David Frank
One morning, as the Marin county fog was burning off, I heard a knock on the door…. It was my artist friend…she was in a hurry. She was moving to a small cottage a few miles away, her truck was parked at my carport. “I need a favor, I’ve got something in the truck, I would like to “store” with you for awhile…I don’t have room for it at my new place”.
It was a struggle to get the awkward wrapped up thing from the carport up the long path. We were both out of breath by the time it was in my living room…she quickly removed the blankets to reveal a floor model surgical BI-ocular microscope! It had “gurney” type wheels on it, and a self-contained light source.
She explained that it was used to do miniscule detail surgery such as eye and brain operations. It was explained to me that the scope had a two-foot working distance at up to 600 power!
She spent a number of years as an anatomical illustrator using this scope…when she finally “burned-out” the department gave the scope to her as a going away present, the department had replaced it with a new updated version.
I spent the first week in a frenzied search for objects to look at: gem stones, my fingerprint, paper, leaves, seeds and on and on.

One day I came across a piece of eucalyptus bark, I put it under the scope and “zoomed-in” to a crevasse in the unbelievable “landscape” I traveled deep into the darkness using the fine focus, one increment at a time. At a particular depth, to my astonishment, the scopes light reflected off a pair of eyes, intense and brilliant and looking back at me…..There was a delicate web suspended across the chasm and an absolutely transparent spider! So transparent that I could see the life fluids pumping through it’s body. After recovering from this shocking encounter, an Epiphany followed: There is absolutely no wasted space…there is something living everywhere!!!

To expand on this concept…I suggest reading a wonderful book by Bill Bryson, “A short History of Nearly Everything”!

Connie Frank
When the time comes to sign a new lease I like to put together a newsletter so we can make our ”announcement”. David and I decided to go for three years this time…you know that feeling you get when you are both totally excited and terribly terrified, yes, that one. But, after all, when we are lucky enough to be doing what we love, it only makes sense to continue on.
Also, it presents an opportunity to harangue all of our incredible artists into contributing a short story about what’s new in their lives…In this publication the stories everyone has contributed cover the spectrum from Magnus & Jo enjoying the simple things of life, gardening and grandchildren to Dawn, the Rocknoggins creator, finding a new outlet for her creativity in creating friends in rocks….if you’ve been in lately, you’ve probably met our new friend “Boyd” – one of Dawn’s we just couldn’t let get away.
The talent and beauty of all the folks who contribute to our shop delights me daily. And from your reactions – I know you appreciate their talents as well.
In my spare time…this has been another summer of gardening and photographing
Thanks to all of you for your continued patronage. We appreciate seeing you and visiting and catching up. Peace be with.
Connie

Magnus Homestead

We’ve stayed closer to home this year, closer to each other…closer to our grandchildren…to our children…our garden.
We’ve gotten closer to new folks in the nearest little town as well. We know perhaps a dozen local farmers at the Wednesday Casmas Farmers Market, mostly on first name basis. We chat about the weather and what’s growing well while we buy what we’re not growing ourselves. We’ve dropped by to share in a discussion group that one of our sons and his wife belong to, neighbors just talking about things in the world that matter most or trouble them the most. We finished Jo’s kayak “Mariposa”. She painted a fantastic emerging butterfly that encompasses the entire boat. We’ve been to a potluck at Trackers NW in Portland where they are teaching the old skills of hunting and gathering to college kids and older folks alike. We touched base with the City Repair Project at their annual Building Convergence. And more. At the same time, the world at large seems to be breaking apart…5,000 ft. deep in the ocean a massive oil leak bleeding from Mother Earth…Haiti in ruins…Pakistan…Wars…half a billion eggs from just two “farms” …the list goes on. Seems to me the Artists have been right all along, just as we always knew. I think the time has come when we refuse to comply with the “Lie” and we start seriously reweaving the torn fabric. “All I am saying, is give Peace a chance.” And by the way, Jo and I get our eggs from Rhoda, Penny and Lacey, our 3 laying hens.

Peace, Magnus and Jo.

