M e n d o C i n o A r t C e n t e r ’ S

Mendocino Coast Garden TourX Saturday, June 25 X

It’s Garden Tour time again. From the ocean to the sunbelt, and sev-eral micro-climates in between, this year’s Garden Tour has some-thing for everyone.

Our 2016 poster artist is Sunshine Taylor. This is the second poster that Sunshine has done for the Garden Tour and we are very grateful to her for allowing us to use her art for the Mendocino Art Center’s (MAC) benefit. Sunshine is a member of the Art Center, Exhibition Committee member, MAC exhibitor, and a long time MAC volunteer.

Our Friday, June 24, opening night gala will be held at a French-inspired waterfront home whose formal garden sits in ordered jux-taposition to the soaring, rugged walls of the old quarry that enfold it. With a nod to the French theme of our location, this year we will feature a selection of Anderson Valley sparkling wines for your tasting pleasure. Delicious hors d’oeuvres and music round out what prom-ises to be a wonderful evening. Thanks to Spindrift Gallery

in Gualala for sponsoring this gala evening and the Garden Tour.

Also on the tour, local sculptors and gar-den designers Cherie Christiansen and Franz Arner open up their gar-dens for your viewing pleasure. Their 30-year partnership has been dedi-cated to the philosophy of working in harmony with nature, so that each garden has a sense of peace and belonging in its particular

environment. To these artists, the combination of stone, water and plants is the palette from which their landscapes are created, as it is in nature. Their gardens have been featured in Architectural Digest, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Sunset magazine, and their projects have included commis-sions from acclaimed architects and designers, private gardens, churches, hotels, and businesses. They often create gardens around a specific sculpture in a particular setting, design and install ponds, and include stone sculptures in gardens they design. At their home in Mendocino they have created a circular herb garden with a sculpted serpentine stone water basin in the center. Planted with both medicinal and culinary herbs the garden has concentric

flagstone and brick paths with two stone benches to create a retreat from the pressures of daily life. Other must-see gardens on their property include a sculpture garden, an entertaining garden, and a vegetable garden.

The gourmet lunch at the award winning Ravens Restaurant at the Stanford Inn should not be missed. The restaurant looks out over the historic China gardens, which provide organic produce for the restaurant, to the spectacular Big River estuary and Mendocino Bay – a real treat for the taste buds and the eyes. Jeff and Joan Stanford and the Stanford Inn have generously sponsored this luncheon for over 15 years and we are grateful for their continued support.

Join us for a fun filled day. Find a special plant in the Garden Shop in the MAC courtyard, or a new garden sculpture by local artists. As always we strive to present some of the finest gardens on the Mendocino Coast for your viewing pleasure. For more information and to order tickets, visit Mendocinoartcenter.org/Garden.html, or call 707 937-5818 ext. 10.

By Liliana Cunha

French-inspired waterfront home hosts opening night gala Friday, June 24. Michael McDonald photo.

Visit christiansenarnersculpture.com for more photos. Franz Arner photo.

18 Mendocino Arts Magazine

Spring/Summer 2016 19

MendoCino Art Center’S 24th AnnuAL

Mendocino Coast Garden Tour

Saturday, June 25 X 10:00am–5:00pm

Suns

hine

Tay

lor,

The

Sim

ple

Life

Tour TickeTs: $40 • rain or shineLunch: $20 • opening night Gala: $50

Sponsored by:

OPENING NIGHT GALAat a French-inspired Waterfront Home, June 24

GARDEN SHOP AND PLANT SALEat the Mendocino Art Center, June 25

GOuRMET VEGAN LuNCHRavens Restaurant, Stanford Inn by the Sea, June 25

Enjoy a behind-the-scenes view of a selection of the Mendocino Coast’s most beautiful private gardens on this self-guided tour.

707 937-5818 • 800 653-3328 ext. 1045200 Little Lake Street, MendocinoMendocinoArtCenter.org/Garden.html

20 Mendocino Arts Magazine

Rock ‘n Roll MysticBy Michael Potts

H is pierced copper pieces are few and intriguing: Sworls of raised piercings, a play of light from within; star people dancing, repeated motifs

of recurring figures. “They started coming to me in Los Angeles,” explains Steven Bates, “before heavy metal, big hair . . . Good things were going on. I recall listening to Terrence McKenna talking on the radio. It was the mid-eighties, a time of great discoveries, a lot going on, and a sense there was a long way to go.”

