Award-winning actress will host and show her eclectic art at the annual Malibu Arts Festival.
By Cortney Litwin /Staff Writer
Bringing a little spirituality to this year’s Malibu Arts Festival, award-winning actor and artist Sally Kirkland has been chosen as the honorary chair for the event, which will take place on the last weekend in July.
The multitalented Kirkland, who won a Golden Globe Award for Best Dramatic Actress and was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in the 1987 film “Anna,” has an eclectic style when it comes to her art-with a touch of spiritually.
“I’m very Matisse-Picasso,” Kirkland said of her collage assemblages and oil paintings. “Artsy-fartsy-you’re not going to see a bunch of landscapes from me. I’m much more impressionistic-pop art, some collage assemblages and Hindu psychedelia.”
The materials used in her work are just as diverse, from cut up dresses and strips of suede to photographs placed on top of an oil base. And if she’s bored with a piece already finished, she’ll create an entirely new composition on top of the old one.
“There’s usually a spiritual icon in every piece,” Kirkland.
The spirituality of her work may come from the fact that she is a minister of a Los Angeles church that espouses New Age and Eastern and Western philosophies.
Kirkland began drawing at age 10 and credits her brilliant mother, for whom she was named, as her inspiration. The senior Sally Kirkland was the fashion editor of Vogue magazine through the ’40s and later was the first woman senior editor of LIFE magazine. She placed Jackie O. and Faye Dunaway, among other celebrities, on magazine covers and persuaded Pablo Picasso to place his designs on fabric.
“I grew up with a mother who was a genius,” Kirkland said. She combined her talent for fashion with being a ‘women’s activist for peace.’ Every year we had a war-Cold War or otherwise-she got the women in clothes, with whomever she could find over there who designed clothes and had them photographed.”
“My mother had balls of steel,” Kirkland said.
Kirkland the actor has turned her main focus from acting to other artistic pursuits, because, she says, roles for women her age (50s) have become scarce. However, art has long been a part of her life. She lived in New York during the ’60s, taking acting and art classes during the day and showing her art at night.
“I made a life-decision to paint and to write my books,” she said, referring to the book about her life she is currently working on.
This year’s Malibu Arts Festival will be the first time she’s shown her art since her gallery exhibit in Century City about 14 years ago, and encourages everyone to attend the festivities.
“I’m a big fan of the festival,” said Kirkland with enthusiasm, having attended the annual event for the past 10 years. “I want to share my art with everyone.”
Presented by the Malibu Chamber of Commerce, the Malibu Arts Festival will take place at the Malibu Civic Center, 23555 Civic Center Way on July 27 and 28, from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. There will be a pancake breakfast by the Malibu Optimist Club on both days at 8:30 a.m. Admission is free.
More than 200 artists presenting their oil and watercolor paintings, textiles, ceramics, sculptures, hand-painted furniture, garden art and more will participate amid the music of professional and local bands and scrumptious food provided by local restaurants, caterers and vendors.