Sunday, February 23, 2020

Plastic Paradigm



They call themselves Next Gen. Young people who are keen to find a way to live and thrive in the San Geronimo Valley. As artists and activists they are joining together to express the issues they face: locally with affordable housing and they face globally with climate change.

We are blessed to have three of these wonderful NextGen'ers gracing our lives as studio assistants.

It was a full -house, standing room only at the Youth Climate Justice Benefit at the Woodacre Improvement Club. Amber Rose Brauer was there taking tickets. Naomi Tartarsky-Bridges was tabling for the NextGen. Anna DeBenedictis created the stage set and poster design. Plus grand-daughter Clementine (10) was with us in the audience, ready-ing herself to take her place in the NextGen NextGen.

Kudos to directors/producers Cory vanGelder and Ciarra D'Onofio for staging Plastic Paradigm and We Can't Do This Alone in a the spectacle of lights, sounds, spoken word and aerial silk dancing.


Richard writes: This painting called Forgiveness was made in 1976 and is reflective of my ambitious self, wanting, as we said, "To put my spit in the stream" —to be part of the critical dialogue. It is, in life, eight feet across. I was happy to see it used as a part of the projected backdrop for the performance, an exemplar of feelings we have; mine being "Don't worry, it's all going to work out—it's going to be crappy at times, but its going to work out in the end." Let's live our lives as though we fought the revolution and WON!





Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Feelin' the Love



It was a perceptive docent who noticed the mix of workshop participants and exclaimed, "beach plastic art really is for all ages!”  It was true —  working side by side, were two girls clocking in at 3.5 years and several docents at the 60+ years mark. And the afternoon continued on with folks of all stripes enjoying themselves.

A quick adjustment of our plan to accommodate some of the special participants made for very happy campers — people could post on Instagram and/or have a take-away paper Valentine. Whether it was tracing around the plastic shapes or making fanciful arrangements in pink, red, white, and purple, there was something for everyone. And everyone took the Valentine message to heart, using the materials to "feel the love" each in their own playful and creative ways.