Mendocino Paddling

Apologies for the fuzzy shots and the waterspots.  I've better pictures of the same scenes and creatures in entries from past summers, but I decided to post the imperfect shots as documentation and good vibes.

Gemini: Stone and Foam

Gemini, Sleeping--A Mask:
sculpture mix;
denim, transparent brown, and clear glazing,
layered.

Dream: Wave-Crash

Kelp-time. Slightly disturbing, disorienting dream last night (among many) about free diving off a rocky shoreline just down the coast. I was distracted and checking out a circular "tide pool" out near the impact zone. A surfer stopped to give me the heads-up the tide was changing, the swell was rising, and the waves were getting closer and closer, ready to take me out. I thanked him, wondered how I could have gotten so focused on the shellfish and such in the crater-like collection of rocks, and started checking my exits. The waves were indeed crashing closer and closer, and the dusk was falling hard. Where had the time gone? Suddenly I was cold to the bone and tired. I went to the shoreward side of the rocks, and there was a twelve-foot drop to water and rocks (a completely unrealistic effect, but it was a dream). I'd have to time my getaway dropping over that side. I'd need water on the rocks to cushion my fall, but I wouldn't want to be caught in the crater for a full-on wave strike. Suddenly, in a rush of thick, thick water and thick foam, I was over the edge and getting rolled deep. I came up gasping. A very odd dream, but the cold water, the salt, and the kelpiness pleases me, despite the rough handling.

Shadow of a Man

"Whirl is king."  --Aristophanes

Kelp, Foam, and Fog

Happy paddling.

Mermaid, Seeking

Mermaid, Seeking: sculpture mix; sea foam glazing; copper wire; water.

Mermaid with a taste of rum.

The Authority of Foam

I don't believe I've posted this particular shot on the blog, though I have posted other shots and sequences featuring this mask--the Drowned Man--and this beach before.

I like how dry the beach looks, though it isn't. I'm struck by the integrity (for that's the word, I feel) of those rocks and thick grains of sand, as the foam arrives. Look at the push and heft of that foam, the lip flying, the snake-shapes lunging, the body flowing and folding forward. Or, that's how I see the scene caught in this shot: authority exerting itself.

I probably held off posting this picture because of the room for the ridiculous as that foam shoots from the eyeholes, and yet there's a haunting quality here too, isn't there?

Humor? Or, horror?

How afraid of drowning, of such whelming foam, are you?

Van Damme State Beach, just south of Mendocino: way back in November 2009.

(Actually, I think I have posted this shot before. I'll have to recheck the blog. But even so, this entry--how shall I say this--still counts.)

Hitting the Snooze Button

Shipwreck: Oedipus? Jason Argonautica?

Oedipus (ship)wrecks: the obvious pun. Jason after the Argo's mast has crushed his skull and his men have dumped his body overboard to drift and sink and wash up anywhere but where they are. Tainted heroes, taboo-breakers, adventurers beyond the pale: after the fall, what use the fiery spark? Salt-sea renewal? Salt and sand refinement? Set aside my own mythologizing here. What story would you tell?

(Yes, my feet did get wet with this sequence. I love how the foam rushes through the eyehole here. I have another shot where the foam looks comical or diabolical; I can't quite decide.)

The Drowned Man: Sequence I (Revised)

November 22, 2009: Van Damme State Park, Mendocino, CA

Mask: Sculpture mix, cobalt carbonate oxide & satin white glaze.

Sand and shingle beach; sea foam.

(Yes, my feet got wet; should have put on the wetsuit boots, but when I walked away from the truck, camera and mask in hand, I hadn't realized I'd be standing in the surf.)

Postcard: Foam Fun

That's my jacket--or the shadow of my jacket--marring an otherwise good photo, especially one taken with a disposable camera. That's why I should upgrade to a proper digital camera. Better quality shot; ability to check the shot on site.

Still, I have to say I like this photo. It puts me back on the beach, and that's what I'm looking for.