The article in today's San Francisco Chronicle reminds me that I want to check out the Chihuly glass sculpture exhibit at the DeYoung Museum.

I saw an exhibit of the Chihuly team's work at the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh. The colors, textures and shapes of plants make an intriguing backdrop to Chihuly creativity. Here are 2 photos I took at the Phipps:

Day 2 at Annie's Art in the Garden

Unlike the first day, Day 2 of Annie's Art in the Garden dawned bright and blue--and warm! Luckily Annie had a colorful umbrella to loan me. Despite the fact that it had no stand, with Robin's ingenuity and James' efforts, the umbrella was put up in a large pot of garden gravel and held in place with Arizona stone bars.


Nancy usually works in the office at Annie's. Today she was taking Elayne's place and checking to make sure all the artists had what they needed.


My neighbor Dorothy brought a different painting to grace her table today.



Ceramics artist Rosemary was back with her pots and plates inspired by garden produce and ocean treasures.


Karen missed Day 1 of Art in the Garden because she was mounting an exhibit of her watercolors on rice paper at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley.

Old friends Steve and Margaret Michel, whose technical books I had edited years ago, dropped by. Hadn't seen him in years and it was good to catch up. Steve is now programing for Pictopia. He used to be an avid gardener in the good old days. His back yard was filled with vegetables in raised beds and the shed where he wrote his books was surrounded by flowers. These days, he's into beer brewing.

The sunny day brought out garden and art lovers galore. They came from as far as San Diego way, such as customers Zus and George who hail from Del Mar. George is a researcher at UCSD and Zus, who originally hails from Belgium, is a tile artist. They come to Berkeley periodically to visit their daughter and stay at their art deco house. Zus told me she made all the tiles around their fireplace. They bought the one art deco piece I had--a rectangular serving plate with amber, striker red and black shapes and stringers on clear. They discussed for some time how best to mount it on their wall in a way that it can be easily taken down for service. I offered them a clear stand, and Zus said it made her feel nervous when items rested on a stand, for she feared they might tip over. Luckily, Rain had come by that time, and she suggested using a strong thing silver wire and clips to suspend the piece. That seemed to satisfy George, who is very handy and has done much of the work on their art deco house.

Electrician Rob Harold, who is a fellow Certified Green Building Professional, came by to see the GlassLight. He selected a lavender and purple soap dish to take home to his wife.

Friends PhoeBe ANNE sorgen and Nancy Feinberg stopped by to see what I do in my "other life." A gardener in her own right, Nancy picked up a few plants to add to her yard. My longtime friend and mentor when I studied acupuressure, and an incredibly gifted acupuncturist and organic/structural bodyworker, Connie Cronin stopped in to select a few plants to add to her already lovely native plant garden, and look for a bowl to hold nuts. Alas, the GlassLight bowls sold out on Day 1.

Even though it was nap time, neighbor Amy brought her daughter Kate to check out GlassLight and buy a few plants for their garden.

Neighbor Cheryl Reinman, who has a lovely garden that includes a rose bush she inherited from her mother's garden, stopped by to pick up a few plants, and adopted the vase made with irridescent blue and clear glass.

It was another grand day at Annie's garden greeting old friends and meeting new ones. Now I can't wait to hear from the GlassLight adopters about how they are using the glass pieces. Email me your photos of you and the GlassLight you adopted, I'll post them on the blog!

Day 1 Garden & Art Lovers Delight at Annie's Annuals

It was a seemingly typical summer day by the Bay--I woke up to cool overcast skies and a cool breeze. The light wind was a breath of relief because last week's relentless heat wave had been the most unbearable of the three we have had in the past month. The thought of sweating in the hot air made smokey by the hundreds of fires in California, was untenable.

I loaded the boxes of precious glassware in the back of my Subaru. With Rain's help last night, the glass pieces had been inventoried, numbered and assigned a price, and each one was carefully wrapped in bubble wrap or glassmaker's paper and placed in a box. Next came a box of bubble wrap, paper bags and strawberries for my customers. Rain got into the car with her gimpy leg--put into a soft cast 9 days ago when she suffered a very bad sprain when coming off a climbing wall. She was a trouper even though she was still in pain.

