Page 8 The Ferndale (California) Enterprise

(Continued from page 1)

ALLEY

is the entrepreneurial force in the Alley. Over the last ten years, Ive developed a focus thats entirely alleyoriented, he says. I got here by helping Dan build sets for the Ferndale Rep it was called Theatre Alley then. I was the scenic artist. (Dan had been designing sets for the Rep since 1984, eventually becoming technical director. Mostly, that meant making sure that everything involving sets, lights, sound, special effects every that doesnt involve the actors was getting done. Dan took a hiatus during a recent administration, and will return as a set designer in the fall to work with the Reps new director, Brad Hills.) Two of the craftsmen in the Alley are boat builders. Andy Doerners crafting of historically accurate ship models of redwood and cedar grew out of his work in the mills and as a carpenter; it was first a hobby and then, a career. In a recent interview he told historian Pam Service he has built hundreds over the last 15 years, sometimes as many as 30 a year. His workshop is in a former garage along the Alley; there, along with steam schooners and sailing ships, visitors can find a pirate ship, complete with cannons and Doerners seascapes in and acrylic and watercolor. For a boat you can use for transportation, drop into Marc Daniels Minds Eye Manufactory, a Main Street storefront that extends to the Alley. Marc, who spends part of each summer on Alaskas St. Paul Island, one of the Pribilof Islands in the central Bering Sea, learned his craft by reading books by old sailors, like Vitus

Bering. Id been obsessing about skin boats since 1985, Daniels says. And my interest coincided with the Aleuts on St. Paul realizing that it had been a hundred years since anyone had built a skin boat, and they heard about me. I got a visiting artist grant, went to St. Paul, and spent two weeks with high school kids, building a skin boat. When it was finished they said, When can you come back? And Ive been going back ever since. My dream is to have a strong bond between Ferndale and St. Paul Ive been nurturing this idea for two decades where kids can go up there, come down here, learn from each other. The mantra of Minds Eye is: Dream it, make it, and with kids, with everyone, that opportunity builds creativity and problemsolving. Having a location like this, the synergy with each other, with artists and artisans, its tremendous. Here, the goal is to offer internships, classes; meaningful, hands-on work. The instruments in the window? Theyre broken, and were turning them into works of art with the kids involvement. Eventually, well auction them off to support the school music program. If you can figure out what we do here, let me know. Two doors south of Marc, the Ferndale Music Company has working instruments guitars, drums, ukuleles cover every inch of the walls in the long, narrow shop owned by musician and instructor Paul Beatie and his wife, freelance writer Cheri March. I started played guitar when I was 13, Paul says. It was a struggle, difficult to learn, not a natural thing for me, but I knew it was a cool thing to do, and I credit my teacher, Rob Bon-

ner, for keeping me interested. Within a couple years, Paul helped start a band, the Pyronauts instrumental surfing music, like Dick Dale, the Ventures and the group, which has done over 600 gigs, is still performing. Weve been together longer than the Beatles. On a January 2012 visit to Ferndale from eastern California, Paul and Cheri decided this was a place they could live. On June 2, 2012, we were here, we bought the old rectory by the cemetery, and we opened the music store. My goal was to have 30 students in a year. We hit that goal in seven months. My passion is performing, thats where my art is. I want to get kids involved in performing, putting on shows. Theres talk in the Alley about art classes for kids, and getting camps going, and music can be a part of all that. The Music Company has made a good beginning. Paul teaches Rock Bank 101 to students who already have had a year or two of lessons, and who want to learn how to play together, to perform. His first student band, The Legends, has already performed in town at open mic nights along the Alley. We say: instruments, lessons, fun. I want to emphasize the fun of playing music. Thats why its called play. Fiber artist Ayala Talpai is not a weaver. Im mostly in love with wool, she says. Im a spinner, a feltmaker, and my attitude is fairly funky. I want to make it clear that wool comes from an animal, a living thing, and that whatever I make retains life, retains that organic quality. Sometimes, I spin right off the back of the sheep. Im unorthodox. I do not card, I do not scour. Weve had sheep, but

