SPSA: Best works in the river valley will be displayed at Citrus Festival

July 13, 2007
Santa Paula News

The Santa Paula Society of the Arts is gearing up for the 40th Annual Kiwanis Club Citrus Festival, where the society will have a booth showing the best works in the river valley.

By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesThe Santa Paula Society of the Arts is gearing up for the 40th Annual Kiwanis Club Citrus Festival, where the society will have a booth showing the best works in the river valley. The SPSA earned the free booth by acting as judges for the annual Citrus Festival Poster Contest, choosing not only the winning painting by Kay McHenry of Ventura but also numerous winners of special awards for youth entries.The festival is July 20-22 (Friday 4 to 10 p.m., Saturday noon to 10 p.m. and Sunday 1 to 10 p.m.)“We have a 10 foot by 5 foot booth, we’ll get a panel to hang stuff and the society has an easel and so far we have about four or five artists who said they will hang their works,” said Gene Marzec, the former president of the SPSA.“The rule is: if you hang you volunteer!”Volunteering is something Marzec is familiar with: the longtime member of the Kiwanis Club organized the parade for decades and will be in charge of a beer booth at this year’s festival.Artists exhibiting at the SPSA booth will be able to display “anything, there’s no theme. This is the time when you have a whole bunch of paintings to show off, this is it. I have a dozen of my own but I won’t be able to bring them all, there’s not enough room.”Marzec said society artists have been contacting him, “saying ‘I’ll be there!’ but what kind of art or the subject matter we don’t know...it’s all going to be a surprise.”
Again this year the Santa Paula Society of the Arts judged the poster contest, a whopping job noted Marzec.“We had almost 300 artworks to look at,” from students alone, prompting plans for next year’s contest to split the entry categories in two.“It’s been kindergarten to 8th grade but next year we’ll make it kindergarten to 6th grade and then have a separate category for Isbell Middle School. We got entries from all the schools, including Briggs and Mupu” among others.Adult entries were pre-judged and “we had maybe 20 we decided from...we selected McHenry’s because it was uniquely different. More and more computerized art was submitted and they all looked similar. Kay McHenry took photos of the buildings and then combined them to make a painting...she was really good.”McHenry’s original artwork is on display at the Santa Paula Times (944 E. Main St.) where visitors are welcome to place bids for the silent auction of the work.The winning poster and logo of the 40th annual festival is also being featured on T-shirts and ceramic tiles available for sale at the Chamber of Commerce.“It’s not only beautiful but that painting makes for a real nifty-looking T-shirt,” said Marzec.



Site Search

E-Subscribe

Subscribe

E-SUBSCRIBE
Call 805 525 1890 to receive the entire paper early. $50.00 for one year.

webmaster