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Arts & Entertainment

Eleven Local Artists Celebrate Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz County Bank's Art Collaborative will have an artist reception Tuesday evening for its latest show, 'Celebrate Santa Cruz County.'

If you happen to bank at Santa Cruz County Bank, then you have probably already noticed the new art exhibit “Celebrate Santa Cruz County,” now hanging in all five of its branches. If you don’t bank there, it isn't a problem—the exhibit is free and open to the public during business hours.

The show is brimming with images from around the county—painted and photographed by 11 local artists. The call to artists also coincided with the 100th anniversary of the Boardwalk’s Looff Carousel, so the intricately painted carousel and boardwalk appear throughout the show, just as it is embedded in the identity of Santa Cruz.

"The show thematically evolved from the concept of the bank's tag line, ‘Put Your Money Where Your Life Is,’ to pay tribute to our county's beloved local businesses,” says Mary Anne Carson, senior vice president of the bank and member of the SCCB’s Art Collaborative.

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But theme stretched beyond Santa Cruz businesses, and the resulting show brings to light a myriad of Santa Cruz’s charms — “From iconic local buildings and architecture, agriculture and the natural beauty of the environment, to beloved annual events such as the lighted boat parade, fireworks at the beach, Shakespeare Santa Cruz and the Sandman Triathalon,” says Carson.

Yep, it’s all there, painted and photographed from hundreds of different perspectives—117 to be exact. The coolest part is that each artist has contributed a piece of Santa Cruz they hold dear to them. Wayne Jiang painted Santa Cruz’s famed Ukelele Club playing at Bocci Cellar, where it plays the third Thursday of every month.

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“It’s a whole bunch of really nice people who love the music and love to play together,” says Jiang, a member of the club himself. “One thing about the club is that if it’s your first time performing there, you are guaranteed to get a standing ovation.” 

Another one of Jiang’s paintings—a narrow panoramic view of a pumpkin field up north on Highway 1—seems to be a still taken from a moving car traveling down the coast.

“I wanted to portray the feeling of driving down the coast and the cool California breeze,” says Jiang.

“I'm into painting everyday life things, and I’m into seeing kind of the subtle things in life, more of the quiet moments in life that people don’t always notice," he says. "For me, that resonates with me more than doing something really flashy.” 

Jiang paints with acrylic and clear glazes he layers with paint for a soft and shadowed effect.

Painter Laurie Longenecker paints with a similar eye for subjects that don’t necessarily garner lots of attention. Her vibrant paintings feature familiar businesses, theaters and street corners, and she names Edward Hopper as a major influence.

“I know that he spent a lot of time in the Cape Cod area, and while his fellow painters were painting the ocean, he would turn his easel around and paint the houses and bluffs, and I thought that's what I want to do,” says Longenecker, who took her first water color class at Cabrillo Community College several years ago.
"I want to document where I live every day. It’s kind of like when you’ve been on a long trip, and you come back, and everything’s so familiar—it’s these little things that hit you that mean home."

Walking through the downtown branch, Carson paused in front of each work to tell me a little tidbit about each artist. I was impressed that many of the artists had began their artistic careers with a class at Cabrillo or at the Santa Cruz Art League, while others were professors at Cabrillo or teach workshops at the Art League—Santa Cruz’s artistic community is as supporting and interlaced as it is talented.

“Celebrate Santa Cruz” is the 30th art show put together by the SCCB’s Art Collaborative with 100 percent of sales going directly to the artists. In other words, the Art Collaborative provides a valuable (and expansive) space for local artists in a town where art galleries are scant. 

The 11 participating artists are Ted Orland, Lidia Hasenauer, Wayne Jiang, Sibyl Johnson, Laurie Longenecker, Elise Mahoney, Karen Nevis, Andrew Purchin, Lupe Santos, Shmuel Thaler and Marcos Weiss. The show is curated by Joan Blackmer and will be exhibited until July 1st. 

Meet the artists and hear more about them at the artist’s reception on Tuesday from 5:30-7:30 p.m., at 720 Front St., Santa Cruz.

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