The next in our series looks at the creatives who call La Jolla home, sharing their vision of the world with those who appreciate their efforts.
Welcome to the fourth installment of “This is La Jolla,” a lajolla.ca series highlighting the various micro communities within La Jolla and celebrating the diverse industries and lifestyles within this coastal jewel.
There seems to be something about La Jolla that calls to art and artistry; this coastal hamlet is as much a haven for creativity as it is a sanctuary for science and recreation.
In every La Jolla neighborhood you’ll find museums and galleries devoted to the promotion of visual beauty, along with remarkable displays of public art as you travel between the buildings. There are also entire weekends reserved for the celebration of local talent.
La Jolla’s art does not exist spontaneously; it is the crafting and curation by resident artists who have spent their lives producing meaningful pieces in various media, finding purpose and community in sharing their work.
Three La Jolla artists reflect on creativity and community
Below, we found time with three La Jolla artists and asked them the same questions about their creativity and community:
Lunna Pigatto is founder and artist at Vainana who photographs food waste to provoke conversations. Pigatto hosted a playful workshop on art, sustainability and creative climate action Sept 18 in Ocean Beach as part of San Diego Design Week. She will also participate in a storytelling panel Oct 4 in Hillcrest for San Diego Sustainability Week.
Krista Schumacher recently closed her Wall Street gallery but continues to paint and will release a new collection inspired by southern La Jolla in October. Meanwhile, she has launched collaborations with Rove Concepts and La Valencia Hotel, exhibiting in both Village spots.
Skoby Joe, whose given name is Joseph Skoby, is a ceramicist and longtime La Jolla resident now in Clairemont who moonlights at El Pescador Fish Market after creating. A lifelong surfer, Skoby’s pieces have been featured regionally and beyond in magazines, private collections and more.
Tell us about your art and creative process.
“My art comes in a different context,” Pigatto said, adding her medium is discarded banana peels, which she has found and photographed for about 10 years all over the world.
“I started to try to understand why I was seeing them so much, and why … they were visually pleasing to me,” she said, posting the photos as a form of activism, using the images to start discussions about sustainability and food waste.
“It’s me trying to get people to rethink their own creativity and what they are doing with their own, Pigatto said, through exhibits in community spaces, workshops and lectures.
Schumacher is a palette knife oil painter who eschews paint brushes. Using spatula-looking palette knives in varying sizes and shapes, she creates on canvas using “ massive quantities of oil paint,” she said.
“The beauty and the richness of the thickness of the oil paint is so captivating,” Schumacher said. There’s this gorgeous, natural sheen on the paint.”
Her pieces focus on the landscapes in La Jolla and California, though she also paints abstract contemporary works.
“I’ve been working on the wheel since I was a little kid,” Skoby said. His pieces are thrown on the wheel before Skoby alters their shapes.
“I love working with clay,” he said. “It’s cool to get back to the elements.”
How did you come to be an artist in La Jolla?
Pigatto moved to La Jolla four years ago, after meeting her now-husband on Windansea Beach while dog-sitting for a friend. A self-described nomad before then with roots in Brazil and Italy, Pigatto has kept up her artistic endeavors in her newer seaside home.
Schumacher taught art in Florida before moving to La Jolla in 2017 for her husband’s new job, when she decided to pursue her art full time. She started at the La Jolla Art & Wine Festival and Open Aire farmers market, where her work “quickly gained momentum,” she said.
Skoby moved to La Jolla from Orange County about 20 years ago, surfing and working at El Pescador after graduating from San Diego State University, never realizing his passion for ceramics was something he could scale into a career.
He joked with the El Pescador owner about selling pieces on the market’s counter, which became a reality.
Skoby’s art and success have “grown organically since then,” he said.
What about La Jolla inspires your art?
A native of Copacabana Beach, Brazil, Pigatto “was always connected to the ocean,” she said. “I need the salty water for the sake of my sanity.”
La Jolla “allows me, while I’m outside of my culture and my country, to still have that very important aspect of myself intact,” she said, which enables her to create.
“I never painted landscapes until I moved to California,” Schumacher said. “Once I moved to La Jolla, I was so overwhelmed by the beauty here and I was so inspired to try to paint the cliffs, to try to capture the light, to try to capture the energy of this special spot.”
That artists seem to gravitate towards La Jolla is “only natural,” she said, “because the landscapes are so inspiring and so overwhelming when you’re viewing them in person.”
While Skoby is never actively seeking inspiration in La Jolla, he has “realized that so much of my work is [subconsciously] inspired by the natural world,” he said.
“I’m just drawn to rocks and tide pools and especially desert landscapes and the ocean. La Jolla, … all the colors and organic shapes and forms really informed the work.”
How does La Jolla’s artist community help you connect to other artists and strengthen your work?
Pigatto has looked to other artists in her neighborhood for connection, and said she is fortunate to have others’ offer her opportunities to exhibit locally.
Additionally, with so many art galleries and museums in La Jolla, “that is already somehow feeding back to what I need in terms of beauty and inspiration,” Pigatto said.
“La Jolla has a fabulous artist community, and the community is overwhelmingly supportive of the arts and their artists,” Schumacher said.
Her experiences with local organizations “highlights how our community really wants to support local and stay local,” she said, adding La Valencia’s reputation means “they could have artists from anywhere, and the fact that they have chosen to … give a local artist that opportunity speaks volumes.”
The La Jolla artist community has grown a lot in 20 years, Skoby said, and he values fellow ceramicists in La Jolla who will share materials for a glaze or encouragement when needed.
La Jolla is also home to art collectors and others who “saw my art and saw something beautiful in it” and made an effort to support it, he said.
“Art is really important for a community,” Skoby said. “To see a lot of people in La Jolla saying, ‘Hey, we appreciate art, and we want to keep artists creating work’ makes life beautiful.”
What do you wish people knew about your artistry?
“What I want people to feel when they see my art, … is to feel empowered to their own creativity and to understand that whatever it is that we are doing, especially if you’re trying to be creative and innovative, can create a huge impact in the world,” Pigatto said.
Artistry is “more than just painting,” Schumacher said. “I think people have this idea of artists being in their studio painting all day; I don’t think a lot of people fully understand all the various components that go into being an artist and having your own business, from the marketing to the sales, to these really deep relationships that I formed with my collectors.”
“When we create something,” Skoby said, “we don’t realize how much of ourselves goes into that thing. I really appreciate when someone can feel like there’s a piece of my soul that goes into each piece.”
Art is “a beautiful human exchange,” he said. “I’m so grateful to be able to do something that I feel is my way of expressing myself and dancing into the world.”
Curious about our previous “This is La Jolla” installments? Click to read about the biomedical, paraglider and underwater photography communities.
