went and touched a truly indulgent amount of grass

Sunset at Blind Beach

Beautiful welding art I took a picture of in Sonoma California

Echo Valley Road at the Russian River, Sonoma County, California, during the January 2023 floods. Yes, there's a (small) bridge under there somewhere…

sonoma on film by me.

🇺🇸 🍷 Wow. It's Saturday night and I'm enjoying iconic 2017 Chateau St. Jean Cinq Cépages (94 pts, $130) from Sonoma tonight. Part of LCBO VINTAGES Cellar Collection & available in stores now. Full review: https://rebrand.ly/wa1puna

07/11/2006

Charles Beck - Creek and Cabins

California State University placed Sonoma State campus President Mike Lee on leave Wednesday after he agreed to protesters’ demands to involve them in university decision-making and pursue divestment from Israel. Lee sent a campus-wide memo Tuesday indicating that he had made several concessions to occupants of a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus. The memo was sent “without the appropriate approvals,” CSU Chancellor Mildred García said in a statement, adding that she and the 23-campus CSU system’s board are “actively reviewing the matter.” “For now, because of this insubordination and the consequences it has brought upon the system, President Lee has been placed on administrative leave,” García said. The punishment marks perhaps the harshest disciplinary action against a campus chancellor or president in California over the handling of protests of the war in Gaza. It also underscores an unwillingness to divest from Israeli weapons manufacturers — as pro-Palestinian protesters across the country have increasingly demanded the last few months — among leaders of the CSU system and its sister University of California system.

California universities including UC Riverside, UC Berkeley and Sacramento State have agreed to study divestment like some East Coast universities, but none have gone as far as Lee. Lee told the campus that he would initiate an academic boycott of Israel, in which links to study abroad programs in the country would be removed from university pamphlets, among other measures. He also agreed to work with a local chapter of the activist group Students for Justice in Palestine to form an advisory council on some decisions. Lee further pledged to review the school’s contracts and a campus-specific investment fund called the Sonoma State Foundation for ties to Israel “to determine a course of action leading to divestment strategies that include seeking ethical alternatives.”

“In my attempt to find agreement with one group of students, I marginalized other members of our student population and community,” Lee wrote in a follow-up message to members of the campus Wednesday. “I realize the harm that this has caused, and I take full ownership of it. I deeply regret the unintended consequences of my actions.” Lee did not immediately return a request for comment. His decision to engage with protesters had quickly drawn backlash in the 24 hours since he announced the deal with demonstrators, which included them dismantling their encampment. California Legislative Jewish Caucus Co-Chair Scott Wiener, a Democrat, condemned Lee’s concessions to the “Boycott, Divest and Sanction” movement in scathing terms. “Yesterday the President of Sonoma State University aligned the campus with BDS, a movement whose goal is the destruction of Israel, home to 7M Jews,” Wiener wrote on X Wednesday. “Several other UC & CSU campuses are doing this more subtly. Sonoma State simply said the quiet part out loud. The mask is off.”

Wiener and fellow Caucus Co-Chair Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel later issued a statement praising the decision to place Lee on leave, saying he had been “unfit to lead one of our great state institutions.”

-- From "California university president put on leave for ‘insubordination’ after meeting Gaza protesters’ demands" by Blake Jones for Politico, 15 May 2024

Home Sweet Vineyard, Sonoma Valley [07.02.2023]

Santa Rosa, CA

May 2,2024

8:20pm

Blue hour winter sunset over rocky surf near Carmet, Sonoma County. The rocks mirror the clouds in form. HDR process, color, saturation, contrast, denoise and sharpening in Canon's DPP4.17.10. Canon SL3, 50mm, f/9, ISO 100; 1/10, 1/25, 1/66s. Cheers!

The Age of Adaline + Costumes

Adaline Bowman’s brown & black coat, green shirt and black skirt.

// requested by anonymous

A LOOK AT "THE MASTER IN THE REDWOODS" -- A GERMAN-AMERICAN MASTER POTTER AND HER WORKS.

PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on Marguerite Wildenhain (born Marguerite Friedlaender), (October 11, 1896 – February 24, 1985), an American Bauhaus-trained ceramic artist, educator and author, photographed at Pond Farm, Sonoma County, CA, c. early 1950s. Plus assorted pottery works by the late, great Marguerite herself.

OVERVIEW: "Another potter whose career exemplifies the international nature of studio pottery is Marguerite Wildenhain (1896 – 1985). She was born in France, to a British mother and a German Jewish father. At age 18, she started work in a porcelain factory, and fell in love with the wheel. One day in 1919, while riding her bike in the countryside, Marguerite happened upon a poster announcing a new school, to be called the Bauhaus. It would be "a new guild of craftsmen without the class distinctions which raise an arrogant barrier between craftsmen and artists." At the Bauhaus, Wildenhain worked with some of the greatest designers of the early 20th century; in 1925, she became the first woman honored as a German Master Potter. She went on to teach at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design, while also designing commercial ceramics. When the Nazis came into power, Wildenhain and her husband fled to the Netherlands, where they opened a pottery they called shop called Het Kruikje (“The Little Jug”). In 1940 she had to flee the Nazis yet again, this time to emigrating to the United States

PART II: Wildenhain briefly took a position at the California College of Arts and Crafts, then in 1942, relocated to the new Pond Farm artist’s colony in rural Sonoma County. High on a hill above the Russian River, she planted a garden, built a house, and repurposed an old barn into her pottery studio. Over the next 40 years, Wildenhain would create an extraordinary body of work here, while also teaching students from around the world. Her students learned to throw on the physically-demanding kick-wheel, and started by making a dog dish! In between sessions, they discussed philosophy, natural history, and how to run a business; many went on to become important potters in their own right. Now part of the Austin Creek State Recreation Area, Wildenhain’s studio has been designated a "National Treasure" by the National Trust for Historic Preservation."

-- HAND OR EYE, "What is Studio Pottery?," written by Martin Holden

Source: www.sfomuseum.org/exhibitions/potters-life-marguerite-wildenhain-pond-farm, https://handoreye.com/journal/studiopottery, X, Pinterest, various, etc...

Exploring the more accessible field. The field had about 20-30 turkeys in it, so I was careful not to disrupt. The creek beyond the grass is a little harder to get to without exposure to ticks. I’ll try again once the path gets a little drier. What creeks are you by? Are they inhabited with wild life?

~ Airplane views of California 2022 ~