9 posts tagged “napa”

Recently found out that the di Rosa Preserve is going to be having First Friday events starting this week!

Veronica di Rosa Sheep Herd Sheep Herd

Upcoming show at the Napa College Gallery

Rob Keller
Napa Valley College Gallery

BEEBONIBROOM: DISTURBANCES IN THE FIELD
Three artists exhibit bee-related work
Napa, California, January 2008-- Bees are the buzz at an exhibition opening
January 31 and closing on March 9 at the Napa Valley College Art Gallery.
Beebonibroom (Disturbance in the Field) features the work of three Bay Area
artists expressing in distinct ways their connection to the world of bees.
The show opens on January 31. The public is welcome to attend the opening
reception, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.; the Gallery is located at 1360 Menlo
Avenue, Napa CA 94558). January 31-March 9. The Gallery is open 2-6
Thursday, Friday, Saturday. The reception will include music by Sean Garvey
and refreshments.

The show is curated by Napa artist Rob Keller, and features Keller's own
work, along with that of John Bonick and Joy Broom. Rob Keller, an
instructor at both Diablo Valley College and Napa Valley College, is a bee
keeper, in addition to being an artist. "The name of the exhibition plays
off the names of the three artists and our subject--- Bees, 'boni' for
Bonick and 'broom' for Broom," he explains. 'Disturbance in the Field'
refers to the crisis today in bee populations around the world and the
importance of sustainable beekeeping," he adds. "Man has had a relationship
with bees since Palaeolithic times," he says, "hunting for honey and
enjoying its mysterious qualities. Honey has been considered the nectar of
the gods and the sticky substance of the underworld. Keller will install a
system pumping honey in clear tubes around the gallery with wall texts and
maps explaining how bees travel; he will purchase 5 gallons of honey from
Napa, Sonoma and Vallejo beekeepers for the installation, and there will be
his local honey available for sale at the Gallery during the exhibition.

Keller teaches beekeeping at Napa Valley Adult School, The Regenerative
Design Institute in Bolinas, The Solar Living Institute in Hopland and at
Nimbus Arts in St. Helena. He is currently teaching a class on 3D design at
Napa Valley College and his work was featured this fall in "Beeing", an
exhibition at The Sonoma County Museum in Santa Rosa. He is an active
apiarist and artist whose work has been exhibited in New York City, southern
California and throughout the Bay Area. In June 2007 he received a grant
from The Walter & Elise Haas Fund for a project to address the plight of the
honeybee population and the ways humans can change agricultural practices
to protect honeybees; the grant will support Keller's development of what he
calls the EmoViTo (Enormous Mobile Vintage Trailer Observatory), the worlds
largest mobile observation beehive. Keller and his collaborators are
retrofitting a classic 22 foot 1963 aluminum Airstream travel trailer with
interior Plexiglas hive bodies and equipping it with multi-media educational
materials.

Broom, an art instructor at Diablo Valley College, has been working in the
fields of natural history and "terrible biology" for many years. Her work
explores images of seeds, vines, cells, hives, life cycles and, recently,
the destruction of bees by the Varroa mite. She has exhibited work at the
SFMOMA Artists Gallery, Off the Preserve Gallery in Napa, and the Sonoma
Museum of Visual Arts and currently has a show entitled Patterns and
portraits at the K Gallery in Alameda. "I've made numerous images of bees
and their hives, fascinated by their beauty, processes, honeycombs and
intricate society, and how they seem uniquely intertwined with the lives
of humans," says Broom. "I cover all of my drawings with beeswax, sealing,
binding, protecting, beautifying; referring back to my own history," she
explains. Broom's work in this exhibition will
consist of a mural detailing the life cycle of the Varroa mite--- literally
how bees are dying from '1,000 cuts,' in layman's
terms. "Bees and their societies can teach us so much about ourselves,"
says Broom. "They remind us that we're all entwined and bound by our human
relationships as well as aspects of a greater
natural universe."

Bonick's work, like Broom's, deals with interconnectedness and vibration. In
his recent paintings, he has developed a vocabulary of images centered on
ribbony forms he calls channels. They are metaphoric for the continuous
flow and connectedness of life, a flow that could be liquid, light, energy
or thought. "I'm also fascinated by the way, at the very deepest level, all
life is built around vibrations," Bonick explains. "In the world of bees,
this is especially apparent. The bees' vibratory effect is vital within its
own world through sound and motion, but throughout our world as well. We are
seeing this plainly with the agricultural bee crisis we currently face."
Bonick's work in this exhibition will be mural- size installations
highlighting the bee 'waggle dance' and its meaning.

