THE ART(S) of SUMMER

With the days getting longer (and the mornings foggier) it's starting to feel a lot like summer around here. And what better way to spend a long, sun-kissed summery evening than stepping out on the First Friday Art Tour to see what's going on in the Santa Cruz art scene?

The answer this month is: plenty!

For one thing, the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County (ensconced in temporary digs downtown for the last two years) has just moved into its new forever home at The Tannery, in the historic Kron House.

The orgnization that stages the Open Studios Art Tour every October, puts real-live artists in the schools via the SPECTRA program, and funds innumerable arts projects countywide throughout the year is celebrating the next chapter in its collective life not only with a new location, but a new name: henceforth they are —ta-da!—Arts Council, Santa Cruz County.

Get over to The Tannery by 5 pm, Friday, in time for the ribbon-cutting ceremony to inaugurate the new space. Inside, you'll see an exhibition of work celebrating local artists who have at one time or other served on the Open Studios Committee—including James Aschbacher (that's his "Ocean View Apartment," above), Faye Augustine,  Fanne Fernow, Jane Gregorious,  Roy Holmberg, Tobin Keller, Steven and Bonnie Barisof, Peggy Snider, Doug Ross, Christianna Hunnicutt, Sally Jorgensen, Lynda Watson, Peggy Waller...oh, and at least a dozen more!

The Kron House, built in the 1860s, and most recently the site of Kirby Scudder's Dead Cow Gallery, has been painstakingly rennovated and restored to preserve the integrity of the original building. (When you go, take note of the massive, original brick wall in the kitchenette area—a piece of art in its own right. They don't make 'em like that any more!)

Then wend your way downtown to the Santa Cruz Public Library to meet one of the newest artists of FFAT. Nina Lutz won't even graduate from Santa Cruz High School until next week, but she's showing a body of paintings and drawings at the library to celebrate the publication of her new children's book, Fashion Animal ABCs. It's a whimsical alphabet book whose charming watercolor illustrations combine her love of animals and extreme fashion.

Diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer about one year ago, Nina turned to painting and drawing to get her through the long process of treatment and recovery. Her original illustrations and other paintings will be exhibited at the library, and copies of her book will also be for sale. Proceeds from the book go to Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, for childhood cancer research. Reception on Friday is from 4-6pm.

Just down the road, the Felix Kulpa Gallery will be hosting one of Santa Cruz's most venerable and well-known artists, Gloria K. Alford.

A long-running Open Studios veteran, and 40-year resident of Santa Cruz, Gloria is known these days for her bold abstract paintings and beautifully textured paper collages.

At her one-woman show at Felix Kulpa, called 16" x 16", Gloria will be showing recent and vintage work. Artist's reception will be from 6-9pm. (To get in the mood, click here to watch Gloria discuss her work and her upcoming show with KZSC's Artists on Art hostess Nada Milijkovic.)

Meanwhile, over at True Olive Connection, catch up with another longtime local artist, Evelyn Jenkins Drew. Justly famed for her popular, sun-splashed watercolors of woodies and othr seaside and surf culture scenes, her artwork has graced numerous local event posters, from Capitola Art and Wine and the Capitola Begonia Festival to Woodies on the Wharf.

Evelyn's original watercolors will be in display at True Olive, not only of local scenes, but also work inspired by the tropical landscapes of Hawaii, Mexico, and the Caribbean, where she and her husband travel on their sailboat for four months out of every year. Artist's reception from 6-8:30 pm. (But after soaking up Evelyn's paintings, don't be surprised if you get the urge to head across the parking lot to Hula's to keep the tropical buzz going!)

These are just a few of the 41 venues hosting art exhibits on this month's FFAT. Feel free to design your own personal tour!

FFAT x 100, SCFF x 11

Strap on your walking shoes! Believe it or not, this Friday, April 6, is the 100th installment of the First Friday Art Tour. Yes, it's been 100 months since the first intrepid band of art lovers began the tradition of hot-footing it around town to view local art in a variety of unorthodox art spaces, ingest wine and nibblies, and discover even more excuses to get out and party on Friday nights.

A plethora of special events are lined up to celebrate this landmark occasion.  One of the coolest (and most apropos) is a $100 gift certificate toward the purchase of the local art of your choice to be awarded to some lucky art lover. To register, visit the FFAT Facebook page  and post a brief story or memory, or simply explain what you love about FFAT. The winner will be randomly chosen from registrants on April 6.

