Short text for short attention spans
In the 1970s I often stopped in at Olompali, an archeological site in northern Marin County, California, just north of the city of Novato. The land was owned by a university which had purchased it as investment to be sold for development. Charlie Slaymaker felt there was evidence that this was a significant occupation site of the Coast Miwok people. He began a dig in 1972 which proved him right. The digging work was done by university students, local Marin residents, volunteers, and hangers-on. The breaks and lunch times were social affairs with laughter, food, and beverages, but it was not a party. In the summer we were hot, sweaty, and covered in layers of fine dirt. In the winter we were cold, wet, and muddy. At the end of the day our thoughts turned to getting home to a hot shower or bath. Leaving the site we would creep down the long tree-lined dirt driveway. At the end of the driveway we would get out of our car to open the gate. That’s when the noise, speed, and ferociousness of the traffic on HY101 would hit us. After closing the gate, the first turn to merge into the traffic felt like we were landing on a different planet.
The dig continued through the 1970’s on a shoe string budget, sometimes an entire class would be digging on Saturdays and sometimes it was Charlie alone. As the evidence mounted, pressure grew to save Olompali. Eventually that State of California purchased it as a state historical park.
Olompali is a micro-version of California history. After occupation by natives Americans the land was taken over by a Camilo Ynitia, a native American with Hispanic background. During the Bear Flag revolt one of the few armed battles likely took place at Olompali. After the gold rush the land passed to Americans and into the landed gentry that establish a mansion, formal garden and even had a railroad stop. Following the decline and the purchase for investment the property was rented to a commune and hosted rock and roll bands. A fire destroyed the mansion. Except for a horse ranch the property remained unoccupied until Charlie started digging.
Top of Page
Poison Oak isn’t California’s State Shrub, but it could be. It is the most common shrub in the state. It grows everywhere up to 4,000 feet elevation. Until easterners began importing trees that turned color in the fall, Poison Oak provided much of our late year reds, pinks, and yellows. Humans seem to be the only animal allergic to Poison Oak’s Urushiol Oil, the active agent that makes us itch and blister. Authorities claim that 10% to 20% of the population is immune to the oil. It is often stated that Native Americans are immune, yet ethno botany reports of Indian uses of native plants have a number of “treatments” for Poison Oak. The Indians did use the sap for dying basket materials and as temporary tattoos as the saps turn inky black after being exposed to the air. It is not incongruous that Native Americans might have used Poison Oak and also been sensitive to it; not unlike people who have serious food allergies to peanuts or shell fish but avoid the reactions by being alert and aware.
Top of Page
Puncture Vine
Along the Carquinez Strait, the Union Pacific railroad tracks run on the south shore, parallel to the strait. Before the railroad, the shore was a narrow strip where the hills sloped into the water. One hundred years ago, the railroad builders notched the hills a few feet above high tide and pushed the dirt into the river. They created a shelf just wide enough to lay track. Since then, it has been widened a few feet. Another track was added. On the inside of the track (land-side) there is path, wider than a trail but narrower than a real road. Ostensibly for railroad maintenance trucks, it is used by locals for walking their dogs.
I do not have a dog, but my wife does. This dog is not particularly smart. She has however learned a few tricks. When she blunders into a patch of Puncture Vine she freezes, lifts the paw most damaged by the caltrop burs and waits for me to pick them out. One at a time, she lifts her paws for me to extract the nasty things. We repeat this cycle more than once before she escapes. No matter how the bur rests on the ground, at least one of the needles is pointing up. The military in Europe copied this for their metal caltrop, with four points, at least one of which always points up. At first these were used to cripple the horses of cavalry, then to puncture rubber tires of enemy vehicles. Unlike the dog, I wear shoes. I can tread fearlessly.
Top of Page
Poison Hemlock
Poison Hemlock is the plant used to execute Socrates and one of our most common weeds. In the spring the new leaves are attractively dark green. By mid-summer it is tall, naked, and weedy looking. It is from Europe and closely related to and sometimes mistaken for Carrot, Celery, Parsnip, Parsley, Dill, Caraway, Chervil, Sweet Cicely, Fennel, and Coriander
PLATO: PHAEDO, 399 B.C., SCENE: The Prison of Socrates.
