November 27, 2011 Sunday

Bolinas & Stinson Beach Open Studios

"How cool is this?" I thought to myself. I was sitting by a warm outdoor fire on a late Sunday afternoon with a beer in my hand shooting the breeze with five local artists. The occasion was the annual Bolinas & Stinson Beach Open Studios held every Thanksgiving weekend. I was here to see the latest works from my surf buddy, Jim Ellis, a retired carpenter turned sculptor of coastal and marine life. We were at the home and studio of stone carver Steve Lewis, who has a sizeable piece of land, modest house and two studio structures on Horseshoe Hill Road in Bolinas. For the Open Studios weekend, Steve offered to share his space with four other artists: Jim, painter Susie Allen de Baker, stone and wood sculptor Chris Fitting and carved and painted gourds artist Judy Stemen. Being Sunday afternoon and near the end of the show, all of them were in a good mood. Each one had sold one or more pieces and considered the weekend a success.

Jim proudly showed me his latest creations - life size ravens. Of course he also had his specialty pieces of woodcarvings of seals, whales and sharks. In his studio Steve had several of his incredible carvings of dolphins, whales and sea birds set in the sides of huge stones. When asked how he does it, Steve proudly showed off his array power tools for cutting and grinding stone. Susie had her landscape paintings hanging outside on the walls of the house and studios that surrounded the cut metal oil drum that served as our fireplace.

Later on I dropped in on the studio of painter and surfer Michael Knowlton in Stinson Beach. Michael was the curator of the Ground Swell art show sponsored by Surfrider Foundation Marin County. Having sold a couple of pieces, Michael was also feeling good. His studio was jammed with his paintings; there were at least thirty pieces hanging on the walls and a hundred large paintings stacked in the nooks and crannies of his modest workspace. The above photo is of one of Michael's recent works.

On the drive home I thought about the blood, sweat, tears and hours each one of these artists must put into their works. In my career as a manager of software projects, $100 to $120 per hour was the going price for professional consultants. Nowadays plumbers and auto mechanics charge $80 an hour and they are not getting rich. Given the countless hours these artists must spend on each piece, I estimate that they make about $5 an hour if that. They are not doing it for the money - they are doing it because they love it.

Click on the link below to check out my Open Studios photos.

Bolinas - Stinson Open Studios