Known to audiences for his music, the copper works are a surprise. “I do my copper stippling in fits and starts. It’s tedious, but I enjoy the work, seeing what comes out.” Working light-gauge metal with a dart, Steven creates his designs by piercing one tiny hole at a time; there may be 150 holes in a typical square inch of finished work, and his pieces are not small. “The dart point has to be just right.”

Steven, a Fort Bragg native, traces his interest in making art to a trip to Europe with Maria Huber. “I remember a self-portrait in the Louvre of Van Gogh’s. It brought tears to my eyes. It was a revela-tion to me that he could reveal his suffering through brushstrokes. I was 16 or 17. I started work-ing in copper a few years later. Sometimes I scratch the copper to suggest the design, but mostly I work freehand, and the imagery emerges. Once I see the outline and I’m stippling, there is a lot of time to think.

“My mother was a nurse, a remarkable woman, and my dad a tree faller, a Kerouac charac-ter who’d talk about Plato and Aristotle in the bar after work. He brought The Beatles’ records home in real time; I must have been 4, 5, 6. Here’s another memory. I must have been 15 or 16, and had been playing local dances with my brother Peter,

my musical hero, for a couple of years. I was writing a school report on The Byrds. The music store in Fort Bragg was a favorite hangout, and one day in walked Gene Parsons with his big black mustache. I am so pleased, now, to be playing music with him and so many other world class musicians. Surrounded with so much talent, we live in such a fertile environment for creativity!

“After graduating from Fort Bragg High, I went to UC Santa Barbara and started playing in a party band, Bold Montgomery. We did a 45 and a music video that we sent to MTV. They played it. Such a different time. . . .

“By 1986 we had migrated to Los Angeles and were writing songs in earnest, the drummer and bass player doing lyrics while I wrote the music . . . but I wanted to say something, too. My day jobs were scoopin’ ice cream, phone sales. I had no business sense, and the other guys

were steering. Our band would get 300-plus people at a gig, and a management company was eyeing us, but I figured they’d put us on the road, and I knew I wouldn’t make it back.

“We’d had too many years of Ronald Reagan, and I wanted to save the world, and music had that extra little bit. Once I saw a way to affect the world even a little, to make it better, a door opened, and I have never been able to get it closed. That’s when my copper work started. A neighbor wanted lights with patterns for a party. After that, I started making my own designs,

getting more and more intricate, like lace. I wanted to be able to see enough light through the metal so the design showed.”

Cylinder 6, copper over glass cylinder, 5.5" tall x 6.5" wide.

Larry Wagner photos.

Spring/Summer 2016 21

i Belongby Steven Bates

In the light of the morning, in a red sailor’s warningWitnessing the pageantry, tracing the geometry, the

promise that one dayyou will be free.Barefoot on the rooftops, singing with the rocks and stonesGathering the broken bones, miss luck and her mavens lay your

body downfor all to see.

Chorus:I am lovestruck beneath the borders of the skyI walk hand in hand with the music in the landI will not conceal the working of the wheelI am right at homeFor this is the only place where I belong

A pocket full of hurricane, a dreamer in the driving rainA seeker of a rainbow smile, a walker on the open roadWon’t you deign to come and comfort me.The sand it sings of Babylon, the flesh is weak the spirit strongThe river runs and tumbles on, nothing but the purest songs gain

entranceto our hearts while we’re asleep.

Chorus

The darkness of the falling day steals the breadth of life away andShines through the open door, lingers with eternity, mingles with ourpromises to light a fire and feel the heat, to cast away this

loneliness,we dance the dance from star to star and stretching to our farthest

reach,mark my words you will become exactly what you preach.

