Artists bring creativity to Ventura streets
Picture incredible chalk art lining walkways, paintings, sculptures, and handmade jewelry for sale on the Ventura Harbor. The Ventura Art and Street Painting Festival took place on Sept. 11 and 12 at Ventura Harbor Village. The event combined artists showing and selling their work from paintings to metalwork and street painters who created chalk murals on the sidewalks.
Dan Shattuck was one of the more eye-catching sellers at the fair. “I’m working with recycled materials and lots of silverware,” Shattuck said. Inspired by his wife’s encouragement, Shattuck has continued this craft for over 20 years. “I’ve always liked making things. So, this was a hobby for vacation money when we had our first kid 19 years ago, my wife liked her job and I’m like ‘I can totally watch a kid and work at the same time.’ Went so well that by the time we had the second kid, my wife was able to quit her job,” Shattuck said. You can find Shattuck and his art on Instagram at the user handle, @danshattuck_recycledart.
A big part of this festival was chalk art. Through the parking lot and sidewalk that hosted the festival, you could see over two dozen chalk artists creating various murals on the ground. One of these artists was Adora Mira, a sophomore at Valley Academy of Arts and Science. Mira has been going to shows with her mother for years but just recently started to make designs herself, with a particular focus on 19th-century art. “The academic art movement in the Victorian area had a bunch of Aphrodite and Greek mythology, so I used that and I wanted to use it here. I’ve used some other artworks before in the past from the 1890s as well, and I put them on chalk. I had fun in the first one so I’m happy for this one,” Mira said. Mira can be found on Instagram, @cherry_flavored_cherub, where you can see all of her recent works.
Another chalk artist at the festival was Marcella Swett. Swett is a professional artist and is sponsored by various companies so she can participate in many events like this one. The piece she was working on was of a little girl with very ethnic hair, in honor of the Crown Act, as a few weeks prior she happened to meet one of the women who passed the bill. “ “I feel that it’s my duty to be able to express them to individuals as they are going by,” Swett said. Swett’s Instagram handle is @marcellaswettart, where you can see all of her work in addition to where she will be next.
