‘It takes a mountain’

Paintings and photographs of these features, that is. Alongside portrayals of natural wonders sit glass blown vases, figurative bronze sculptures, loom knitted hats and stoneware pottery.

The Kings Mountain Art Fair has been held for 61 years to fund the unincorporated community’s volunteer fire brigade. The brigade provides support during emergencies in Kings Mountain, a roughly defined area near Woodside that can take too long for Cal Fire to access due to its isolated location, Erin Baumgartner, the fair’s public relations volunteer, said.

The brigade responds to more than 300 calls annually and operates out of Kings Mountain Community Center, where the event is held.

“Because we aren’t attached to a specific town, everyone knows and relies on each other,” Baumgartner said. “We volunteer to put on the fair for the brigade and they volunteer their time to protect us.”

The fair is organized and run by 300-400 volunteers, mostly residents and their friends, Baumgartner said. Almost everyone that lives on Kings Mountain participates, she added.

During the event, the volunteers shift between serving food, providing guests with information and booth sitting for artists when they need to take a break.

Almost 150 independent artists, chosen through a jury process, presented their work at the fair this year. Of their proceeds, 15% will go to the fire brigade, along with the revenue from the event’s breakfast and lunch. 

Michele Hausman has showcased her oil paintings at the fair since 2006. She said she keeps coming back because of the helpful, kind volunteers and the beautiful venue.

The redwoods complement Hausman’s landscape paintings, which mostly feature oceanside cliffs around Big Sur, she said. She framed some of her paintings with wood she milled from a tree by her childhood home, stained the same earthy-browns of the fairground.

Metal sculpturist Andy Bryne also thought his work blended with the natural environment. His salvaged steel tree sculptures have a motion and an organic feel to them, he said. At the same time, the harsh piping contrasts with the woods and matches the busy atmosphere of the festival, he said.

The fair featured a wide array of art and mediums, not all inherently connected to nature, but all interacting with it in some way or another. Artists’ booths, which displayed work staged and lit by sun rays peeking through treetops, wove around a coastal redwood forest where the fairground was located.

Justine Tatarsky, who has been coming to the fair since 2000, showcased her tile art in the back lot of the community center, where many of the booths were set up. Tatarsky said the Kings Mountain Art Fair is a high-quality art festival because of the wonderful people who work to make it happen and the attendees.

“I love the crowd. There’s diversity in a lot of senses, economically, ethnically, age — there are so many kids. Everyone’s so appreciative and focused, I feel like I’m in really good company here,” Tatarsky said.

Each year, students from Kings Mountain Elementary School, which serves approximately 60 students, volunteer to sell cookies at the art fair to support their school.

Ben Morrow’s son, who attends Kings Mountain Elementary School, pulled his stock of cookies behind him in a blue wagon as they walked around the fair and looked at the art. Morrow and his family moved from Sunnyvale to Kings Mountain last year and decided to volunteer for their first year in attendance.

“Everyone helps with the fair, even the kids,” Morrow said. “I think it’s good for them to learn the value of contributing, which is really important to this community.”

“I saw the positivity of all our neighbors all looking to help out with the move, so I wanted to get the whole family into shifts to help out with the fair. It takes a mountain,” Morrow said.

Baumgartner said that the residents of Kings Mountain try to welcome everyone into the community, including the artists who travel from all over for the fair. Many even invite artists to stay in their guest rooms or to park their camper vans on their property so they don’t need to find a hotel, she said.

The volunteers put so much energy and time into the fair because they know how important it is for the fire brigade to have everything they need to respond to emergencies and keep them all safe, Baumgartner said.

The volunteer fire brigade plays a crucial role in emergency response, said Jonathan Cox, the deputy chief of the San Mateo County Division of Cal Fire, which includes the San Mateo County Fire Department and Coastside Fire Protection District.

The San Mateo County Fire Department supports the brigade by training the volunteers and helping with maintenance and equipment, Cox said. They respond to calls in Kings Mountain, but retreat if the brigade doesn’t need help, he said. 

“The wonderful thing about the volunteers is that they know the community the best. They know the roads, the people, the trails. They are the best equipped for emergencies in the area,” Cox said.

Living on the mountain certainly comes with challenges, but the people who make the choice to live there do so for a reason, Baumgartner said.

“You may not be able to swing by the store to pick up an ingredient you forgot,” Baumgartner said,” but if you need something, you just ask, and someone will make sure you get it.”