Dan & Dorothy Rosenquist

Moon lighting

We sit out tonight beneath the moon, shining like a great pearl amidst a sea of luminous clouds, washing across the sky. And beyond this slow procession, stars, flicker in the unimaginable reach of space. Here, is the sense of the infinite, of all things carried on its tide. We are the dream, and its dreamers.
The night is still, and the sound of crickets close by, pulses softly. Slowly we settle in and feel ourselves relax, aware of the stillness, comfortable in our chairs with sweaters and shawl. We think of our lives, of the changing world, of the beauty of this night. Zephyr comes and lays at our feet, while we marvel together, at clouds. We talk of plans for an arbor and a hope of summer grapes, of who might eat them, we or the birds. In the cool night air, a sense of the changing season greets us, as the moon climbs higher and the night moves on.

Betsy Benson

My life has been revolving lately around work, family, and French! I seem to be working more than ever, and loving it more than ever. And, I’m finding out that even when your kids reach college age, they still need their mom and dad… So despite everything going on in my life these days, I decided it was the perfect time to learn another language!
It’s kind of like when you get the rare urge to clean the house. You just have to go with it at the time. That’s what happened with French. I finally, after years of thinking about it, I felt ready to make the commitment. I picked French, not because it was particularly useful here in the Pacific Northwest, but because of its beauty. And well, I’d had a few years of French in high school which has been only a small advantage, or more specifically, next to no advantage.
I’ve been an ok student. I flagged a bit over the summer, I knew I would, but I’m looking forward to getting back into the serious study mode come Fall. I’ve come to appreciate the way my head feels when I leave my Tuesday night classes. Rather like it’s about to explode…
In a couple of years, when I have enough of the language under my belt to not feel like a complete idiot, I‘ll find a language immersion program in France and spend several months at least. Having that goal, get’s me through the hard parts. And making jewelry feels more like R&R in comparison!

Jeannie Ritz

This summer I have been spending quiet time working on my wild forest of a yard. I’ve found artistic inspiration in the aerial ballet of the butterflies that frequent our forest garden to dance in the sunbeams that angle through the trees. On one recent morning while watching my grandson play, two butterflies put on a wonderful display. They would swirl around each other in a rising column of color and motion. Then they would slowly float back down near the ground, before coming together in another swirl of rising energy. They repeated this display time and time again, dancing all the way up to the top of the fir trees so tall around me. It is these moments that make me feel the connection to nature and all the inspiration it provides. I recently designed a very special ring for a very special client that incorporated this beautiful swirling motion. It is a blessing to have clients who are willing to embrace my creative vision and who are willing to allow me to try to bring these inspirations to life.

Jessica Frank

I greatly enjoy the work that I do making jewelry and stringing beads. Working with my parents is a great experience, they are two very caring people, teachers and role models. All my life my parents have instilled in me how important it is to treat all people with respect. Recently I met a wonderful man who makes me laugh, keeps me smiling. Richie loves learning and together we spend hours discussing all sorts of topics. From grade school on I have kept a large circle of friends –family–being able to rely on them as much as they can rely on me.

On the back porch – my painting studio – I watch the birds, listen to the frogs and enjoy the beauty of the back garden, my inspiration for design, my creative fuel. Last spring a bird started to build a nest on the lighting fixture just above my head but didn’t quite get it done. Dad and I decided to put up one of the bird houses I made this year, hopefully then we will have little babies chirping in the spring.

Dawn Sorrell

Imagination and creativity go hand in hand. Like a child looking up to the sky and seeing images in the clouds – that’s what Rocknoggins are – sheer unrestrained imagination – the truest form of creativity. I see faces in rocks! There is a process of discovery – the longer I look at a rock the more I see.
After recently moving to Washington and giving up a successful nine-year career as a graphic artist to sculpt full time, I began to feel the enormous stress and pressure that I think many people feel taking that kind of plunge. Consequently, I needed a creative outlet that could express myself and try to free up my creative energy that had been lost. I began finding rocks on various hikes with faint images naturally hidden on their surface. I took them back to my studio and started refining these images and making them into what they are today. They were so spontaneous and liberating that I continued and slowly began to free up creatively. Now I’m concentrating on “being” and living my life to the fullest. Rocknoggins express the sheer joy I have found in my life by taking a risk and following my dream. The Rocknoggins are a whimsical way of expressing life; playing on the characteristics and personalities of reality with added elements -–imagination and creativity. Each noggin has it’s own unique character, discovered and released from the rock from which each originally came. They have become my therapy and I believe art patrons will agree that laughter is underrated.

