Vendors, Artists, and Bands from throughout the Inland Empire converged upon the Golden Palms Plaza in Chino today to celebrate the first annual Longhair Illuminati Art Show and Festival put on by Phil Pirrone, a Chino Hills native and local band promoter. Phil loves encouraging new bands that are trying to get their music out. Over eight bands played and several artists showed off their work.
We have to give the "most original work of art" award to Alexis Sturgeon. By profession, Alexis is a cake decorator, working for a bakery in Los Angeles, but in her spare time she likes to paint. Her idea was to decorate (using cake frosting) a refrigerator from the inside out. Honestly, it was a little hard to comprehend but no doubt, the most interesting, unusual, and thought provoking piece of work we saw.
Artist, Jeanette Sawyer, also displayed her work and initiated an ad hoc, collaboration with other artists at the show to create a community piece. Artists Eric Vasquez and Janelle Molle' contributed to the piece. It was very cool to see how each of them built upon the other's work to create an interesting group art piece. Eric painted the promotional posters for the festival.
Molle' is new artist and clay sculptor from Diamond Bar and displayed a very unique collection of, well... "mashed face sculptures". They really are interesting and we think that Janelle has a future in what she does. We've added pictures of a number of her works alongside this article. Janelle also paints on a contract basis.
Christy Callens displayed a beautiful collection of jewelry and tourmaline stones, many of them from Brazil. Her web site is www.tourmalinesource.com.
Over 8 bands played throughout the day including Ojos Rojos, Casket Salesmen, Ride The Boogie, Auditory Aphasia, Mythmaker, Mongoloid, and Jesus Makes The Shotgun Sound. There was a special appearance by Willie Nelson's son, Lukas too. All were entertaining and most of the bands were from the Inland Empire. It was easy to see why The Casket Salesmen and Phil's other bands did so well. The music was great.
Several vendors interfaced with as many as 1000 festival attendees who came and went throughout the day. Sponsors included Active Mail Order, Inland Empire Weekly, and KSPC Radio who offered raffle prizes. Some of the businesses within the nascent shopping center, including Caffe' Gelato, a vendor of some of the best Gelato in the area, reported their best sales day ever.
Other activities included Yoga classes by Kelly Wager and an amazing acrobatic act. We (ChinoHills.com) ran a special program that allowed us to contribute $100 to the LIA Foundation ((Lyme Induced Autism: www.liafoundation.org) who raise awareness amongst families with autistic children about the possibility of a link with Lyme Disease. This is important because Lyme can often be treated whereas there is no know cure for Autism.
The last band to perform was Auditory Aphasia. By the time they finished, we gave them the "most fun group award". They ended their set with a song inspired by our own Anthony Alagna and put together based on his recent trip to Italy. It was a big hit and got a many people in the crowd out of their chairs to dance and sing along. It was a great ending. We wish to congratulate Phil Pirrone, Longhair Illuminati, all the bands, artists, sponsors, the Golden Palms Shopping Center, and other contributors on a great first annual event.
and is not a part of nor affiliated with the City of Chino Hills.