Mountain Views News, Sierra Madre Edition [Pasadena] Saturday, June 24, 2017

MVNews this week:  Page A:3

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Mountain View News Saturday, June 24, 2017 


Walking Sierra Madre…The Social Side 

by Deanne Davis


Walking Sierra Madre...The Social Side

June 21, 2017

Deanne Davis

“Wabi-sabi: a concept in traditional Japanese 
aesthetics constituting a world view centered on 
the acceptance of transience and imperfection...
sometimes described as beauty that is

 imperfect, impermanent and incomplete.”

 Sat down with Lisa Agaran a couple of days ago 
over some iced tea at The Only Place In Town and 
caught up with what’s going on in her artistic life. 
We last talked to Lisa in November of 2015 when 
she was about to launch a show of her work at 
ArtCrush Studio in Altadena. The show was a huge 
success and Lisa is about as busy as a teaching artist 
can be. She says her art has evolved considerably 
and mentions the Wabi-sabi philosophy as a 
mainstay in her work and in her teaching. 

 Talking about her classes and the folks who are 
signing up to get their feet wet in the world of 
art when they’ve been too scared to try it before 
makes Lisa’s eyes shine and her smile gets bigger 
an bigger. Lisa’s classes appeal mostly to adults who 
have sustained what Lisa calls “creative injury.” I 
suspect we’ve all had that happen, our tiny spark 
of art thoroughly put out by a large bucket of 
criticism dumped on us by a teacher or parent, and 
we figured that was that and never went in that 
direction again. Lisa was inspired by a teacher who 
encouraged her to specialize in creative nurture. 
I, too, was inspired by a teacher, Miss Hearn, who 
taught English at South Pasadena High School. 
She told me after reading my book review of The 
Grapes of Wrath that I had a real talent for writing 
and that I should pursue it. And, some years later, 
I did!

 Lisa attributes some of her teaching methods and 
attitudes to author Julia Cameron, whose book, The 
Artist’s Way, has helped millions of people around 
the world discover—and recover—their creativity. 
Lisa’s classes are for anybody and everybody who 
wants to see some transformation in their life in a 
patient, nonjudgmental atmosphere. Interestingly, 
she gets a lot of retired teachers who are looking to 
get past the self-criticism and self-judgment that 
many of us have acquired about ourselves. There’s 
no such thing as “I ruined it!” with Lisa. She’s very 
much of “let’s see what we can do” instead. Her 
therapist background has taught her to look for 
the good, not for what’s broken. Yep, forgiveness of 
ourselves.

 Specializing in mixed media work, Lisa hosted 
a retreat in Cambria last year, staying at Cambria 
Pines Lodge and holding classes in the old Cambria 
grammar school, which now rents out space to 
artists instead of teaching sentence structure to 
elementary school kids. Lisa and her group visited 
Moonstone Beach on a search for “found objects” 
like interesting stones, shells, driftwood, feathers... 
just about anything that appealed to the eye of that 
particular artist... to incorporate into their mixed 
media works of art. Each of these found objects has 
a story, a history.

 Mixed media, in case you didn’t know – and 
I didn’t – would be a work of art combining 
various traditionally distinct visual art media, 
for example, a work on canvas combining paint, 
ink, photographs, found objects – all materials 
that speak to the heart of the artist, who can then 
combine them in the manner that pleases their 
eye, heart and soul. Getting back to that Wabi-
sabi philosophy we mentioned at the beginning, 
mixed media can be deeply satisfying, at the same 
time being imperfect. After all, there’s very little in 
our world that is perfect! Think non-symmetrical, 
rough, simple, austere with focus on natural 
objects. You know, I think I could DO this!

 Lisa teaches at a variety of places: Our own 
Creative Arts Group here in town; Glendale 
Community Education, the Neighborhood 
Unitarian Church. She’s planning another retreat 
for April of 2018 and really hopes to do three 
retreats per year. Here is Lisa’s workshop link so 
you can get in touch with her to choose a time 
and place to get your own feet artistically wet: 
TrueCreativityWithin.com 

 Want to see some of Lisa’s beautiful work? Take 
a look at: http://artbylisaagaran.com/ A show of 
new work is planned for 2018 and we’ll be sure 
to let you know when and where. To quote Lisa, 
“The magic happens when we invite accidents and 
mistakes to occur!”

 My book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis

Blog: www.authordeanne.com

“A Tablespoon of Love, A Tablespoon of Laughter” 
is now available at

Sunrise Books + Coffee at Pasadena First Church 
of the Nazarene –

just down the road on Sierra Madre Blvd.

Kindle readers, give yourself the gift of: 

A Treasure Map, A Drunken Owl, and 47 Rattler’s 
in a Bag

 It’s on Amazon.com on my book page.

Follow me on Twitter, too: https://twitter.com/@
playwrightdd

SIERRA MADRE POLICE BLOTTER

During this time period, the Sierra Madre Police 
Department responded to approximately 406 day and 
night time calls for service. 

Monday, June 12 

At about 2:42 a.m. a SMPD officer on patrol in the 
200 block of S. Baldwin Ave. saw an unoccupied 
vehicle parked on the street. The DMV vehicle check 
showed that the vehicle was reported stolen from 
the City of Monrovia. Monrovia PD responded and 
advised the registered owner that the car was located. 
The owner responded and took possession of his 
vehicle. Case to Detectives 

Tuesday, June 13 Officers were dispatched at about 
12:41 a.m., to the 300 block of W. Sierra Madre Bl. to 
assist an outside agency regarding a possible suicidal 
juvenile. Officers located the juvenile as she was 
speaking to a relative on the phone who was on the 
way to pick up the juvenile. So. Pasadena PD was 
notified that the missing person was located and 
reunited with a relative. 

1:26 a.m. An anonymous party reported that 
someone was growing marijuana in their backyard. 
The reporting person stated that the suspect was 
loading the marijuana into a truck. Officers located 
the vehicle and stopped it for a CVC violation. The 
driver of the vehicle was driving on a suspended 
license and had an outstanding criminal warrant. An 
inventory of the vehicle revealed the suspect was in 
possession of over six hundred marijuana plants in 
various stages of growth, approximately 125 pounds 
of mature marijuana buds, and a large amount of U.S. 
currency. The driver was arrested and booked at the 
Pasadena Jail. Case referred to Detectives for further 
investigation 

12:53 p.m., A victim came into the lobby to report 
someone had stolen his identity by using his social 
security number to apply for a job. The victim 
received the letter on 6/7/17. Case to Detectives 

Saturday, June 17 

At about 7:51 p.m. an officer on patrol was dispatched 
to a call of a reckless driver traveling eastbound in the 
600 block of W. Sierra Madre Bl. The officer located 
the vehicle parked in front of the police station. As 
the officer attempted to make contact with the driver, 
the vehicle sped off at a high rate of speed. SMPD 
officers initiated a pursuit as the vehicle sped through 
the eastern section of the city on Sierra Madre Bl. 
and into the city of Arcadia where they cancelled the 
pursuit. The suspect was then pursued by Monrovia 
PD into the city of Covina where he was located at 
the home of a relative, arrested and taken into the 
custody of Monrovia PD. Case pending 


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com