Laguna Artists Get Religion--and Hit the Fashion Jackpot

When fashion pundits months ago declared crosses, angels and other ancient religious motifs style gospel for fall, artists Joanna Giangardella and Pamme Turner looked around their Laguna Beach studio and thought they’d hit the lottery. Was it divine inspiration or coincidence that they just happened to have spent the last few months creating accessories fitting the season’s monastic mood?

Not that either one saw a fortune to be made in religious fashion. At the time, their own interest in fashion was limited to current trends. Their artistic interest, however, stemmed from their shared experiences in Greece, with Byzantine art, Minoan culture and spiritual imagery.

Their connection to Aristotle’s homeland is as much in spirit as in heritage. After earning her master’s of fine arts degree in ceramics and drawing from Pennsylvania State University, Turner, 42, headed to Greece’s Pyros Island to teach art in 1974. Five years later, the Baltimore-born sculptor returned to the States. Her work has since been collected by the New York Contemporary Crafts Museum and avant-garde filmmaker John Waters.

Turner’s educational career eventually led her to the Art Institute of Southern California in Laguna Beach in 1987--just across the street from the J&P; Designs’ current studio--where she has since taught courses in ceramics and watercolors.

It was at the Art Institute that Turner met Giangardella, 46, who was seeking her BFA. In addition to talking shop, the two found they could converse in Greek. Giangardella, who lives with her family in Laguna Beach, had left her native Greece as a young girl.

The ailing economy pressured the duo to find new outlets and in January of this year, Giangardella and Turner forged their partnership and introduced their first collection of ceramic jewelry using the fresco process.

“We figured why not do something usable and wearable?” recalls Giangardella. “We could still work with the same applications of our (mural) art.”

Pins, earrings, pendants and broaches, which sell for $24 to $28, are treated like mini frescoes. Oils are painted into damp gesso for a halo effect of color; sometimes the finish is brushed and sanded to give the look of an artifact discovered from a Mediterranean archeological dig.

But many items look contemporary, with themes indigenous to Grecian culture altered into free-form abstracts that hint of angel wings, nudes, urns and fish tails. Glazed and gold and copper leaf treatments lend an antique effect.

“We want to create a feeling of time,” Turner says. “Something to reflect the same message we would with our murals.”

Inspired by her father’s antique collection, Turner actually copied the angel faces used on the jewelry pieces and frames from a pair of his Art Deco candlesticks. “I’m always walking around my dad’s house with a ball of clay,” she says.

Clay gets pressed onto antique lace and weathered wood that, when stained with color, enhances a piece with a unique texture. A script pattern hand-applied also gives a similar effect.

Also painted in fresco are frames and shrine boxes that can be set on a table or hung on a wall ($45 to $165). The boxes are inspired by ones found in Greece that pay homage to a saint or deceased relative. “We’ve taken that concept and made it into something everyone can relate to--it’s not specifically religious,” says Giangardella.

The organically shaped box, decorated with fishermen, nudes, Minoan angels and olive trees, can hold a picture frame or candle, becoming “a place for reflection and meditation, a miniature world,” says Turner. “People are searching for tradition in the face of technology.”

In March, J & P Designs expanded into clothing separates: sarongs, bodysuits, vests, tunics and neckties. They are hand-dyed and painted in an effort to “put frescoes on fabric,” the artists say. The patterns and motifs are the same as with the rest of the collection.

“I saw a vest more as a canvas surface than a fashion material,” says Giangardella. “Actually, I see everything as a surface to create on.”

The vest, tunic and ties have gone forward as part of the complete accessory collection, all cut of washable China silk and fully lined. The vests and tunics retail for $75 to $90, and the ties are $32 to $40.

Images like those used in the jewelry line are silk-screened and painted over with water-soluble silk dyes that will not fade when washed. Photographs are also transferred to silk and Turner is able to make use of scenes--such as lovers embracing at an Athens train station--from some of the 2,000 vintage postcards she’s collected over the years.

Even when the same motif appears on more than one piece, the colors vary as do the added details of ceramic buttons, and fringe threaded with Venetian glass beads and jets. According to Greek lore, the bead strands serve to ward off the evil eye, says Turner.

“Our designs are very intimate,” she adds. In addition to sales through their studio, the artists sell their wares at Areo in Laguna Beach, through a Los Angeles representative, as well as in gallery boutiques in New York, Arizona and Maryland.

“With the economy how it is, if people are going to spend money, they’re going back to personal, unique items. They want to know who does it, how it’s done,” says Giangardella.

Adds Turner: “They shop for generic necessities anywhere. But for needs of the heart they want something special. That’s why we have no intention of becoming a factory. I would have trouble letting someone else paint our designs. We never want the item to look produced.”