Bay Area Nature 100 Years Ago, Through the Eyes of Painter William Keith

October 17, 2011 •  by

The Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art is honoring California landscape painter William Keith a century after his death with 150 paintings from the college’s permanent collection. “The Comprehensive Keith: A Centennial Tribute,” on view through December 18, 2011, includes dozens of Bay Area views, from Pacheco Pass to San Anselmo. Some are startlingly familiar. Others are lost to roads and subdivisions. All will help you see local nature with new eyes.

“Washed Ashore” Exhibit Turns Ocean Plastic into Monumental Sculptures

July 1, 2011 •  by

The 16 giant plastic sea creature sculptures on display at the Marine Mammal Center arose from artist Angela Pozzi’s desire to find solace in the ocean: “I went to the ocean to look for healing, but I found that the ocean needed healing before it could heal me.” Her new exhibit, Washed Ashore, is on display through October 15, 2011.

Vegan Taxidermy: An Intersection of Art, Science, and Conservation

June 24, 2011 •  by

These days, taxidermy and conservation might seem to run at cross purposes outside the dim halls of natural history museums. Those dioramas come from a time when field science was rather more dangerous to wildlife than it is today. Artist Aimee Baldwin’s unusual sculptures, which she calls vegan taxidermy, remove the inconvenient contradiction between loving nature and stuffing it. See her work through July 15 at Castle in the Air, a shop on Berkeley’s Fourth Street.

Kids Clean Up and Make Art at Ocean Beach

May 20, 2011 •  by

How do you get 500-plus kids to sit still on the beach? Tell them a helicopter is about to fly overhead and take their collective photograph, and that by the way, they’ll also be on television. It happened at Ocean Beach, and all in the name of ocean conservation.

Green Film Festival Coming to San Francisco

February 23, 2011 •  by

Washington, D.C., has one. Seoul has one. Bristol, Tokyo, and Turin have one. And now, finally, the Bay Area has one. The first annual San Francisco Green Film Festival will take place from March 3-6, joining a growing number of environmentally focused film festivals throughout the world.

From Gully to Gallery: Restoration Art in Berkeley

January 25, 2011 •  by

Marin-based artist Daniel McCormick creates “perma-sculptures,” structures he places on hillsides and creek banks to slow the rush of run-off from degraded agricultural lands and paved-over urban areas. But this time, he’s designed and create works especially for a gallery show, which opens with an artist talk on January 27.The show is a first for both the artist and the curators. He designed each piece specifically for the exhibit, taking into consideration the challenges of hanging them on a wall rather than staking them into a stream bank.

Abbotts Lagoon: October

January 1, 2011 •  by

The first thing that is apt to raise your eyesAbove the dove-grey and silvery thicketsOf lupine and coyote bush and artichoke thistleOn the sandy, winding path from the parking lotTo the beach at Abbotts Lagoon is the white flashOf the … Read more

Art for Auklets

January 1, 2011 •  by

Just a thousand yards off the San Mateo coast sits one of the most densely populated places in the Bay Area, with hundreds of residents sharing nine rocky acres, all with great views. But there are no people living here. This is Ano Nuevo Island, a wildlife reserve where four species of seals and sea lions coexist with seven species of seabirds. The only human presence is an occasional visit from a remarkable team of biologists, botanists, and ceramicists.

Geography of Hope Returns

January 1, 2011 •  by

After a one-year hiatus, the organizers behind the popular Geography of Hope conference in Point Reyes Station are back with a new topic. Event organizers honored Wallace Stegner at the inaugural conference in 2008 and celebrated sustainable farming in 2009. This year’s theme will be “Reflections on Water.”

On Mount Diablo

January 1, 2011 •  by

Here, the sedimentary rocksof the town where I was raisedlift up, the layers of ancient seabed exposed in ridges running left to right, time turned on its side– Eocene, Miocene, Pliocene. At this height, the twilight rises, a tidal shadow … Read more