On Feb. 22, the City of Petaluma held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a strip of tiny houses.
The dwellings, the result of a partnership of COTS and the County of Sonoma, are temporary living spaces intended to help transition people into permanent housing and are called the People’s Village.
COTS shelters 190 people, according to its website. Some of them will be among the first to have access to the soon-to-be 30 little structures lined up next to the Mary Isaak Center.
Still, the 30 residents who will be housed in the tiny homes are a small slice of the nearly 300 residents officially experiencing homelessness in Petaluma. At a Steamer Landing encampment the day of the ceremony, I came across a man eagerly unpacking a brand-new tent, a donation he had received, he said, “from the County, I think.” That turned out to be incorrect.
I asked Mark—a pseudonym—about the People’s Village and, like the others I spoke with, he had heard of it, but not by name. He expressed worry about the ability of the government to address homelessness. I asked him what a solution might look like.
“It’s gotta be somewhat like what they’re doing through tiny houses; I think maybe it’s just a space that sticks longer than just, like, 6 weeks and then you gotta get out of here. Then you are just playing whack-a-mole,” Mark said.
Later, a couple arrived carrying two more of the brand-new tents. Former residents of “the Park,” as the people here call Steamer Landing, Reily and Nok will soon be moving into an apartment in Santa Rosa. They had organized the donation of the tents and were delivering them. “… We’re going to continue helping,” Nok said.
When I asked about the People’s Village, they were not happy.
“They are only, like, human-height [inside]. Really?” Reily said with a defiant tone.
“They look that tiny,” Nok added.
“You don’t have a bathroom or sink in there, or kitchen. That’s not fair,” Reily said. Noting that the most vulnerable members of our community are often experiencing physical or mental health issues, he added, “Everybody out here who has a disability should be treated a lot better than they are.”
Across midtown, hidden away along the river, is a very different encampment. Unlike the ragged temporary shelters of Steamer Landing, this camp, known to its residents as the Field, or the Little Field, has stood for perhaps five years. No simple tents here, but walled structures of plywood and tarps filled with furniture and personal items.
The two men I found there invited me into the camp. We sat together on a couch in what they called the “community center.” One of the men, Josh, apologized as he cleared loose items, saying, “All artists’ rooms are messy.”
When I asked about the People’s Village, the other man, Jordan, said he had just heard about it that morning.
“What are the stipulations on living there?” he asked, before thinking aloud. “I’m sure you have to be somewhat getting your shit together, doing something productive, so it’s gonna benefit yourself. [O]bviously they can’t give everybody a tiny home, so, I mean, you [must] have to give some incentive or do some sort of work or something, I feel like, to get that.”
“So you guys are feeling good about that being an option?” I asked.
“Yeah. As long as the City wants to help out homeless people,” Josh said.
“It’s cool they’re doing something besides just kicking people out of homeless spots. That doesn’t solve the problem,” Jordan said, “[which is] just passing the buck, homeless people are going to still be [somewhere].”
“It’s a small step,” he added. “Maybe it might be a piss in the ocean, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.”
I’m standing in a Zome, in an empty lot behind a warehouse across the river from downtown Petaluma. The walls are all curves and flowing lines, and the sunlight coming in through the skylight, door and single window amply illuminates the interior of the spacious one-room dome-shaped structure. The diamond-shaped wooden wall panels fit together just so, like dragon scales climbing up the walls to meet around the single skylight, 8 feet above my head. I feel like I’m in a bonafide hippie house, circa 1970. My first thought, this would make a fantastic studio or office, is followed by, I want to live in one. Where’s the kitchen?
A Zome is a type of tiled dome—as visually striking on the outside as it is on the inside—that is a throwback to a more experimental design era, with a space-age twist: Zomes are built from state-of-the-art, earth-friendly materials in a 30,000-square-foot production facility. But the details are more complex.
Designed by Zomes company co-founders Shereef and Karim Bishay in response to regional wildfires, mold issues that make many dwellings uninhabitable and the increasing need for ADUs due to SB9 and other recently proposed California housing legislation, the domes are composed of an outer layer of interlocking bioceramic plates, behind which are sandwiched layers of structural wood and insulation, a wooden frame and interior wall panels, all intricately fastened together in such a way as to be watertight and airtight. Wiring, plumbing and heating/cooling ducts are hidden inside the walls. All components are assembled and built at the production facilities by a team of 30 employees. Final, on-site assembly takes 7–10 days.
VERSION 2.0 The Zomes build crew assembles the new-and-improved Zome model, which will be available for preview at the company’s new ‘Dynamic’ location on March 9. Photo by Mark Fernquest.
It was a Zomes Facebook ad that rekindled my longtime interest in local innovative architecture. With so many crises occurring in the world today—wildfires, black mold and the housing crisis notwithstanding—what better time for a roundup of local cutting-edge homes?
Zomes are, according to both the website and Sales Manager David Tunstall: waterproof, moldproof, rotproof, snowproof, fireproof, pestproof, leakproof, maintenance-free, moveable, patchable and paintable. Furthermore, their dome shape, combined with their thermal mass, gives them an insulation rating of R-24. With components and materials that are sourced locally and organically whenever possible, the structures are also ecologically sound and 90% recyclable. The magnesia and perlite used to make the bioceramic magnesium phosphate tiles themselves are sourced from Michigan and “next door,” respectively.
