Palo Alto Festival of the Arts
10 a.m. - 6 p.m. - August 23 & 24
Downtown Palo Alto
University Avenue between High and Webster Streets
 PALO ALTO - Summer just wouldn’t be as exciting – or colorful – without the Palo Alto Festival of the Arts. This lively, multiple-attraction event, sponsored by the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce, is now in its 27th year. Over 150,000 people attend annually to appreciate art, listen to music, sample California fine wines and microbrews and generally enjoy the entire experience of this unique festival.
Held in beautiful downtown Palo Alto, the festival highlights the work of more than 300 talented artisans, from painters and watercolorists to masters of photography, ceramics and jewelry. This multi-faceted arts celebration also features artists-in-action, musical entertainment on three separate stages and live street corner concerts.
“The festival is a wonderful showcase for Palo Alto as a destination and also brings visibility for local businesses,” says Sandra Lonnquist, President and CEO of the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce. “I have a lifelong appreciation for art – and this event offers an amazingly diverse cross-section of original and unique pieces.”
In addition to the stunning art and artisan pieces displayed at the Palo Alto Festival of the Arts, visitors can enjoy a tempting assortment of gourmet foods and beverages. Kids 12 and under can create their own chalk art in the Chalk-A-Lot area or take advantage of the Kids’ Art Studio presented by Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital benefiting the Palo Alto Parents and Professionals for Art.
Artists featured at this year’s festival come from all over the country, as well as throughout the Bay Area, bringing hundreds of one-of-a-kind art pieces and artisan crafts presented in an awe-inspiring display of creativity and talent. Attendees can enjoy paintings and drawings in every medium, stunning nature photography, unique sculptures, gleaming wooden furniture, whimsical handmade dolls and much more. No wonder this event is acclaimed as the Bay Area’s premier fine art festival!
Several new additions brighten the Palo Alto Festival of the Arts this year. Strolling plein air painters capture the day’s colorful scenes at their easels. A first-time festival fashion show, IN STYLE Palo Alto, displays both haute couture and casual clothing from local businesses. And gifted young musicians perform 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday as part of the Classical Corner on Tasso sponsored by the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra and KDFC Radio.
One exciting aspect of the festival is the always-popular Italian Street Painting, presented by KDFC benefiting Palo Alto Partners in Education (PiE). As audiences watch, more than 70 street artists use vivid chalk pastels to create impressive works of art – on street squares measuring up to 12’ x 12’. Nearby, the new Open Aire Gallery displays conventional paintings by a select number of street artists to assist fundraising efforts for PiE.
Public transit and free and secure bicycle parking make visiting the free-admission festival easy and convenient; free parking is also available within a block or two. The Palo Alto Festival of the Arts takes place Saturday and Sunday, August 23 and 24, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. For more information, please call 650.324.3121 or visit www.mlaproductions.com.
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PACO and KDFC present new Classical Corner
PALO ALTO - Palo Alto Festival of the Arts welcomes another exciting new addition this year. Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra (PACO) and KDFC Radio, both longtime festival supporters, team up for the first time to present a Classical Corner – chamber music played by a talented group of young people, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
An award-winning training orchestra for high school age students and younger, PACO will bring music ensembles to play works by such masters as Bach, Pacheibel and Mozart. As PACO general manager Linh Tran notes, this event allows audiences “to share the passion of youth and the thrill of music-making.”
KDFC Radio has been involved with the festival since 2003 as the presenting sponsor of the Italian Street Painting Expo. “This year we’re taking the partnership to a new level with the Classical Corner,” says KDFC marketing director Val Robichaud. “Why not classical music on a summer’s day? The artists and musicians make it fun, not mysterious, and really invite people into the creative process.”
To help festival-goers feel even closer to the meaning of classical music, PACO members will have musical instruments to show-and-tell with audience members at the KDFC booth.
The Palo Alto Festival of the Arts takes place Saturday and Sunday, August 23 & 24, from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. For more information, please call 650.324.3121 or visit www.mlaproductions.com.
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Entertainment for everyone
PALO ALTO - The Palo Alto Arts Festival features every kind of art and artisan – it also hosts a dazzling musical array, from soulful blues and contemporary jazz to foot-stomping country. On the Webster Stage and Spirit of Palo Alto Stage, a wide variety of performers offer just as wide a range of music – relax and enjoy first-rate folk, jazz, blues and country The Main Stage features larger bands and lots of energy. Wear your dancing shoes!
Street corner concerts bring the music to you. Tom Duarte, Aryeh Frankfurter, Laura Bryant and Max Gutierrez can all say they play to standing room only crowd as these talented artists play among the festival’s colorful booths. Aryeh Frankfurter’s Celtic harp creates beautiful music with old world charm. Tom Duarte mixes the warmth of Latin guitar with a dash of funk and jazz fusion. Laura Bryant and Max Gutierrez, who appear together as Dreamroad, charm festival-goers with their repertoire of melodious woodwind and keyboard compositions.
