Artists, Oaklanders celebrate creativity at Art in Nature festival

The 3rd annual Art in Nature festival featured more than 200 artists in the Redwood Regional Park in the hills east of Oakland this Sunday.

Visitors strolling along the park’s Stream Trail listened to live music. There was singing, dance, sculpture and poetry.

“We believe that just like the nature manifests as the leaves, the trees, the grass—as all these different plants—that same creative energy manifests as all the forms of creativity,” said Claudia Anfuso, production manager of Art in Nature. “Music, dance, martial arts, theater and all the things you saw here.”

Organizers said at least 2,000 people attended the event this year.

Franciesca Adams, 9, came to the festival with her mother. At a space called the “Create-with-Nature Zone,” she and other children mixed artificial flowers with leaves on the surrounding trees, to make a “fantasy tree,” she said.

“I’m taking part of nature and trying to use stuff to show my artistic abilities,” Adams said as she tied an artificial white flower to a tree branch. “I’m making it look like part of the tree, because
sometimes trees grow flowers.”

Next to the area where Adams and other kids explored their creativity, adult artists worked on their paintings and sculptures, while visitors observed and asked questions about the process.

“Everywhere you’ve seen something here, the person who is making it is also explaining it, revealing what is the nature of their art,” Anfuso said. “Taking people out of their studios, showing everyone else how they make art and revealing the process behind the creation.”