When we got to Annie's, all the other artists were set up under their canopies. I was greeted by "Fairy Dogmother," brought to life by an imaginative ceramist. . .



. . . and 'creepy' monster beads created by a local flamerworker and his wife.



Animals were a theme for several of the artists. Here are paper chickens made by a woman who is inspired by real life chickens and roosters. Some of her birds are made from handmade papers. Fun to look at, but not to eat!



Rain, as some of you know, has a great feeling for color and design, having done floral, window and shop displays at The Urban Green which you can read about here.



She has supported the Greater Richmond Interfaith Program also known as GRIP almost her whole life, first as a volunteer reading to little kids and serving meals, then in the last 4 years with her Hand Up Knitting design and knitware services.

So I was happy when Rain offered to set up the display of glassware.

Elayne, who works for Annie's, did a fabulous job of organizing everything for us. She had put a turquoise table by the beautiful Rosa Flutterby bush for us, which makes Rain happy because she loves roses. You can see a close up of the flower at Rosa Butterfly.









Being at Annie's Art in the Garden was like a reunion for me. Friends, former clients and colleagues came to celebrate the joys of gardening and art, and to find inspiration, peace and community.



Donna, an artist in her own right whose printworks are currently on exhibit at Mina Dresden gallery, her brother Keith (not in the photo) and their father Gene Sharee came from San Francisco and Marin Counties to celebrate summer, pick up some plants for Donna's garden and support my showing of GlassLight.

Shanna O'Hare, a former client who worked as a senior planner with the City of Oakland's Transportation Division, and who loves flowers, brought her gardening mother-in-law Emmy, who told me she used to do batik on fabric.

James Kalin of Virtually Green came by to help out and quench people's thirst with some organic lemonade.

Rhonda Edwards and Rosemary Yacono, with whom I worked when I was the Foreign Scholar Adviser at the University of California at Berkeley, came to enjoy the gardens and collect a GlassLight magnet.

Rosemary Lowden, a former consulting associate, now at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, came with her friend, Pat, to pick up a few Glasslight gifts and a car-load of Annie's plants.



Rain's boy friend, Jonathan Perry-Houts, came by.

It was fun answering people's questions about GlassLight, and explaining how multiple firings in kilns powered by solar energy, create the alchemy between artist and glass. Each piece is one-of-a-kind because glass has a magic and mystery that is revealed at different stages in the process of creating GlassLight. I might have a visual idea in mind when I start to cut the sheets of glass. The glass may break in a different shape than I wanted it to, inspiring my imagination onto another path. Take the striker red plate with 7 curved 'stripes' separated by clear glass. I wanted to make a solid striker red plate, however the glass had another 'mind.' As I was separating the circle from its surrounding sheet in the first cut, a curved piece broke off. That was the beginning the end result, which you can see in my June 12, 2008 post.

Thanks to Annie's and delightful GlassLight customers Rhonda Edwards, Patricia Gangwer, Deb Karbo, Rosemary Lowden, Arlene Makita-Acuna,Tracy & Neil and Dawn Munson, who adopted bowls, platters, sushi plates and serving dishes, we'll be making another contribution to GRIP this month.

I can't wait to meet tomorrow's visitors at Annie's Art in the Garden!

Preview Art in the Garden July 12-13, 2008

Today was the first time almost all the glass pieces have been set out together. Last night my knitting maven daughter helped me inventory the pieces in preparation for Annie's Art in the Garden sale.



Instead of attempting to photograph each piece individually, I took several shots of the group. Seeing the dishes, bowls, plates and platters together gives one a very different feeling about the work. The kaleidoscope of color and shapes can be somewhat mesmerizing, However, to appreciate the magic of fire and glass, one must hold each piece up to the light apart from the others.



The folks at Annie's are gearing up to welcome all of the visitors this weekend, preparing snacks and beverages, and maybe even music, which they sometimes have at their other garden events. I'm looking forward to seeing friends, neighbors, and people I've worked with at Art in the Garden!