Spring is close by

In eleven days we mark the first day of spring and while many places still feel like winter, I though I would share a few surprises from yesterdays trip home after dropping my daughter off in Santa Cruz. By all accounts it was a beautiful day with rain showers and periodic breaks of sunshine, with pockets of warmth, followed by strong winds and even a down pouring of hail. And I loved every minute of it.

Just north of Santa Cruz but before Davenport I came upon a field of blue flowers bathing in the sun. Cars were speeding by as I made my way down an embankment and then up the hill. For the next half hour or so, I stood, photographing the flowers, which after many years simply spread unabated into a visual spectacle.

I was on my way to the cove where upon my last visit during a heavy storm I discovered the two heart-shaped stones. Since then I had a strong yearning to visit this location as I felt it had been calling me all these weeks.

The opening to the coastal access is nested between eucalyptus trees and easily missed. The wind was blowing hard and I felt under-dressed even with a heavy jacket. On my way to the shoreline, a rain shower erupted, but I remained undaunted and continued on. As I reached the edge of the cliff, the rain stopped and I began witnessing nature’s impressive display of light, clouds, and a rainbow.

Tansy-leaved Evening Primrose

On the way down to the cove, I noticed between the grasses a yellow flower beaming with joy. It seemed to be shouting for attention as strong gusts of wind had it swinging back and forth, shaking any drops of water from its yellow petals. There were a few more individual clusters of evening primrose a little further on, however a number of their flowers had been battered by previous heavy rainfall, that the petals were damaged.

After gathering a few large pebbles for the garden and finding another heart shaped rock, I continued to drive north towards Pigeon Point Light House. Just before the official entrance to the lighthouse, I pulled over on to a dirt road the field hands use to gain access, so that I could photograph the ocean and the dramatic cloud formation that was unfolding.

The ground was soft and soaking wet as I made my way towards the ridge. Sheltered in a thicket of shrubs I noticed something bright and after a quick glance I proceeded onward towards my objective, knowing I would return to the where nature held a surprise.

Tough-leaved Iris

Though I already knew a future post about this trip would be forthcoming, I decided that I could not keep to myself natures treasure of a single blue iris emerging from the surrounding darkness and shinning in the rays of a late afternoon sun. I needed to share, bringing some cheer to those still suffering winters hold, even though we to are still in our midst of a northern California winter. I still had one more place to visit before heading home. The hour was getting late, my appearance a mess and though very tired, my spirit held firm. Next stop, Bean Hollow.

By now the winds had increased, the heights of waves multiplied from earlier in the day, and their ferocity had also become more pronounced. I headed on down the steps onto a beach of tiny pebbles, watching a group of small birds chasing a retreating wave, while collecting shells the ocean had surrendered. Without warning, I was standing in the middle of a brief hailstorm. Once it passed, I took a few more photographs of the setting sun and then returned home.

This day would not have been possible if I did not take my daughter back to school. I would have not experienced the beauty and drama of nature as I did and the adventure does not end there. For back home there waited another surprise, a letter from a concerned friend, who knew of my medical procedure of last week.

Eva Macie — A Creative Life

Eva Macie from A Creative Life, sent me a beautiful hand made card that she had crafted with loving care. A collage of different papers, speckled with a little bit of fiber and dashes of gold leaf, a few lines and an outline of a heart. All I can say is that it was the crowning of my day, making it a most memorable one indeed.

Anna Mavromatis — my Ephemera . . .

As I bring this post to a conclusion, I wish to publicly express an earlier joy that arrived without any expectations in the mail a couple of weeks ago. It came from Anna Mavromatis, my Ephemera . . ., in response to receiving full resolution files of two irises that appeared on my other blog. She had sent me a print of each, along with a Thank you card that she too had made herself. Anna’s technique employed the use of a computer to assemble a botanical scan and that of a bee with a photograph of a woman, then printed on her mono printed-paper she had made earlier.

I thank you both, Anna and Eva for your beautiful

and thoughtful gift that I shall treasure dearly.

