SEBASTOPOL GALLERY - COMING HOME
We just hung a new show at Sebastopol Gallery. Bert Kaplan is featured artist through September 18. Our reception is Saturday, August 7, 5-7 pm, with Robert Lunceford playing traditional French & Celtic accordion music. Bert’s intensely colorful pastel paintings celebrate his love of the backroads--coming home to the stunning landscapes of West Sonoma County. While he is featured artist, Bert will donate a portion of his sales to the Pomo Project of Sebastopol, in recognition of the first inhabitants of our beautiful place. www.sebastopol-gallery.com/

PRAYER FOR THE GULF
When Chief Arvol Looking Horse, pipe carrier of the Lakota, sent out a moving plea for prayer to heal the terrible spill in the Gulf, my heart heaved open & I began groping for a way to pray in paint. What evolved is a 5-canvas set of paintings, each with a prayer written across the surface almost as a texture. A sea animal of the Gulf is painted transparently over the prayer, invoking both their survival & their power to heal & guide us out of greed, into compassionate & ecological common sense. The Pompano is painted over my musings, the Triggerfish over Arvol Looking Horse’s prayer, the Blue Crab over a Nigerian Pastor’s, the Pelican over Pomo dancer Armando Williams’, and the Green Turtle over the Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra. The set is now hanging at Sebastopol Gallery. You can also read about it at www.native-peace.blogspot.com/.

Prayer for the Gulf acrylic on canvas, 12 x 12” each, 40 x 40” overall $2300 or $550 each panel

BLOGS
I’m just learning to use of Blogs & Facebook to develop my work. I have 4 blogs, & I hope you’ll enjoy all of them.
• www.sandyeastoak.blogspot.com/:
is about the ecological intent of my work.
• www.blue-coyote.blogspot.com/:
is about the series of mysterious illustrations of an unknown story.
• www.pomo-honor.blogspot.com/
is about my work on the Pomo Project.
• www.native-peace.blogspot.com/
is about how native values relate to our collective understanding & survival.

RAFFLE!!
In these challenging economic times, artists are looking for ingenious, flexible ways to help our work find its way to new homes--to empower you who wish for art to bring it home & enjoy it. So here’s an experiment: I’m going to raffle this painting, One Fish, price $200, to you folks who read my newsletter. Raffle “tickets” are $5 each. Send me your check for as many tickets as you wish (540 DuFranc Ave, Sebastopol CA 95472). For each $5 I’ll put a card with your name on it in a jar. When I’ve collected 40 tickets, I’ll enlist an impartial, blind-folded person to draw a card out of the jar. Then I’ll give the painting to the winner. If this works well, I’ll do it again with other, possibly larger paintings.

POMO PROJECT PROGRESS
We are experiencing what professional organizers call “project creep.” More & more ideas. More & more to do. Wow! Thank god it’s Annual Pomo Honoring Month so the things we screw up this year can be put right in the future. Christine Cobaugh is doing great work with kids at Joe Salinas’ Pomo Culture Class at Sonoma County Indian Health Center. Teri Sloat & I have helped them with drawings, but Christine is the real forger of good relations. We look forward to her photographs at East West in October! See some of the kids’ drawings at www.facebook.com/pages/Pomo-Project-of-Sebastopol/121655431202118?ref=ts. On the same page are pictures of Rebecca Love casting Armando Williams’ face. Sharon Ledbetter offers information at Sebastopol Farmers Market every Sunday, & is arranging Pomo vendor & culture booths in October. Laura Shafer is planning school events at Analy & Brookhaven. We inadvertently offended the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria by not including them from the get-go. Sebastopol is their historical territory, & tradition required us to ask their permission. We’re now exploring passage of a second city council resolution, recognizing their historical presence. The appearance of this political issue in the midst of our cultural purpose has caused some pyrotechnic conflicts in our group. I try to see it as part of the historical wounding that needs to be healed, & pray it all comes out ok. Meanwhile, every week a few more people are moved, delighted, & inspired by our efforts to bring Pomo culture to light & Pomo people to friendship.

One Fish watercolor, 6.5 x 10” matted & framed, 12 x 15.5”

POMO PROJECT AT SEBASTOPOL GALLERY
Work by several artists participating in the Pomo Project will be on display at Sebastopol Gallery from September 19 - November 14, with a reception on Saturday, October 2, 5-7 pm. For a complete list of exhibits & other events, go to the Pomo Project page at www.sebastopol-gallery.com/. One exciting treat is that my friend John Omaha will be lending the gallery 2 original Edward Curtis photographs of Pomo women of the Russian River area.

NON-PROFIT PROFILE: Pomo Project of Sebastopol
While we don’t yet have official non-profit status [a big job for next year], the Sonoma County Indian Health Project has kindly offered to be our umbrella, allowing us to receive donations to further project goals. The dancers, kids, & parents associated with SCIHP have also provided vital information, enthusiasm, & personal support. The Pomo Project especially needs money for food & transportation for the dancers who will be performing at schools & the Farmers Market, for framing the kids’ art for their show at Sprint Copy, and for printing posters and flyers. Send checks made out to Pomo Project to 540 DuFranc, Sebastopol CA 94572, or make cash contributions at the Farmers Market. I’ll send a receipt with SCIHP’s tax ID # & many thanks. See www.pomo-honor.org/ for more information.

COLLECTOR PROFILE: Laura Shafer & Paul Schwebel
Laura & Paul have been my friends since I met Paul at Coffee Catz open mic, singing amazing songs, including one he wrote for Laura. Laura is a photographer specializing in artful compositions of laundry drying on outdoor lines. While Paul works as a computer trouble shooter, they share a radically earth-friendly business promoting “solar dryers,” including designing custom line dry solutions that are beautiful as well as practical. Laura recently bought Egret & Ghost Elk & I had the pleasure of installing it with her in the perfect spot in their home. Please visit their site, www.linedry.com/, & be sure to listen to the song.

DEEPENING PROCESS
The process of deepening in mysterious presence that I enjoy in my studio has suffered fragmentation during the hectic demands of the Pomo Project. So I can’t write whatever it was I intended when I put this under “Next Issue.” I have moments of intense yearning for the private intimacy with spirit that is the luxury of uninterrupted art-making. Sigh. Yet I’m aware of another kind of deepening process, a bumbling integration of long-held ideals with the contradictory abrasions of ordinary physical beings. Life = Learning.

RANDOM THOUGHTS
I’ve noticed a kind of epidemic of talk talk talk. So much of what passes for conversation is people playing their tapes to each other, without considering what the other person needs or wants to know. Even as my tolerance for babble declines, I’m aware I add to the noise. I set an intention: to leaven conversation with silence, to inhabit the words I speak, & to hear the experience & needs of others.

Next Issue...
Pomo Honoring Month arrives
Returning to quiet

Contact
I welcome your comments & studio visits. Please phone 707 824-8189 or e-mail sandoak@sonic.net.
Please pass this newsletter to others. If it was forwarded or came by post, please send your e-address.

By hearing plants, animals, stones, and rivers, I am at peace.
Painting Spirits, Cycles & Waters