The epic day in photos

Our very nice and patient teacher, Thomas Campbell. Behind him is his wall of art that he had taken down from his studio that morning. While talking to us about the process of assemblage he said, "Some of you might want to come to me and say, 'Thomas, I can't draw'. Well that's no excuse, because even bad art is good."

Jay made a really cool skateboard stencil.

I had a lot of fun making stuff. A large part of the project was sewing your work together. The sewing part was cool. Thomas told us that he became inspired to sew because his friend, the late, great artist Margaret Kilgallen was experimenting with it. It took him several years of playing around before he was comfortable showing this type of art to anyone.

The Make Something classes are free. They are in conjunction with the SF premiere of the film, Beautiful Losers, which we'd seen the night before. It was one of my favorite movies I'd ever seen. I encourage everyone to see it.

Great window installation by Jesse Spears. One of my favorite things I've ever read is by Jesse, in an interview she did earlier this year: "I don’t like how they call it ‘THE environment’ like it’s some weird thing that’s on another planet - instead of ‘our environment,’ like everything around us all the time."

hi number 4!

Mollusk Surf Shop is right near Ocean Beach.
There were a lot of surfers out and tons of people and dogs enjoying themselves.

And then, one of the nicest parts of the day. Meeting Nat Russell and seeing his beautiful artwork in person. He is so nice! He is standing next to the bold and colorful, Agnes Lake. She was the wife of Wild Bill Hickok and she became a circus performer, mastering the tight rope and taming lions. Nat created a series of drawings, imagining things about her life.

Nat explained that this installation was like a 'key' to his artwork. Much of his work has one of those three elements in it.

For more on Nat Russell, visit his wonderful blog.

Finally, we saw the surf film, Aquaholics. Writer and Director, Curt Meyers was there to introduce it. The movie had amazing helicopter footage of Mavericks. And some funny footage of "car tow-ins" that you can see here. The guy doing that got put in jail for 24 hours.

Right next to the Red Vic is Escape from New York, which has tantalizing pizza smells wafting into the cool San Francisco air. I dedicate one of those slices to ClayFin.

And that was the ending to the epic day. Thanks for reading such a long post. Let's go make stuff.

Surf Fridays!

International Surfing Day! That's what today is!

I have to go pack my stuff and then we're headed to Santa Cruz. Surf breakfast today consisted of granola with raspberries and sliced white peaches on top. Should probably eat an egg too.

But I wanted to leave you with a little surfing, art and music. It all relates. There's an amazing community that I am increasingly attracted to and feel a part of. Below is a slideshow from last Friday's art opening at Mollusk. The artist is Serena Mitnik-Miller and I loved her work in person. I met her briefly at the show and she was very sweet. What a great vibe that Mollusk shop has too.



I bought an amazing surf film there that night - Sprout. For anyone who has never seen it, I can't recommended it enough. And if you collect surf films, you have to own this one. Here is a little clip by the director of the film, Thomas Campbell. The music playing is by Tommy Guerrero, who I mentioned in yesterday's post.



Hope you're enjoying this groove and I hope all the surfers out there get to paddle out and feel yet again how lucky we are to have the beautiful ocean as our playground. Let's pick up some trash on the way back too. And say hi to the birds!

I haven't surfed in awhile, but I'll do my best to catch a wave for all of you.

xoxo Jamie

Surf Fridays!

Belinda Baggs, toes on the nose!
I saved this from Longboard Magazine, April 2003

In my last house, which I lived in with 2 other girls, I hung surf photos in my bathroom. I had a photo of Belinda Baggs riding toes on the nose in a short suit. I loved that photo because she looked graceful and inspiring. I would daydream, "Someday I'll ride like Belinda..." She's an Aussie, and her nickname is Bindy.

Belinda Baggs was born and raised in the working class neighborhoods of Newcastle, Australia. The only daughter of a surf-obsessed father, she says “she doesn’t remember back to when she learnt to ride waves just that it feels like she has always known how.”

At the age of 16 Bindy started competing in the Australian longboard circuit. In the years 2000 and 2002 she took first place, along with an assortment of final placings in the World longboard titles. Feeling constrained with the ‘high performance’ approach she was introduced to traditional ‘log’ riding by Malibu stylist and boyfriend Dane Peterson. To Bindy this was a breath of fresh air that opened up a whole new world to her. She became disinterested in contest surfing and dedicated her life to traveling the world in search of perfect point surf. She is also a women's surf ambassador for Patagonia.

Belinda and her dad, rinsing off
Photo Belinda Baggs collection

This is really fitting, since it's Father's Day this weekend. From Patagonia's blog, The Cleanest Line:

My dad is my hero! He is one of those people that can do everything: build a house, fix a car, glass a board, charge the biggest wave and love his family. His name is Phil but his mates call him Digby. He was born and bread in Newcastle, Australia and at 55 years old still lives there now. I am lucky enough to share with him his greatest passion: surfing. He started surfing on a '60s log, cut it down in the late '60s, rode a stubby through the '70s, lost his marbles on a mid-length during the '80s, and has found solitude once again on a 9’6” longboard.

Ever since I was a kid I would go to the beach everyday with Dad; that’s what we did and still do together. If the waves were too big, I would sit on the shore and watch him until one day I got sick of watching and made an oath to surf with him no matter what! I knew I would be safe even in the most challenging situations because dad was there. He has taught me almost everything I know and inspires me to love life everyday.

This video below, captures perfectly the essence of the photo hanging in my old bathroom.



Another cool video can be found on surf photographer Ryan Tatar's blog, Shakas and Singlefins (I love his photos and his blog). Belinda Baggs can be spotted at the 1:24 mark. Looks like a beautiful film.

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Tonight am headed to Serena Mitnik-Miller's art show at Mollusk Surf Shop. I am really excited about this. Will post about it next Friday.

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I keep listening to this song.

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Happy Father's Day to all you awesome Dads out there (I love you Dad!). Wishes for a happy weekend to everyone!