Chorus

Steven’s grandmother figures strongly in his life. “In 1994, when Nona got sick, I knew it was time to come home. I stayed with her while she was in the hospital in San Francisco, and came home with her. She lived 14 more years, and during that time, magical things happened, like a mythi-cal journey. I was seeking, and it felt like I was being shown things about the mystery of life. Nona liked to wish, ‘May the years fall on you gently.’ That’s a good wish for everyone.

“Art, whether my copperwork or my music, isn’t frivolous for me, because it tries to show the miracle of existence. Music is so universal, and makes people so happy — that always amazes me. Can it help create a bet-ter reality for more people? I’ve written 250 songs, and I can play any of them I can remember. I’m learning how to say what I need to in my songs, like Kubrick: many layers reflecting how varied life is.”

Steven’s musical range has established him firmly as one of the Coast’s favorite musicians. “I love playing acous-tic guitar, but nothing’s more fun than a good loud electric guitar. That feeds the soul. I miss one if I stay too long with the other. There’s so much to learn! I’d say I’m a B+ guitar player, somewhat like John Lennon, but he could make it howl! The electric guitar is the American instrument:

a six-shooter, only peaceful, a free art form.

“I play three different kinds of music these days: my solo work, like sec-ond Wednesday n i g h t s a t Patterson’s; the Steven Bates B a n d , w i t h

Ralph Humphrey, John Faurot, and Jeffrey Walsh; and a new quartet with Gene Parsons, Gwyneth Moreland, and David Hayes as the Mendocino Quartet. We’re gigging at the Caspar Community Center on April 23rd. It’s been a year since I did any stippling, so maybe that’s coming around again. I never know.

“Out there is such a machine, with so many resources,

yet so messed up. And here we are, for some unknown reason. Maybe love really is all we need and can hope to create: that, and compassion. Beautiful victory over all the shenanigans. Art seems to be about a Grand Love . . . and that’s the best I can do.”

Ghost Dance, copper, 18"x20".

The Dance, copper, 13"x31".

22 Mendocino Arts Magazine

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Spring/Summer 2016 23

may–august classes at

ceramics5/7–8Glenn HustedPrimitive Low Fire Methods

5/12–15Ceramics Artists in ResidenceAtmospheric Wood/ Salt Fire

5/28–30Phyllis Kudder SullivanInterlacing with Clay: Process and Concept

6/15–17Sasha Koozel Reibstein and Jones von JonesteinPrint Making onto Clay

6/20–24Jan EdwardsHandbuilding Pots for the Table

6/27–30Chris DufalaCeramic Monotype and Alternative Surface Techniques

7/7–9Mendocino Art Center Ceramics StaffSoda Firing

7/14–17Michelle GregorForm and Surface –The Figure in Ceramic Sculpture

7/21–23Yon ReganThree-Day Portrait Sculpture Workshop

7/24–29Jim ConnellElegant Functional Pottery

8/1–7Mitch Iburg Rebuilding “Minigama” Kiln Building Workshop

8/8–12Paul LyonSaggar Firing: Creating Objects with Unique Surface Effects

8/19–22Jackson GraySgraffito Techniques, Simple to Complex

8/26–9/1Josh LatkinConstruction of Large Slab Ceramic Vessels

fiber arts5/6–8Merridee SmithIntroduction to Botanical Printing on Protein and Cellulose Fibers

5/10–14Ilze AviksMonoprinted Cloth and the Stitched Mark

5/21–22Pavlos MayakisSurface Design Primer

6/25–29Carol SoderlundThe New Color Mixing for Dyers

7/8–10Jacqueline MallegniPaper, Sticks, Form and Light

7/15–17Jiyoung ChungJoomchi and Beyond:The Art of Korean Papermaking

7/20–21Suzanne PunchMoths and Butterflies on Silk

7/22–24Suzanne PunchWarm to Cool:Color Explorations on Silk

7/29–31Ann JohnstonColor by Accident Plus

8/1–5Akemi Nakano CohnBeyond Kimono:Katazome with Mineral Pigments & Natural Dyes

8/7–11Susan ElseLarge-Scale Figures in Cloth

8/19–20Mickie McCormicSustainable Surface Design – Using Paints & Other Media that Don’t Need a Lot of Water

