La Mesa artists join other East County artists with a diverse body of work at the 30th MFCU Artwalk

For the last thirty years, Mission Federal Credit Union has put on what is called Southern California’s largest fine arts festival. The 30^th Annual MFCU Artwalk in Little Italy takes over seventeen city blocks downtown with artists from California, nearby states and Mexico showcasing their works of watercolors, photography, jewelry, pastels and paintings, sculpture, and glasswork. Artists spray-painting on large, blank murals as people watched and took video and pictures from their mobile devices occupied one corner.

For the last thirty years, Mission Federal Credit Union has put on what is called Southern California’s largest fine arts festival. The 30^th Annual MFCU Artwalk in Little Italy takes over seventeen city blocks downtown with artists from California, nearby states and Mexico showcasing their works of watercolors, photography, jewelry, pastels and paintings, sculpture, and glasswork. Artists spray-painting on large, blank murals as people watched and took video and pictures from their mobile devices occupied one corner.

The festival is defined not only by the artists who must be accepted into the event and the fine art community who hail them, but by musicians, restaurants and food vendors creating something that people do not simply walk through, but spend an entire weekend enjoying. The festival was held on April 26-27. Not even a mild spring storm could keep those seeking culture away from this annual affair.

East County had nine notable artists at the Artwalk. Watercolor and oil artist Jesse Miller from El Cajon, oil painter Vanessa Rusczyk of Alpine, acrylic and mixed media artist Karina Bania of La Mesa, acrylic artist Brenda Helt of La Mesa, Oil and acrylic artist Todd Howe of La Mesa, mixed media artist Monique Straub of La Mesa, clay/pottery and porcelain artist Cindy Teyro of La Mesa, mixed media/acrylic artist Ron James of La Mesa, and Ally Benbrook of El Cajon.

Bania has two small children and works out of her home in La Mesa, where she also keeps her studio. She is self-taught and studied and lived in India for a year. “I like beachscapes, landscapes really speak to me, open spaces and the depth that’s in life. You’ll see a lot of pieces in my work that’s kind of going under the surface,” Bania said. Elephants, tigers, lotus flowers and even surfboards appear in her work.

Benbrook had a career in fabric design and dyeing. She took a watercolor class in her fifties and for the last seven years, has devoted time to art. When Benbrook started, she was advised to paint what she loved. For her, that was animals.

“I reached a point where I wanted to let more of my heart in. That is nothing more pure than the love of a dog to the homeless,” she said of a painting in her “Last Connection” series, of which she has seventeen completed works of homeless individuals with dogs. “I can sympathize with their plight, but I can’t do anything to help. The dog does everything we can’t do. That’s what I’m wanting to celebrate.”

All of Benbrook’s pieces are taken from real experiences with the homeless. She pointed to a painting depicting a crying woman outside of a hotel in San Francisco who held a dog and a sign pleading for help. “It was night time, and there she was, with that dog. It’s heartbreaking,” she said.

Monique Straub never paints the same thing twice. Working in pastels as well as oils, she draws from nature.

“I’ll see images while we’re on vacation, I work from my own photographs, and a lot of times if I’m just kicking around the house, I’ll see the white light hit something and a thought pops into my head,” said Straub, who does a series of Dia de los Muertos paintings that she displays in October. She holds a show to display these popular pieces at her studio in Liberty Station.

Many of the artists of East County are returning to the MFCU Artwalk. To learn more about the event and find information about the artists, visit www.artwalksandiego.org/missionfederal.