CRATED The exterior bioceramic tiles and the interior wall panels are pre-numbered and packed in crates for easy, on-site construction by the Zomes build crew. Photo by Mark Fernquest.
As it turns out, I’m not the only person who wants to live in a Zome with a kitchen. Co-founder Karim Bishay tells me that since his company was founded in November 2021, public response has been “very positive, we’ve had over 25 deposits in under 3 months of selling.” And kitchenettes are an option, as are bathrooms and sleeping lofts, with more furniture options on the way.
Currently available in one size that measures 19 feet wide and 14 feet tall, with 265 square feet of interior floor space, a larger model is on the drawing boards. In the meantime, an option for a Zome “connector,” which can join two units, will soon be available.
When asked just how unique Zomes really are, Bishay responds, “No one else is making polar zonohedron domes as far as we know, and there’s [only] one other company using magnesium phosphate cement for building.”
The model I’m standing in, Version 1.0, has since been improved upon in almost every way. Tunstall says its successor, Version 2.0, a much tighter iteration, will be available for preview at the company’s new “Dynamic” location on March 9. I’ve marked the date on my calendar.
Little House on the Trailer
Just up the road from the Zomes production plant, on Petaluma Boulevard North, sits another sign-of-the-times housing business, this one specializing in small homes of considerably more traditional design and construction. According to its website, “Little House on the Trailer (a partner company with Sonoma Manufactured Homes) builds Home Care Cottages and Small Homes up to 400 square feet. With a doctor’s note, they can be permitted much more easily than other Accessory Units. They are available as both HUD approved manufactured homes and RVIA certified Recreational Trailers.”
Larger than tiny homes, the wood-frame offerings are still unique due to their compact size. The company typically works with individual customers to design the small home—or ADU—they require.
The Little House on the Trailer business location is self-serve. Calling a phone number provides me with a key code that allows me access to the two on-site dwellings for self-tours, but the website also contains photos and a virtual tour and video of each of the nine models highlighted therein.
I am quite taken with the quaint-looking 393-square-foot “little house” on their lot. The wooden home can be towed to a more permanent location since it’s on wheels. Its economical rectangular blueprint includes a front deck, a small front room, a kitchen with an overhead loft, a bathroom and a bedroom, in that order. At $95,000, it seems reasonably priced given the current market.
Lloyd Kahn weighs in
No article on innovative architecture in the North Bay would be complete without input from Bolinas-based Lloyd Kahn, who first published the visually stunning book Shelter—an oversized compendium of organic, handbuilt architecture with over 1,000 photos—in 1973. Lloyd went on to publish numerous books on creative earth-conscious homes, construction and living—including Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter and Builders of the Pacific Coast—through his press, Shelter Publications, in the following decades.
“I don’t run across people building their own homes these days,” Lloyd says during our phone conversation. “Thirty people were building houses locally in the ’70s. No one’s doing that any more. Building codes are so expensive.”
When asked about his take on radical architectural trends in the brave year 2022, Lloyd offers cautionary advice to anyone contemplating building their own home: Stick with rectangles. “I want to get a house built and live in it and not spend an inordinate amount of time with a dome or a 7-sided house,” he says. “Stud frames are rectangular. Wood, brick, concrete blocks, these building materials are all rectangular. Any time you get away from a rectangle, you are costing yourself a lot more time and money.”
He does, however, add, “If you are a master builder, then you can build something that is very unusual.”
His advice is born from decades of personal experience researching and building experimental structures, including domes.
What he sees these days is many young people living on the road, often out of necessity due to high rent or untenable mortgage rates. Innovations in vehicle designs, such as Sprinter vans with their high ceilings, now allow a new generation of people to make their homes on wheels.
Fittingly, his next book, which is due for publication and release later this year, is titled Rolling Homes.
Ryan Dauss
Enter Ryan Dauss, 42, a West County contractor who recently handbuilt two “campers” that are eye-catching enough to merit mention.
Where shall I start? There’s “Betty,” the steampunk vardo with a vaguely nautical look, and there’s the “Transformer,” a copper-and-brass-sheathed camper shell on the back of his Toyota Tacoma with, again, a vaguely nautical look. Both campers have portholes and both are constructed from an array of salvaged and scavenged metals and woods, with meticulous attention to detail.
VARDO West County-builder Ryan Dauss handcrafted ‘Betty,’ this innovative and visually striking caravan, and the ‘Transformer,’ on the pickup truck in front of it, out of free and upcycled materials. Photo by Mark Fernquest.
While Betty is more of a tiny home on wheels—with a stove, sink, on-demand water heater, handmade composting toilet, indoor and outdoor showers, convertible dinette, master bed and tiny wood stove—the Transformer—with its interior colored lights, removable bed and faux-grass roof deck—makes the Toyota at once a stylish camper and a fully-functional work truck.
Both builds are works of such creative, one-off genius that I relish gawking at them as I pass them while running my daily errands to and from town.
CARAVAN CHIC Every aspect of Betty, inside and out, was designed and built with precise attention to function and detail. Photo by McKenzie Kimm Dauss.
