The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 110, No. 48 - December 2, 2021
Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.....................14
Classifieds............................4
Coloring Contest.........12-13
Crossword/Sudoku.............4
Entertainment......................5
Legals............................10-11
Pets......................................16
Police Reports.....................3
Real Estate.......................7-9
Sports.................................3,6
Weekend
Forecast
This Season, Become a Secret
Santa for Hopeful Girls and Boys
This holiday season, the El Segundo Police Department is partnering with the United States Marine Corps to provide toys to children in need. The Toys for Tots program was started by the U.S. Marine
Corps Reserve to distribute toys to children whose parents cannot afford to buy them gifts for Christmas. Thanks to one of our officers who also proudly serves in the Marine Corps Reserves, there will be
several Toys for Tots boxes in the Police Department lobby until December 14th (Tuesday) at 7pm. It would be wonderful to fill those boxes with toys in the hopes they will bring a smile to a child’s face
this Christmas. There will also be U.S. Marines and ESPD officers at the El Segundo Tree Lighting on December 2nd and at the Holiday Parade on December 12th standing by to collect toys. Please stop by
those events with a new, unwrapped toy if you are able. As always, we wish you a Happy Holiday Season and thank you for your generosity. Photo courtesy El Segundo Police Department.
El Segundo Resident Damian Fulton:
The Quentin Tarantino of Surf Artists
By Duane Plank
El Segundo artist Damian Fulton has
been dubbed “the Quentin Tarantino of surf
artists” by renowned Hawaiian tiki artist Brad
Parker. Quite a compliment, being compared
to the ultra-talented and successful film
director Tarantino.
Fulton, who has called our city home since
1984, has had his unique work exhibited in
local art galleries and in cities across the globe,
including in New York, Tokyo, Biarritz, and
Milan. He has also drawn a paycheck creating
artwork for well-known mega-companies like
Disney, Marvel, and Universal Studios.
He has also been called the “Robin Williams
of painting” by renowned veteran surf artist Phil
Roberts, referencing the performing talents of
the late improvisational actor. Roberts said that
he has been aware of the genius of Fulton’s
renderings for a time much longer than the
Woman’s Club Hosts
15-or-so years that the two have been friends.
“Damian is a really skilled draftsman, in
terms of a classic illustrator,” Roberts said,
Holiday Boutique
equating Fulton’s talents to those evinced by
artisans all the way back to the Renaissance
By Kiersten Vannest
times. “He can bang out and draw a figure,
The city of El Segundo was incorporated
right out of his head without a problem,” a
in 1917, the year America entered WWI
trait Fulton said that is rare in their industry.
and T.S. Eliot published his first book of
The very humble Fulton said that, over
poems. A year later, the first schoolhouse
the years, he has had to re-calibrate his
was built and established.
definition of what an artist is and that the
Meanwhile, in 1922, seventeen women
term does not necessarily always apply to
organized a club with the goal of seeking
him: “It is cringeworthy to say that I am an
knowledge and providing service to
artist.” he related. Well, the creative gems
the newly formed community centered
that Fulton produces may not win him the
around Standard Oil. Thus, the El Segundo
accolades as the next Vincent Van Gogh, but
Woman’s Club was incorporated
his fans and art collectors out there are still
(Originally called the Woman’s Civic and
extremely impressed.
Improvement Club of El Segundo). The
This thought from Fulton’s Instagram page
club was held in members’ homes and
may best capture his art: “I draw pictures that
turned its efforts largely to the welfare
your Mother might not understand.”
of local children.
A little over a decade later, the Woman’s
Club paid exactly one dollar for the city’s
schoolhouse and had it moved to its current
location at 541 Standard Street. There it
stands today, still hosting the local club
on the eve of its hundredth anniversary.
Though the club is called the Woman’s
Club, current member Linda Briese Johnson
says the club welcomes men and
members from all walks of life “There
are some amazing people who have been
members for a long time,” she says,
“Some of our members are in their nineties.
They’ve always been involved and
Fulton grew up in Orange County after
moving south from Merced, CA., at an early
age. He remembers riding his bike to Huntington
Beach, where he found the inspiration to create
posters for “surf brands,” as well as numerous,
as he termed “counter-culture” comic strips
like “The Shred Brothers.”
Fulton has written that some of the
inspirations to create what he terms “urban surf
art” ranged from the illustrators who sketched
back in the day for the iconic Mad Magazine
to Norman Rockwell, Batman, California cars,
and “Jesus Christ.”
He spent much of his younger years in the
OC heading to the beach on his bike with his
friends. “There was a real vibe back then,”
Fulton relates on his website. “The beach was
Damian Fulton at work.
See Damian Fulton, page 5
See Woman’s Club, page 15
Friday
Mostly
Sunny
60˚/52˚
Saturday
Mostly
Sunny
63˚/50˚
Sunday
Sunny
79˚/56˚