The Synergy of the Arts
by Sara Pentz

Synergy, from the Greek word synergos, means working together. As the word has evolved it refers to the phenomenon in which two or more discrete influences or agents acting together create an effect greater than the sum of the effects that each is able to create independently. Synergy creates a mutually advantageous conjunction where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts and the end result develops into a more dynamic state then merely the sum of individual component actions. What better word to use than this one when one converges on the area of North Laguna Beach from the Pacific Coast through Laguna Canyon Road? There one passes by the Laguna Museum of Art, The Festival of the Arts, Pageant of the Masters, the Sawdust Festival and The Laguna College of Art & Design, which perhaps is where the artistic resonance begins that fuels creations seen at these other destinations. And, so it is that the synergy commences.

In the fall of 2006, The Laguna College of Art & Design was the first college in the nation to offer virtual drawing and painting courses. Michael Savas, Chair of Illustration of the College, teaches traditional classes in illustration, yet knows well the importance of pixels and bytes. A pioneer of the digital revolution in the early 1990s and known for his ‘tradigital work,’ Savas explains the reason for these innovative classes, “More and more venues are requiring artist’s to use digital imagery, especially in the entertainment and commercial advertising fields.” And so it is here again that the concept of synergy brings separate entities, the canvas and the screen, together in unison.

The course will integrate the use of a laptop computer, graphics tablet and a pressure sensitive pen. Students will learn to draw and paint directly from observation using live models and still life props working completely on the computer. Says Savas, “It’s only fitting that a school which prides itself on promoting strong representational and figurative skills will be the first to implement the use of the computer in this way.”

Nearby the college, the Laguna Art Museum has been documenting Southern California artists since the early 20^th century. Its permanent collection is a treasure trove of nearly 5,000 works of art. The collection and the Museum’s library and curatorial artist files make the Museum one of the premier resources for the study of California art. The Museum’s permanent collection traces art in California from the earliest paintings, which were mostly descriptive, primitive landscapes, romantic landscapes in Northern California, the impressionism in Southern California, and the various modernist movements that followed. This permanent collection has been organized by chief curator Tyler Stallings and curator of collections Janet Blake.

As chief curator, Stallings organizes exhibition schedules and often seeks out traveling exhibitions that fit into the museum’s mission to be the premiere museum of American art with an emphasis on California. “Until recently,” Stallings explains, “the history of California art received short shrift, but in the 1990s it began to receive more attention. Laguna Art Museum has been around since the early 20th century, so its commitment to California has been valuable in terms of generating scholarships in an area where there was none.” He, too, participates in making the whole greater than the sum of the parts.

Each year Stallings has three exhibition periods with two to three shows in each period. “We put on about six to nine shows a year. I try to balance each year's programming between what we loosely phrase as historical, contemporary, and popular culture.” The Museum has been important in bringing attention to California art, and to the city of Laguna Beach as well––especially since the city was begun as an art colony in the early 20th century. To that end, Stallings has brought together the exhibit Artists at Continent's End: The Monterey Peninsula Art Colony, 1875-1907––because Monterey, too, is an important art colony in northern California.

“For me, visual art is important because it provides a meditative space,” muses Stallings. “Generally, you stand or sit in front of an object that does not speak to you––it is not time-based like a film or book; that is, it does not take you on a journey. So all that you can do is project all sorts of ideas on the object as you try to figure it out and experience it. But this is the point about the visual arts––to elicit multiple layers of meaning.”

Stallings points out that the Museum has also pioneered the importance of popular culture to California. “Nowadays, more and more museums are presenting such exhibitions, but not too long ago it was considered verboten to bring such work into the museum. Our most recent show that touched on this subject was Surf Culture-The Art History of Surfing that eventually toured the country.

“We hope that audiences will be introduced to new ideas and will also see connections between what is new and what is in the past. Just like anything else, there is a history to art, and in general, artists are a dialogue with that past. So for example, I like to juxtapose works from different time periods in permanent collection exhibitions in order to show the connections.” Ah, there is it again––synergy––that mutually advantageous conjunction.

Turn back along the Canyon Road in Laguna and tucked into a small natural amphitheater is the treasure of the summer months known worldwide as the Pageant of the Masters. The 2006 A Passion for Art, produced by Pageant Director Diane Challis Davy, is based on her premise that “…every living picture tells a love story.”

Each evening through September 1, 2006, her selections of artworks will be transformed into tableaux vivants––living pictures. These scenes are incredibly faithful art re-creations of classical and contemporary works with real people posing to look exactly like their counterparts in the original pieces. “There are so many gorgeous examples of paintings and sculptures that fit this theme, it’s hard to narrow down the choices,” Challis Cavy notes. Among the artists she felt had to be included is the Italian master of Baroque sculpture, Gianlorenzo Bernini, whose extraordinary “Ecstasy of St. Teresa” will be featured. Calling him the greatest sculptor of all time, Challis Davy explains, “You have to have a passion to make stone come to life the way he did.” Summing up her hopes for this summer’s Pageant: “I’d like the show to be a love letter, if you will, to Art.” Watch this magic then that becomes a much more dynamic state then merely the sum of individual component actions.

Complimenting the Pageant of the Masters, across the street, is the Sawdust Art Festival––in its 40^th year this summer. While Laguna has been an art colony for more than a century, it was in 1966 that a group of Laguna Beach artists started their own solo festival away from the downtown. For nine weeks each summer, the Sawdust’s fabled hand-constructed artists’ village springs to life showing off the artwork and ingenuity of these artists. Each day some 200 Laguna Beach-based artists sell their original artwork in this setting teeming with originality and flamboyance.

Moving from this lively ambiance to a solitary setting, artist California Nancy Carroll paints still life, landscape and figures in a thick, post-impressionist style. “No artist could live in California and not become enchanted with painting in natural light and from life,” she says. Painting in a direct post-impressionist Russian style of realism, where a strong expression of form is critical, she has developed a definitive style of painting from life that is evident in all of her works. Most of her paintings are completed alla prima, in one sitting, and often express the natural beauty found in flowers and fruit from her own garden or the California countryside. In her first solo exhibition at the Esther Wells Collection in Laguna Beach, Carroll presents Brushstrokes showing off her deliberate manner, strong contrast of light, rich color values and mood.

Her work is only one more example of the synergistic cycle that makes the art of life in our area so very extraordinary.