Little artists enjoy themselves in children’s area
Gilroy – The popular activities at the Garlic Festival’s Children’s Area have remained mostly the same since it was started in 1989 – kids spatter paint on Frisbees, dunk their hands into liquid wax and decorate casts of their hands or fill plastic honey-bears with colored sand.
But this year, kids had a chance to try something a little different at Rebecca Love’s Painting Garden.
Sitting in Love’s booth, kids hunched intently over their artwork, adding paint and glitter to their designs on clay shapes, which Love sculpted herself. Tables were set up with pots of bright paint, glitter and brushes for the kids to use.
Love laughed as some parents tried to direct their children’s efforts.
“Let your children paint!” she said.
Four-year-old Galen Anderson of Aptos selected a heart-shaped ornament to paint, splashing the figure with orange, red and golden glitter-colored paint.
“I’m gonna put it in my room on the top of my window,” said Anderson, who, after a Sunday spend rock climbing, playing games and eating strange foods such as crocodile and rattlesnake, was only eager for one thing: a nap.
“Children are amazing artists,” Love said. “It’s helped me as an artist to be around them.” Love, an artist who’s shown her sculptures at the Renaissance Faire for almost 20 years, opened a booth for the first time at this year’s Garlic Festival. She took it over for a friend, who ran the booth at the Renaissance Faire but who recently passed away. Love decided to run the booth herself in his honor, she said.
“He’d been doing it at the Renaissance Faire for a good 10 years,” and taken it over from another couple, she said. Love also enjoyed the opportunity to work with children.
“It’s my vacation playing with the kids,” she said. “I’m having a fun time with them.
Running the booth was also a chance for her to get away from her normal, “intense” work, she said.
Taylor Delgado, a 13 year old from Fresno, visited the painting booth during her break volunteering at Arts and Crafts. Delgado, who volunteers at the festival every year, used the painting garden to make a unique gift.
“It’s my friend’s birthday,” she said, blotting paint off her sculpture. “She likes butterflies, so I’m making her a little one.”
Kids also had a chance to check out the Children’s Stage, hosted by Lori and RJ of Kids WB20.
Entertainment this year featured the Ballet Folklorico, Mike the Juggler, and a marionette show. Between shows, kids participated in arm-wrestling contests and other games.
Other activities at the Children’s Area included The Home Depot’s Project Kit, where kids could build and decorate their own projects, “Mini Rides” from Fun & Games Rental and a Beach Ball Toss for prizes.
