5817 Sacramento Avenue Dunsmuir, CA 96025
Linda Tomoko Mihara, a third generation Japanese American born in San Francisco, has been a professional origami artist for the past 10 years, earning numerous awards and exhibitons and is a member of OrigamiUSA, a New York based organization for 50 years and the largest in the world.
Gravel crunched beneath my feet as I walked up the driveway towards Johnny Uchida's serene Grove Way Bonsai Nursery in Hayward, CA. In 1962 the Fuji Bonsai Club had mostly Japanese membrs and met in Berkeley, CA. Uchida formed the Yamato Bonsai Kai, in Castro Valley, CA.
Jim and Shizue Baney have a spacious back yard in Burlingame devoted to Shizue's extensive and immaculate collection of bonsai and accent plants. Gesturing to the whole group she says almost all have been started “from scratch,” cuttings or seeds by herself over her extensive career propagating bonsai, about 35 years.
Accent plants help introduce the concept of season which is defined and heightened by the accent's colorful foliage, flowers or berries, suggesting a time of year. “This can be challenging when your club's annual show comes in August, when many things are not blooming, and it's too soon for fall foliage,” says Barbara Bardella, one of the presenters at a workshop this summer. Frank and Barbara Bardella from Sebastopol and members of Redwood Empire Bonsai Society, in Santa Rosa, CA.
Cheryl Petty
In November 2010 I visited China. Here I am on the deck of the Century Star, hair blowing in the breeze of the Yangtze River. When I studied Mandarin Chinese, literature, art and history as an udergraduate at UCLA in the 1970's, who would have imagined I would finally get to visit this fascinating country full of contrasts and surprises. If you want to find out what's going on a half a world away, check out Gate 1 Travel.
NEW WORDS
Hypnagogic, Oneirism, Wake-Initiated Lucid Dreams (WILD), Sleeping with a Key
Here I am painting at Wright's Beach in Sonoma
Only new videos for 2011 are viewable in China.