Feeling exotic? check out Mary Altier's photography exhibit, "The Body As Canvas: Tattooed, Scarred, Pierced, and Painted," showing (appropriately enough) at the Chimera Tattoo Studio & Gallery, on the Westside (1010 Fair Avenue), through May 30. (That's her photo up top. Here's a peek at more of her amazing work.) Mary has spent 25 years photographing tribal people around the world, and this retrospective exhibit documents the ornamentation of people from Ethiopia, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, and India, among others. The FFAT reception will feature West Africa drumming by Ibrahima Ibou Ngom, from Senegal, and live Henna body painting by Rica de Luz.

A more bohemian take on ornamentation is happening over at the Wallflower Boutique (103 Locust St.), where Arielle Rose will be showing her line of eclectic, one-of-a-kind dresses, hand-made from recycled, upcycled, and totally reinvented fabric, lace, and other materials. Wine and cheese accompany the fashion show.


 If you're in the mood for something a little more hands-on, fall by the free, drop-in drawing workshop 6-9 pm at the Scribbles Institute in the Sash Mill complex. Drawing coach Rob Court welcomes all ages and levels of ability; pencils, charcoal, paper, and various inspirational objets will be provided.

Then get ready to mix your media over at the Tannery, at the launch party for the upcoming Santa Cruz Film Festival. To celebrate its eleventh season, SCFF is staging an event they call "The Big Reveal" at the newly opened Tannery Digital Media and Creative Arts Center. Alongside the unveiling of this year's SCFF film lineup, festivities include a live DJ spinning platters, dance performances, art exhibitions, and a no-host bar. Revels continue from 8 pm to midnight.

(Btw, this cool take on the SCFF logo was created in the sand at Its Beach by phenomenal landscape artist Jim Denevan, whose canvas is earth, sand and ice.)

Meanwhile, across the way at the new Tannery dance studio, all regular Friday evening World Dance classes (Polynesian, Haitian, and Argentine Tango) will be free and open to the public between 4:45 and 10 pm. Live dance performances begin at 10:15 and continue til midnight. Click here for the full program.

Of course, there's way more going on than will fit into one little blog, so be sure to scope out the FFAT website and design your personal DIY art tour.

ARTS + LETTERS

It can't possibly be March already, but the next First Friday Art Tour is right around the corner.

All the usual suspects and venues will be participating in this Friday's event. You can start at the Felix Kulpa Gallery, at the south end of downtown, with a group exhibit of ceramic sculpture featuring the masterful work of Coeleen Kiebert and a selection of her students and disciples, among them Sharon Bosley, Kathleen Pouls, Bill Scoble, and Peggy Snider.


Pop into Hula's Island Grill for the witty graphic art of recent Gail Rich Award winner Steve Hosmer. (Here's one of his many cool Boardwalk images.)

 Visit Chris Miroyan's fanciful, colorful neo-folk paintings with a sophisticated twist in her "Put A Bird On It" show at Artisans Gallery. (That's her piece, "Tweet," above.) Then work your way to the north end of town to Art DuJour for an exhibit of book-inspired work by artist Mary Atkinson and famed book artist Felicia Rice, proprietor of the amazing  Moving Parts Press.

And speaking of books, plan to stop in at the Museum of Art and History between 5 and 6 pm for a "live launch" of a new literary venture. "phren-Z" is a quarterly online e-zine created as a venue for the work of local writers. The first issue is up online as we speak, featuring essays, poetry and fiction by the likes of Gary Young, Carolyn Burke, Paul Skenazy, and Wallace Baine, among others.

The e-mag is the opening salvo from the newly-minted Santa Cruz Writes. Founded by local writers Julia Chiapella, Karen Ackland, and Jory Post, the group hopes to foster a sense of community among the many and varied literary types who call Santa Cruz home.

Another way to get the word out about SCW is what they call the Floodlight Feature, a combined real and virtual "illumination" of a local writer, event or topic of interest to the writing community. At the MAH this Friday, the Floodlight will shine on the late poet Morton Marcus, his work and legacy.

As part of the phren-Z launch, local poets and readers will be reading from Marcus' poems. And get this: as an extra bonus, every single person who shows up at the event will receive a FREE copy of Mort's engrossing memoir, Striking Through the Masks, through the generosity of the Capitola Book Company and Ow Family Properties. A specially created broadside of Mort's poem, "That's What You Write About," from C&C Press, will also be given away as a door prize.

Arts, letters, and free books—what's not to love?

