Home is where the art is

Linda Pirri is living her dream ? and wants to share it with others.

The silk painting artist will open her hillside-home studio to visitors for the first time on the 15th annual Art Studio Tour sponsored by the Sawdust Art Festival on Saturday, April 8.

Pirri, along with 49 Laguna artists, will demonstrate her technique and the process of making art.

Pirri uses an ancient technique called batik/serti to create colorful and dramatic scenes on silk.

Her studio is on the first floor of her three-story hillside home that seems to hang over the ocean.

The home is so high up that birds and even blimps are commonly seen at eye-level, she said. But she and her husband, David, can still watch pods of dolphins as they cavort in the ocean far below.

“This is my dream,” Pirri said.

To cap off her success, Pirri was selected to create the poster for this year’s Sawdust Art Festival. She can’t share the details of the poster, which will be unveiled shortly before the show opens on June 30.

Pirri’s lofty realm is a far cry from the small apartment in which she began her art career 10 years ago.

She was working as a real-estate agent in Marina del Rey when she decided to follow her longtime dream of being a professional artist. She had studied art at Cal State Fullerton but didn’t think she could ever make a career of it.

A mid-life crisis pushed her to make the change.

“When I turned 40, I took a leap of faith,” she said. “Someone said to me, ‘Linda, this isn’t a dress rehearsal for your life, this is your life.’ Two weeks later, I quit my job.”

She started out painting silk scarves, and was able to get her wares into shops in Beverly Hills and elsewhere. But she realized she was onto something bigger when people didn’t want to wear the scarves ? they wanted to hang them on the wall.

She began to make paintings, and her artwork was picked up by many galleries.

That’s when she decided to make another leap ? to Laguna Beach.

“I knew that if I could get to Laguna Beach, it would be an anchor for my career,” Pirri said.

She convinced her husband, David, to quit a corporate job to bring his business savvy to the family enterprise, and Linda started showing her work at the summer festivals. They bought a small hillside home and over the years remodeled it, adding a spacious studio.

Eventually, she pulled out of the galleries, deciding that it was too confining for her, and began taking her work on the road, setting up booths at the art festivals throughout the Southwest. As a result, her artwork has branched out from tropical scenes to desert landscapes.

“The gallery scene didn’t work for me; I do the big outdoor shows, because I can do what I want [in terms of art],” she said.

Having come into her own, Pirri says she wants to bring others into her world.

“I’m very private, but I’ve decided I’m comfortable in my skin and want to share. I had a fear of rejection of my art at first,” she said. “I’ve realized that people want to be part of the [artmaking] process.”

Venice a model

The Sawdust Studio Tour was originally modeled on the famous Venice Art Walk in Los Angeles, in which major artists like David Hockney open their doors for an intimate look inside, Anne England, a longtime artist and arts advocate, said.

The Sawdust Studio Tour was originally called the Art Walk, until the launching eight years ago of the First Thursday’s Art Walk, a monthly event in Laguna Beach which involves galleries rather than individual artists.

“I started it 15 years ago, after I went to the Venice Art Walk,” England said. “I was enthralled. Then we changed the name after they [First Thursday’s Art Walk] took it.”

England, a printmaker and 43-year Laguna Beach resident, said she was surprised to realize that non-artists are curious about how artists make their art.

“People want to know what you’re doing and how you’re doing it,” she said. “It’s a wonderful experience for people who have never been able to go behind the scenes. People love it when you make their art right in front of them and they can take it home.

“It’s also good for the artists. They get to show their work, make contacts and sell their work. Art is a solitary thing, and it’s good for artists to be able to share.”

England says the timing of the studio tour is geared to the run-up to the three major art festivals in Laguna Beach. Artists from all three festivals ? Sawdust, Art-a-Fair, and the Festival of Arts ? are on the tour.

“It [the studio tour] energizes the artists, because we’re all madly working to make art for the summer season,” England said.

There are three separate routes for the tour.

The Canyon route includes Laguna Canyon artists such as glass blower John Barber, mosaic artist Ashley Pigden-Hemsley, and watercolorist Agnes Copeland, among many others. The Central route includes fused glass artist Mary Murray, Pirri, and sculptor Gerard Stripling. The North route includes England’s studio, as well as other Laguna mainstays such as Pat Sparkuhl, and Jan Sattler.

Tickets for the tour are $55. The tour begins at 9:30 a.m. and runs until 5 p.m., with special buses taking visitors on the various routes. A reception follows, with a special dance performance, at the Sawdust Festival from 5 to 7 p.m.