LUMBERYARD LOGS: Judge in the act on Sawdust booth pick day

Photographer Jim Steins is hoping a judge will allow him back in the Sawdust Festival this year.

Last summer, Steins sat outside the festival for a time, protesting his ouster over an incident of alleged sexual harassment during the 2006 festival.

Sawdust board members wouldn’t budge from their decision to expell the 17-year exhibitor, so Steins filed a lawsuit seeking reinstatement and about $3 million in monetary damages.

A hearing on the issue of reinstatement will take place Monday.

Sawdust Booth Pick day is Tuesday, when Sawdusters gather to “draw straws” and then make their location choices for exhibit booths. It can be a tense day, because usually there are more wanna-be exhibitors than spots for them.

The location of a booth can make or break an artist’s summer sales season.

This year we’ll hazard a guess the artists may be more edgy than usual.

One of them may pick a booth that could end up going to Steins.

Steins’ attorney, Bruce Dannemeyer, is pleased the judge agreed to decide the issue of reinstatement separately from the rest of Steins’ case, which includes defamation allegations.

“We will ask for a provisional pick to allow me on the grounds to make a [booth] pick,” Steins told me.

The Laguna Beach resident says his life hasn’t been the same since he was ejected from the show in September 2006 and not allowed back on the grounds, even as a visitor.

An automotive buff, he takes and sells photographs of race cars and drivers, but his enthusiasm for the sport — and for photography — has taken a back seat to his legal quest.

“It’s tough,” he said. “I went to the Long Beach Grand Prix but I didn’t even bring a camera. I have no new stuff.”

Steins says he still has friends who are part of the festival, and Dannemeyer will ask some of them to testify on his behalf.

The unfortunate incident is a most unusual one for the free-spirited Sawdust, which was founded as a “protest exhibit” back in the 1960s by artists who failed to get into the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts exhibit.

The Sawdust prides itself on its creative, fun and “come as you are” atmosphere.

Work is examined to make sure it is original, but beyond that issues of “artistic excellence” are eschewed.

But “creativity” has its limits and sometimes tempers flare at the summer-long event.

Steins, a former Sawdust board member, thinks his enemies on the board jumped at the chance to get rid of him because of an old dispute over nude photographs of women which he had at one time displayed, and other assorted disagreements.

The incident that led to the ouster involved a 16-year-old girl and occurred in public, and did not involve nudity.

It’s a classic “she said, he said” about what was or was not said — which board members have told me was disturbing enough to warrant kicking Steins out of the show he had been a part of for nearly two decades.

Now we’ll see what the judge says.

CINDY FRAZIER is city editor of the Coastline Pilot. She can be contacted at (949) 494-2087 or [email protected].