Sequoia Park Eureka CA

THE ART OF TREE 

It is strange how one thing leads to another. Last week I visited my Daughter in Torrance to meet my new Great Grand Son. While there, she gave me a book, The Over Story by Richard Powers. A few years ago when I was rereading On Walden Pond, by Thoreau,I wondered at the time why I haven't come by any other who would write such a book that touched my heart. At last, this book by Powers ends my quest.

I have always had a 'thing' about Trees. I have planted them, hugged them, raked the leaves from them, Photographed them and Painted them. Although my belief system is not of the formal religious theology of churches or the bible, I have a feeling deep in my central nervous system that the light within us all is the result of the creative force which makes life possible, and is eternal if left alone.

Children have always climbed trees, I did when as a child reached for that elusive walnut, sweet and crisp in my mouth, and always, always reached for one more. I would hide in the tree, reading my books and becoming invisible to the outside world, and melding with the branches of my inside self.

When as a teacher, my privilege was to lead the children's choir for the Spring Sing. Joyce Kilmer's Tree was the last on the program. The light in their eyes, the sweet knowledge of their innocence, for me, always led to the tears of recognition of our Earth's plight.

As one small boy at the Oceanside Museum of Art told me one day when I asked him what his sculpture was about, he told me, " It's all Connected". His eyes shining with the knowledge of his young world view astounded me, but when considered later, I was certain that the light his eyes came from a universal source.

                                                    All Connected by 5th grade Student

Our planet's trees are the life giving source of oxygen essential for our lives, and yet, we keep cutting them down to make stuff that will never give us the source of life, and that trees make our planet green. The Pulitzer Prize book by Powers gives the adult version of Tree. It will picture in your minds eye, the beauty and the inter-connectiveness of all living beings plants, animals, and human beings.

 

                                                        The Cherry Tree  in Spring

 

 

 

 

The Mission San Luis Rey Oceanside CA

THE HERITAGE DISTRICT

OF EAST OCEANSIDE CA

It is early morning, and I am stopped at the end of a cul-de-sac, San Miguel a street in my community and take in the entire San Luis Rey Valley. It is 6:00 AM and if patient, I will hear the bells of the Mission San Luis Rey. It shines there in the early morning sunrise, and I feel the history of the Valley. I have resided in Oceanside for 24 years, and in my mind, I have lived here forever.

Giant Pepper Tree Guardian of the Mission...

I walk this walk many times a week, and it always is an amazing conformation of our human existence over time. 

 When I visited the Chapel, the feeling of oneness of making was strong in my awareness. The hands and feet of the early occupants told me stories of their lives in the beginning of the Mission.

It is the beginning of my day, and I take with me the knowledge of our human history and the ongoing efforts for the preservation of our heritage here in the San Luis Rey Valley where the Great White Horse once lived, and became an integral symbol of my art.

 OCEAN VIBES FILL THE AIR @ OCEANSIDE CA. 

FIRST FRIDAY ART WALK

iT IS SUMMERTIME AND OUR HAPPY FEET WILL DANCE TO THE VIBE OF THE OCEAN  WAVES AND MUSIC BY DARING GREATLY !

Start at the Oceanside Museum of Art and take in the exhibitions in the many galleries. Then stroll down to Artist Alley one block west on Pier View Ave, and find the funnest part of ART WALK. So much to see and pehaps buy? Then wander back up to the Museum and listen to the happy sounds the Daring Greatly. Hope to see you there!  

ART EXPLOSION !

At the O'side Bakery East Oceanside on Mission Ave.

March 24, 5:30PM -7:30 PM

At last we are entering into a new phase of being almost normal. The past two years have had such a negative effect on the Arts Community, and our joy of meeting in person. Zoom is great, but no substitute for “being there”. Come, and join us at our favorite place for great bakery treats, beautiful art, and music for our happy new place in time.  

 Linda Ponder is a North County artist, painting primarily abstract figurative. She studied under Larry Butler (Delta College) and Reed Cardwell (UCSD). She has shown in many juried competitions including winning an outstanding award in the Carlsbad Oceanside Art League Regional Show (COALS). Her works have also been in the Sharp Gallery and the San Diego Museum of Living Artists in Balboa Park.