Dauss “crash landed” in Sebastopol in 2010, while driving an—ahem!—RV from his hometown of South Bend, Ind., to Oregon. Soon thereafter he met the woman he’s now married to, McKenzie, a gourmet cook in her own right whose kitchen creations can be viewed via her Tik Tok handle @westcountygirl. The two have many stories to tell, and, with both builds nearing completion, I predict road trips in their near future.
A fixture of the Bay Area music scene since the 1970s, musician, producer, songwriter and raconteur Johnny Colla has seemingly done it all.
He got his start on stage performing with acts like Van Morrison and Sly & the Family Stone before co-forming a little rock group called Huey Lewis & the News back in 1978. Not only did Colla play saxophone and guitar in the News, he co-wrote and co-produced many of the band’s biggest hits, and toured the world 10 times over with them.
Even though the News stopped playing in 2018 due to Lewis’ hearing loss, Colla still works as the group’s archivist, and he writes and plays for various other projects out of his Marin home studio.
So, it may come as a surprise to fans that Colla just released an album that he wanted to make for more than 40 years.
Available now, Johnny Colla’s new CD, I Hear Other Voices!! (Hardly Strictly A Cappella), is—as the name implies—a mostly a cappella collection of classic pop, R&B and doo-wop songs.
“‘I Hear Other Voices’ is really the a cappella record I always wanted to make with Huey Lewis and the News,” Colla says. “I broached the subject with the guys several times over the years, and Huey’s line was always, ‘Let’s keep that one in our back pocket.’”
Of course, Huey Lewis & the News incorporated several classic pop elements into their music, crafting throwback hits in the ’80s and singing a cappella tunes in live shows. Yet, the band never got the chance to make that a cappella record. That’s why Colla did it.
Colla originally made a record in 2012, titled I Hear Voices!, featuring full-band arrangements of classic songs that he grew up on. Recently, he revisited that album during the pandemic shutdown.
“I started looking at my stuff in my home studio and I thought, ‘That thing needs to be redone the way I always wanted to do it, which was an almost pure a cappella effort,” Colla says. “So I opened up that can and started digging away.”
Remixing the original recordings from the 2012 album, Colla stripped down the songs to their vocals, kept a few instruments, added percussion and reworked the track listing to create a new listening experience for fans who’ve followed him all these years.
With the new record out now and restrictions lifting on live events, Colla hopes to get back on stage soon to perform. He’s also still working with Huey Lewis & the News on potential upcoming releases of previously unheard performances and more.
“I’d like to put a little band together,” Colla says. “Probably next year.”
“I Hear Other Voices!! (Hardly Strictly A Cappella)” is available now at johnnycolla.com.
Marin residents awoke to discover antisemitic flyers on their lawns, driveways and streets last week. Now, local law enforcement is struggling to determine whether any crimes have been committed.
The leaflets were distributed in Tiburon, Novato and Marin City under the cover of darkness in the early morning hours on Sunday, Feb. 20. The hate-filled materials were folded into clear plastic bags with rice, presumably added to prevent the packets from blowing away. Napa and other cities across the Bay Area and Southern California received similar flyers, making California one of at least eight states targeted within the last three months.
The propaganda blamed Jewish people for “the Covid agenda.” Some Marin neighborhoods received a second page, which stated, “Every single aspect of the Biden administration is Jewish.” Both flyers contained the website address of a small hate group based in Petaluma.
The Anti-Defamation League, a worldwide organization that fights antisemitism and discrimination, says the group behind the flyers is a loose network of individuals. While primarily directing its vitriol towards Jewish people, the group has also focused on the LGBTQ+ community and others.
“This stunt is the cowardly work of a group espousing white supremacist themes and Holocaust denial,” Teresa Drenick, the ADL deputy regional director of the Central Pacific Region, said. “It’s a fringe group with the aim to intimidate and sow fear in the Jewish community.”
The group’s leader, a failed actor and writer who lives in Petaluma, co-founded an antisemitic website that allows users to upload vile videos. His girlfriend was recently fired from her job as a yoga instructor, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Tuesday, because the yoga studio owner said the woman seems to share the beliefs of her boyfriend and “assisted him in his business of hate.” The woman has denied sharing his ideology and said the couple has sought legal advice.
Hate speech is protected under the First Amendment, provided it does not incite criminal acts or contain violent threats. “Hate itself is not a crime,” according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
However, hate crimes, which have been on the rise over the last 12 years, are not protected. More than 8,200 hate crimes were reported to the FBI in 2020, although the agency said experts estimate the number is higher because data submission by local law enforcement is voluntary. The FBI defines a hate crime as a bias-motivated offense against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender or gender identity.
In 2020, the ADL received more than 2,000 reports of antisemitic incidents throughout the United States, which ranks as the third-highest year on record since the organization began compiling the data in 1979.
The Petaluma-based hate group that disseminated the flyers around the country was responsible for at least 74 antisemitic propaganda incidents in 2021, according to the ADL. Stunts and schemes by the group, including hanging antisemitic banners from overpasses on busy freeways, are designed to draw attention.
“This group craves publicity,” Drenick said. “They have not, to our knowledge, resorted to violence.”
