‘Art Festival Among the Forest’ debuts

By Julianne Homokay

Special to the Alpine Mountaineer

Our mountain community keeps getting richer.

On Sunday, July 7 at the Community Center in Cedarpines Park, “Art Festival Among the Forest” made its inaugural run. It included music, food stations and artisan vendors, many of whom the community may be familiar with from the markets at Lake Gregory, Running Springs and beyond.

According to the festival’s organizer, Lisa Jarrett, the idea for an art festival originated with Scott Markovich, a local builder-contractor who was also one of the woodworking artisans there on Sunday.

“It’s all his fault,” she laughed. “He said, ‘There are so many talented people up here, we need to do something.’” He also had noticed that the Community Center, which is nestled into the side of a hill on a lovely, wooded piece of property, rarely gets used.

Jarrett went on to say, “I’m the kind of person, if you tell me this, I’m gonna do it.” Thus Art Festival Among the Forest was underway.

 

 

 

Markovich said that the county was very supportive of the idea, largely via the efforts of Lewis Murray, County Supervisor Dawn Rowe’s representative in the mountain communities. “The county’s been really cooperative,” said Markovich, who, as a builder, has lots of experience negotiating projects through county regulations. “I’m just glad they were so open.”

Chris Harris, a vocalist who often performs at the Cedarpines Park VFW, provided live music for the day. Food vendors included El Jefe’s Little Kitchen truck out of Skyforest, and a stand by Oscar’s Mexican Grill of Valley of Enchantment. According to Jarrett, the food vendors worked together to ensure they weren’t overlapping options and to have something unique to offer at each station.

 

Of course, the main focus of a festival like this is to showcase its artisan vendors. For such a small number of vendors, about a half-dozen, the selection of art and handmade goods was mighty, and included woodworking (coasters, frames, sculptures, household items,) jewelry, crystals, candles, potpourri, gifts, photography, fine art, teas and organic soaps.

Two woodworkers participated in this art festival’s first venture – JC Customs and Markovich – both of whom use locally sourced wood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The festival also had a co-op model on hand. Lyndian, who runs Lyndian Art and has a brick-and-mortar jewelry shop in Running Springs, often collaborates on market spaces with Nikki, who provides apothecary products, and the ever-lively and indefatigable Miguel Torres, a fashion designer who was already packing up to head to his next festival at the close of Art Festival Among the Forest.

With the compact amount of space they had available to them, a mother-daughter team created an entire little world for patrons to enter, flanked by the nature-inspired paintings of Jarrett, the festival’s organizer, and offerings by her daughter, Sami Robinson, that included teas, candles, potpourris and gift items.

Gali Cohen, a homeopath who is new to the mountain, offered crystals for organic healing, handmade organic soaps and handmade jewelry.

The community appears to be open to welcoming future art festivals at the Cedarpines Park site. By the late afternoon as the heat began to set in, festival patrons had thinned out, but, according to Jarrett, “we were packed earlier!” And many of the vendors expressed to her that they want to come back next year.

Torres had more progressive ideas: “Why wait until next year? Let’s do a Fall Fest!” And Markovich’s vision includes maximizing the trolley that Mountain Transit provides and including a Cedarpines Park stop on events like Corks & Hops. He believes that people deserve to enjoy the beauty of Cedarpines Park.

“We’re the Appalachians of the San Bernardino Mountains,” he said.