#sanlorenzoriver

[loudthunderxheavyrain]

#mybackyard #sanlorenzoriver #birkenstocks #legs #legtattoos (at Trinity Bible Church) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEArPnPDlBD/?igshid=cqggs3p4gc4j

[loudthunderxheavyrain]

.river model or river monster whateva you think of me… you’re still thinking of me. #823 #sanlorenzoriver #cuttyspot #adventures #rivermodel #rivermonster #river #feltonca #felton #henrycowell #henrycowellpark #alongtheriverlol #nixonwatches #nirvanainutero #tattoos #girlswithtattoos #longcurls #rickrockbeats #whateva #unintentionalhike #📸Jared (at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CB3-ajsjg8M/?igshid=10r8tb0en0odt

[mixingwaters]

Weaving Waters: California Powderworks, Santa Cruz CA

Today I visited Paradise Park Masonic Lodge, formerly the site of the California Powderworks, where a sizable community of Chinese laborers lived and worked, segregated from their fellow white workers, from 1864-78 until they were fired due to pressure by local white supremacists.  I walked behind some second-growth redwood trees and clambered down a slippery steep slope underneath a covered wooden bridge to gather dirt and water for weaver Jessica Green to use in our collaboration.

January 26, 2019

I never feel comfortable here. The initial sense of suspicion, of what are you doing on our land, of being marked as outsider has infected all my experiences of this place. I perch half hidden underneath the wooden bridge built for the Powderworks in 1872, back against a concrete support. The river flows, fast and bustling over rock, below. I dipped a jar into the waters, running so clear, scrabbled with fingers and digging stick to gather rich black dirt, redwood leaves and cones, grasses, half river mulch, skeletal leaves, moss and dirt and tree root all together and becoming each other. The black dirt is inches away from river sand, light and soft and sifted like brown flour, so close yet so separate. Today, I gather only the black.

[mixingwaters]

Weaving Waters: China Lane, Santa Cruz, CA and Sandy Mush, NC

I’m delighted to be launching a new collaboration with Jessica Green at the instigation of Cara Hagan, who’s curating an interdisciplinary art exhibition called “My Place or Yours” based on a model of “artistic surrogacy” involving long-distance collaboration.

Jessica is an extraordinary weaver living in Appalachia on Cherokee land (see http://alittleweather.com/about/).  Inspired in part by this Mixing Waters project, we’ve decided that I would gather materials -- dirt, water, etc. -- from the sites in Santa Cruz where Chinese communities once lived and mail them to her.  The current plan is that she will integrate those materials, potentially as dyes or stains, into her hand-woven cloth before mailing the cloth to me to performatively animate in some way.  

Today I visited the San Lorenzo River at the site of Santa Cruz’s last Chinatown, gathered some dirt and water, and did a bit of writing. 

Friday, January 18, 2019.  

The grass is tender and lush, a specific green we only see during the rains.  January is springtime in California.  The riverbank is rain-soft, squishy muddy, heels of my boots sinking into the earth as I scoop earth into the mouth of my mason jar: layers of wet river sand, muddy dirt layered with leaves and twigs composting, river gravel.  I pick up bits of foliage, native redwood and “invasive” immigrant eucalyptus.  Today is soft, hovering between sunny and overcast, the river brown and fast, singing a quick brisk gurgle as it flows to the sea under this narrow concrete bridge that leads to what was once China Lane, the ramshackle memory of wooden houses, the lost sounds of laughter and life.    

[reimerstuff]

San Lorenzo River #sanlorenzoriver #californiaadventures #summerroadtrip (at Boulder Creek, California)

[brian-barnhart]

Spotted these two braving the flood while out for a walk. #santacruzflooding #walksantacruz #offseasonsantacruz #sanlorenzoriver

[richeart333]

#wall #art🎨 #painting🎨 #santacruz #sanlorenzoriver #local #loves #likesforlikes #metalsculptures

[allisonwesterhoff]

My ginger buddy ❤ #theBIGthings #sunruf #sanlorenzoriver #morninglight #meetSantaCruz #santacruz #green #adoptadogsavealife #gingerdog (at Mt. Cross Ministries)