FFAT FRIDAY

Get ready to reconnect with some favorite artists and get inspired by some exciting new ideas pinging around out there at this week's First Friday Art Tour. Looks like our mild winter weather will continue for this second FFAT of the new year, and with the days getting longer, there are plenty of reasons to get out and see what's new on the local art scene.

Here are a few events that look interesting to me. Be sure to visit the FFAT website and design your own tour.

At the County Government Center, you'll find luscious and mysterious watercolor abstracts by Isobel George (above), along with David Fleming's narrative oils with a twist, Laurie Longnecker's precise, photorealistic paintings of iconic local sites, Sandra Cherk's vivid pastel and watercolor landscapes, and the ceramic art of Maren Sinclair Hurn.

The Zen-like meditative quality of repetition is the theme for the new show, REPEAT! at the Santa Cruz County Bank. Parceled out between its five countywide branches, you'll find work from the encaustic mantra series by Fanne Fernow. Other artists whose work plays with the idea of visual repetition include Angela Gleason, Jane Gregorius, Charlotte Kruk, Dotti Cichon, and Daniella Woolf.



Then cruise down to the Rittenhouse Building on Pacifc Avenue for what may be the coolest show of the event, Wet Art 2012. Old wetsuits have been donated by 36 local surfers to 36 local artists to create a gallery show and auction to benefit Boys & Girls Club of Santa Cruz County.

Participating artists include Charles Prentiss, Ann Morehauser, Coeleen Kiebert, D Hooker, Jimbo Phillips, Robynn Smith, Rose Sellery, even The Great Morgani—to name just a few! (That's Fran Battendieri's funky-chic mermaid gown, at right.)

Some of their pieces are figurative, some are fashionable (flirty to steampunk), some are alien life forms, some are deconstructed art pieces in their own right, but all are, in a word, awesome! A partial display of the work will up for FFAT at the Ritt from 5-10 pm. (The complete show will be up in time for the reception and auction, Saturday, February 18. There will also be pre-auction visiting hours 11 am to 5 pm, Saturday and Sunday, Feb 4-5 and 11-12.)

But in the meantime, check out the website, and prepare to be stoked.

Down the road, stop in at Artisans Gallery for this year's Hearts for the Arts exhibition. In her annual homage to the venerable Hearts for the Arts benefit art auction of yore, Artisans owner Linnea Holgers has come up with a new wrinkle: a "Wall of Hearts" featuring a quilt-like display of 10" x 10" square heart-inspired art pieces from local artists.



In addition to James Aschbacher's "Love Is In the Air," artwork includes an original small heart-shaped watercolor landscape by Marie Gabrielle, a Judy Miller ceramic plate, a pique-assiette wall piece from Beth Purcell, a clever collage of hearts by painter Paul Fortis, and just about the most adorable and impudent painted sea lion, ever, from printmaker Doug Ross (working in acrylics for only the second time).

Al in all, over 20 pieces by these local artists will be on display, along with work by students and teachers from the Mariposa Art Project. All these artworks are available for viewing and bidding in a silent auction from Friday through Valentine's Day, Feb 14, so be sure to stop in and bid on your favorite! All proceeds to go art education programs for local children.

On the Westside, the R Blitzer Gallery hosts A Figurative Affair. In addition to the work of curators Sefla Joseph and Susan Hancey, the exhibition includes new work by the fiercely creative Carol Bowie, who is always coming up with exciting new ideas in new media. Look for other renowned artists Barbara Downs, Stephanie Heit, David Fleming, Marvin Plummer, and Andrew Purchin, among many others in the show.

And these are just a smattering of the many venues in SC and Capitola participating in this month's event. So—on your marks, get set — FFAT!

WESTSIDE (AND OTHER) STORIES

Looks like gorgeous weather in store for this month's First Friday Art Tour. Downtown art venues will be hopping, as usual, from the Elijah Pfotenhauer show at Motiv to the Charles Prentiss exhibit at Artisans (those are Charles' luscious aloes, on the left); from paintings by Russel Brutsché at India Joze, to the Barbara Lawrence exhibit at Michaelangelo Gallery, to the multi-artist, mixed media LGBT Community Art & Pride show at Louden Nelson Center.

For something a little off the well-trodden art path, check out the art installation at Saffron & Genevieve by book artist Jody Alexander. Titled "The Odd Volumes of Ruby B.," the installation at the back of the store purports to be "the living and working space of fictional character Ruby B.," and features a variety of reconstituted books, wall hangings and various objets d'art crafted from textile, thread, and photo collages.

