DESIGN : Pack Rat Heaven

IN THE MARKET for hundreds of 1960s-era baby dolls with glass eyes and synthetic, haylike hair? How about chalky slabs of fossil-imbedded Texas limestone, speckled bowling balls or slabs of pink alabaster? You’ll find all of this and more at Ventura’s Art City, one of the West Coast’s largest sculpture-supply businesses--and certainly its most surreal.

The brainchild of Ventura sculptor Paul Lindhard, Art City is also a working studio where sculptors from all over come seeking inspiration and a recharging of their creative batteries. At first glance, the place looks like the result of a pack rat run amok. But somehow there’s a Zenlike order about the place; the jumbled rocks, the metal objects, the driftwood and the cacti take on the serenity of a Japanese garden.

A born scavenger, Lindhard collects Mexican onyx and California marble from desert quarries, and avocado and cypress wood from abandoned orchards. But keep a lookout for the metal coils, old tires and red-vinyl booths--all industrial artifacts from Ventura dumpsters.

“I like creating order out of chaos,” Lindhard says. “I think of the whole place as theater.”

Art City, 197 Dubbers St., Ventura, (805) 653-6380.