Malibu Lake Lodge hosts artists at Autumn Artapalooza

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Leela Luz is shown at with her mixed media pieces at the latest Malibu Art Association Art show. Contributed photo. 

Malibou Lake Lodge hosts artists from three area art associations, providing attendees with a plethora of exhibited works

Saturday, Nov. 9, proved to be an idyllic Malibou Lake morning, providing the perfect setting for members of the Malibu Art Association, the Allied Artists of the Santa Monica Mountains and Seashore, and the Westlake Village Art Guild to celebrate the second annual Autumn Artapalooza, a collaborative exhibit showcasing artists’ creative works in many media, works that colorfully enhanced the lush green landscape and shimmering lake.

The exhibit works were delightfully diversified. Attendees enjoyed photography, paintings, mixed media pieces, fabric art and sculptures, all while enjoying music performed by a local favorite, Merlin Snider.

The bright tropical colors that are a hallmark of Carla Bates’ works warmly embraced attendees who stopped to enjoy paintings depicting surfers and their intense fervor for catching a perfect wave and the tropical embrace afforded by Bates’ renditions of palm trees.  

Nearby, another of Malibu’s popular artists, abstract expressionist Shifra Wylder, shared her colorful works someexecuted with acrylic and marker on canvas, a technique that makes her works brilliant and entrancing.

Malibu sculptor Eugenie Spirito exhibited some of her gorgeous works, works that celebrate the human form in flowing movements. Her sculpture entitled “Abstract Angel” was particularly intriguing as the piece perfectly captures the fleeting fluidity of a human form as it dances in an ethereal world.

Another sculptor, Alia Ollikainen, shared her smaller ceramic sculptures. When one leaned in closely, she discerned that many of Ollikainen’s works depicted cats. 

“My Siamese Sun Queen Sculpture is of cats who are twins.” Ollikainen explained. “Cats have a special importance in my works.”

Ever since the U.S. diplomat serving for the consul in Thailand gifted a siamese cat to President Rutherford B. Hayes’wife Lucy in 1878 — reputedly the first Siamese cat in the country, Siamese cats have enthralled Americans. And so it is with Ollikainen’s cats which seemingly coyly flirt with an onlooker, exuding a knowing expression that makes one wonder what secrets they are harboring and what they’re thinking.  

Brilliantly shining, Leela Luz’ works beckon onlookers, one with a gorgeous butterfly, perfectly symmetrical and hanging in suspension as if in midair. Luz shares that she creates mixed media pieces depicting the human form sans facial features. Her works, she explains, are designed that way so that the viewer is not distracted by the facial features,but rather can comprehend all the intricate details of the work.

Photographer Tim Horton shared his works which capture the birds in Malibu Lagoon and those magical mesmerizing moments when a setting sun dances along rippling water in the surf.

Plein air artist Barbara Freund also shared her images of the seaside. Freund’s artistic mantra shared on her website captured the essence of the moments attendees enjoyed at the show: “Art speaks the language of shared experiences and provides a visual reminder of what we hold dear!” 

Malibu sculptor Eugenie Spirito exhibited some of her gorgeous works, works that capture the human form in fluid movements. Particularly intriguing was her work entitled Abstract Angel, a piece that captures the fluidity of the human form in movement denoting the ethereal world. 

Another sculptor, Alia Ollikainen, shared her smaller ceramic sculptures. When one leaned in closely, she discerned that many of Ollikainen’s works depicted cats. 

“My Siamese Sun Queen Sculpture is of cats who are twins.” Ollikainen explained.