Jon Sauer

For 37 years I worked for the postal service as a manager. At the office life was very stressful, so I needed some type of natural way of relieving this stress. I always enjoyed making items of wood, but sometime in 1981 it became more serious. In my shop it was the wood the machine and me. The 3 of us changed the form of the wood, which created excitement in my blood. The end result was an item with beauty. Over the years the passion grew and the items continued to evolve. The time spent changing the wood kept my thoughts far away from the Post Office, so I must say that for me woodworking has been great method of stress relief. Much of my designs arrive from natural & architectural designs. Now 6 years retired, the woodwork is mostly done for enjoyment. The image of me was taken in our backyard, which is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation area. There will never be any buildings behind our house, just the woods and us.

Lu Ann Ostergaard

As an abstract photographer, I am drawn to the moments when there is an interesting interplay of line, color and form. I find these moments in forgotten places, weathered, stressed and entropic surfaces, which with the click of a shutter, are lifted up and given a life of their own.
I am a painter of light and I strive to create mood and emotion in my work. I desire purity of expression through the concept of simplicity. My images are reduced to their minimalistic essence, devoid of distracting details, leaving the subtle nuances that are my signature look. The quest for abstract beauty fuels my art and inspires me to continue my path as an artist.

Tammi Dean

Here I am with my family. The Oregon Coast is one of our favorite places to relax, explore, restore. We don’t get there often enough! It’s far enough away from the studio, the garden, the telephone, that I can focus on the important things in life, like finding just the right stick to throw for Tika. But it’s close enough that you can drive there easily—close enough that each time we finally feel the sand between our toes, I wonder why we don’t do this more often.
Not too many trips to the beach in Oregon this year, but we had a fantastic vacation in Vancouver, BC, spending a week at the Sunshine Coast at a friend’s cabin right at the shoreline, followed by the weekend at the annual Folk Festival near the campus of UBC. They were very different contexts, but both provided requisite fulfillment. I came home not only refreshed, but totally inspired by the uplift of diverse music from all over the world at the Festival, most of the artists very low profile, but hugely engaging. The message to take back to the studio was how connected we all are by the handmade, the homespun and the human-scaled, and how much we need to celebrate that.
And I always come home with the same pockets full of the same little roundy, tumbled black basalt pebbles. Sometimes they end up in mosaics around the garden, or cut up and lightly polished in my jewelry, but most often gathered together in a bowl with those from last trip to the beach. They are testimony to my success at getting away from it all.
I’m always renewed, though, and ready to get back into the studio.

Debra Glanz

What a benign sounding medium. Most people do not “get” my attraction to paper, but I think that I was born with it. I have a vivid memory of being handed an old mimeographed sheet in grade school and being directed to turn it over and draw on it for “art” class. It smelled great (as anyone over 45 will no doubt remember) but even at age 7 I thought that if something was worth my time and effort it was worth a nice, clean sheet of paper. Though I now avidly recycle and re-use papers in my printer I draw the line (with some exceptions) when it comes to art material. I have always loved even the feel of paper and one of the things that I would often use my allowance money to buy was packages of Origami paper – even though I never quite mastered the craft. The potential that those packages offered was just too enticing…..and still is. Fast forward to college – French Major to Art /Jewelry to Art Major/Textiles to “oops” I graduated. Eight years of Feltmaking,
Weaving, Stitchery, 2 kids and the creative spark was starting to extinguish itself so I enrolled in an adult ed Bookbinding class where you could not only use paper to make pages, but also covers and endpapers and the possibilities seemed endless. That’s all it took – I had re-kindled my passion for paper. Bookbinding let me work with the medium I was born to and am still in love with. Of course I haven’t made a traditional “bound” book in years but those skills are still present in my boxes and pretty much everything else I create. I even incorporate small, handmade felt pieces and bits of metal into my work. Recycling skills is how I see it.

Thanks for reading.

David and Connie Frank