Well, I hope you can paint more landscapes of West Marin. If you haven't visited the Chilleno Valley in the spring when it is green, it's worth a look. We see folks out there painting landscapes all the time. One of the funniest of those instances was an older gent focusing on his work and completely unaware of a herd of cows that had taken up a position behind him. Every cow in the herd was staring at him in a pose that said "what the heck are you doing?"
I imagine you're aware of the spectacular coast north of Bodega Bay. If you haven't, it's definitely worth a look, especially the grade north of Jenner. Lots of folks like The Sea Ranch, but I prefer Gualala across the river in Mendocino County. It's a very lovely drive. You can get to Gualala and back on less than a tank of gas. Hint -- If you have trouble with curvy-bendy- twisty-windy-uppy-downy roads and need to drive slow, use the turnouts. The drive is much more pleasant when you don't have surfer goons tailgating you. Gualala is only about 100 miles from Mill Valley, but you'll need 2:45 HR to 3:00 HR to get there. The Gualala Point Park is terrific and has a beautiful ocean beach as well as a really nice river beach. When the river mouth is closed to the ocean, you can see dozens of huge (28 inch to 34 inch) steelhead trapped in the lagoon. If you're lucky, you can see river otters corral them, trap them in a small pool, seize them and enjoy a nice meal. One thing to clarify about ORCA -- it doesn't have an agenda. All it does is let activists from different organizations network to combine resources and share effective strategies. For example, to stop the Gualala fireworks (because they caused nesting seabirds to abandon their nests), we got help from some folks in SoCal that were pointed us to laws regional water quality issues that we used to make our case before the Coastal Commission. In other words, ORCA didn't stop the fireworks. They didn't even take a position on the issue. They did, however, put our small group in touch with a larger group that had successfully challenged coastal fireworks in SoCal. By the way, I used to be quite hostile towards the Coastal Act and the Coastal Commission. Then I attended one meeting. What an eye opener. Members of the public are allowed to speak before the commission. Commission staff is available to help with your development plans and identify issues/conflicts with the Coastal Act. They're available to suggest modest changes that will allow your plans to conform to the Coastal Act. In short, they're nothing like the image foisted on the public by large developers that see the Coastal Act as an impediment to excessive profits. I could go on and bore more people longer, but the bottom line of the Coastal Act is simple. If you own property within the Coastal Zone, your neighbor is the State Lands Commission. That skinny strip of land up to the high tide line is owned by the people of California. All the Coastal Act does is ensure that private property owners don't perform any development activities that would harm state lands or the natural resources within those lands. Unbelievably, there are still lots of coastal property owners that think private property rights trump public property rights. They don't, and many, many folks still like to learn the hard way. On Sep 26, 2008, at 11:31 AM, John D wrote: > > Hi Francis -- Thanks for letting me know about this. > I do live along the extraordinary California coast. Actually on the > Bay Side more (Mill Valley) but it doesn't take me long to get to the > actual coast. I'm really very fortunate in that. It's so expensive > here though, we may have to move, which will be a sad day for me. It's > getting tougher and tougher to keep up, as I'm sure it is with > everyone else. You probably pass my exit (East Blithedale) on your way > into the city. > I'm an artist, a painter. When I first arrived I asked some people > where might be a great place to do some work. They suggested the Marin > Headlands. When I finally figured out where/what that was, I was > astounded and more than a little bit exhilarated. Wow; What a place to > paint! I've done a number of paintings out there. Views of the coast > itself, views of the Point Bonita Light, Views of the Golden Gate > Bridge, the Coastal Trail, etc. > A couple weeks ago I met a woman painter who is probably in her late > 70's. I was painting down at Fort Baker looking up at the GG Bridge. > She wanted to see what I was doing and tell me a little about her > story. She told me she was instrumental in the formation of the > Sausalito Art Festival but also in stopping the development in the > Headlands area. > The story as I understand it, is that developers had already > negotiated and signed a contract to put gawd knows how many houses in > the Headlands. Groups of Nature Lovers and Tree Huggers intervened and > by some act of perseverance they were able to create the Golden Gate > National Recreation Area instead of a grid of houses. > I and many thousands of others are eternally grateful to those who > spoke out so forcefully and effectively in those days. So I am happy > to hear there is an organized group hoping to protect the coastline in > a similar way. That said, I am one of the worst candidates for such a > group. Me, as an activist? or watchdog? I'm really much more of a > pessimist and I'd ruin everything by just getting angry. > So I like to think that my work as an artist does way more good for > promoting the benefits of coastal areas than anything I could say or > do politically. As a point of conversation, I periodically suggest > bumper sticker slogans to my wife and one of them was "TRYING TO PAINT > THE NATURAL LANDSCAPE FASTER THAN YOU CAN RUIN IT WITH DEVELOPMENT AND > SUICIDE BARRIERS" BUT IT'S a sort of John Henry theme (he was a steel > drivin' man". My wife sometimes chuckles or laughs or ignores me. So > instead, I've settled on simply this: "NULLE DIES SINE LINEA" Latin > for "Never a Day Without a Line" That is the public statement on the > back of my truck. I don't even put it in English to be better > understood. Nevertheless, and however naive you may think it is, that > is how I will protect the California Coastline. > > FD wrote: This is for those that live along the coast of California > that are interested in the Coastal Act and ensuring it is > enforced . . . to help coastal activists overcome the vast financial > resources of those that want to challenge the Coastal Act > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "StrataList-OT" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/StrataList-OT?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
