This weeks featured artist is Tom Tag Garber; Tom Tag Garbers father and grandparents were farmers in the Willows, Ca. area and they moved to So. Calif. during the great depression. Tom was born there in 1945 after his father returned from WW II. He grew up going to the beach almost every weekend, swimming, diving and body surfing with his Dad. In 1959, when he was 14, he was introduced to board surfing and he never looked back. Now going by his nickname Tag, he quickly learned that Surfing is not just a sport, but its a Lifestyle. While attending Orange Coast College 1964-1966, Tag majored in Architecture with a minor in Art/Color and Design. He also studied Photography under one of the best, Profs. John Upton, a protege of the old f/64 Master Photographers Group. In 1966 Uncle Sam said Greetings, I want You Boy and Tag was drafted into the Army, where he became a Military Policeman and spent the next two years overseas, returning to the U.S. in 1968. He went back to school where he met his soon to be wife Judy. Tag and his bride Judy have been together for 45 years and are now both retired and living in Christian Valley, North Auburn. They moved up here to be closer to their children and 8 grandchildren. Their kids attended Chico State University and got married after graduation. Tag loves getting back up this way where his Father and Grandparents were from. He says the woods and all the animals up here feel so much better than the hills behind Laguna Beach where they lived for the past 25 years. When Tag returned to the U.S. in 1968, he got a job in a hunting and fishing store in Costa Mesa, Ca. and while there, he did some freelance photography for Hunting and Fishing News, Western Outdoor News and Boys Life Magazine. Another one of Tags hobbies was restoring vintage cars. Hes had many classics over the years, but the one he loves the most and still drives is his very rare, original 1948 Mercury Woody. You may run into Tag and his car on Wed. nights at Mels Diner on Hwy. 49 or at the Downtown Auburn Car Shows. Just look for the dark green Mercury Woodie with two old 60s surfboards on top. Tag has been in the So.Cal. Woodie Club for over 20 years and this has afforded him the opportunities to photograph these wonderful old car at many events. Eleven years ago in 2003, Tag won the big Costco Photo Contest for the United States with the Woodie Picture shown here. Tag was still shooting film at the time and this picture won out of over 27,000 photos in the contest that year and it was published in the 2004 Costco Connection which was sent out to over 42 million homes. The folks in the Advertising Dept. at Yellow-Book saw his winning photo and contacted him to see if he would sign a contract and let them use this photo for the next years Cover of all the Yellow-Book phone books for the coastal cities in the State Of Calif.. This ended up being an eight year deal for Tag, shooting the cover shots with different woodies each year. Tag was also won many ribbons in the O.C. Fair. As member of the Orange County Art Assoc. and he has participated in many juried shows. This led to galleries and retail stores wanting to sell his Beach and Surfing Lifestyle Artwork. Tag has sold this photography for the past ten years in stores like The Hobie Shops Tuvalu, and Garys Island in Fashion Island, Newport Beach. In recent years he has started painting beach scenes and says this relaxes him, because once that sand and saltwater gets in your blood, you just cant get it out.
Posted on: Thu, 29 May 2014 18:17:52 +0000
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