Palo Alto Festival of the Arts takes place Saturday and Sunday, August 23 & 24, from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. For more information, please call 650.324.3121 or visit www.mlaproductions.com.
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IN STYLE Palo Alto
Art comes to life on a first-time runway
PALO ALTO - Palo Alto Festival of the Arts is all about art: paintings, sculpture, music, photography, ceramics, fashion… Fashion?
The festival presents its inaugural high-fashion show, “IN STYLE Palo Alto,” at 2 p.m. on Saturday, August 23, at Lytton Plaza. An estimated 50 models will strut their stuff on the 32-foot runway – and you may just recognize some of them. These models are local, nonprofessional women, children and men volunteering for the community-oriented event.
“What people wear is art,” says fashion show organizer Esther Yei Shih. As one of the three local designers showcased in this event, she should know. Esther declares, “This is my art,” referring to the hand-painted, intricately embroidered clothing she designs. Her line of luxuriously Asian-inspired fashions, Far East Living, is much admired; clients include local celebrities.
Two other respected fashion businesses are also sharing their collections. Fashion Passion brings eclectic European garments that colorfully personify the company’s trademark tagline, “Unfold Your Passion Through Fashion.” And JoS. A. Bank Clothiers, makers of fine men’s apparel – from swimwear to tuxedos – will show off handsome pieces of its classic American menswear.
Prepare to be dazzled when IN STYLE Palo Alto hits the runway! Palo Alto Festival of the Arts takes place Saturday and Sunday, August 23 & 24, from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. For more information, please call 650.324.3121 or visit www.mlaproductions.com.
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Taking art to the streets!
PALO ALTO - Hien Nguyen makes the world a more colorful place, starting from the ground up – or the street up. The featured street artist at this year’s Palo Alto Festival of the Arts, Hien will be creating his amazing asphalt art in the Italian Street Painting area at University Avenue and Tasso. Over 70 other volunteer artists will fill nearly four dozen “street canvasses” nearby.
Nguyen participated in his first street painting festival about 10 years ago; since then, he has created about 35 such pieces. When not making street art he’s a more traditional acrylic and oil painter, also doing some printmaking, ceramics and mixed media.
Street art dates back to 16th-century Italy, when traveling artists would create temporary art, using chalk and charcoal, in public squares. Despite the works’ short lifespan, street painting has become a respected art form. Subjects range from classical art and traditional treatments to pop-art and startling 3-D effects.
Hien has been street painting at PAFA since 2003. “At first I mostly did original works,” he says, now mainly creating reproductions of pieces by artists he admires.
“I’m a big fan of surrealism,” Nguyen notes. “And recently I’ve been working with 3-D – my piece for Palo Alto will be a reproduction of a work by photographer Arthur Tress, distorted so it will be a 3-D recreation.”
Palo Alto Festival of the Arts takes place Saturday and Sunday, August 23 & 24, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. For more information, call 650.324.3121 or visit www.mlaproductions.com.
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Plein air painting: art al fresco
PALO ALTO - As plein air artists, Tonya Zenin and Shirley Lehner-Rhoades are outstanding in their field – or town, shore or forest. And now visitors to the Palo Alto Festival of the Arts will be able to watch these accomplished painters at work, creating art surrounded by art.
“En plein air means in open air,” explains Lehner-Rhoades. “It’s a term used for paintings and drawings made directly from nature. I’ve been painting plein air for four years; it’s the most exciting and challenging style I’ve ever tried.”
Tonya Zenin’s interest in plein air painting started when she was a young girl in Russia, but she has been actively working in the art form for five years. Both she and Lehner-Rhoades use oil paints.
“People are always excited to see artists at their easels painting outdoors,” says Tonya. “Some people want to photograph the spot I paint, and the painting.”
The two painters will move from place to place, spending 40 minutes to three hours at each location. Shirley comments, “I look forward to seeing the beautiful and varied art, and also to watching the Italian street painters” – which is a different form of open-air artwork.
Palo Alto Festival of the Arts takes place Saturday and Sunday, August 23 & 24, from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. For more information, please call 650.324.3121 or visit www.mlaproductions.com.
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His and hers: fine paintings and fine jewelry
PALO ALTO - Isabelle and Leo Posillico represent two types of fine art that are very different but also complementary. She is a maker of elegant contemporary jewelry, crafted from precious metals and gems; he is a creator of fine contemporary paintings with a stylish, whimsical slant.