Linda describes her approach to the canvas as emotive – a moving of the mind or soul; an excitement of the feelings. Her paintings have a magical and strange beauty; unexpected, and some might even say, unconventional. The results are often whimsical, childlike and surreal

 

 Oceanside Public Library

THE SOURCE

before Google

There is a wondrous place for all of us. A Place where the replenishment of our mind and soul is free, a Place where there is a quietude for our escape from the madding crowd of our lives, and it is a Place where we find the New, the Past, and perhaps the Future. This Place is our Oceanside Public Library. It is open all of the days of the week, and all are welcome. 

The  Entry for the O'side Library

Over the years, I have found refuge in these lovely and magical places of learning, and soul searching. Passing along the stacks, we find other worlds of possibilities. We find the histories of great men and women who have made our world what it is today. We can run our fingers over infinite possibilities of ideas to challenge our thinking minds. The What ifs are infinite...each book is there only to be touched and opened, we read and explore possibilities.   

These Places, reservoirs of history, we find ancient philosophers, Plutarch, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius the builders of monuments, Imhotep,Vitruvius Pollio , science of our past, present and future, are a gift to us. One of the most famous Libraries of all was The Library of Alexandria in Egypt. When it was lost, much of the historical writings of that era were lost along with it. Our own American History is replete with the building of Public Libraries in great cities and small towns.

The  Library of Alexandria ruins...              

In 1944, in the very small city of Etiwanda CA, the library was in a room of the Elementary School. I retreated there every day in the summer to read, and to be free to roam in the adventures which were in the fun books of the Black Stallion, Zane Grey, and Nancy Drew... At Whittier college 1954, the Mendenhall Building was a place for studies, and research.

The OED, located on its own platform, and preparation of exams, but it was also where I met my husband, and the proud old building is still there, beautiful, now the business center for the college.

There is a new venue for the Arts in our lovely Oceanside Library.  The visual arts, Paintings and sculpture are at home in this place for contemplation of what it all means. Artists of all genres have endeavored to tell their stories of what it all means to them by way of the visual arts, and we are so very fortunate to view the works from these story tellers presented within the framework of the visual arts.

Please join us on beginning on January 7^th to view the enchanting works of Linda Phillips. A public reception is January 12, 3 to 5 PM.

Linda Phillips

Before Google, we knew that our search for knowledge, research, and the search for truth could be found at our local Public Library. We took our children, our students, and ourselves to these places of quite contemplation and hoped to find answers and adventures of other lands and the people who lived there. Now it is the I-phone to Google, and we find ourselves in the midst of the public arena full of hustle and bustle. Fingers no longer can explore the stacks of what ifs, and we are left with only the word of the moment... 

The new Library of Alexandria 

 

The Twenty Fifth Anniversary of OMA

A Historic Occasion

February 26th 2022

We Celebrate an Institution which changed the Face of the City of Oceanside California. In this New Year of the new we the celebrate the history and creation of our Oceanside Museum of Art. We will gather in the New Seabird Hotel to raise a glass to the Founders and Supporters of the Museum which did in fact change the Cultural Soul, and the architectural fabric of the City. They gave our residents and visitors a new and glorious gathering place. We had a new Home for us!..

Our cultural art visions were met with citizens eager for change for our City. The challenges of an old building which had been designated for storage for the City Clerk was transformed into a place of wonder for our creative spirits for the artists, the patrons, residents and visitors.

The Supporters who have championed the effort with extraordinary funding support which in its self is a creative element. For they have created the place where the Arts and Artists can flourish and reside. To Create a Place of Art is the highest and most fundamental form of creative effort. Without these creative supporters, the arts would not exist. We raise a glass to these creators for a Space for Art in Oceanside, OMA, the institutional face which changed Oceanside from a military town into a City of incredible energy for change, the a melding of our Cultural Soul.

Founders and Supporters representing Hundreds of Our OMA Family  

We thank You, the Founders, and Supporters whose gifts and funding will sustain the future of OMA.