In Tiburon, 90 residents called police to report finding a plastic bag with an antisemitic flyer in their yard or driveway on Feb. 20. Rather than targeting specific addresses, the materials were randomly distributed at homes on Stewart Drive and Paradise Drive.
A resident who received the flyer has a camera pointed toward the street and captured video footage of a vehicle passing by during the 3am hour. Although the license plate cannot be seen, Tiburon police believe the antisemitic handbills were tossed from that car. With the time frame narrowed, license plate-reading cameras mounted at the town’s entry and exit points may assist police in identifying the suspect, especially with the light traffic early on a Sunday morning.
“We have some good possible leads here,” Laurie Nilsen, Tiburon police spokesperson, said. “Numerous officers are working on this around the clock. We’re investigating to see what crime may have occurred and talking to the district attorney’s office to see what, if any charges, could be filed. It’s tough. Where does freedom of speech end and a hate crime begin?”
In Novato, the leaflet distribution occurred in the unincorporated Wildhorse Valley neighborhood. The Marin County Sheriff’s Office is still investigating the incident, according to spokesperson Sgt. Brenton Schneider.
A Marin City resident posted on Nextdoor that he found his street littered with the plastic bags and antisemitic materials when he went outside on Feb. 20. The Sheriff’s Office has not received reports of the flyer drop in Marin City and encourages anyone with information to contact them.
A joint statement issued by the Marin County Police Chiefs’ Association and Marin County District Attorney’s Office on Feb. 24 said they are tracking the incidents. Unfortunately, Marin District Attorney Lori Frugoli doesn’t appear optimistic about filing charges against the people responsible for dispersing the propaganda on private and public property in Marin.
“This is infuriating and repugnant, and we reject this hateful behavior,” Frugoli said in the statement. “Such as they are, the messages in these flyers were intentionally designed and distributed in a manner that is protected as free speech under the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The hate group’s organizer is counting on Frugoli’s legal interpretation. He recently sent a message to followers that he is proud their flyer distribution was “completely SAFE & LEGAL,” according to J., the Jewish News of Northern California.
Marin’s Jewish community has been working with the district attorney and local law enforcement to ensure that they are aware of and take all reports of antisemitism seriously, according to Rabbi-Cantor Elana Rosen-Brown, of Congregation Rodef Sholom in San Rafael.
Antisemitic incidents in the county have become all too frequent, with the ADL recording several in Marin on an annual basis. In addition to the flyers delivered to homes last week, other Marin cases have been covered by the media during the last 18 months.
A Nazi supporter slapped swastika stickers on property in downtown Fairfax. Jewish students at Redwood High School in Larkspur were threatened on social media by a person displaying a photo of a young male holding a bullet and wearing a helmet with a swastika.
Rosen-Brown said many people and organizations in Marin have joined the Jewish community to bring attention, awareness and education to the issue of antisemitism. They are committed to showing up for one another whenever instances of hate speech and hate crime occur.
“To be Jewish, sadly, has always meant to grapple with the understanding that there are people in the world who hate you,” Rosen-Brown said. “We internalize this in different ways. For me, I love Judaism, and encounters with hatred only enhance my love of Judaism and being Jewish.”
Reporter’s Note: After much debate, the Bohemian deliberately omitted the names of the antisemitic group and its leader. It is my belief that when the media identifies them, it helps fuel their mission by providing the publicity they desperately desire. As a Jewish person, I am opposed to leading lost souls to the doorsteps of hate.
A Sonoma County anti-vaccine mandate group, Save Our Sonoma, took credit for tipping the Press Democrat off to Sonoma County Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase’s July 2021 reckless driving conviction.
The tip led to a Feb. 18 Press Democrat story which in turn kicked off a media-fueled debate about whether Mase is fit for public office. Meanwhile, in newsletters, SOS has been urging members to call on the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors to end Mase’s employment at a Tuesday, March 1 meeting.
The public saga started when the Press Democrat first revealed that, in December 2020, Mase was arrested after driving erratically in Alameda County, where she lives. Mase told the Press Democrat that she had been socializing with a friend and “misjudged my sobriety.” She was found to have a 0.14 blood-alcohol level, significantly in excess of the legal driving limit. In July 2021, Mase pled no contest to a charge of misdemeanor reckless driving with alcohol involved. She was sentenced to a year of probation and received a $530 fine.
Mase was previously arrested in San Diego in 2014 on suspicion of a DUI but received a relatively light punishment for the 2020 offense because of the Alameda County District Attorney’s pandemic sentencing policy, according to the Press Democrat.
The Press Democrat’s original story did not mention how the 2020 incident came to the newspaper’s attention fourteen months after the fact. However, in a newsletter sent the day after the story broke, SOS, which claims to have about 2,200 members, took credit for providing the information to the newspaper.
The Feb. 19 newsletter to SOS members is titled “Mase is outta here” and leads with an item labeled “SHE’S GOING DOWN!!”
“A small S.O.S team worked on this story all week and leaked it to the PD on Thursday morning. Read here about Mase’s 12/2/20 DUI, how her colleagues were shocked and how things aren’t looking good for Dr. Mase… We are working the press to get this information circulated! The County is not done with us yet!,” states the newsletter, which was provided to the Bohemian by a subscriber to the group’s mailing list.