Egmont

A heart of stone

One of many reasons I like blogging, are the discoveries we can make, especially the ‘being inspired’ kind, learning how others express their creativity. Recently I saw stones that were beautifully wrapped at Donna Watson’s blog Layers, they were a gift from Nancy Neva Gagliano. When you visit Neva’s site Openings Connecting, you immediately see that stones play an important roll in her life, for the masthead is a beautiful arrangement of stones and she has been practicing wrapping stones, that she calls ‘RAPT’ for a number of years.

The notion of making my own wrapping stones quickly manifested itself in my mind like a song stuck on repeat. So when I found myself driving back home along Cabrillo Highway recently, I decided to go on a quest for pebbles and stones suited for wrapping.

Since I already had given so much thought to wrapping stones, I realized that such ‘art’ required a ritual and this meant a purpose, a reason, so that in the end one could interpret the artwork. By thinking of the possible purpose for the wrapped stones and its relevant meaning, a few ideas were being considered, besides it was important to adjust Neva’s ‘RAPT’ concept by adopting it to my vision, so off I went on a quest.

The process of collecting ones stones can take on the proportions of being on a holly quest, resulting in traveling great distances to locate natural deposits along rivers, streams and even the beaches of an ocean. In the end a location can have a direct impact upon the design of ones stone wrapping, altering the original purpose and meaning.

The day I went on my pilgrimage, there was a storm with waves clashing against the rocks, then fanning against an agree sky. The wind blew with ferocity, bending the grasses, and wiping tree branches to its will, I continued forward on my journey. With my hat angled to keep the brunt of the rain from my face, I proceeded down a narrow path to a small breach in the cliff, to a little hidden cove.

At the base of the cliff ran a stream that this time flowed with great vigor towards the ocean, only to be rebuffed with violent force. Waves had momentarily forced reversal of the streams direction and I was unable to jump across the stream because of the run-off.

Undaunted by disappointment or weather, I went about rummaging through the scattered stones, selecting a number of different sizes, shapes and colour of stones, while throwing rejects into the water. I picked up a few light grey oval pebbles and a couple darker ones that when dipped it not the stream to remove the sand, tuned almost black. My hands were already full of stones but in order to pick up a few more, the smaller ones were shoved in the back pocket.

There was one, half buried by sand, with a nice elongated thin oval shape that peaked some interests. Kicking it loose, I retrieved it and washed it in the stream. The stone, though heavy, felt good in my hand and so I kept it.

A few steps further along the streams boundary, a couple smaller stones were retrieved, studied, then either pocketed or tossed back. One of the pebbles that became worth keeping was the size of a silver dollar, especially after turning it around between my fingers; I noticed a notch, shaped like a crescent moon, giving the pebble the appearance of a broad heart.

Though visually I knew what I had found, its significance or importance did not sink in until I was back in the car and out of the rain, when I also realized that the rock that felt so good in my hand was also in the shape of a heart.

Though visually I knew what I had found, I seemed oblivious to its significance or importance, even back in the car and out of the rain, examining what I had retrieved from the cove. This included the rock that felt so good in my left hand, resting against the palm with the index finger naturally anchored in the rocks notch.

Several days passed before realizing that I now held inexplicable and mysterious energies in the palm of my hand, not once, but twice.

When viewed full size, stones appear actual size

Unearthing two heart shaped stones I take as a sign of good medicine, I also realize that in order to release the stones spirit, I will need to become one with the stone, infusing each stone with other elements having personal significance.

What happens next still remains to be an unknown, so for now the story about the other suitable pebbles, stones and rocks, for wrapping and adorning the assemblage would have to be told another time.

A change of surroundings

It has been far too long since my last posting, even though there was one written and ready to go last Tuesday on Forgiveness, but I felt it was time for something less serious, especially now that the holidays have passed and there are only two more months of winter left. There was even a draft about the rough storms California faced for a number of days, as my first exit from the house in just as many days for a medical appointment, had allowed for a photo to be captured. It showed how one of our reservoirs, Briones, had managed to raise its water level after a three-year drought.

Briones Reservoir

Contra Costa County, California, January 22, 2010

As the previous weekend passed, it was time to take my daughter back to Santa Cruz. I was looking forward to our company and the trip back home along the coast on Cabrillo Highway. The weather looked good all morning but after dropping off Ariana, it took less than an hour for raindrops to appear, signaling what was about to come. Undaunted, I continued to my two favorite places, especially one, a little hideaway. Just above Aña Nuevo State Park, lies the Aña Nuevo Whitehouse Creek trail, whose entrance is nestled between groupings of large eucalyptus trees easily missed from the road unless one is looking for it.

