Buddha Heads from the kiln …

Some of the new buddhas are adorned with seashells wild-crafted in Santa Barbara. Available at Santa Barbara Arts on Canon Perdido.  

another Mosaic wall in Santa Barbara

My neighbors in Santa Barbara commissioned me to do a mural on their guest room wall. Here it is. Ocean wave, squid, octopus arm, crab… Wave…

   

Wonder Valley Homestead Cabin Festival coming sooooon.

We are raising awareness about our “barren” desert being a rich wilderness with a rich history which includes our falling down, deteriorating, time-lapsed decay homestead cabins here in Wonder Valley. Rich in wildlife. Rich in it’s emptiness. Rich in it’s present state. To be protected by it’s inhabitants before it’s plowed under like the rest of civilization. Please join us for the first Wonder Valley Homestead Cabin Festival this February thru March 2008.

Dick Smith Wilderness behind Santa Barbara

Today Doug and I took a drive up into the mountains …an incredibly gorgeous day in the Los Padres National Forest above Santa Barbara. From desert to the ocean to the mountain. You can see Anacapa Island in one photo.





 

Dream

A friend of ours, Jill Katz, sent me this dream of hers: “The four of us were at a house that Shirley was exorcizing a spirit from the house that lived in the throw rugs and she was eventually successful because one of the throw rugs became a person and then disappeared. Doug was lounging on one of those salon chairs that kinda look like a short sofa but only one person can fit and he was watching/helping Perry who was sitting in a chair with a guitar writing a song. The only words I can remember are the last words “Burgundy Oven.” At the end, I declared I wanted to go by the new name, Kaleidoscope.” – Jill

Once again, in honor of the first-ever Wonder Valley Homestead Cabin Festival

While out on a stroll taking pictures of cabins, I encountered another human being. He told me his name was Anno… a good German name…and he owned three cabins adjacent to his home out at the end of Wonder Valley, where you just might fall off the face of the earth. I asked him if he wouldn’t mind posing with his dog next to one of his cabins. He also pointed me in the direction of a homestead shack where someone had died recently, told me I could get some real good pictures there. I found the old car in the sand and the container of yellow bullets shells there.

  

Mosaic Workshop

The Mosaic Workshop I just led in Wonder Valley was a great success. Seven eager students ready to learn and create. We drew a little blood from some sharp tile but nothing requiring stitches, just a prick. Everyone created beautiful works as different and as varied as people are. I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to photograph everyone’s work, but one couple who also has a residence in Wonder Valley, wanted to create an address sign from pavers, to sit on Hwy 62 in front of their house. They invited us to come see their place after the workshop. Here you will see their creation as well as a couple of pieces I constructed for the Homestead Cabin Festival, OPENING on February 9th 2008. The largest of my pieces was just three feet in length. Enjoy. 

Starting Backwards

My recent trip to the desert was very inspiring. There is much to share about the Mosaic Workshop and the Homestead Cabin Festival. The week aside, I drove, returning, to the other home in Santa Barbara through pouring rain, when suddenly in Pasadena at the Sierra Madre exit my car, in the second to the fast lane, hydro-planed, SPINNING around and around and across 4 lanes of traffic while I sat there praying that my vehicle would not CRASH into anything…………………praying hard to the mind over matter GOD !!! whooooooosh the car came spinning to a halt a couple of feet away from a concrete wall on the freeway with the dogs in the back, facing the wall…with me in the front facing oncoming traffic who were surprisingly diligent and respectful of a car being in their way. Adrenaline ran high and the rain pouring down, I didn’t even know that my car was off…no wonder it would not respond… Then I started the car and pulled into the slow lane that I was blocking and off we went. Unharmed. Breathing rapidly I called Doug. 

Crows and Oranges

Today I saw a crow fly by our house with an orange in it’s bill. Looked rather odd. It then landed on the telephone poll with its orange.

Wonder Valley Homestead Cabin Festival

In February 2008, I will be participating with 3 very talented artists, Chris Carraher, Scott Monteith and Bob Arnett in a celebration to bring awareness of the beauty, history and free interpretations the Wonder Valley homestead cabins bring to our senses.

February 9, 2008, save the date!!! For more information click this CABIN.

Here is a peek at a new image I would like to include in the show. It is an image of a cabin in Kaua’i. An island which faces the same dilemmas in mind, body and spirit that challenges Wonder Valley in a time of global expansion and destruction of the earth as earth.
Will we succeed when we have covered every inch of the planet in concrete? Don’t get me wrong, I think concrete is a beautiful medium. Just not in the form of more parking lots.