An SOS member named Greg, who refused to give his last name for fear of being targeted, told the Bohemian on Monday that an SOS member called the Press Democrat and anonymously provided information about Mase’s police record to the paper in order to foster government transparency.
The group’s recent newsletters show that they are busy organizing events related to vaccine and mask regulations. The Feb. 19 SOS newsletter invited “Freedom Fighters” to “SHOW YOUR SUPPORT. STOP the mask mandates, vax passports, and silencing of our doctors…” at a Feb. 26 demonstration on a Santa Rosa freeway overpass.
The timeline SOS provided in its Feb. 19 newsletter—tipping the paper off on Thursday morning—roughly fits with an article published by the Press Democrat’s top editor Rick Green on Tuesday, Feb. 22. Responding to criticism of the paper’s decision to publish the news article eight months after Mase reached a plea deal, Green wrote, “An anonymous tipster late Thursday flagged our newsroom to the incident.”
Since the news broke, Mase has repeatedly apologized for her judgment and said that she wants to continue leading the county’s Covid-19 efforts.
“I do not believe this incident has interfered in any way with my ability to do my job, nor will it. I have expressed my regrets and apologies for what happened, and I stand by that statement. Otherwise, I’m maintaining my focus on the work at hand, which concerns limiting the impacts of COVID on our community and getting people vaccinated and boosted,” Mase told the Press Democrat in a Feb. 22 article.
Through a county spokesman, Mase and Tina Rivera, director of the county’s Health Services department, declined to comment on Monday.
Meanwhile, SOS has been turning the pressure up ahead of the Board of Supervisors’ Tuesday meeting.
A Feb. 23 SOS newsletter states “The time has come to ask for her [Mase’s] immediate resignation, or swiftly remove her.”
SOS members are asked to contact the Board of Supervisors and Mase’s supervisor, Tina Rivera, “about the need to terminate Mase.” The group also organized a Feb. 27 Zoom meeting to prepare for the Tuesday meeting.
In the Feb. 23 newsletter, the group’s reasoning for Mase’s removal is largely pinned on speculation that her two DUIs revealed by the Press Democrat might be signs of a more serious alcohol problem that would affect her ability to do her job. Greg, the SOS member, made similar arguments in a phone interview.
“Even a mild to moderate drinking problem can adversely affect cognitive functioning, problem-solving skills, concentration and reaction times—is this the behavior we should expect from our top health official?” the newsletter states in part.
However, to date, SOS nor the Press Democrat have published any direct evidence that the December 2020 incident—or any other alcohol-related event—have impacted Mase’s job performance.
For their part, some residents and employees of Sonoma County have organized in support of Mase’s handling of the pandemic. In a Feb. 23 letter, 151 signatories, many of whom identify themselves as medical professionals, called on the Board of Supervisors to continue supporting Mase, noting that, “Dr. Mase’s leadership has led Sonoma County to achieve a 55% lower death rate (95 deaths/100,000 [resident]) than the already-low average California death rate!”
The letter also criticizes the Press Democrat’s handling of the story: “The article published [in print] by the Press Democrat on Saturday, February 20, 2022 regarding an incident that occurred 14 months ago was unbalanced and oddly timed. The DUI was a serious personal issue that Dr. Mase dealt with prior to the article being released; it is unfortunate that she’s being asked to relive and apologize for this issue once again.”
In response to a request for comment, Green, the editor of the Press Democrat, declined to identify the paper’s anonymous source and referred the Bohemian to his Feb. 22 article outlining his reasoning for pursuing the Mase story.
Mase’s future with the county may be determined at a Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, when the group is expected to discuss Mase’s DUI—and, no doubt, the media storm surrounding it—as part of Mase’s regularly-scheduled Covid-19 update.
In recent weeks, mask mandates have been significantly weakened around the state as the medical establishment starts to phase in an “endemic” approach to handling Covid-19. Currently, vaccinated people are not required to wear masks in most indoor settings in Sonoma County, excluding schools, public transit and medical facilities.
Although unvaccinated people are technically required to continue masking, many businesses are not rigorously checking vaccine status. Beginning on March 11, schools will no longer require students and staff to wear masks, the Sonoma County Office of Education announced on Monday.
Women are amazing. In every sense of the word. They are CEOs, politicians, mothers, care-givers, alchemists, farmers, champions of gender equality—sometimes all at once. The strength and power of feminine energy is critical in achieving balance as a species, and thank goodness it’s as strong and powerful as it is. Society would be lost without female insight.
Please note: The term “women” is a generalization, and it’s important to include those who identify as women, who don’t have the presumed “matching” genitalia, and anyone who has suffered under the oppressive qualities of patriarchal society.
Women in art have long dealt with the reality of patriarchal bias. A 2018 data analysis—by the National Museum of Women in the Arts (www.nmwa.org)—of 18 major art museums in the United States, showed 87% male representation. Of that 87%, 85% were white males. Representation in the art world is still wildly skewed towards white males.
Karen Gutfruend—curator, artist and feminist—is aware of these numbers, and she is part of the campaign to correct them. Her latest show, “Agency: Feminist Art and Power”is in direct response to the imbalanced representation of female and non-binary artists and artists of color, and an exemplification of how feminism is the acting antidote to the patriarchy.