A little into the trail, it splits in two different directions, one north into the open area and the other west, towards the coast where another split in the trail would lead one down to the shore or along the ridge. My aim was to head down towards to a little cove, which when entered made one feel like the pages of an adventure book I read as a boy about pirates and smugglers came to life.

Now the rains became heavier, they had brought on also stronger winds, causing the surf to plunge deeper into the coast, almost reversing the flow of the stream that I no longer was able to cross in order to enter the cove and reach the beach. Never the less, I was able to retrieve from along the stream a few pebbles for wrapping. Once back in the car, it was off to Bean Hollow.

Bean Hallow

Bean Hallow, San Mateo County, January 25, 2010

By the time I arrived at Bean Hollow the rain stopped but the winds had increased significantly to cause the waves to cress between fifteen to twenty feet with an additional five-six feet of ocean spray on top. At first I was the only person, but soon several more die-hards arrived to observe the oceans display of aggression as it seas swells forcible trusted itself against the few outcropping of steadfast rocks that rose above the waterline for a spectacular show. Almost one hour later, I felt as if I was frozen to the bone, signaling that it was time to go home.

Bean Hallow beach

Bean Hallow, San Mateo County, January 25, 2010

The next day I managed another escape from the walls that have been confining me these past weeks with a return for another medical visit in Berkeley and since the day lighting was better than before, I was able to document a number of telephone poles. One of my long term projects I have been working on these last four years, with an earlier posting to The Artist Within Us and how these telephone poles were turned into an artistic vision, a new direction that my paintings since have taken. I promise to share more of these in upcoming posts so that you can see what it is that that has me so fascinated with these mundane totems lining the streets at regular intervals.

Amidst the grey a dash of colour

 Berkeley, California, January 26, 2010

The next several days were spent like most of this year at building The DIRECTORY, my third blog. It is a collection of resources for artists and a list of the blogs I follow. There is still far more work ahead, but do have a look when you have a moment.

The brief outing along the coast lifted my spirits considerable; it has offered much needed rejuvenation and has permitted my focus to see challenges in another view. Circumstances have not changed, but a little strength has been mustered that will permit me to go on, for it appears winters brooding finds itself waning as spring approaches and days begin to be longer.

I wish to leave you know with a thought and your next excuse for when your spouse cannot understand the mess you are making, just tell them

Kreative Menschen machen keine Unordnung,

es sind alles Ideen, die da rumliegen!

Translation:

Creative people make no messes,

they are just ideas lying around!

They still might not understand, but at least you won’t have to stand there in silence and have that blank but questionable look about you.

Seeking a more personalized blog appearance

I am aware that I have not posted in these last twenty-one days or so and though like a number of new bloggers who make a good start only to fizzle out after a few weeks or months, I can assure that is not the case here. During my absence I have been busy visiting other blogs, studying their designs and layouts, occasionally commenting and exchanging correspondence, including posting a few days ago to The Artist Within Us, my other blog. On top of all this, there was a major distraction, as our daughter Ariana was now moving away from home to attend the University of Santa Cruz and though it is only 94.3 miles away, we are now experiencing the ‘empty nest syndrome’, even though our son Armont is still living at home, attending a college near by. Then last Tuesday we all celebrated his twenty-first birthday and all along it felt like we just brought him home from the hospital where he was born. In the meantime I have been reworking my two sites, developing a third, assisting my friend Ian and his blog Abstract Minimalism, which is about half way where we would like it to be. So you can see, there has been a lot of excitement around here and the dust that was stirred up, still has not settled.

You might have also notice the masthead has been changed from a water lily, to reflect the new season in which we find ourselves, with a photograph of a red Japanese maple growing in our front yard. Normally I like everything tack sharp and with no motion, but the breeze was blowing and my inner voice—to which I do not listen to enough—kept insisting I continue. Even the sidebar here and at my other blog has been revamped, not once but twice, with a few more adjustments due in the next couple of weeks, for a total of six redesigns since I started in April. This included just adding a number of photographs to break up the text flow. So where is all this going?