More information about the crisis in the world of bees:
http://randyoliver.com
http://www.beesource.com

Beebonibroom008.jpg

From Napa Valley Arts and Culture...
St. John's Lutheran School's Harvest Event - Celebration Ball
Carneros Inn
4048 Sonoma Hwy.
Napa, CA 94559
Saturday, November 10, 2007
6:00 PM - 11:00 PM

Support St. John’s Lutheran School at the annual Harvest Event Celebration Ball. Enjoy heavy hors d’oeuvres and wine, live music by the Haley Baskin Band, an extensive silent auction and the popular, fast-paced live auction that will include spectacular lots such as artwork created by each class, rare wines and exclusive experiences. The children’s artwork will include painted acrylic canvases, mirrors with copper and zinc accents, handmade candles for the holiday table and custom printed note cards designed by each class.

Tickets are $100 per person or $150 per couple. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit or call the St. John’s Lutheran School Office at 707-226-7970 and ask for Cindy Zeller.

Cash, Checks, VISA and MasterCard are accepted. All proceeds support St. John’s Lutheran School. For more information about St. John’s Lutheran School visit www.stjohnsnapa.org.

Event Type: Visual Arts
Price - Low: $100
Price - High: $150
Age Range: Adults
Ticket Phone: 707-226-7970
Contact: Cindy Zeller

Ok, I got this third hand, so I ran it by Snopes and got nothing.

Alza Corporation, a Johnson & Johnson Company, is closing their Mountain View, CA. facility. The animal test facility has 40, 16 month old beagle puppies that need good loving homes. These dogs were NEVER tested.

If you know of anyone, a rescue or are interested in helping give these puppies homes, please contact Rick Bible at: azoulaybible@hotmail.com

The facility manager will have to put them to sleep if no homes are found by OCTOBER 15TH!!

Sounds like there are some puppies that need some serious help. Can anyone adopt them?

Stawberry face, originally uploaded by sour.patch.

Another fun trip to the Napa Farmer's Market this morning!!

Fallen Firefighters

This sounds like a fun thing to do ...

Wednesday, May 2^nd

5pm to 10pm

31cent Scoop Night

The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation honors America's fallen fire heroes by sharing how they lived and what they meant to their loved ones, their communities, and our nation.  A donation of $100,000 will be made by Basking-Robbins to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation as a sponsor of the cause.

Listen up, yo., originally uploaded by sour.patch.

ZZ looking ridiculously rad sporting her new grill. She looks tough with her forehead bruise, too. Of course, it was acquired chasing after a little boy trying to hug him. I don't know if that is tough or a sign of future trouble. Oi!  

Berkeley Parents' Network

My sister-in-law moved in with us when she was 16 and we became guardians. It was hard to be dropped into the role of parent of teenager, but you just do it and before you know it you are loving it. At that time, I was starving for help: I needed health information, therapists, doctors, dentists, stuff to do. It was completely overwhelming. I was living in Richmond at the time, and we discovered through simple searches like "East Bay Doctor" the Berkeley Parents' Network.

What a fabulous resource! Here's how it works: members must have a kid and live in the Bay Area; you mail in requests for advice, requests for recommendations, or marketplace related stuff (haves or wants), people mail back responses. All the responses are moderated, and over time they are added to a database you can search against.

So now I am living in Napa. I am separated from my wife and I have a 10 month old. I need help finding... hmmm... health information, therapists, doctors, dentists, stuff to do. I have performed every permutation of search on "Napa" AND "parent" AND/OR "child". No dice. There are a few links, but none of them really have the info I need. I know I am not alone in needing this stuff.

I had been toying with starting something akin to BPN in Napa, but I am worried about the moderation and hosting costs, not to mention the need to build up an infrastructure if I was to build it out from scratch. Not too interested in spending my time doing that crap. So I am thinking about Yahoo Groups, but I am also thinking about using something like Ning to build it out.

At this point, I am very open to suggestions. Or maybe someone has some resource I am unaware of. I would certainly be open to finding out.