weve never had one who would sit still for a spinner. I didnt ask about that; I said I assumed she used natural dyes from local plants. Oh, I love the idea of natural dyes, but people cant afford to pay for the kind of work, the lengthy process of picking and gathering that is involved. I use commercial dyes. She holds up a wildly vibrant chartreuse hat. For this, I used KoolAid. Dont ever drink that stuff, by the way. Its an acid-reactive dye. Vitamin C is the acid. Its permanent, which makes it useful for animal fibers, wool, cotton, silk. Dry cleaners live in mortal terror of Kool-Aid stains, although why someone in a silk blouse would be drinking Kool-Aid is a mystery to me. For this green hat, I used lime and lemonade, but I had to boost the yellow. Lemonade Kool-Aid is not very yellow. Artist Shawn Griggs and his wife, Maggie, own Red Eye Laboratories, another Main Street presence that backs up to the Alley. Ive been drawing forever, Griggs says, I always was going to be an artist, and I just kept going until Im here now, which is exactly where I always wanted to be and its awesome. Griggs is a Humboldt State graduate (studio art with an emphasis in graphic design) like his cousin, the artist and teacher Floyd Bettiga; Shawn met Maggie in one of Floyds classes. But he didnt start painting until 2000; before then, he was drawing, working with a dip pen. And the problem is that you can be 99.9% done with a drawing with a dip pen and then on the last stroke, you press on the nib, and you ruin it. His love of surfing and travel is evident in his

paintings, and he frequently employs skeleton metaphors he has adapted from the art of the Mexican Day of the Dead. The message is, he says, You cant worry about dying, you have to accept that no one is exempt. Live each day as if it were your last carpe diem thats one of the big influences on my work. The skeleton has become a way to show the human spirit and soul, stripped away from physical appearance. Appearance isnt what makes us different bones are all the same color what makes us different is whats in our heart. Living intensely and passionately, Griggs says he has simplified his life. For me now, its family, painting and surfing. I want to do those three things very well, to stuff as much into my life as I can, but focused. Lois Kellers art took a sharp turn a few years ago when she broke her wrist, making her no longer able to throw pots. I hand-build ceramics now, she says. From clay I flatten out with a slab roller. I like to work in three dimensions. Retired from her last career, as a ceramics teacher at an elementary school in Elk Grove, she works now on commission, doing portraits, house numbers, tableware. Ill change from sculpture to utilitarian pieces and then go back again, she says, and Bruce says, She can make anything out of clay, as long as its handbuilt. Bruce Keller teaches art classes in the large studio/former garage, but his sights are continually on the zeitgeist of the Alley. Were all tuned in to this wonderful place. I love it for the history. Its a Bohemian corner of Ferndale. Go down Main Street with your eyes forward

and youll miss it. Come into the Alley its a different world back here. Ayala pulls a diaphanous length of material from the basket at her feet. See what Im working on today, she says. Fairy coats. I want one, and I want ukulele lessons at the Music Company, and a family portrait in skeletons, and a skin boat ride around St. Paul island, and hand-built dinner plates, and Theres a new spirit in town. Dream it, make it, play it, feel it.

B & f

B co N

Wendy Lestina has been a columnist for the Enterprise for 12 years. Of the half-amillion words she's written for the paper in that time, 3,000 have won national prizes, both for "best humorous" and "best serious" columns. Wendy has also directed eight movies for the Ferndale Museum, one of which, "Letters Home," won the Western History Association's Autry Public History Award. The editor of the news aggregate "California's Children," she has an honorary doctorate from Middlebury College (Vermont) for her writing and speaking "on behalf of women and children." She and her husband, John, live on the family farm in Centerville. All their children and grandchildren live in New York.