“ ..... and he walked about until, as he said, his legs began to fail, and then he lay on his back, according to the directions, and the man who gave him the poison now and then looked at his feet and legs; and after a while he pressed his foot hard and asked him if he could feel; and he said, no; and then his leg, and so upwards and upwards, and showed us that he was cold and stiff. And he felt them himself, and said: When the poison reaches the heart, that will be the end. He was beginning to grow cold about the groin, when he uncovered his face, for he had covered himself up, and said (they were his last words) -- he said: Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?”
Top of Page
Information and Data Overload
“We thrive in information-thick worlds because of our marvelous and everyday capacities to select, edit, single out, structure, highlight, group, pair, merge, harmonize, synthesize, focus, organize, condense, reduce, boil down, choose, categorize, catalog, classify, list, abstract, scan, look into, idealize, isolate, discriminate, distinguish, screen, pigeonhole, pick over, sort, integrate, blend, inspect, filter, lump, skip, smooth, chunk, average, approximate, cluster, aggregate, outline, summarize, itemize, review, dip into, flip through, browse, glance into, leaf through, skim, refine, enumerate, glean, synopsize, winnow the wheat from the chaff, and separate the sheep from the goats.”
Envisioning Information, Edward R. Tufte, Graphic Press, Cheshire Connecticut, 1990
Albuquerque Teen's Death Highlights a Common Plant's Lethal Secret
By Maggie Shepard, Albuquerque Tribune. Friday, July 27, 2007
A fisherman navigating the calm southernmost cove of Elephant Butte Lake found William Hodge's pale, blue body bobbing beneath the surface. The 15-year-old from Albuquerque was curled up in fetal position, white froth clinging to his nose and mouth, his long skateboarder hairdo swaying in the murky water. The fisherman touched the body with his canoe paddle, looked around to the rocky shores where the teen and two friends had camped, then called 911 on a cell phone. Across the cove, William's friends, ages 15 and 16, paced the landscape, burning through a fever of scary hallucinations. One saw a dead dog and was talking to a woman who wasn't really there, asking her to "bring my backpack along," according to a park ranger's report. The other saw a man on a crucifix and thought a group of people had invaded their campsite. Neither knew what day it was. Reality had melted away entirely in the previous night's experimentation with tea made from the seeds of Jimson weed, a beautiful, deadly plant found around the southern New Mexico lake.
Also known as locoweed or moonflower for its white, trumpet-shaped blossoms that open at night, Jimson weed is common .....
Himalayan Blackberry is an invasive species with bloodletting thorns. Actually, the thorns are prickles, outgrowths of the epidermis rather than modified stems (which are true thorns). Whatever their technical name, the prickles are nasty needle-sharp spikes that inflict painful wounds. The prickles point backwards, making it easier to push into the bramble than to back out. Along with the malicious weapons, this plant produces gobs of large delicious berries.
Wicked Botany (It’s all in our minds)
Wicked Botany is about the plants we love to hate. Plants of course do not have consciousness or intentions so they are not capable of being wicked. The wickedness is all in our minds.
Those pesky weeds that come up every year are merely taking advantage of the niches we provide them by turning the soil, denuding it, eliminating mycorrhizae, over-watering, over fertilizing, compacting the soil, spraying with chemicals, disking for fire breaks, and a host of other ways of disturbing the natural condition of the soil. Many of these same plants are pioneer species with genes specialized for re-colonizing areas devastated by natural disasters such as floods, fire, and volcanos. Some of these “weeds” have been with us since our first days of agriculture, literally thousands of years. Others are so bound to us and our ways that they no longer exist in the wild. They are truly our constant companions.
We should know about plants that sicken or poison us. Our ancestors have spent tens of thousands of years trying hundreds of thousands of plants to find the few hundreds that we can eat. Of approximately 300,000 plants in the world 20,000 are edible and 20 or so provide 90% of our food. Most of these were domesticated in ancient times. We should not ignore all this trial and error knowledge. The effects of Poison Hemlock have been known for thousands of years. It was used for the execution of Socrates. Yet today there are still accidental poisonings of people mistaking if for parsley. If we don’t have this knowledge we should stick to the produce isle at the local market.
We are clearly allergic to Poison Oak, Poison Ivy, Poison Sumac, and their relatives. The literature seems to indicate that only humans have an allergic reaction. Since the reaction is delayed and there is no record that we prized this foliage as food, it is likely that our response to the plant oils is just an unhappy circumstance. The reaction is allergic so immunity cannot be generated by repeated exposure. It is truly unlucky that we have this response to the most common native shrub in California.