A representation of 28 female and female-identifying artists, Gutfreund’s show is carefully and consciously curated to invite viewers into the reality of the feminine experience and the profundity of the feminist perspective.
Gutfreund says the idea for this exhibition actually originated two years ago. Gutfreund is a member of The Feminist Arts Project, based out of Rutgers University, and through TFAP met the director of the Museum of Sonoma County, and was commissioned to curate a show commemorating 100 years of women’s suffrage and the amendment of the Consitution to allow women to vote in 1920. Obviously, 2020 had other plans, and the show was postponed until 2022.
“My curation is very specialized—I focus on feminist art and social-justice art,” Gutfreund said in a call last week. “But I do it in a way that is accessible to the general public. My goal is to create exhibitions that are really geared towards generating social change. I’m not looking to sing to the choir, I’m looking to reach everyone; maybe you’re from a red state or a blue state or a purple state, but wherever you are, you can come in and see the work and engage in the programming and feel free to ask questions. My goal is for the work to inspire questions rather than enforce answers. It’s meant to create a dialogue. And the mass appeal of my exhibitions is what made the Museum choose my curation for this show.”
“I know through experience that the minute you start yelling at someone, visually or otherwise, they completely tune out,” she continued. “I try to focus on work that is universal and very beautiful. That beautiful, compelling quality of the work acts as a hook for the viewer, who then reads the story of the work, and engages more readily and easily with the statement.”
Keeping FEMINISM Fresh, Alyssa Eustaquio, (2013) Mint chewing gum, paper, plastic sleeve and Wrigley’s foil chewing gum wrappers, 3 x 2.5 x .5 inches
Perspective clash has been an acute reality since 2020, and the raised voices on either side of the line result in an incoherent cacophony.
“I do include work that is more in-your-face, but I try to focus on work that tells a beautiful, lyrical story,” Gutfreund said. “It really makes people pause and stop and think. I did a show recently on gun violence that resulted in a stauch, 50-year-NRA-card-carrier approaching me and saying, ‘Wow, I genuinely didn’t think about it this way.’ It’s about gently changing minds.”
The show was originally going to follow the theme of women’s voting rights more closely, but as a result of two Covid-caused delays, which allowed Gutfreund more time to deeply research and work with her substantial database of female artists—at last count she’s placed more than 1,400 female artists into exhibitions—she looked into the pertinent, hot issues society was engaging with and started looking at ways to incorporate them into the show.
“It’s a very cross-generational and very intersectional exhibition. We have everything from 90-year-old artists down to a 23-year-old artist,” Gutfreund said. “Having these different voices is so important. Encouraging us to look to our elders—artists like Judy Chicago or Joan Semmel or Dottie Attie, these women artists well-over 70—and consider everything they’ve lived through, all the hard battles they fought to get their work on the museum and gallery walls, and then considering our younger artists, just out of college, who bring such a different and important perspective as fourth- and fifth-wave feminists. We need their voices, too, and their stories. What is it like being a woman in your 20s right now, just coming out of the pandemic? The perspectives are so important to represent.”
What if Women Ruled the World?, Judy Chicago, Digital print on archival Epson Hot Press Bright paper, smooth matte finish, 2020
Continued representation, through age, gender identity, political orientation and the myriad perspectives that the human collective holds, is where the best opportunity for better information and understanding lies.
“It’s about all these different, riveting voices,” Gutfreund said. “One of the artists in this show, for example, is an African-American woman from Alabama who deals with brutal racism. Another is a very urban, Brooklyn-based artist. Another artist is a drag queen from L.A. I learn something new every day this way. And I’m constantly, as the curator, really encouraging them to answer questions about what their intentions are with their art. Asking why they make what they make, and what they hope it does for the viewer. Because that’s what the viewers will read, when they engage with the art.”
Gutfreund is looking through what’s going on right now, in cultural conversations and political debates, and has curated this show as a representation of those conversations and debates, through both a historical and a contemporary feminist lens, giving platform to the still-underrepresented feminist perspective.
“I feel that feminist perspective is a liberation for the human, and I say that because I see how intersectional the movement has become,” she said. “As feminisim marches on, it represents non-binary people, trans people, people of color, anyone resisting patriarchical demands — it’s an inclusive justice movement. It’s giving voice and power to underrepresented groups. And this is why I curate shows like this. We’re leveling the playing field.”
“Agency: Feminist Art and Power” is showing at the Museum of Sonoma County through June 5.www.museumsc.org
SIDEBAR
Other Powerful Female Art Movers
Vibe Petaluma, an art gallery and intersectional community art space, is the dream-made-flesh of co-founders Rachel Usher, Maude Bradley, Margo Gallagher and Jessica Jacobsen. Ten days after an initial meeting to discuss plans and goals, the four signed a lease in downtown Petaluma. Vibe’s goal is to create an inclusive, accessible art space that is a hub of creative activity and ideation.
Magic Shop Studios, also located in Petaluma, is the result of artist Jennifer Tatum’s goal to create a studio space where artists produce their work. The beautiful building, which sits next to the water, includes six studios, a kitchen and extra storage space. Open studios, where people meet the artists and engage in lively dialogue about their work, are held there often.
