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“An Original” by Mother NatureSee more of her work at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens....

Summer Events:- The Summer Preview 6.12.2010- Art in the Gardens 8.7.2010- Live! Jazz 9.4-5-6.2010- Live! Blues 9.12.2010

www.gardenbythesea.orgMendocino Coast Botanical Gardens 18220 North Hwy One, Fort Bragg, CA 95437, 707 964-4352

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BIRGIT O'CONNORWatercolor Artist

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www.birgitoconnor.com415-868-0105 • 800-749-4784

45050 Main Street • Mendocino, CaliforniaEntrance on Albion Street • Open Daily 11:00-5:00www.Reflections-Kaleidoscopes.com • 937-0173

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Mendocino Arts promotes the arts by offering space to artists, writers, craftspeople and performers and by providing information on arts and entertainment in Mendocino County. Submissions of unsolicited nonfiction articles, photographs or artwork for consideration in Mendocino Arts must include a SASE or we cannot be responsible for their return. We wel-come announcements of upcoming events to be included as space permits.

Table Of Contents

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Published by the Mendocino Art Center VOL. XLI NO. 2, July, 2010

Clinton Smith, Landscape Photographer 6

Book Review: Summer of ‘42 9

Cynthia Myers 10

MAC Summer Instructor Profiles 14

Linda MacDonald: Seeing the Forest and the Trees 20

Ling-Yen Jones and Madeline Kibbe: Up in the Air 24

Mendocino County Gallery Guide 28

Restaurant Reviews and Nicholas Petti Food Column 32

Charlie Barra Wine Column: Changing Wine Trends 34

Mendocino County Restaurant Guide 42

The Art of Wine Tasting 44

Robert and Lila Lee: Living Treasures 46

Inland Backroads: Potter Valley 50

The Skunk Train: Art Car and 125 Years of History 56

Theatrical Scenery and Set Design 58

Thaïs Mazur & Yarrow Summers: Dancing Between Worlds 62

MAC Artists Open Studio Tour 65

Gallery of Artists 67

MAC Summer Workshops 72

Tommy Brown: Art in His DNA 74

Calendar of Events 76

Poetry 80

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FAMILY HANDS

Discover • Decorate • DesignA gallery of unique furnishings for your home

Lighting • Art Rugs • Furniture

Gifts from around the globe

At the corner of Franklin & Redwood, Fort Bragg

707 961-0236

GALLERY OF DECORATIVE AND FINE ARTS

45052 Main Street, Mendocino, CA 707 937-3132 • www.thehighlightgallery.com

For the Art Collector and the Craft Lover

PUBLISHERMendocino Art Center

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERSMarge StewartMike McDonald

ASSOCIATE EDITORPeggy Templer

ART DIRECTORMarge Stewart

SALESCOAST – Steven P. Worthen – 707 964-2480,

707 813-7669Joanna Fleming – 707 357-1060

INLAND – Jill Schmuckley – 707 391-8057LAKE COUNTY – Sherry Harris – 707 350-2116ARTIST ADS – David Russell – 707 962-0695

SUMMER DISTRIBUTION – 15,000FALL 2010 deadline – JULY 15, 2010

MENDOCINO ART CENTER STAFFINTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR — Tom BeckerCOMMUNICATIONS & FUND DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR — Mike McDonaldEDUCATION DIRECTOR — Tracey HillmanGALLERY DIRECTOR — Jessica JadeREGISTRAR/CASHIER — Linn BottorfPROGRAM CONSULTANTS Ceramics — Darrin Ekern Fine Arts –– Marge StewartFACILITIES COORDINATOR — Gabe Arreguin HOUSING MANAGER — Jessi Adamson Ekern

MAC BOARD OF DIRECTORSJean Cunnington – PresidentDr. Richard L. Miller – 1st Vice PresidentDonald E. Paglia, M.D. – 2nd Vice PresidentPatrick Keller – SecretaryTom Becker Joseph DeakinsMike Dell’AraSarah LoganNick Schwartz Marge Stewart – Advisory Member

MENDOCINO ART CENTER45200 Little Lake Street • P.O. Box 765

Mendocino, CA 95460707 937-5818 • 800 653-3328

FAX: 707 937-4625register@mendocinoartcenter.org

www.MendocinoArtCenter.org

Mendocino Art Center Mission Statement: The mission of the Mendocino Art Center is to be a vital cultural resource, providing a broad range of the highest quality edu-cational and exhibition opportunities in the arts to all people.

Founded by Bill Zacha in 1959 as a nonprofit organization to support, foster, advance and promote artistic awareness and participation.

COVER IMAGE: Redwood & Rhododendron by Clinton Smith, representing the “ray of hope in all the darkness.”

