Beyond the White Hummingbird

June 28, 2016

The Australian Garden at the University of California Santa Cruz Arboretum has so much to offer, and while I was understandably blown away by the spectacular white hummingbird sighting, I thought I might share some of it’s other treasures…

Rare Leucistic Anna’s Hummingbird in the Grevillea.

Me in my official like birding outfit – meant to blend into the garden and attract hummers…worked!

Showy Banksia

Flight fight!

Showy Honey Myrtle

The Rufous and Allen’s Hummingbirds look a lot alike, the Allen’s is supposed to have two white spots on its tail tips instead of three like the Rufous, but even knowing this it’s still hard to tell as the Allen’s does have a sliver of white on that third feather and both can have a substantial amount of green on their backs – especially the juveniles and the females.

Scrub Jay

Cooper’s Hawk fledglings

Desert Cottontail

Bottle Brush

Lipstick Plant

Common Buckeye

Actual buckeyes – (on a Black Tailed Deer)

Flora Grubb

October 19, 2015

My friend Elizabeth introduced me to Flora Grubb Gardens in San Francisco. Located in Dog Patch, this urban garden design store is a drought tolerant jungle of inspiration! It has even been claimed that they pioneered the vertical garden… I wonder if anyone can vouch for that?

I loved these oversized floral sculptures in metal.

I felt the size on an insect crawling beneath!

Wall covered with these red passion flowers.

Wall of colorful chairs.

Chairs in a blue vignette.

Succulent table scape,

Florauto.

Floramobile.

Carden.

Sculptural fern leaves.

Hanging aerium.

Cement loungers.

Winged stem passoin flower.

Variegated Agave.

Sleek sofa.

Succulent panel.

So many great ideas for living creatively in a drought prone landscape!

Studio Visit with Shannon Amidon

August 24, 2015

I was so happy to enjoy a visit with artist Shannon Amidon in her San Jose studio preparing for her upcoming show, Diary of a Naturalist at TechShop 300 S Second St
San Jose, CA 95113 where she is currently artist in residence – the opening reception is Friday, September 4 from 7 -10 pm with live music by Mark Camp!

In this series Amidon has used laser cutting tools to create artwork inspired by Victorian naturalists, exquisite silhouettes cut away from the top layer of vintage book covers.

I adore the period feel of these pieces and am quite taken by how environmentally friendly they are too.

Here’s a sample of the back in which a wooden panel has been applied to provide a secure base for hanging hardware.

I love this array of laser cut insects in front of one of her encaustic paintings featuring a silhouette of a tree. No matter which medium Amidon is working with, there is a strong voice running throughout, a respect and love of nature, of materials and of the silhouetted form – a modern Victorian perhaps?

Here the insects are pinned to a wall like an entomologist had passed through…

…maybe one had.

Oh, and a biologist too.

These lovely specimen bottles were also laser etched by Amidon at TechShop.

So much to discover in Amidon’s studio – like these planters she’s created out of vintage books…

…and cascades of printed pages in a variety of different treatments.

It’s always fascinating to study an artist’s inspiration wall – it turns out someone was a ballerina!

A ballerina with a wall of power tools – my kind of artist!

I’m really looking forward to the reception – I dare say there will be more than a few red dots! the exhibition will run until September 25 and Amidon will be teaching some classes at TechShop too!

Blossom : @Large

April 26, 2015

Ai Weiwei chose the clinic of Alcatraz as the setting for the site-specific installation Blossom. In this piece he filled the original porcelain fixtures, the bathtubs, sinks and toilets with masses of porcelain flowers. Looking like frothy bubbles from a distance, a closer inspection reveals this hopeful flowering. It’s a stunning, subtle work, such a contrast between the dirty and sickly connotations of the clinic’s bathrooms and the flourishing purity of the flowers, I find it profound that the same material, porcelain could convey both of these extremes.