Washed Ashore

Gyre from Washed Ashore
Washed Ashore is an art installation and community project at the Marine Mammal Center at the Marin Headlands. Every piece is made out of junk – plastic mostly – that washed ashore Oregon beaches and then were cleaned, sorted and put together into things symbolizing what plastic is doing to the ocean. Harry the Fish

The fish is the most famous piece and it’s the one on the publicity posters, but there are lots more as you step into the center.

There’s the turtle made of fishnets found washed up on the beaches.Turtle

And there’s a sea lion, some jellyfish, whale bones, and masks.sea lionjellyfishWhale BonesMasks
All of it a reminder of all of the waste we create and throw away, and so much of it plastic!
Facts
It’s a sobering thing to think about how long it took to make fossil fuels, and how quickly we currently are using it up.

I don’t know what to do about the big plastic gyre in the Pacific, but I’ll definitely be trying to reduce my use of disposable plastic.

 

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John Singer Sargent

Charles Stuart Forbes
John Singer Sargent’s best known work is the Portrait of Madame X(Not to be missed if you’re ever in NYC at the Met).  A couple lesser known, but important ones are at the Huntington.

This painting of a young man intrigued me most during my visit to the galleries even though it’s not mentioned in the catalog on line. It’s a seemingly tossed off quick painting by the artist, inscribed in large hasty letters “to my friend Forbes” and then his signature scratched in the paint about 1/4 of the way up from the bottom.  It reads as something of a hurried sketch, only done in paint.

http://www.jssgallery.org/Paintings/Charles_Stuart_Forbes.htm

Charles Stuart Forbes from JSSGallery

Forbe’s face is rendered by few strokes, not blended, layered, washed,or smoothed out.

I wish I’d captured the whole painting in my photo –  in it he’s actually tilted a bit as if Sargent caught him shifting in his seat, not posing.

I thought the painting quite literally outshone every other one in the room with its energy.

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Huntington Gardens

Texture, repetition, juxtaposition, light.

The way the Huntington garden combines all of the above with plant material and a smidge of man made items like columns and temples is masterful.

Grassesroseleavesarchway
No garden gnomes here. (I’m not judging garden gnomes mind you, I have one lounging at the back door).Chinese Garden Temple

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