This month, there's even an opportunity to make your own 3-minute First Friday movie, the top three of which will be screened next week at the Santa Cruz Film Festival (details here).

And if you haven't already seen it (or even if you have; I'm planning to go again) don't miss the Big Creek Pottery show, going into its second month at the Museum of Art & History. Not only is this exhibit bursting with functional ceramics—vivid, playful, witty, and unique—from students and masters alike (that's a saucy little 1977 pitcher from Maestro John Glick, above), the show is also a time capsule of Santa Cruz cultural life in the 1970s, featuring 140 vintage photos from the heyday of Bruce and Marcia McDougal's fabled Big Creek Pottery School up Swanton Road. Drop in around 5:30 pm, and meet the MAH's brand spanking new Executive Director, Nina Simon.

But there's also some extra cool First Friday stuff going on on the west side. The R. Blitzer Gallery in the old Wrigley Building is hosting a massive show called EDGE: Art on the Westside. Curated by bronze sculptor Lila Klapman, the show features 16 local artists, all of whom live and work on the westside of town, including Barbara Downs, Andrea Rich, Jamie Abbott, Hildy Bernstein, Gloria Alford, Roy Holmberg, Andrew Purchin, and Susana Arias, among many others. Work includes painting, ceramics, steel sculpture, woodcuts, and various mixed-media, so there'll be plenty to see!

Then hike around to the other side of the Wrigley Building and trot upstairs to the Digital Media Factory, for the World Premiere of the pilot episode of Junk Art Scramble. Five weeks in the making, and countless hours of video footage later, Santa Cruz's own home-grown reality show, art competition, and experiment in creative green ecology is ready to be unveiled. (Read all about it here.) Will Team Cabrillo or Team Tannery walk away with the prize? Find out when highlights from the pilot episode air at 6 p.m., and at 8 p.m., Friday evening at the DMF. As an extra bonus, the art structures created by these two enormously talented teams will be on display as well, so prepare to be amazed. (And while you're there, check out the cool DMF facility itself, the best-kept secret in Santa Cruz.)

Need more of an art fix than even First Friday can provide? Come to beautiful midtown Live Oak this Mother's Day weekend, for the fourth annual Art & Chocolate Art Studio Tour. 12 neighborhood artists in nine venues will open their studios to the public 11 am to 5 pm, Saturday and Sunday, for this free event. What's the best part? Free chocolate will be available at every single venue on the tour!

Participating artists include abstract painter Beth Shields, figurative painter Richard Bennett, ceramic sculptors Geoffrey Nicastro and Carole DePalma, landscape painters Maggie Renner Hellman, Lou Renner, Amy Stark, and Paul Rodrigues, stone sculptor Mike McClellan, painter/collagist Myra Eastman, Janet Ferraro, painter of horses, and James Aschbacher, aka Art Boy. (Um, we haven't figured out what his painting style is called, but "fun" and "whimsical" most often spring to mind, as you can see by his "Cat Juggling," above.)

All nine studios are within a mile of each other here in Live Oak, for your viewing and sampling pleasure. So treat your mom, your kids, your sweetie, your BFF, or anyone else (including yourself) to an afternoon of dynamic art and tasty chocolate to satisfy your deepest inner cravings. (Click here for maps and info.)

WHAT'S IN A POT? (BIG CREEK POTTERY II)

Despite drenching rains (geez, what next, a plague of locusts?), the Big Creek Pottery show went on at the MAH over the weekend. Settling in for a four-month run (through july 17), the exhibit features 70 gloriously functional pots from Bruce and Marcia McDougal's personal collection—their own work (like Bruce's pitcher, right), an abundance of student work, and several pieces by the master craftsmen and women who taught workshops at their school over the years. These include diverse work from such iconic ceramicists as John Glick, Michael Cardew, Warren McKenzie, Toshiko Takaezu, John Reeve, Jim and Nan McKinnel, Michael Casson, Karen Karnes, Cynthia Bringle, and a few other names I'm sure I'm forgetting.

While personal styles vary widely, what all the pieces in the show have in common is their functional aesthetic. Insisting that their students learn the basics of pottery-making—from building their own kickwheels to throwing and glazing clay, to a variety of firing techniques—the McDougals and their guest instructors promoted the ideal of beautifully hand-crafted work wedded to utility. The work in this show is a testament to that ideal, a happy blurring of the distinctions between humble pottery and "fine art." These wonderfully glazed platters, jars, bowls and covered pots, elegantly shaped pitchers and vases, command as much respect as any other artwork you'd find in a museum gallery, yet they're just itching to hop down off their pedestals and get to work in a functioning kitchen.

