The Art Fence Continues

A few weeks back we started working on another panel in the fence. This is a spot that will probably get made into a gate eventually, but for now, we had a piece of plywood up to keep Mooka in. Not pretty.

Better now that it's becoming the scene down in the meadow, with geese taking shape where we wish there could be real waterfowl waddling around (if it weren't for those dang coyotes, foxes, bobcats, and mountain lions).

Lately Andrew has been concentrating more on making fish (among other things), and hadn't gone back to the geese for awhile.

Today he was in production, painting a number of fish at once, but of course, I was not satisfied. The geese needed attention! So he found a solution: combine them. Talk about multi-tasking.

Art Fence

In the past few months, our mischievous Aussie, Mooka, has discovered a wanderlust within herself. Andrew has been working for years to build a fence around our house and barn, but it was not quite complete.

We made it a long way with grape stakes, but there were some gaps and unfinished spots, soooo... Andrew got busy, tightening up some openings, and finishing the last remaining section. Since we were mostly out of grape stakes, we scrounged. Out of the pile came some big ole' 2x4s and metal roofing from the chicken coops. It's a semi-industrial area, between the barn, the driveway, the well, and propane tank.

So far it has kept Mooka in. But there was still one issue...it was ugly. Perfect! It fit right in.

No—that wouldn't do. Back to work. The blank panels became a barnyard full of geese. And on the back, a garden, blooming in the winter, where none would grow.


For inspiration, we used a painting of geese and ducks by Jean Rose, who was a friend of Andrew's mom, Mary Helen. (Her husband, Jasper Rose, along with Mary Holmes, were among the founding professors at UCSC—Cowell College, where Andrew and I met. I found this link to some photos of them, and a great story, but none of Jean so far.) We love this painting, done in 1976, and it's usually hung in my studio.

Many years ago, in his training as a medic, Andrew was able to assist Jean after an accident near her hillside home, on Ocean St. Extension in Santa Cruz. He always felt a connection with her after that. Plus, her renderings of geese are masterful.

Think of it as a holiday card, without the envelope. It's not done yet, so check back to see our progress. 

Happy New Year!

West Coast Fish Art

Andrew has been working on a collection of carved fish native to the West Coast. He has an old Sunset fishing book written by a colorful character named Ray Cannon, which has detailed drawings and descriptions of the more than 200 or so local fish. Andrew plans to make all of them, and has already made multiples of certain species.

An artists' workbench:




He hangs the fish as mobiles, with a combination of a large fish like salmon, along with some smaller bait fish in one mobile. Our artist-friend Stan was visiting one day when we had the mobiles hanging outside from trees, and suggested the barn would make an ideal fish gallery. That idea spawned a few intense work sessions, and the barn became "Fishhaus."

The following photos have been taken along the way as the project develops.

In the last few days he started making fish cutting boards. These are two he made for me (there are tangible benefits to being the artist's wife). These are made from poplar, sealed with coconut oil, and they can hang on a wall when not in use.

If you are interested in this project, please contact Andrew at the email address to the right for more information.

The Bathroom is Done*

Andrew finished tiling and grouting the bathroom counter.




I helped him at key moments of extreme need, which in the parlance of one of Andrew's tilesetting mentors, Ray Bobby, is also known as tweaking.

Tweaking is a state of mind in which the tilesetter is encountering any or all of the following crises: mud is sticking to tool handles, mud is sticking to his hands (gloves having been jerked off in frustration), tools are dirty, mud is going off and needs attention, he is becoming overheated and adjustments are needed to the lighting or possibly a fan plugged in, a piece is not fitting or other pieces are falling off, the color is wrong (this happens more with mosaic guys), it's lunchtime or past 3 pm. To bring a tilesetter back to a normal state of mind once tweaking occurs is possible, but requires determination and swift action.

* “Done” is a metaphor for “done”, a time when the grout will be the same color on all the walls and floor. If you look at the picture carefully you can see that we started out with a sandy color, but it was very light once it dried. We should have done a mock-up. Luckily Andrew said it's okay, and that we can add more grout in a new color and it won't hurt anything. To go from a light color to darker is easy, but the other way around is more problematic. He is adding a layer of Sedona Red over it. Then we must seal it before it can actually be used with carefree abandon.

Final setting day on the shower

Altogether an amazing day.






Leftover mud becomes a fish.








On Saturday Mario is coming back to grout.

Huge thank you to Wes, Mario, and Matt. We love it!

Soap Niche

I'm so glad Monday is here and the tilesetters are back, because Andrew will not take a day of rest.

He wanted to set the back of the soap shrine over the weekend.

The first step was planning the layout. On Saturday he finished this mosaic which we were intending to use.


Then he changed his mind and we abandoned the mosaic idea. Instead we used the Guatamalen tiles we had stockpiled earlier.