Houshang Khazeny, left, discusses his turned woodwork with visitors from San Jose, from left, Mary Deyne, Carrie Chavez and Teresa Romero during the Santa Barbara Arts & Crafts Show along the waterfront. 
Kristin Menri, left, discusses her Isolde Creations with Leana Orsua. 
Tess Morey, right, a visitor from Orange, shows the caricature of her created by Michael Beickel at the Santa Barbara Arts & Crafts Show. 
Jerry Kry, seen at right, tends to a line of customers. He has been displaying his pottery at the Santa Barbara Arts & Crafts Show since 1975. 
The Santa Barbara Arts & Crafts Show draws a crowd.
[Noozhawk’s note: This is the latest in a series of articles on the myriad recreational activities along the Santa Barbara waterfront. Click here for the complete series index.]
Houshang Khazeny has displayed and sold his craftwork at the Santa Barbara Arts & Crafts Show on Sundays along the waterfront since 1979, but the artistry has roots in his homeland of Iran.
“I was very young and my uncle was doing this,” he said, referring to the turned woodwork that is part of his creative repertoire. “And he never wanted me to go to his workshop. And he has some sort of kindness in his heart and let me pick the wood for him and give it to him. One day, he goofed one of those pieces.
“And he went for lunch and fell asleep, and I put it in the machine and fixed it. When he came back, he was so surprised. From then I was his assistant.”
The Santa Barbara Arts & Crafts Show has been a Sunday tradition since 1965. There are 151 exhibitors registered in the show’s member directory on the website, and they are arrayed along Cabrillo Boulevard from State Street east to Calle Cesar Chavez from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays as well as on Saturdays of holiday weekends.
“It’s a piece of living history here in Santa Barbara,” said Jason Bryan, senior recreation supervisor with the City of Santa Barbara. “It’s a great expression of our artistic community.”
To ensure that, there is a vetting process to ensure that all artists and craftspeople live in Santa Barbara County, and they alone create what is on display.
Khazeney is one of the longest-running exhibitors — the “most tenured” is leatherworker Steve Junak who started in 1974, Bryan said, and potter Jerry Kry goes back to 1975.
New exhibitors also are taken on. There is an advisory committee made up of four members, elected by the whole membership, that meets monthly to screen new member applications, among other business.
Among members who joined in recent years is Tristin Mentri, doing business as Isolde Creations. She moved here from Los Angeles three years ago. Among the work on display are baked, polymer clay earrings.
“It’s been really rewarding and really fun,” she said. “It’s a great way to introduce my work to people.”
Display space is rented for $299 for six months, which covers 26 Sundays as well as the holiday Saturdays, for the year-round shows, Bryan said. Some exhibitors make a good income.
“This can be a large part of their income,” Bryan said. “For some members, this is just something they love doing and interacting with the people, and it’s not as much income based.
“And it can be feast or famine. You never know from one week to the next, it could be a diamond or it could be a rock, as one of the members told me this morning.”
Among those who make a living with his creations — not just at this show — is Michael Beickel, whose displayed work includes paintings and linocuts, and he’s known for customer caricatures he does on the spot for $15.
He’s been a part of the waterfront show since 1980, and entertains with his caricatures over a wide area.
“I even have done grand openings for different pet stores around Southern and Central California , drawing all the animals — the cats, dogs, birds, you name it,” he said. “I did (pet portraits) at the (Santa Barbara) Botanic Garden for about 15 years.”
Since 1969, he estimates he’s done more than 100,000 caricatures. No, he said, he hasn’t tired of it.
“It’s always fun, because everybody is different,” he said. “You would think that I would have seen every kind of eye, every kind of face, but every person’s face is new and different, and that’s what makes it so well worthwhile and entertaining.”
He graduated from the University of Oregon in 1974 with a bachelor's degree in fine arts in printmaking, and that expertise is also on offer.
For Khazeney, a retired nurse, the show is “part of my income,” he said. His work on display includes stained glass, jewelry boxes, and oil and water color paintings, in addition to woodwork.
Khazeny came to Santa Barbara in the 1970s, and said he immediately became a player and assistant coach for the Santa Barbara Spikers, the professional volleyball team that played in the long-defunct International Volleyball Association. The sport is quite popular in Iran.
The members list on the show’s website includes links for email, Facebook, websites, Instagram and Pinterest, where applicable, for each member.
“The city kind of works collaboratively with the artists themselves with the show administration, so they have a voice, because of course they are important stakeholders in the show. The advisory committee is formed of four members from the show that work with the city to help define policy, and we work closely with them,” he said, adding that the four-member committee consists of two craftspeople and two fine artists.
Each exhibitor works solo.
“We have a father-daughter here, we have husband-wife; they just have to be completely separate, in separate spaces,” Bryan said. “We can’t have any partnerships.
“It’s all about individual people, and you’re talking to the very person who made the item you’re looking at in all cases here. You can’t send a family member or an employee down here to conduct sales. It’s all very grassroots.”
Some of the exhibitors also do regional shows and other work in the city, Bryan said, such as displaying at the LaCumbre Center for Creative Arts and at holiday “pop-up” venues such as The Yes Store and A Crimson Holiday.
The city’s Arts & Crafts Show webpage includes a history of the show and a video.
— Noozhawk correspondent Dennis Moran can be reached at sports@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk Sports on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.