One of his specialties, which will be available at the art show, is what he calls "wine shoes." Similar to coasters, the shoes are circular pieces of laminated wood with cork bottoms that catch wine-bottle drippings.

The art show also includes tours of the Maison du Lac gardens at 1 and 3 p.m. and performances throughout the day by Native American flutist Jesse Kalu, whose music is inspired by the sounds of nature. Kalu is accompanied by Alexander on keyboard and Jeannie Fitzsimmons on flute and haunting vocals.

In conjunction with the 10th annual Santa Cruz Mountains Vintners' Festival, the Burrell School Winery will be pouring libations at Maison du Lac. The art show is free, but a $15 wine-tasting glass purchase is required to sample the wine. The glass is also good at 19 other wineries that weekend; information about the Vintners' Festival is available at the art show. For more information on the Mountain Art Guild or show, call Lorri Scott at 353-1609.

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