A Portrait of Mendocino Village

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In April 2017 as central artwork for the inaugural Mendocino County Fringe Festival I presented a video as an after dark projected video onto the facade of Moody's Coffee bar in the northern California village of Mendocino.

This was my humble project to present citizens in their small towns and neighborhoods being active and engaged within their communities through their work. This isn't a masterpiece, but my hands on attempt to create an artwork that engages a local community with meaningful questions and issues.

The 15 minute video was shown as a repeated loop with audio narration and soundtrack and repeatedly looped between 7pm-10pm on April 7th and 8th, 2017

Published April 21, 2017

Earlier this month I presented my new artwork embedded as an after dark projected video onto the facade of Moody's Coffee bar in the northern California village of Mendocino.  

This was my humble project to present citizens in their small towns and neighborhoods being active and engaged within their communities through their work. This isn't a masterpiece, but my hands on attempt to create an artwork that engages a local community with meaningful questions and issues.

Last night I was reminded of Harvey Milk's words, "the American Dream starts with the neighborhoods" when I was fortunate to hear the Gay rights activist and icon Cleve Jones at Bookshop West Portal. He talked of the meaning that each of us can find within ourselves and our work that will unify and empower those we agree and disagree with.  His, The Names Project, a patchwork quilt memorial of the victims of AIDS, was an idea that people laughed at and thought it would never be accepted, and with commitment and work it became the largest community created folk artwork in the world. To the only child in the room, he said, don't listen when you're told something can't be done. 

I've recently been very fortunate to work with Marty Nemko, educator, career coach and KALW radio show host, who in the space of weeks has brought wisdom, ideas, tools, and strategy never shared with me in the world class colleges where I was a student. Marty has encouraged me to create work that is accessible to a larger audience that highlights and is inclusive of a spectrum of backgrounds. He has reminded me that no matter how small a group, that you can use your talents and power to bring meaning to peoples lives. 

This project in Mendocino was a first step in that direction. Something that I could create and accomplish with my own hands, with next to no budget, at a human scale, in a small town where people need to be respected and included. It is a prototype which in the long term I hope to share as new works in small towns in the United States.