Comma Coffee hosts art, wine and music fair

The turnout for Sunday's art fair and wine tasting in the Comma Coffee Courtyard was great, according to coffee shop owner June Joplin.

Braving a chilly breeze while showing his paintings in the courtyard was Carson City painter and barber Dagwood Baker.

"I use the barber shop for my livelihood, but I want to painter when I grow up," he said with a smile.

Baker, who runs Les' Barber Shop on West Winnie Lane, showed several large oil paintings of his customers and was working on one of his daughter Ivy, 9.

There was a piece in the corner of a young man smiling strangely in thick eyeglasses with a mechanic's suit and wrench.

"That's me when I was 24, back when I used to have hair," he explained. "My hair is wavy -- It's waving goodbye."

On the other end of the courtyard, folk harpist Brenda Lockie-Knight of Carson plucked "Scarborough Fair" with mountain dulcimer accompaniment by Helen Evans of Stead.

"I love the location," said painter Pat Bentley who moved to Carson 1 1/2 years ago from Nashville, Tenn. She showed acrylic-painted floor mats and garden stones, while looking over at the St. Charles Hotel across the courtyard.

"This area is very suitable for what we're doing," she said.

Selling her pottery at the base of the historic hotel's painted brick wall was Malaynia Wick, art teacher at Dayton High School. She was painting a two-tone leaf in green glaze on a bowl.

Mandi Winnicki of Gardnerville described her "lamp working" glass technique to browsers. She heats glass to molten with a torch, wraps it around a rod called a "mandrel," then cools it slowly in a kiln.

"It's been a really good turnout," said Joplin from behind the coffee shop counter, before hurrying off to make a chai latte.

On stage, Carson's Mike Staggs wrapped up a version of Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville" before dedicating a song he had written in the jungles of Vietnam to Joplin, who has a son in the Marine Corps.

His neighbor jazz guitarist Cary Gray enjoyed a cup of black coffee.

"The arts and crafts are well represented. I even made small purchase, right," he said. "I would categorize this event as a success."

The wine tasting was organized by Darryl Rubarth of Carson, who works at Marlo's Ltd. on North Carson Street. He brought a sauvignon blanc from the Indaba winery in South Africa; a chardonnay from Marry Oak, Calif.; an Italian table wine called Vestini; and a Exp syrah from California.

"I think that one was the favorite, " he said of the syrah. "It was definitely my favorite."

His brother Mark Rubarth organized the event with his company zArtist.com, which builds Web sites for artists and organizes events.

Joplin and the Rubarths, who pushed back an original April date because of late snow, plan to put together another art fair and wine tasting with live music, possibly in June or July, she said.

Information

For more information call:

Comma Coffee at 883-2662

zArtist.com at 884-0699

Marlo's Ltd. at 841-5610