DoonArt Open Studios July 25-26 2015

Hey NCKA brethren,
I'll once again be participating in an open studio tour in the Santa Cruz mountains. This will be my fourth year doing so after taking last year off.
so far I will have a selection of wooden panel pieces in the Pacific NW style, a series of humorous fictitious business signs (all fishing related), some handmade gaffs, and some magnets as well.

You can find my artist bio and tour map at the link below.

http://bonnydoonstudiotour.com/

This will be an outdoor garden show. As added attractions we'll have a Tarot card reading tent on Saturday the 25th, and on Sunday the 25th we'll have an American Tribal bellydance performance courtesy of Callalilly Tribal.
We'll be open 11-6 each day.

I'll be taking some in progress pics and updating this post shortly, but here's my famous " Pac hali with Herring" as a teaser. This piece is now back in my possession and has become my most recognizable work, done on a 3x3ft cedar panel. (as another teaser, two of the larger pieces in the show were inspired by this one)

-Sean

Awesome Sean!!!

Hope you have a great weekend and I will do my best to make it up!!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Hope to make it again this year.

ok, here are a few more pics of the stuff i'll be showing:

1. two 2x3 redwood panels of a cali hali & mackerel, and a Lingcod who has just missed a black RF (note scales)

I had some fun with a series of signs. This one is sort of "tiki bar" inspired by some friends who are part of a tiki bar circle in their neighborhood.

Will I get lost in the mountains while trying to find your place? **serious question**

Will I get lost in the mountains while trying to find your place? **serious question**

serious answer, probably not we're right on the main road through the Doon, so are one of the most accessible stops on the tour. We're 10 minutes from Hwy 1, and about 20 minutes from Westside Santa Cruz.
I'll attach a PDF brochure with a map tomorrow!

That Pac hali with herring is really nice. Are there any small pieces for sale or is this just a nice tour?

That Pac hali with herring is really nice. Are there any small pieces for sale or is this just a nice tour?

I'll have stuff priced from $20-600 I'm all over the place.
Gaffs will be about $80
magnets $20
then the panel pieces and signs will be priced between $80-and up


barred surfperch:

Looking good Sean.  Chels and I will be there. 

Can't wait. Looks amazing as usual Sean. That Perch piece is incredible

Can't wait. Looks amazing as usual Sean. That Perch piece is incredible

thanks guys!
The perch piece is a sentimental one, the border images are from old photos of me & my dad surfcasting down at Haskell's beach and Sands beach in Goleta, and fishing from the rocks north of Cayucos.
 I wish the pic had turned out better but there was salt on the camera lens!

I hope to make it out for the first time this year.  Looking forward to it! 

here's a PDF brochure in case you didn't want to go to the top link.

and here's a write-up that goes along with one of my soon-to-be-revealed signs:

Matilda’s bait & tackle

I have always been interested in quirky signs. From the plain painted lumber lettered with DAVENPORT that hung in the Whale City bakery, to the yellow steel “sasquatch xing” sign I used to pass on Pine Flat road, they always grab my attention with either a sense of history or outright humor. In the past dozen plus years of building wood panel artwork I have constantly tried to imbue my pieces with a sense of seriousness, with nods to the honest influences of the Pacific Northwest and greater Polynesia. These were and are serious cultures that should be afforded great respect in our modern world. Recently I found myself wishing I could work on a project that was a bit more lighthearted, even veering into the ‘whimsical” category.

During the winter season I had an idea of a series of signs, which in the end I discarded as too exclusionary. Localism in the waves of Santa Cruz County is a problem enough, I thought to myself. Still the idea stayed with me. I had a clear enough idea of the basic design, but how could I mix both a bit of humor and local reference into my fictional establishment shingles?

One answer appeared quite suddenly one spring morning off the shore of Capitola.
My kayaking companion and I were slow trolling the sandy flats offshore  in about 90 feet of water on an exceedingly calm day. The water surface was glassy smooth, and the day was warm for mid-March. We were paddling in close formation, about twenty feet apart. Being regular kayakers along the Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Mateo county coastlines has taught us decent safety protocol.
The area between the Capitola wharf and the Cement ship off of New Brighton beach has long been rumored to be the cruising grounds for great white sharks. After enough sightings, the local ocean enthusiasts nicknamed the fish “Matilda”. However, this early in the season such an encounter was not at the forefront of our thoughts.
With less than twenty feet between us and a troll speed of only a couple of miles per hour, the quiet methodical dipping of paddle blades was abruptly overcome by the sound of a large body breaching the surface only a few feet from either of us. From my view I saw a long, dark body that appeared smooth as polished stone, highlighted by a pronounced triangular dorsal fin centered on the twelve foot torpedo frame.
My companion felt the fish brush his kayak, and was able to see the broad vertical caudal fin slash the water side to side. Then the great fish was gone, leaving us to wonder if we had actually seen what we had. It did not reappear, so our return trip to the beach was uneventful except for one other detail that emerged only after the footage from my companion’s drifting go-pro camera was examined.

 In the footage, hours of green water drag by until the camera was being retrieved. As the small camera reached the surface, there in the upper corner of its view, a blurred body moved past, with the unmistakable side-to-side tail motion discernable for but a brief instant. Eerily, the fish had remained to shadow us undetected from the surface.
 We had run across Matilda.
Matilda was a smart cookie. She had enough courage to commit to a physical confrontation, yet at the last possible moment realized that the 15 foot plastic kayak hull was not what she wanted and deflected her trajectory only a split second before impact.

 I give thanks to the ole’ girl for her courtesy.

I’ll have my Matilda sign and other ocean inspired pieces for viewing and sale at the 2015 DoonArt Open Studio Tour July 25-26, in beautiful Bonny Doon.
http://bonnydoonstudiotour.com/