MendocinoArtsART, CULTURE, CUISINE AND HISTORY IN MENDOCINO COUNTY

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The Mendocino Art Center is changing in dramatic ways. We invite you to join us and help MAC meet the challenges of a changing world, and refocus itself to help lead our community into the next half century. Come on down to the MAC and get involved – take a class, attend an event, become a member, volunteer your time or expertise! In 2009, with justifiable pride, we celebrated our 50th Anniversary Year as a community-based center for the arts. Remarkable, when you think about it, that MAC grew and prospered through the enormous social, political and economic changes of the last half of the 20th cen-tury. But it did so with the support and leadership of its members. As we contemplate the next 50 years, and observe our com-munity continuing to change around us, we must decide how we will respond to and seek to direct the forces of change. It is a more “global” community we live in, and part of our evolution must be to reach out and connect with, and continue to be relevant to, a wider geographic and cultural base. And, as we are buffeted by outside forces of change, it is all the more important that we pay attention to the foundations of our local community: Our own roots must be tended and nurtured as we find ways to welcome and benefit from a wider, more culturally diverse world. It is important that we find ways to grow and change over the next fifty years without jettisoning what made us strong these past five decades. It is my hope that MAC can channel all of the community energy which surrounds us and help lead it into the future. Please step for-ward and be part of the New MAC as we move into our next half-century.

Tom BeckerInterim Executive Director

Embarking on Our Next 50 YearsGet involved at MAC!

Summer 2010

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Mendocino resident Clinton Smith has been involved in the full-time pursuit of excellence in fine art photog-raphy since 1971, when he opened Light Impressions Gallery – at the time, the only gallery in Southern California dedicated to the exhibition of photographs. Some of those exhibited include Edmund Teske, Ansel Adams, Wynn Bullock, Ernst Haas, Eliot Porter, and Bruce Barnbaum’s first exhibition. Born and raised in Tallahassee, Florida, Clinton graduated high school on a Friday and left on Sunday morning. He never looked back! Three days later he passed a rigorous physical and was inducted into the U.S. Air Force. While serving in the air force, Clinton par-ticipated in the Gemini launches and attended the launch

and recovery of Apollo 11. In 1967-68 Clinton was assigned to Headquarters Military Assistance Command in Vietnam, (Saigon) where he experienced the terror of war during the Tet offensive. In June of 1971 Clinton began his college studies, majoring in Gallery Exhibition and Management, and Photography at El Camino College and other universi-ties in the Los Angeles area. He moved to Carmel, in 1975, to work for Wynn Bullock (Clinton calls him his “metaphysical muse”), Morley Baer and Ansel Adams (his “technical muse”) and the California State Park Service at Point Lobos. For the next five or six years, Clinton found himself wandering through the forests and national parks with a 4x5 camera searching for subjects to photograph,

and built a small body of work. He had his first one man photogra-phy show in 1981 at the Bruised Reed Gallery in Monterey during the Society for Photographic Education Conference at Asilomar Conference Grounds. A “chance” encounter with David Lyman and Kate Carter, the owners of the Maine Photographic Workshops, led to a one-man show at that institution in Rockport, Maine, as well as guest speaker engage-ments at a dozen workshops. As the featured teacher with a one-man exhibition at Parson School of Design/New School in New York City in 1982, Clinton continued to exhibit, travel and photo-graph extensively. In 1983 Clinton’s Tufa, Mono Lake image was selected as the theme photograph for the exhibition “At Mono Lake” at the world-renowned California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park,

C l i n t o n S m i t h

Cover Feature

by Debbie L. Holmer

“I shall forever remain awed by creation.” – Clinton Smith

Floating Leaves in Congaree Swamp

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and was also the cover image of the exhibition catalogue. In 1988, the Dallas Museum of Art exhibited six of Clinton’s photographs in the exhibition “Ansel Adams and American Landscape Photography.” The NBC Today Show featured a 15-minute segment on the phi-losophy of his work in 1989. The above is just a brief summary of Clinton’s early career. So I was more than a little awed when I found myself sitting on a wood bench on Laurel Street in Fort Bragg interviewing this internationally acclaimed landscape photographer. He put me at ease instantly. I learned that this is a man of many col-ors, somewhat like his body of work. His photographs are of landscapes, seascapes, the sky, the forest; they are deep, power-ful, evoke feelings of

happiness and sadness and melancholy and joy (his heart is in his work), almost three-dimensional – just like the man himself.

After meeting Flurry Healy and Peter Wells of the Albion River Inn, who were interested in doing a series of photography work-shops, Clinton moved to Mendocino in 1994. He found a small studio to rent and never left (well, except to go on his photography treks, of course). “I love the people and the weather here, even the winter storms are punctuated with light.” What does Clinton recommend for the young photographer starting out? “Learn your craft; spend ten years learning your craft while making 10,000 mistakes. At the end of those ten Petrified Sand Dune & Sage

Bowman Lake