Apart from the author’s voice setting the tone of a blog, there is also the design of the site, which reflects a person’s personality. Take for example Lorraine Stobie, a mixed media collage artists, whose site Creative Daily was professionally designed by Trudi Sessons of Two Dresses Studio, who’s expertise in digital manipulation of multiple images and objects I have a great respect for. She not only took into account the visual aspects of a good blog design, like its flow, usage of colour and overall readability, but also Lorraine’s personality and the type of artwork she does.

This was achieved by including elements that are part of Lorraine’s life and were then arranged in a collage that enhanced the blogs visual appeal and placed off to the sides of the main page. However the full effect of the collages artwork only comes to shine when viewing Lorraine’s ‘biography’ page, which can be reach by a separate link that is located towards the top of the sidebar.

Even here the biography icon and other, like ‘Email Me’, ‘Inspiration’, ‘Archives’, and others, are all carefully designed with a repeating diamond pattern that is also used for Lorraine’s signature at the end of each post. In the end, the site sets itself apart from others, like a persons individual thumbprint, while retaining similarities to other crafting blogs.

In contrast to Lorraine’s bit of whimsy and special airiness is Layers, an artists whose work I greatly admire. Donna’s blog takes a different approach, by making use of the sidebar with photographs of her life, her surroundings and her interests, all of which is supported by her posts with images and the stories she tells. Her blog takes on a more Spartan approach, or if you will, a Wabi-Sabi sense of design, with a background colour that suggest one has entered into a blog with a Zen atmosphere; all of which reflects back to her style of artwork.

Though Donna’s artwork is comprised of richly layered metaphors, symbols, and a personal mythology, these appear at first glance in contrast to her Zen surroundings. This symbiosis of an oxymoron may have you scratching your head, but it is the very essence that comprises Donna’s spirit. Like most artists, she is a deeply complex individual with a ‘want and desire’ to absorb herself into her surroundings, emerging from it with new energies and ready to express her personal creative vision.

From these and other sites I have leaned a great deal and though I have thirty years experience as a graphic designer in collateral material and books, designing for the web or a blog is very different, even though there are a few similarities. So for now I continue making adjustments to my blogs, double-checking that both sidebars match in their placement of specific elements, while fine-tuning other aspects of the sites so that your visit will be a comfortable one.

Apart from having been preoccupied, I have managed to savor a few moments here and there, doing photography and exploring techniques I last used over thirty years ago, but now capturing images digitally with minimal application of software. My paintings on the other hand progress with their usual steady slowness, trying to overcome the fear of a wrong move and hoping for that touch of blindness in which inspiration takes over and the hand moves in charge of itself.

In the meantime I reflect upon a comment made to my previous posts at The Artist Within Us, about influences, an influence as far back as ones childhood and now having an effect upon the art one creates, Donna replied and in part said: “. . . the more personal your work becomes the more connection there is with others.

Postscript: Earlier in the day, under natural light, I had photographed a crane fly on a painters canvas drop cloth and by the evening decided to play around with it. After scanning envelops of letters from a previous relationship, some thirty years ago, I began extracting a number of these various elements and rearranging them on to the photograph of the crane fly.

Tipula abdominalis — Giant Crane Fly

Digital Multi-medium, October 9, 2009

Blogs mentioned in this post

Trudi Sessons — Two Dresses Studio

Lorraine Stobie — Creative Daily

Donna Watson — Layers

Ian Foster — Abstract Minimalism

My other blog — The Artist Within Us

A trip to Santa Cruz

The copy for today’s upload had been almost finished when I decided to set it aside in favor of sharing with you some tidbits from a trip to Santa Cruz for my daughter’s orientation at the University of Santa Cruz.

Originally the plans had not included my joining her and her mother, but the day before the departure I packed my things, made sure the batteries for the camera were all charged and tagged along for the adventure.

After dropping off our daughter on campus, the wife and I took a short drive around the vicinity before heading south on the freeway towards Watsonville. I wanted to check out the area because I remember from my childhood that it was mostly agricultural land and I desired to capture a few photographic studies for a possible painting.