A Beautiful Mess: Weavers & Knotters of the Vanguard, a nationally traveling exhibition on view now at the University Art Gallery at Sonoma State, features 10 different women artists, all of whom build their work with weaving or knotting as the primary method of production. This show creatively explores the boundaries of fiber arts and mixed media, and features artists such as San Francisco-based Windy Chien and Chicago-based artist Kira Dominguez Hultgren. The exhibition pushes against weaving as a “hobby” and highlights it as a high-art medium. The show is on view through April 10.
After an extended look at the character arc of Luke Skywalker, we cap off our New Year’s series on rebirth by examining a female character introduced at the same time: Sandy from Grease, played by Olivia Newton-John.
No, I’m not kidding in juxtaposing the hero’s mythology of Star Wars with the pastiche that is Grease, which was made in 1978 and set in 1958. I saw both films as a kid, and they’re bound together in my personal reality forever, since here I am years later writing about them.
Before we get to “lousy with virginity” Sandy and her transformation into spandex and leather, let’s look at another character who dances her way from light to dark: Nina in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, the 2010 psycholgical thriller set in the world of ballet.
Nina is a perfectionist ballerina who is cast, with reservations, as the lead in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, in which she must portray the dual role of the Swan Queen and its dark twin. The Mephistopheles-like artistic director—who seeks to unleash Nina’s seductive shadow—tells her, “The only person standing in your way is you. It’s time to let her go. Lose yourself.”
Nina does, but losing her carefully guarded ego results in destruction rather than deification, as she is unable to withstand the encounter with her shadow. The needed “ego death” of her immature personality in order to grow into wholeness is literalized, resulting in a tragic plunge into the hell-pit of perfectionism.
Sandy, in contrast, is also a shy girl on the brink of womanhood who believes she doesn’t have a shadow. But her romance with Danny brings out in her an added and unexpected depth as she absorbs his influence, just as he absorbs hers. And just look at the difference between the fates of the two women: the Swan Queen dives to her death, while Sandy sails up to heaven in a candy-apple hot rod. For Nina, the ego’s confrontation with its shadow brings dissolution by falling; for Sandy, it brings a happily-ever-after ending by rising.
This distinction is crucial in the spiritual journey: the ego must transcend itself by rising to a higher state in clarity and equilibrium, not by descending into a hallucinogenic underworld ruled by the demonic forces—such as greed, ambition or self-harming perfectionism—that fester there. Life, after all, is not a game of perfect.
Let us not mince words: there is a war for every soul between these two orientations—upward transcendence and down—waged every day in life. We must each set our course, and tread valiantly.
The trouble with living in California is that the winter rain lasts for two or three weeks and then we are gifted with an early, dry spring, which leads directly into fire season. Every single year. This would not be a problem … except that it is. Hugely. Sometimes a person needs to experience a real winter, with rain, just so they remember water exists. I am that person. And when I feel the need for actual moisture, I drive to Oakland, climb into a flying cigar, close my eyes and materialize in Seattle two hours later.
Ahhhh, Seattle. Where the sun rarely shines for 6 months of the year. They say Alaska makes for a rough winter, but I’ve been to Alaska and I’ve been to Seattle, and Seattle is also rough. I tried braving the Winter of ’17 in Seattle. That was a frozen, snowy winter, and however fun snow is to a Coastal Californian, it grows tiresome after about two days without skis, on pavement. Truth.
But snow is not the real problem. The cold is. I never knew how much I disliked the cold until I lived in it, day after day. Cold air has a smell; a sharp tang, like metal. I do not like that smell.
But the cold was not the real problem, either. The lack of sun was. Summer ended and the sun just … went away. When it did occasionally appear through the clouds—and they were storm clouds, not puffy white California clouds—I literally changed into a short-sleeved shirt and ran outside to embrace its precious rays until it disappeared 10 minutes later. I cannot describe how much the sight of the sun, and the feel of its light and warmth on my skin, meant to me. And that is how I learned, with certainty, that I am—and always will be—a California baby.
And yet, negatives aside, Seattle rocks. It has an incredible array of interesting neighborhoods, my favorites of which are artsy Fremont, with its Lenin statue, rocket and Dumpling Tzar, and post-industrial Georgetown, with its vintage stores and parking lot Trailer Park Mall. And Seattle is an economic powerhouse, something that never ceases to blow my mind. It’s like the Bay Area 2.1. It’s a majestic hub, is what it is; the jewel of the Northwest.
Oh, and it rains and rains and rains and rains up there.
All of which is to say, to anyone wanting a damp winter: Go to Seattle. I go for a week every December or January, and it cures me of my seasonal California regret. I enjoy the entire wet experience.
And the best thing about it? The California spring that greets me when I come home.
Mark Fernquest lives and works in West County. He imagines he is a writer.
During the course of a lifetime of making music, Santa Rosa multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer and artist-manager Darwin Meiners made some famous friends.
Last year, Meiners began collaborating with two of those luminaries, bassist David J, of Bauhaus and Love & Rockets, and drummer Victor DeLorenzo, of Violent Femmes, and now the trio is an official band, Night Crickets.
Last month, Night Crickets released a full-length debut album, A Free Society, that is garnering rave reviews, and the group is already discussing possible tours in 2023 and beyond.
