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Saratoga Sampler
Villa Montalvo artists to display their talents
By Mary Ann Cook
MEET THE ARTISTS: Villa Montalvo offers the public a chance to meet its resident artists when it hosts an open studio on March 19 from noon to 4 p.m. Readings by the writers and performances by the musicians will be part of the afternoon's activities.
The studios of visual artists Diana Cherbuliez and Margaret Stratton will be open between noon and 2 p.m. The models and drawings for the new residency complex, dubbed "An Orchard of Artists," will be on display in the building near Parking Lot 1 during the same hours.
Piano duo Tami Kanazawa and Yuval Admony will perform and writers Katherine Swiggart and John D'Agata will read from their works in the Carriage House Theatre from 2 to 3 p.m. A reception will follow at 3 p.m. in the Pavilion.
Cherbuliez uses myths and fairy tales as the impetus for her sculptures, and the pieces are composed of materials that are consumable. Stratton is a photographer who is working on a video and photo text about the prison system, called Sentencing the Sentence.
Kanazawa and Admony won first place in the Tokyo International Piano Duo Competition shortly before their residency at Montalvo. They are working on a two-piano repertoire during their stay at the Villa.
Swiggart is a poet whose work has appeared in literary quarterlies. The manuscript she is concentrating on at Montalvo is titled Early Reprisals. D'Agata is an essayist whose collection is called This Flat Earth, to be published in 2001. He will also be working on his second book while in residence, an allegory about the natural history of Florida.
AVID TRAVELERS: Saratogan Tessie Young's avocation and vocation not only dovetail, but are the same--travel. Whatever fascinating travel adventures she may have, she passes on the results of these experiences to others. She has been a travel agent for 17 years and now works for Peak Travel in Willow Glen.
This past year she and her lawyer husband, Phil, took a monthlong trip through Europe. Though the two gloried in the gardens, museums and monuments they saw, they say that the true high points of their trips were the people they met.
To wit: The 80-year-old Englishwoman named Vera "who paused on her 53-year-old bike to share stories with us ... the quintessential gentleman who guided us through the church at Arundel and explained the glass partition, one side for Catholics, the other for Church of England. (He collected old American films and learned his history after retirement) . . . the former town mayor who, posing for our camera, told us to hurry up and take the picture because he was 92 and worried about his longevity."
Tessie delights in finding and researching castles and cottages, unusual tours and side trips off the beaten track. The Youngs even have the answer on how to come back from gourmet dining in France and elsewhere without those added pounds--try biking trips.
TO BENEFIT HOMELESS: Melva Vollersen and Penny Sink are the committee chairmen of the AAUW Committee on Homeless Women and Children. They chose the theme "All Dolled Up" for their fundraising tea and silent auction March 4 at Sacred Heart Church.
The dolls, which were made by women in Mexico learning new skills to support themselves and their families, had already been donated to the committee. These dolls will decorate the tables at the tea, a graphic example of the kind of effort the committee is working to bring about.
The 12-inch dolls will also be for sale. Selections from the cast of The Boyfriend, the next offering from the West Valley Light Opera, will provide the afternoon's entertainment.
Proceeds from the tea benefit homeless women and children in the Georgia Travis Center, InnVision and San Jose Family Shelter. Tickets are $20 and the contact is Jackie Anderson at 408.867.0108. Silent auction items can be viewed starting at 12:45 p.m.
AN ITALIAN CHINESE NEW YEAR: Word must have gotten around. The Chinese New Year luncheon at the Saratoga Senior Center proved to be so popular that those who hadn't made reservations had to be turned away. Reservations were required because the Chinese feast was catered.
Though the food was Eastern, the program was Western--it featured slides of little-traveled outlying areas of Italy presented by George Lundquist. "Quite beautiful," was the report.
POETS: Ariel Smart hosts a writers/poets group at her Saratoga home led by award-winning poet Phyllis Koestenbaum. Koestenbaum was one of the winners of the recent Montalvo poetry contest. Her latest collection is Criminal Sonnets, published by Jacaranda Press.
Saratogans in the writing class include Pat Compton and Mary Lou Taylor. They should consider themselves fortunate to live so close.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
