Art Installation Heralds the Coming of the Library
By Felton Library Friends
The Felton Library Festival, which will be held on Saturday, May 20 from 12:00 to 4:00 pm, will feature an art installation of “Fantastic Figures” on the new library site just down Gushee street next to the Post Office. The free event includes art activities for all, food, information on the library project, a drawing for prizes, and live music by Patti Maxine and Friends, Ben Lonesome and the Highway 9ers, Dave McClellan and Friends, and Young People’s Theater singers.
http://www.feltonlibrary
The small town of Felton, gateway to the San Lorenzo Valley, has been waiting for a new library for many years. The current library has long outgrown its tiny location in the historic Belardi building. Groundbreaking for the new larger library begins in 2018.
“It has been a long wait,” says Marilyn Robertson, longtime member of Felton Library Friends. “Now we are very excited and feeling rather celebratory.”
The garden art figures, conceived by a group of local artists, Robertson, and Felton Library Friend, Nancy Gerdt, will consist of a dozen larger-than-life sculptures “planted” in the field, each symbolizing the broad spectrum of patrons waiting to use the new library and the tremendous breadth of opportunities a library brings to the public.
Each figure, graciously donated by the artist, will be completely different, and materials will vary according to the artist’s vision. The idea of the waiting figures was the inspiration of Ben Lomond artist, Eileen Murray, who has constructed two such figures in her garden.
“I adapted the idea from the African nkisi, fascinating protective figures covered with hardware and nails, placed in front of properties in the Congo,” Murray explained. “They are very primitive and beautiful. The African figures were originally meant to scare people away, but ours are meant to entice. They are garden art.” The African Queen, by Eileen Murray, pictured here, will be one of the figures up for auction starting on May 20, with proceeds benefitting the new library and Felton Library Friends.
Additional artists include Karen Asherah, Eleanor Carolan, Alexis Spakoski, Karen Close, Jennifer Hennig, Janet Silverglate, Sophie Webb, Bill Jurgens, Nina Moore, and Lise Bixler. For more information, visit: www.feltonlibraryfriends.org