8/21–22Mickie McCormicSew and Slash – Not Your Grandmother’s Chenille

8/26–28Ana Lisa HedstromContemporary Shibori and Indigo

24 Mendocino Arts Magazine

For complete class descriptions, please visit the Mendocino Art Center’s website at MendocinoArtCenter.org/classes or call 707 937-5818 x10.

fine art5/13–15Mira M. WhiteAbstracting the Landscape in Mixed Media

5/19–22Dale Laitinen Shape-Shifting Nature (Watermedia)

5/20–22Eva BovenziExploring New Directions in Drawing (UC Berkeley Extension – 1 Unit)

6/10–12Mark EanesColor+Design: A Soulful Journey of Visual Expression

6/10–12Sandy OppenheimerPainting with Paper

6/11–12David WeitzmanTransparent Layering: Drawing with Ink

6/11–12StreetcolorDrawing the Great Historic Buildings of Mendocino

6/13–16Jacqueline SullivanMarkmaking, Text and Abstraction

6/17–19Miriam DavisPainting Without a Brush

6/24–26Nancy CollinsMake Your Watercolors Shine

6/24–26Dale DombrowskiDrawing You In

7/8–10Susan Elwart HallHidden Secrets of Plein Air

7/9–10Donna WatsonWabi Sabi and the Spirit of Collage

7/15–17Sara PostPainting with Abstract Layers: Oil and Cold Wax Mixed Media

7/15–17Jiyoung ChungJoomchi and Beyond: The Art of Korean Papermaking

7/16–17Peggy MagovernRealism with a Twist: Colored Pencil and Collage

7/18–21Mira M. WhitePlaying with Melted Wax and Mixed Media

7/18–22Jeannie VoddenSense-sational Roses and Faces

7/20–21Suzanne PunchMoths and Butterflies on Silk

7/22–24Suzanne PunchWarm to Cool:Color Explorations on Silk

7/23–24Jami TabackPaper Fusion

7/25–28Birgit O’ConnorWaves, Water, and Clouds

8/6–7Lisa ThorpeMixed Media Art Journaling

8/8–12Bob BurridgeAbstract Acrylic Painting and Collage

8/15–19Bob BurridgeExperimental Workshopfor the Advanced Painter

8/27–29Erin DertnerPalette Knife Painting (Oil)

8/29–9/1Carolyn LordAn Artist’s Guide to Perspective

jewelry

6/6–11Betty Helen Longhi & Andrea Harvin- KenningtonFundamental Theories of Shell Forming Metal Presented by Two Masters

mendocino art center

Spring/Summer 2016 25Classes continue on page 26

6/16–19Deborah LozierEnamel as Material

6/21–25Fabrizio AcquafrescaChasing and Repousse in the Italian Way

6/27–30Sarah DoremusThe Stories We Tell;The Jewelry We Make

7/18–22Gerry LewyDiamond & Gem Setting: How to Use Gravers

8/10–13Thomas MannTriple D Master Class: Design – Design – Design

8/15–19Barbara MinorExperimental Enamel Surfaces: Expanding Possibilities

8/22–26Harold O’ConnorInnovative Stone Setting – Alternatives to the Ordinary

8/29–9/2Ronda CoryellFusing, Fabricating & Granulating in Argentium

sculpture5/13–15Obe BrownDeconstruction Sculpture

5/21–22Heather McLartyChasing and Repousse in Copper

6/3–5Lawrence JuniperWoodworking

6/17–19Craig M. BlackSculpture’s a Beach

7/15–17Jennifer Iams McGuire 3-D Mosaic Sculpture: Form and Color

7/21–23Yon ReganThree-Day Portrait Sculpture Workshop

7/25–29Ryan CarringtonThe Power of Fire: Metal Casting Using Standard Investment, Lost Wax and Resin Bonded Sand Techniques

8/3–7Alan OsborneHot & Heavy III: Complete Instruction from Wax to Bronze

may–august classes

26 Mendocino Arts Magazine

Spring/Summer 2016 27

Representing more than30 renowned artists fromthe western United States.

14051 Highway 128, Boonville CA · 707-489-0981

JOHN HANESFINE ART GALLERY

Spring Irises, oil, Graydon Foulger