Congratulations to the Class of 2013. This is a class that is dreaming big, reaching for the top bar! We have not heard the last from them!

Campfires

Who doesn’t love a campfire? Well, maybe we got a little carried away here…but it sure was fun!!  

On the side, we volunteer with a San Francisco based group called

Flaming Lotus Girls and spent our summer cutting, welding, grinding and painting

a sculpture called Tympani Lambada.  It is a representation of the tiny bones and cochlea in our inner ears, enlarged to ginormous proportions! The sculpture features audio hammers controlled by solenoids, a display of constantly changing LED lights, continuous fire effects on the upper arches, fire poofers (think 8 ft. poofs of flames overhead) controlled by anyone who steps on a foot petal and a methanol fountain around the cochlea, which produces an ethereal flame as it gently swirls down and is gathered in a large cauldron. The methanol fountain is a silent beauty in contrast to the hammers and poofs of fire in the background. The project was amazing and so are the friends we’ve made.

One thing we’ve learned, if you want some inspiration, do something different…and make it big!

Freda

Happy Thanksgiving!

And in case you haven’t heard, Carol and Joe recently unveiled their new sculpture, “Freda”, as part of the Art on F1rst in Napa, California. Freda is an abstract face made from repurposed, rearranged pieces of tubular and perforated steel, with LED and neon lighting giving it a bright, perky (in your face!) look.

Roll the credits please,

Component design- Carol

Fabrication – Carol

Welder – Carol

Painter – Carol

Eye light design – Carol

Eyelash design – Carol

Liaison – Carol

Rearrangement - Joe

Set lights – Joe

Movers – Joe

Carol

All kidding aside, we had fun with the whole process and are very happy with the results! We hope you enjoy it!

Cold Hands, Warm Hearts

Cold hands, Warm hearts was never truer than the winter day I met with Sarah and Dan to create their engagement portraits in Napa Valley. The temperature was cold, the wind was cold, I left my jacket on…too bad they couldn’t…if they did they would look, well, cold! Instead they look like two young lovers enjoying life, each other and a beautiful day.

Fortunately, we could run indoors to warm up and explore the fascinating architecture of a mid-1800’s winery, wine caves (one was even named “Daniel”), stained glass, and displays of antique winery equipment...and. of course, found some more backgrounds for the photography.

We laughed, had a great time and raised a toast to the future!

The Christmas Dragon

This year we decided to be part of the magic of Christmas in the Napa Christmas Parade. We blew the dust off of our dragon art car, polished it a bit, added a second battery in the engine compartment and invited friends over for an afternoon of lights, ornaments, food and fun. With the help of Steve, Gigi, Jill and Mark, we crawled over, under and through the dragon with 300' of rope lights, six spotlights, 5 sound activated led lights, 2 mirror balls, and numerous (supposedly) shatterproof ornaments. That was followed up by multiple evenings of testing its two generators with everything running including the sound system, hopefully the neighbors didn’t mind hearing a little Christmas music pre-Thanksgiving.

Where’s the magic? It happened on November 27^th in downtown Napa. We drove the wrong direction on First St (at least the first time we drove the wrong way intentionally) to find our starting position at the middle of the parade. While waiting for everything to start, we were able to make new friends, reconnect with others and enjoy the creativity of the residents of our favorite town. Then the Christmas Dragon took on a life of its own as the crowds cheered for us along the parade route as we blasted contemporary Christmas music through the sound system and handed out candy. It was fun, it was magical!

Pssst…I think I’ve started a new love affair. (giggle) Oh, don’t worry, everything is good on the home front, we’re solid. In celebration of our wedding anniversary, we recently spent a week in Maui snorkeling, relaxing, enjoying the food and even napping.

On one of the snorkeling adventures, as the water began to get really choppy and we were getting chilly, we headed back to shore. Suddenly, a dark blob drifted by a short distance in front of me. It dove below the surface, a large turtle! Fascinated, I watched it poke around the rocks, even scrape at them. Then it turned and slowly,

gracefully, swam right under me! Beautiful and amazing. Other people were swimming after it, but it swam right under me...that’s some kind of sign isn’t it?

It was a perfect moment!

The ocean is so full of life all around us. We also saw needlefish, at first just one or two and eventually a large school of them, each one long, slender like a…well, like a needle. There were large black fish, also in schools, swimming among the rocks, sometimes being chased away by smaller fish. We heard the shrimp crackling and the parrotfish crunching on the rocks.

I love the multiple sensations of snorkeling; feeling the water as well as floating on it; seeing the beautiful colors, the movement of fish and the effects of the surge of the tide; hearing the tiny sounds of water hitting my head, the larger sound of the surf and the Darth Vader sound effects within my mask; the smell of the salt water; and the even the taste that makes me gag occasionally. You can’t beat the experience! I'm in love with snorkeling.

Northern Fire

What vacation do you dream about in January? Warm sunny beaches? We took our vacation in Toronto, Canada, where the temperature was as low as -11ºF. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. What motivated us to go there…in January??

We traveled to the chilly north with the Flaming Lotus Girls, a collaborative artists group based in San Francisco. We have been volunteering with FLG for about a year, helping build large scale metal and fire sculptures. For this installation, we spent about 3 months refurbishing a piece originally built in 2005, called “The Angel of the Apocalypse”, an abstract bird, a phoenix if you will, rising up out of the ground. This included rebuilding the body, on which Joe spent many hours plasma cutting and grinding mild steel (the original body was made out of drift wood and burned at the end of the 2005 installation). Carol redesigned the eyes, turning them into faceted gems that would reflect the city lights as well as the fire that would be blazing behind them in the head.

Fire attracts people like moths to light, and our fire sculpture attracts people with its beauty, providing warmth to body and spirit. One of the main features of FLG installations is interactivity, meaning that anyone can operate the fire effects, in this case by pressing a button. It is awesome to see the joy on people’s faces when they realize that they have set off a huge ball of fire, and the look of glee is the same whether the person is 8 or 80!

Toronto is a friendly city with plenty of fun, I would recommend visiting…maybe in the summer…

Last Minute

Our friends Gina and Jason were expecting their second child and at the hospital when we received a phone call, saying that she would be having a C-Section within several hours. They knew that this would be their last child and wanted some photos to commemorate the pregnancy. We rushed to the hospital and were given special access to a room where we were able to create a special portrait an hour before the operation! Soon after, Gina and Jason welcomed baby Amelia to their family and everyone is feeling wonderful!

Cycle 4 Sight - SATURDAY

At this very moment, Joe is out helping set up for the Cycle for Sight/Rotary Ride for Veterans fundraiser! The event has 3 different courses through the Valley, beginning and ending at Justin Sienna High School. The goal is to raise $100,000 for Enchanted Hills Camp For The Blind & Visually Impaired and The California Veterans "Pathway Home Project." The ride begins and 8am on Saturday (yes, tomorrow 4/18) and also includes a Wine & Music Festival in the afternoon! All proceeds benefit these two local carities. Come show your support!

Saturday, April 18, 2009
8:00am - 3:00pm
Justin Sienna High School
4026 Maher Street
Napa, CA

Enchanted Hills
Pathway Home Project

Class of 2009 Coupon