On Sunday, I took the first part of a two-part nature collaging class at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art. I was really excited to try this out as it’s the intersection of two things that I really enjoy – natural materials and collaging. I also had never taken a in-person collaging class, I’d watched videos of presentations by collage artists, but I was looking forward to something more interactive, and with someone who could give me guidance, especially on things like adhesives and composition.
It was a small group, just four students, a mother and daughter who both live locally and a young woman from Australia, who has been in the US for about 10 years. I was really happy to have a small group as it meant more intimate instruction and flexibility with how the class went. We began by looking at all of the fantastic materials that the instructor had provided, everything from dried flowers and plants to mown grass, seaweed, oak gals and seed pods! Then we learned about effective techniques for softening the dried materials, it was amazing to see how much the seaweed changed once it had been immersed in water. Then after having a discussion and lesson on different types of adhesives, we were set free to choose our materials and start playing. Amanda, our instructor, encourage us to work on two or three collages at once so that we could experiment with different things and didn’t get too focused on trying to make something perfect. The whole point was to play around and see what felt good. It was so much fun! I think my favorite piece was actually one where I just used bark from a palm tree frond. I loved the way the different fibers spread out on my canvas. That was more fun for me than trying to figure out placement of a whole bunch of different items, I guess I am the less-is-more cohort. We set our pieces out in the sun while we had lunch, then came back and learned about gessoing them, spent time creating a couple more collages, then applied a layer or two of gesso to the top so that they would be ready for us to paint and draw on the next week. What a great day! I definitely need to do more things like this, it was so good to chat with everybody while we worked and see how different all of our pieces were.
On Monday, I worked on some things around the house, including putting a couple more layers of teak oil on Mom‘s outdoor rocker bench before heading over to pick up Annemarie. She made a delicious dinner of burgers that included shredded carrots and mushroom in them, which bulked them up and made them very moist and a lot less greasy, I’m definitely going to have to do that in the future. She participated in the family zoom that night and then we both packed up for our trip to Arcata the next day.
Tuesday was a perfect day for the long drive up to Arcata, overcast, but not rainy or windy. I love that drive, it is one of the prettiest drives on a major highway in California. We stopped at BurtoNZ bakery in Windsor, a must do for me on any trip up 101 north. I got my usual sausage roll and raspberry lamington, yummy! Annemarie and I had a good time chatting about all sorts of things and listening to Annemarie’s mixes- Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift and even one with a Jermaine Jackson/Pia Zadora song!
We stopped in old town Eureka to eat our lunch by the water. The seagulls were very interested in us, I think hoping we would drop some food for them.
The Airbnb we are staying in is adorable with lots of great decorative touches including an octopus painted on the floor with one of its tentacles made of pennies (in fact the entire kitchen floor is made from pennies!). It’s only two blocks from downtown, but because it’s set behind the main house it’s very quiet and private. There is a hot tub that is situated inside an old motorboat! We both had a little wander around town before I dropped Annemarie off to have dinner with a college friend. I discovered a few fire hydrants that have been very creatively painted, I’m going to keep my eye out and hopefully I’ll see more over the next couple of days.