Some plants have the physical protection of prickles, thorns, and spines. They can cause painful and substantial injury. Yet their only purpose is self-preservation, not unlike our guns and battle axes. Some of the meanest thorns are on our prized garden roses. The simple precaution of the proper clothing and gloves render these plants weapons ineffective.
The “invasion” of new weeds like Yellow Star Thistle isn’t due to any particular “mean” gene in the plant’s make up; the invasion is usually due to our own actions. Our mass transport of people and goods around the world provides ample opportunity for hitchhikers and fallen seeds. Many of the invasions were actually imported intentionally. Castor bean, the source of one of the world’s most deadly poisons, was introduced as an agricultural crop, now escaped to our open lands. Acacia trees, Tree-of-Heaven, and Bermuda grass were introduced as horticultural plants, now run amok. English Ivy, Periwinkle, Himalayan Blackberry, and many other imported plants have escaped and become invasive weeds. We humans are the most effective tool for the spread of alien plants.
Castor Bean is a European agricultural crop that has escaped into the wild from our farms. It is the source of laxative and high grade lubrication oil. It is also the source of one of the world’s deadliest poisons, used in ancient and modern time for assassinations. On 7 September 1978 the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was shot in the leg in public on Waterloo Bridge in the middle of London by a man using a weapon built into an umbrella. The weapon embedded a small pellet in Markov's leg which contained ricin. Markov died four days later. The seeds superficially resemble the bodies of ticks, particularly ticks engorged with blood, hence its botanical name, Ricinus, the Latin word for tick.
- A Gallery of Weeds, Invasives, & Other Unsavory Characters
- Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center
- January 24 to March 14, 2015 Link to Catalog
Signs & Portals of the Underground
We move effortlessly through air in almost any direction. We move with slightly more effort through water. Through earth we cannot move. We must find existing cracks, crevices, voids, or excavate our pathway. Advancing technology allows us to excavate at will, digging and tunneling, burying our dead as deeply as we want, and creating incredible underground structures such as tunnels under the English Channel.
Awareness of the underground for our ancestors may have been of daily importance. Taking shelter in caves seems obvious. Archeologists find evidence that early humans used deep recesses in caves for cultural activities, such as sacrifices and paintings. Some of these locations are extremely difficult to reach, arduous even for modern cave explorers with their advanced equipment and lighting. We don’t know if these ancient activities were in reverence or in appeasement, in awe or in apprehensive, in joy or in dread, or maybe all of these. For them the underground was a place of danger, mystery, and forces that exercised power over their lives. For these ancients, it wasn’t just underground, it was an Underworld.
Ancient scribes portrayed this underworld as a very unpleasant place, a dangerous place of damnation and pain, darkness and nothingness. Metallurgy and energy demands made the resources (iron, copper, salt, coal, etc.) of this dangerous underworld valuable and worth pursuing. Great wealth was created by bringing these materials to the surface, usually using slaves. For the unwilling ancient miners, it must have been a living hell. For modern miners and tunnel workers who become trapped, little has changed the horror.
Our industrial age is no longer fearful of the spirits of the underworld; for us it is just underground. We have made effective use of excavating machines for stupendous mines, urban underground trains, trench warfare, escape tunnels, city sewer systems, bomb shelters, missile silos, mushroom farms, deep earthen wells, wine cellars, oil pipelines and more. The latest technologies allow modern man to even alter the structure of the underground without excavation, as in fracking. Even mundane urban development has made extensive use of the underground to hide our utilities. Many rivulets and seasonal creeks have been banished to the underground to allow unfettered development. We are seldom aware of all that is below the surface.
I am ambivalent about our underground activities, sometimes in awe of our accomplishments, and sometimes frightened at what is buried and entombed just to keep it out of sight (and out of mind). When I began to photograph evidence of the underground, I suddenly found markers everywhere - Petroleum and Gas pipeline emerging from the earth only to dive down again, manhole covers with intricate designs covering the entrances to the underground, historical parks with old mines that are truly portals to an underworld, and mysterious concrete structures that barely break the surface of the earth. Sometimes only the signs alert us as to what is underground. And like a fungi, the evidence above ground is dwarfed by the immensity of what is below. Signs & Portals are photographs of the signs (actual signs and other signifiers) and openings of an underground we should not lose sight of even if it is out-of-sight.
In daily life we are surrounded by common everyday objects that go unnoticed. These are so ubiquitous, so common, so close that we often don’t see them, as if they are invisible. I have always been drawn to these over-looked, and insignificant things. I photograph these objects hoping to discover some hidden mystery.
