Community Corner
Locals Only: Allison Renshaw
The artist captures the tumultuous feeling of contemporary culture in her brightly hued mixed-media works, on view soon at the Encinitas Library.
It’s easy to feel sensory overload in a tech-savvy, pop culture-heavy world that inundates us with a wealth of information and experiences. That chaos is given vivid life in Allison Renshaw’s art. The local artist creates mixed-media works with acrylics, oils, spray paint, and collage, with the content combining the natural landscape, urban elements, fashion, and architecture. “Though the work includes real images it remains abstract,” she says. “I’m interested in how fragments can combine and collide, reflecting our culture of imagery overload.” Renshaw — whose work has appeared at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the Oceanside Museum of Art, and the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts — has a new exhibit, Allison Renshaw: Sugar Kisses, which runs Feb. 29 through April 16 at the Encinitas Library. She lives here with husband Rich Williams and 3-year-old son Atticus.
Places in Encinitas where she finds artistic inspiration: The beach (of course!), my studio on 2nd Street, and the colors of where we live.
Favorite local art galleries/public art: The Surfing Madonna, and the Cardiff Kook.
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Favorite meal at a local restaurant: Omelet breakfast at Little Moore Café, dinner of softshell crab roll at Tomiko.
Last purchase made in Encinitas: Swim lessons at the YMCA for my son.
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Ideal Encinitas day: A dawn patrol surf at my favorite Leucadia reef, then a run down Neptune, time in my studio, coffee break with my husband, afternoon with Atticus in the park at Moonlight Beach, and a margarita at La Especial Norte at day’s end.
Favorite civic organizations: DEMA, Encinitas Environment Day.
Favorite local businesses: Encinitas Surfboards, Rhino Art, and Love Child.
Favorite Encinitas event: Encinitas Holiday Parade.
Best thing about living in Encinitas: The people and the beach.
The one thing she’d like to change about the city: The traffic…and that people drive with a mellower attitude.
A place in Encinitas more locals should visit: The beach, every day. People would be happier .
How she would dress up the Cardiff Kook: Darth Vader, with a light saber, for my son.
Best place in the city to watch the sunset: Sitting in the water on my board or at the top of Beacon’s hanging with our neighbors.
The Encinitas Library is at 540 Cornish Drive. 760-753-7376, sdcl.org. allisonrenshaw.com.
