O.C. artists show off their work

A range of works by 40 Orange County artists will be on display tonight at Costa Mesa’s sixth artist showcase, a tri-annual event that’s been a hit since it started in 2005.

Launched by the city’s cultural arts committee at the suggestion of City Councilman Eric Bever, the showcase provides a venue for local artists to share their work with the community and get to know each other.

Today’s event includes 75 works of art.

“I think it’s great that the city is doing this,” said JaneEllen Walker, whose paintings and layered paper works have been displayed in several Costa Mesa showcases. “It shows that the city really appreciates what we’re doing and supports us.”

That was exactly Bever’s goal.

The city has world-class performing arts venues, he said, but, “We really had not done much to foster the visual arts in Costa Mesa, and there has long been a thriving visual artist community in Costa Mesa.”

The idea was to offer a place for artists not only to show their work, but also to meet each other.

That seems to be how it’s worked out. Stephen Rivers, a painter whose work is featured on a postcard advertising the artist showcase, said at the last event he saw a cool technique another artist used, and they got a chance to discuss it.

While the artists in some shows Rivers has been in were standoffish, he said, “This group of people here, they talk to each other.”

Walker and Rivers both said they’ve been artists since they were young, but each has a day job to pay the bills.

Both said they appreciate the opportunity to display their work — as Walker put it, “because it’s important for us to get our work seen, and I think it’s important for the public to see art.”

The artist showcase has been “wildly successful” and has attracted a variety of sponsors, Bever said. Waterpointe Development, Red Bull and the Yard House are among contributors to today’s event.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Costa Mesa Artist Showcase VI

WHEN: 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. today

WHERE: Triangle Square, below Edwards Theater, 1870 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa

INFO: https://www.ci.costamesa.ca.us /council/commissions/artists_ showcase.html