Photography can transform the unimportant into the distinctive. It is not a matter of making the insignificant appear significant. The different perspective makes me aware of how narrow is my field of view (physical and mental).
Picking up a rock, I turn it around and around. What does it look like? What else does it look like? It could be millions of years old. Its history might include continental drifting or erupting volcanos. If I pick up a stick, it somehow still exudes a sense of life and growth. Even when dead, the stick is supporting flocks of microscopic life. How can I hold these objects in my hand, or light them with studio equipment, or use a color background to entice a closer examination? I am part of this process. Why do I select a particular rock or stick when there are countless others on the ground in front of me? Who knows? It is still a mystery to me. Whatever I select, I take to heart. I cherish it. I want to photograph it so others will cherish it too.
History of Exhibitions and Publications
- 2024 "The Artists Eye", group exhibit, Marin Society of Artists, San Rafael, CA
- 2023 " The de Young Open, second triennial", group show of Bay Area Artists, de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
- 2023 " Conceptual Photography Exhibition", D'Art Gallery, Denver, CO
- 2022 "CLICK! Calling all photographers!", Village Theatre Art Gallery 233 Front Street Danville, CA
- 2021 "International Juried Exhibition", Center for Photographic Art, Carmel CA, Online Gallery, "Embrace"
- 2021 "Exposed", group exhibit, Marin Society of Artists, San Rafael, CA
- 2021 "Animal, Mineral or Vegetable?", group exhibit, Dallas Metro Arts Contemporary, Plano, TX
- 2020 " The de Young Open Exhibition", group show of Bay Area Artists, de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
- 2019 "Sticks and Stones", Walnut Creek Community Art Gallery, Walnut Creek Library, Walnut Creek, CA
- 2019 "Images 2019" Marin Society of Artists, San Rafael, CA
- 2019 "Taking Pictures 2019" Black Box Gallery, Portland, OR
- 2018 Local Botany (Banners), PhotoLab, Berkeley, CA
- 2016, Art Scientifique, "Number Data Becomes Meaning" banner. Sponsored by The College of Math and Science, and The Center for Creativity and the Arts, Fresno State.
- 2015, “Curmudgeon’s Garden”, Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center, one person show, Hayward CA.
- 2015, "Exposed", Marin Society of Artists, Ross, CA
- 2014 "Wicked Botany", Community Art Gallery, Walnut Creek Library, one person show, Walnut Creek, CA
- 2013-2014, Botanical Banners, The Presidio Trust, Natural Resources Offices
- 2013, Art Scientifique, The Sustainable Earth: The Science of Ecology, Sponsored by The College of Math and Science, and The Center for Creativity and the Arts, Fresno State.
- 2012-2013, Botanical Banners, Thoreau Center, Presidio of San Francisco.
- 2011, “The Secret Life of Balloons”, one person show, Photolab, Berkeley, CA
- 2010, Weeds (one person show), Thoreau Center, Presidio of San Francisco, San Francisco CA
- 2009, Weeds, Aliens, and Invasives (one person show), University YWCA, Berkeley CA
- 2004, WORKS + CONSERVATIONS, No. 7, Interview
- 2003, “WEEDS, Our Constant Companions, An Enduring Relationship”, (one person show), PhotoLab, Berkeley, CA
- 1991, “issue: EARTH”, Branstater Gallery, Loma Linda University, Riverside, CA
- 1991, Group Show, University YWCA, Berkeley, CA
- 1991, “Photographs”, (one person show), PhotoLab, Berkeley, CA
- 1991, “The Nocturnes”, Night Photography, Group Show, Noe Valley, San Francisco
- 1990, “Artists And The Environmental Crisis”, Route One Gallery, Pt Reyes Station, CA
- 1989, “Bay Area Artists Respond To The Environmental Crisis”, Eye Gallery, San Francisco, CA
- 1988, “East Bay Camera Ensemble”, The Art Store Gallery, Oakland, CA
- 1985, Group Show of Bay Area Students, San Francisco Camera Work Gallery, San Francisco CA
- 1984, “Rites, Wrongs & Indifferences, Four Photographers Look At People”, Elmwood Gallery, Berkeley, CA
- 1983, PHOTO METRO, Sept, 1983, Vol 2, Number 12, “High Fashion Dolls”
- 1981, “Soft, Flexible, Non-Toxic”, (one person show) U.C. Extension, San Francisco, CA