(If I had to pick my personal best of show, it would have to be Bruce McDougal's playful pair of goblets. They're about 8 inches tall, wide-bowled, and glazed in deep midnight blue, but Bruce has unleashed his inner cartoonist with the stems: two sturdy little figures bear up one goblet bowl; the other stem is a jaunty little robed wizard.)

Visitors should also prepare to be amazed at how the Solari Gallery has been transformed with a few new coats of paint, in colors personally selected by Bruce and Marcia. Gone are the plain, white gallery walls, replaced with a palette of the vivid, earthy, folk art colors—curry, deep brick, pea-soup green, aqua—that the McDougals surround themselves with every day.

These colors not only provide a suitably warm setting for the pots, they make an effective backdrop for the 140 vintage black-and-white photographs from the heyday of the school (open from 1968-1983) which is really the heart of the show. Simply as a time capsule of '70s-era commune life (not to mention the hairstyles and clothes), these photos would be worth the price of admission! Kudos to guest curator Karen Thuesen Massaro for amassing this wealth of material (including a display box of old BCP flyers, brochures, and several other pieces of fascinating paper ephemera, as well as correspondence from some of its esteemed visitors) into a coherent, thematic, and relatively chronological exhibit. Check it out this week on the First Friday Art Tour.

The flyer that launched a thousand enrollments

(My only suggestion: move the identifying labels to the front of the pedestals. Too many of them are posted around on the sides, which makes them harder to see, especially if there's a crowd in the room.)

FRIDAY FRESH

Lion or lamb, March has snuck in while we weren't looking, and that means it's already time for another First Friday Art Tour. As always, there are venues as far afield as Harvey West (the Michaelangelo Gallery, featuring printmaker Robynn Smith), UCSC ( a closing night reception for the retrospective of the work of painter/printmaker Geoff Morten at the Porter Faculty Gallery, and Chip Lord's "Public Spaces" exhibit at the Sesnon), and the Davenport Gallery (the collective, mixed-media show, "Our Oceans").

But now that the days are getting perceptively longer (she says hopefully), FFAT is a great opportunity for local artists, art lovers, and schmoozers to reconnect with our downtown and see what's new. Local favorites showing downtown this month include James Aschbacher (aka Art Boy), showing his folk art-inspired mixed media on wood paintings at Artisans Gallery (above), Jane Gregorius, with a series of mixed-media monoprints from her "Church Series" at Lulu Carpenter, and Coeleen Kiebert's expressive clay sculpture at Felix Kulpa. This is also the last week to catch the excellent Clay and Glass show at the MAH.

What's extra fresh for this month? How about local childrens' art on view at two downtown locations. Over at L'Atelier Salon, on the corner of Pearl Alley, check out mixed media artwork from the students at Westlake Elementary K-12. The piece above is uncredited, but boy, do I love it! There's nothing like a kid with a paintbrush (or some torn colored paper) to capture the pure joy of self expression.

Then take a short stroll down to Louden Nelson Center to see work from the students at Mission Hill Middle School. Teacher, artist, activist, and one-woman dynamo Kathleen Crocetti presides over the art department at Mission Hill, and she's always dreaming up exciting new things for her students to do. This show is called Machines of Memory Boxes, featuring student artwork inspired by the work of Joseph Zirker, which was shown at the MAH last fall.

Finally, the new downtown offices of Cruzio (in the building formerly known as the Sentinel) is open for business and participating in FFAT for the first time. Five artists affiliated with the UCSC Digital Arts and New Media MFA program are staging a tech-based installation (sound, light, video and sculpture) in the Cruzio workshop for a First Night "interactive artistic experience." Okay, fine, but if you're like me, you just want to know what's been going on in that space for the last two years. Will some vestigial spirit of the old Sentinel printing press come thrumming through the fiberoptics into the new media? Drop in 5-9 pm Friday night and pick up the vibe.

FIRST FIRST FRIDAY

Looks like clear skies for the first First Friday Art Tour of the new year. In honor of the (slowly) returning sun (hey, technically the days ARE getting longer, although you'd never know it at about 5:30 on a pitch-black January evening), why not take a stroll around town for a sunny afternoon of art in unexpected places. Or head out this evening and hit the receptions, where many venues are sure to offer wine, live music, and/or little nibbly things.

