57th annual Art in the Redwoods & Fine Arts Exhibit

Hats Off Dinner, Thursday, August 16, 2018 at 6 pm; Champagne Preview, Friday, August 17, 2018, 4 to 7 pm; Festival Events Saturday, August 18, 10 am to 5 pm and Sunday, August 19, 2018, 10 am to 4 pm.

Champagne Preview, $10 at door. Hats Off Dinner fundraiser, $150 in advance. Festival admission at the gate, $6; youth 17 and under are free.
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With more than 300 art items entered in the Fine Arts Exhibit that is the heart of the Art in the Redwoods Festival, this event continues to be one of the largest of its kind in Northern California. Artists from throughout California have entered this year’s exhibit  in 15 categories and $5,000 will be awarded in cash prizes.

Categories include Best of Show, Best Local Work, Most Popular, Clay & Mosaic, Collage & Mixed Media, Digital Art, Fiber, Textiles & Soft Sculpture, Glass Art, Oil & Acrylics, Jewelry & Ornamentation, Pastels & Drawing, Monochromatic Photography, Color Photography, Prints & Graphics, Quilts, Sculpture, Water Media, Woodworking, Jacquetta Nisbet Weaving Prize, Beading Excellence, Figure Drawing Excellence, Mendonoma Sightings Emerging Artists (Under 18), and Environmental Awards.  There are first through third place awards in each category. Awards are sponsored by local businesses and individuals.

2018 Judges Bruce Mitchell and Nancy Hemmingway

Bruce Mitchell has been working with wood for over four decades in northern California and is widely known for his lathe-turned vessels, sculptural tables, benches and abstract forms. In addition to books and catalogs, his work can be found in numerous museums and private collections throughout the United States.  As Bruce’s early lathe work evolved from the austere, classic shapes of Asian ceramics into more spontaneous, one-of-a-kind sculptural vessels, he began to expand upon the carving techniques he learned from his mentor J.B. Blunk in developing pure abstract forms. Among Bruce’s latest works is a series of wall-mounted, wood kimonos that represent his homage to that iconic textile form.

Wood burl carved by Bruce Mitchell.
Click here to see Mitchell at work with chainsaw.

Bruce states, “Making art is something I absolutely have to do because it fills my life with a delight like nothing else. What makes that experience so fulfilling for me is exploring the connection between my feelings for the material and the sense of discovery that happens in the making of an object. My primary focus is to use my experience, instinct and intuition to visualize an intrinsic shape within the raw material that relates to its own unique personality, responding to the changing rhythms of positive and negative shapes and spaces that emerge as a form develops. My intent as an artist is to draw upon nature, journeys into dream worlds and the unknown, and then bring life to those excursions through the language of sculpture.”

Nancy Hemmingway was the librarian for the Inverness library for 42 years, retiring in 2014. A former substitute teacher in Oakland and Petaluma, Hemmingway came to the Point Reyes/Inverness area in 1971 and co-founded the Dance Palace, a non-profit community center providing a wide variety of educational, recreational, cultural and community services for youth and adults in western Marin County. The Dance Palace still serves as the central community facility for the small, semi-rural coastal villages of West Marin including Point Reyes Station, Inverness, Olema, Nicasio, Marshall, Bolinas and Stinson Beach. Originally founded as a studio for dance, in an historical building referred to locally as the “Old Palace”, the Dance Palace has developed into one of the most active community facilities in the Bay Area. The Palace Players presented exciting productions including Threepenny Opera and Tango, and the Hot Tomales Theatre Company was formed and showcased works including The Rose Tattoo and A Streetcar Named Desire.  According to Nancy Hemmingway, they were “seven idealistic dreamers who found we were capable of doing wonderful crazy things and getting people in cahoots with us.”