Bracelets glittering with sapphires and diamonds; brooches gleaming with rubies and pearls; stunning necklaces; gorgeous earrings; uniquely sculpted rings and pendants: this is the jewelry of Isabelle Posillico. Working primarily in gold, gemstones and pearls, she creates unique works of wearable art that are as individualistic as the artist herself – and the person who wears them. Isabelle designs, creates, forms, constructs and solders each individual piece that she makes in her personal studio. Imaginative, chic and fun, her dazzling jewelry is designed to be worn and enjoyed.
Leo Posillico’s work is admired and collected throughout the world; he has especially enthusiastic fans in Asia and the U.S. His acrylic and mixed media pieces are immediately recognizable by the recurring, yet always distinctive, character that appears throughout his work. “In the mid-1970s I created the figure that has become my signature character,” comments Leo. That figure is anonymous yet evocative, animated and expressive even though lacking literal features. The titles of the paintings echo their creator’s sense of panache and humor: The Bored Meeting; There’s An Art To It; Is Anybody Listening?
These talented and award-winning artists live and work in separate studios at their Northern California home, just an hour north of San Francisco – so that, as Leo says, they can “have the benefit of living and working in the country yet still visit the city to get the energy and ambiance that it provides.”
Palo Alto Festival of the Arts takes place Saturday and Sunday, August 23 & 24, from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. For more information, please call 650.324.3121 or visit www.mlaproductions.com.
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A rainbow of fused glass colors shine in every piece
PALO ALTO - Suzanne Spalding deftly combines color and light in her fused glass pieces to create dazzling displays of natural and abstract subjects. She has been working in glass for over 30 years, beginning with stained glass and lampwork beads; some 13 years ago she began working with glass fusing.
“With all these years of involvement with glass, I have never been more excited with the medium than I am now,” she says. “Through fusing, I’m reminded of glasses’ true liquid nature, enjoying the transformation in the kiln, the mingling of color layers and a newfound freedom of form.”
Spalding’s current work includes large wall pieces, platters, masks, tiles and lamps. A resident of Scottsdale, Arizona, Suzanne is also designing and fabricating an altar window for Peace Lutheran Church in New Mexico, combining fused glass and traditional stained glass to create the large window. Some of her other major commissions include 16 stained glass windows for a church in Albuquerque and 10 living room windows for a residence in Illinois.
Suzanne Spalding’s fused glass art pieces are all one of a kind based on her own original designs. Be sure to visit her booth and let the light in! The Palo Alto Festival of the Arts takes place Saturday and Sunday, August 23 & 24, from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. For more information, please call 650.324.3121 or visit www.mlaproductions.com.
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Strong as steel, graceful as bamboo
PALO ALTO - In his own words, Paul Wisdom’s work involves “searching for the subtle, the hidden… allowing the process to become the meditation.” Those delicate words seem unusual for someone who works in steel and stone – but Wisdom’s work reveals a number of surprises. For instance, the name of his business, Dharma Works, uses a Sanscrit term meaning higher truth and the understanding of nature.
Although his sculpture, furnishings and accessories show bold and original designs, these Asian-influenced creations are also beautifully balanced. Wisdom notes, “each piece is a direct result of inspiration from nature.” In several of his tables, steel bamboo legs support graceful wooden tops; a graceful cedar lamp inspires thoughts of a miniature pagoda. And the sculpture called “Old Moon in Bamboo” captures the dark, peaceful yet sensual feeling of a tropical night.
The colors and textures of Wisdom’s works are also earthy and natural, such as light canvas lampshades and patinas that are often golden or brown. Wood pieces using maple, teak, cherry and other fine woods are finished with natural oil.
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Palo Alto Festival of the Arts takes place Saturday and Sunday, August 23 & 24, from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. For more information, please call 650.324.3121 or visit www.mlaproductions.com.
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From wistful to whimsy, her work is playful
PALO ALTO - Who says it doesn’t pay to play with clay? Anne Klocko has fun creating whimsical figures from colorful vinyl clay – and it shows. Her work ranges from 3-D wall sculptures populated by bountiful butterflies and cocky chickens to artfully decorated standing figures with bemused expressions, corkscrew-spring hair and charming Pied Piper clothing.
Originally from New York, the lighthearted artist has been working in the Bay Area since 1975. After several of her inventive designs were purchased by Dakin Toys, she began making her own line of fun figures made with vinyl clay, a polymer modeling compound. The pieces are available at only a handful of quality fine art shows.
Hand-mixing clays to create just the right hues, Klocko may use up to 50 colors in one piece. She cuts or forms each segment by hand and assembles the sculpture in layers, using dozens of pieces of clay for each figure. The piece is then baked to protect its form and colors. “Details are added with tiny bits of clay – even the polka dots, eyes and eyebrows!” she says.
Be sure to visit Anne Klocko’s endearing figures, but be warned: you’ll probably fall in love with at least one of them. The Palo Alto Festival of the Arts takes place Saturday and Sunday, August 23 & 24, from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. For more information, please call 650.324.3121 or visit www.mlaproductions.com.
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