“I still pinch myself,” Meiners says of the project. So, how did it all happen?
Night Crickets’ roots stretch back almost 10 years, when Meiners met and befriended David J while playing a Love & Rockets tribute show in Los Angeles and soon after met DeLorenzo at Coachella when the Violent Femmes reunited at the festival.
Both DeLorenzo and David J ended up contributing to a couple of Meiners’ musical projects, in addition to Meiners managing David J and touring with him. All three artists kept in touch and eventually reconnected, via email, during the pandemic.
“I was bored with not playing,” says Meiners, who reached out to DeLorenzo about doing some drumming on a new batch of ideas. DeLorenzo agreed and suggested they recruit David J to join them.
“We just started making music,” Meiners says. “We didn’t have any plan at all. Nobody knew what was going on with the pandemic. We thought it was just going to be for us.”
Collaborating over Zoom, and sharing ideas and musical elements online, the three artists found that they clicked on everything and had fun doing it. After completing six or so songs, the trio decided to make it official, arranged a record deal with Omnivore Recordings and set about completing a full album under the name Night Crickets.
The group’s debut album, A Free Society, contains traces of sounds from Bauhaus and Violent Femmes, yet it’s a completely original collection of 13 darkly melodic and rhythmic pieces full of gothic pop and punk folk.
“One of the things I like about the record is that even though we never were in the room together, it feels like you are in the room with us,” Meiners says.
Meiners laughs when asked about Night Crickets’ burgeoning status as a supergroup, saying, “They’re like Batman and Robin, and I’m Alfred, I guess.”
“I’m just happy to play with those guys,” he says. “We all get along really well. I’m honored to be in this band, and everything that comes with it is just extra to me.”
The name Maria Callas means little these days to people unversed in the world of opera, but to those in the know the American-born Greek soprano will always be “La Divina.”
Callas passed away in 1977 at the age of 53. Memories of her might have faded completely from the stage but for playwright Terrence McNally’s Master Class, currently running on the Rotary Stage at the Sonoma Community Center. The Carl Jordan-directed production runs through Feb. 27.
A master class is a class given to students of a particular discipline—such as music—by an expert of that discipline. Callas taught a few of these at the Juilliard School in the early 1970s, where playwright McNally was apparently in attendance. Twenty-five years later, McNally’s fictional take on that experience opened on Broadway and won the Tony for Best Play.
Andrews Hall is turned into a rehearsal hall/classroom, and the audience into students, as Callas (Libby Oberlin) prepares to take on three singers. The grand dame enters and assures the audience that the evening is about the students and not about her.
Riiiiiiiight.
The first student, Sophie (Emily Evans), is cut off after a single note. A young, doltish Southern California-educated Tenor (Robert Dornaus) puts Callas off with his desire to be rich and famous. Sharon (Morgan Harrington) exits after Callas insults her dress, but returns and ends up giving Maria as good as she gets.
Callas is blunt, caustic, withering and unequivocal in her critiques of the students. They all have the ability and the talent, but what they all lack is the essence of truth required of great art. That truth is born of pain and sacrifice, and Callas delivers several interior monologues that speak to the pain she’s suffered and the sacrifices she’s made for her art.
Oberlin is first class in Master Class. Oberlin’s background in teaching was a definite asset in interpreting the role, particularly in a moment of incredulity when she discovers a student has failed to bring a pencil to class, though I’m not sure Callas’ method of tearing-down-to-build-stronger would fly in today’s world.
The students’ musical performances, when they were allowed to deliver them, were also first rate, as was the accompaniment of John Partridge.
Audiences with an interest in any art form will appreciate the passion Callas had for her work and the overall excellence put into this simply-staged production.
“Master Class” runs through Feb. 27 at Andrews Hall in the Sonoma Community Center, 276 E. Napa St., Sonoma. Thurs–Sat, 7:30pm; Sun, 2pm. $25–$37. Proof of vaccination with ID and masks required. 866.710.8942. sonomaartslive.org
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Please note: The...
After an extended look at the character arc of Luke Skywalker, we cap off our New Year’s series on rebirth by examining a female character introduced at the same time: Sandy from Grease, played by Olivia Newton-John.
No, I’m not kidding in juxtaposing the hero’s mythology of Star Wars with the pastiche that is Grease, which was made in 1978...
The trouble with living in California is that the winter rain lasts for two or three weeks and then we are gifted with an early, dry spring, which leads directly into fire season. Every single year. This would not be a problem … except that it is. Hugely. Sometimes a person needs to experience a real winter, with rain,...
During the course of a lifetime of making music, Santa Rosa multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer and artist-manager Darwin Meiners made some famous friends.
Last year, Meiners began collaborating with two of those luminaries, bassist David J, of Bauhaus and Love & Rockets, and drummer Victor DeLorenzo, of Violent Femmes, and now the trio is an official band, Night Crickets.
Last month, Night...
The name Maria Callas means little these days to people unversed in the world of opera, but to those in the know the American-born Greek soprano will always be “La Divina.”
Callas passed away in 1977 at the age of 53. Memories of her might have faded completely from the stage but for playwright Terrence McNally’s Master Class, currently running...