Upon arriving in Watsonville it felt like any other place, there where the usual major gasoline companies with their stations welcoming us back into civilization, followed by OSH on one side of the shopping center, Firestone, an assortment of smaller businesses and a major super market chain on the other side. Even Verizon has a spot on the corner next to a major intersection.

The cabbage patch, Watsonville

I had to look very hard to find access to the open agricultural fields, to see the workers in the fields, but by accident I did find one road that lead me past a local high school and what appeared to be a dead-end, was a dirt road leading one down a row of parked old cars and trucks. It was by all means limited exposure at best, and feeling out of ones own element, we continued a short distance along a huge strawberry field and patches of freshly tilted earth before turning around.

A smaller section of land that was protected by one side of a natural grove of indigenes trees, where a few laborers at harvesting red cabbages, while others packed the heads into cardboard shipping containers and loaded them onto a flatbed truck.

Unfortunately I found myself being ill prepared because of the failure to study any maps prior to coming here and know my way around ahead of time. Even after finding a California Automobile Association facility where I did obtain maps of the vicinity, but the decision was made to leave Watsonville for another time and return to Santa Cruz along the coast.

In order to do this we had to travel a short distance on the Cabrillo Highway until we reached Park, there we exited. Traveling on a winding two-way road, descending through a grove of Eucalyptus until the road way doubled and we reached the beginning of a residential neighborhood.

Each community with their own characteristics has a unique charm but today we were just passing through, in order to get to the shoreline, which we finally spotted before leaving Capitola and entering into Live Oak. After about ten minutes or so we reached Schwan Lake, from there it was only a brief moment before I spotted public access to a beach with one parking space available.

Anyone confused yet?, Twin Lake State Beach, Live Oak

After parking the vehicle I looked up at the sign before us. We looked at each other, read the sign repeatedly, deciphering the cryptic meaning before realizing that we did need a permit since Labor Day was in September. So she stayed with the car, while I quickly took a few pictures of the lighthouse and lifeguard station before gathered some extra fine sand and continuing our journey.

Apart from parking along the Santa Cruz Beach and Boardwalk is very restricted, even several blocks away; I was not keen on staying. Wanting something quieter and less crowded we started to check out the area a little further north along Cowell Beach where the surfers hang out riding the incoming waves.

Finding another lone and empty parking spot that just seemed to beckon, I pulled right in.

There was a staircase leading down the cliff to the water which I descended almost right up to the water, only stopping so not to get wet from the incoming waves exploding like fireworks against the rocks.

We continued our walk along West Cliff Drive towards the Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse, all the time checking out the surfers catching the small waves, while we were dogging now and then the oncoming bicycle riders.

The Pelican Sentinel, Natural Bridges State Beach

Our time flew by way too fast and pretty soon it would be time to return to campus and pick up our daughter, but not before one more stop at Natural Bridges State Beach. The place has two entrances, the first takes one to a large parking lot with a twenty-minute limit in order to view the scenery, while the other road let to a rangers station that collected the days fee from those who wanted to enter the beach.

The point was very windy and the current considerable stronger as waves struck with greater force, pounding against the cliff protruding from the beaches shoreline. There on the very top of the cliff, the cormorants and pelicans stood watch over the coming and goings of the ocean. Several digital exposures later I headed back to the car, besides we needed to return to the campus.

Those attending the orientation were required to park in designated lots and take the shuttle to campus #8, where we meet up with our daughter but not after first running into an old friend Sherry who was there with her son Christopher. Her son and our daughter have known each other since first grade when going to Olinda Elementary more than ten years ago.

USC bus stop billboard, USC Campus

The five of us decided to head back into town and just walk about looking at the shops but first we needed to get back to where our cars were parked. When we exited the bus I had another look at the bus stop billboard which reminded me very much of the telephone poles I had been photographing in Berkeley since 2005.

Though I felt being rushed, I certainly could have spent the next twenty to thirty minutes setting up a tripod, composing a number of different arrangements and capturing several versions, I had to do with the three exposures I did get. All I could do was hope that despite the low shutter speed, I had something worthwhile.

The ride back home went relatively smooth, considering we did get into some rush hour traffic. Our daughter was exhausted and went to sleep, missing some of the scenery. Though I felt I had not accomplished every thing I wanted to do, the trip at least provided some mental stimulation and a few ideas for when I would return.