ANTICS AND ADVENTURES OF AN UPPITY WOMAN: August 2013

Saturday, August 31, 2013

HI! Ny name is WINN!

And this is my trusty steed, "Hot Sugar": three bike frames and a shopping cart.

And that's my travel pal, Antonio. His bike is more conventional -- one frame, two wheels, brakes and a pair of handlebars.

We're from Los Angeles, just leaving Brookings, Oregon and pedaling our way to Portland this fine Labor Day Weekend.

We have awesome adventures and sometimes we're stalked by crazy people in RVs who will stop at anything (like traffic) just to take our picture.

Sometimes it's a little challenging to get up hills on my three-story pedaling machine...

...but I'm young, and agile, and my CCC consists of just the basics, a loaf of bread, my cantina and my flocked teddy bear helmet.

Bet you thought Flower Children went the way of the buggy whip, right? Well, I'm here to tell you, you might want to rethink that!

Sunday, August 18, 2013

TAKING RECYCLING TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Angela Haseltine Pozzi is a true green artist. I first heard of her when visiting the “Washed Ashore, Art to Save the Sea” exhibit in Bandon, Oregon. She is the lead artist for Washed Ashore (more on that in a later blog).

Prior to Washed Ashore though, Ms. Pozzi had a gallery and cafe on the Coast Highway, 8 miles South of Bandon, where she exhibited her extraordinary fiber art. What made it extraordinary is that the fabrics and yarns used in her pieces are entirely repurposed from hand-me-downs found at Goodwill and other thrift stores.

The biggest draw to her gallery was her three-sided, walk-in vision of a coral reef, the size of Angela Jolie’s shoe closet! Walk in, draw the drapes, turn off the lights, and the creatures glow with sea luminescence where she has applied luminous paint in certain areas. It's magical.

Her predominant theme, her special vision of sea creatures and reef gardens, has evolved from recycled, repurposed fabric to gigantic sculptures made from debris harvested from the ocean.

Her former gallery has been repurposed into a workshop for on-going Washed Ashore projects. If there are cars in the driveway, of “101 Art” there’s bound to be an artist, designer or staff artisan present who *might* let you see Ms. Pozzi’s “Coral Reef” and let you tour the Washed Ashore workshop facilities. My visit was a delightful serendipitous treat.

Abe is showing me one of several fabric masks. I was reminded of creations I saw in a Mardi Gras float workshop in New Orleans.

Not sure where or when I'd wear that!

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

THE THING ABOUT OREGON AGATES IS...

...they are really difficult to find. I think that after decades of sifting, agate hunters have pretty much picked Oregon beaches clean of their famous agates. But you can usually find reasonable specimens of Oregon Agate in gift shops! OR, as one fellow hunter told me: layer up and visit the coast in December! (Picture coffee spewing from my nose!)

The de rigueur tool and hunting "stance."

The family that sifts together, stays together -- three generations of agate hunters!

But this guy is either too old to bend over and get back up, has bionic eyes, or is simply happy moving the rocks to and fro. Good looking tool; not a serious sifter!

Sitting down, lying down, bending over; rake, scrape, dig, pick and sift -- Now *these* are serious agate seekers!

In the rock field, each little divot (or sitzmark, depending on your sport of choice) represents an agate mining claim someone has worked over.

At some point in my afternoon of searching, I abandoned my quest for agates and started looking for just plain interesting, pretty, or weird. Eventually I did indeed strike a bonanza of jasper, chalcedony, chert, quartz, rhyolite and mystery pebbles (spritzed to bring out their color)...

...a coupla world-class worry stones (one for little problems, one for big problems!)...

and a perfect, five-splash (at least) skipper!

This is my plunder after two days of sifting and includes a few I found last year. So what did I learn from agate mavens after two days of sprawling on a stony beach? Agates are shiny even when they're dry; they're translucent; and you have to move a LOT of rocks to find them! I also learned this was a relaxing undertaking that helped me perfect my favorite pastime, goofing off! Two of these "trace agates" aren't even agates! Can you guess which ones?