Joining traditional venues like the Santa Cruz Art League (its current show is "This Is Santa Cruz: local artists interpret what Santa Cruz means to them," where I got this uncredited image), the Felix Kulpa Gallery (15 neon artists), and the MAH (exhibits include work from the Association of Clay and Glass Artists of California, photographer Lawrie Brown, and miniature trains), you'll find art shows in banks, cafes, shops and boutiques all over the place, from the Eastside to the Westside to Davenport. From "The Masculine Series" of photographs by Midori at Pure Pleasure, to Neno V. Villamor's "Cycles of the Feminine Self," relief sculptures in handmade paper at Camouflage. Get all the info here.

And don't forget to drop by the R. Blitzer Gallery in the old Wrigley building for the closing night reception for the Art For Art exhibit. Remember, 20% of art sales from this show go to benefit the Santa Cruz Artists' Assistance and Relief Fund (SCAARF) to aid local artists experiencing a career-threatening emergency. Get there early to really appreciate the size and scope of this epic new gallery space. Maybe I'll see you there!

PRE-HOLIDAY SPIRIT

Good grief, it's December already—panic in the streets! And as usual, there's way too much going on in Santa Cruz. As the Red Queen says to Alice, "It takes all the running you can do to stay in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run twice as fast as that!" Boy, that's the story of my life.

For starters, our monthly First Friday Art Tour returns this week, with art of every description by local artists on view in a staggering variety of venues countywide—cafes, home design shops, beauty salons, a bank, a tattoo parlor, a winery, Loudon Nelson Center, and even a few designated art galleries, like the Santa Cruz Art League, Felix Kulpa, Artisans, and the MAH. (That's "Christmas Tree," by veteran local artist David Fleming, who's showing new work at the Center Street Grill, along with Kathy Cheer.) Get a complete list of exhibits and venues at the First Friday website, and don't forget to bundle up, cuz, baby, it's cold outside!


Speaking of art in frozen climates, the annual Art in the Cellars holiday art show takes place at Bargetto's Winery in Soquel this weekend. Art Boy and I had the pleasure of presenting our wares at this event a few years ago (back when I was making my "Weird Sisters" line of fabric dolls, like my "Infinite Jester" icon over there in the menu column). It was a fun show to do—lots of interesting art tucked into the nooks and crannies between the wine barrels, live holiday music, and plenty of bonhomie. But, ye gads, was it chilly in there!


It has something to do with keeping the vats at a consistent temperature as the wine ferments, and heaven knows no one wants to interfere with the delicate alchemy by which grapes transform into festive libations. But here's a word to the wise: pack a down jacket and mittens as you prepare to go spelunking into the cellar. (It's actually a warehouse adjoining the parking lot, but it might as well be subterranean). Still, local artists like printmaker Liz Lyons Friedman (above), photographer John Gavrilis, and many others are well worth the trip, and whats a little cold, anyway, at this wintry time of year? Nothing that can't be cured with a glass or two of Chaucer's Mead. Drop in Saturday or Sunday, from 11 am to 5 pm.



Still looking to jump-start the holiday spirit? Forget Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Ruby Tuesday, Wingnut Wednesday, or any other artificial, media-contrived shopping frenzy. Instead, how about opting out for a slow, scenic drive up the Slow Coast to Davenport for a Holiday Open House this Sunday at La Sirena Antiques & Gifts?

You'll find an eclectic mix of goodies, with a special emphasis on French country antiques, international textiles, and hand-crafted ethnic beads from around the world. In keeping with the spirit of the season, you'll also find a groaning board of cookies, nibblies, and Yuletide cheer of the bottled variety set up in the courtyard to welcome you in from the cold. Hours are 2-5 pm, Sunday afternoon, at 500 Highway 1.

And as long as you're up there, stop in at the New Davenport Gallery (450 Highway 1) and check out the December "Metal Is Magical" show. This hit parade of local metalworkers includes everything from massive sculptures by Fred Hunnicutt, Jamie Abbott, and Holt Murray to precious metal jewelry by Lynda Watson and Lynn Guenther, to name just a few. That all these creative, talented artists live and work right here in our little corner of the world is enough to put anybody in a holiday mood.

And while we're on the subject of overflowing talent, the Santa Cruz Film Festival is hosting an "Open Projector" event tonight (Thursday, Dec 2), from 5 to 8pm at the Vino Tabi Winery in the Swift Street Courtyard (334 Ingalls St. SC). Aspiring filmmakers are invited to bring your movie in DVD format, 10 minutes or shorter, for a public showing before a discerning crowd of film enthusiasts. First come, first served; no prizes, no pressure. And it's free! What could be more festive?