Picture of the Day - Marlyn Moonroe

Today I felt lost with what's happening in my family and needed to reboot my mind by leaving town and heading south to San Luis Obispo for a couple of hours. I had my breakfast/lunch/dinner combo in the form of the sampler plate at Mo's Barbecue Steakhouse, my first such visit. I also visited BooBoo Records and Phoenix Books, although I purchased nothing. On my walk back to my car as I passed along the south side of the SLO REP, I espied one of the Cow Parade cow statues on permanent display. I do not recall seeing this one before which made it an added treat. As some of you may or may not recall, I worked both the public display event for the Cow Parade at the Madonna Inn in September, 2016, and the private auction of the cow statues at Oyster Ridge Barn outside Santa Margarita.

Cow Parade Finale

Today from 1:30-7:30 p.m. I worked parking and security at the San Luis Obispo County Cow Parade. This two-part artistic and fund-raising event started last year at Madonna Inn which I also worked and shared HERE. Today's finale was held at Oyster Ridge Barn in the Ancient Peaks Winery section of the historic Santa Margarita Ranch.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Soul Cats

Today I worked an eight-hour shift at the soon-to-open Alta Maria Station Restaurant in Los Alamos. Today and tomorrow this rustic little berg is celebrating their "Old Days" annual festival and with the main drag Bell Street shut down the owners of The Station are holding an open house for the public to view the  improvements to the old highway service station-turned eatery. The Station is slated to open in the coming months as bureaucratic hoops are jumped through by the owners and their agents. Aside from Alta Maria wines and tri-tip sliders being served was a hot serving of American rock classics by the Santa Ynez Valley-based band the Soul Cats fronted by four gospel singers and supported by a ten-piece band. The girls killed it as did the entire band. As the singers were getting their tickets for food and wine I flirted with them that I needed to card them. They loved that so much that when they performed "The House of the Rising Sun" they dedicated it to me. That is one of my favorite songs of the 1960s and they proceeded to knock it out of the park and I was honored thus. Thank you, Jo (far left), for the dedication and the hug! Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Cow Parade

Today I worked an eight-hour parking shift in the field at Madonna Inn which was hosting the one-day-only Cow Parade event. The organizers expected abouit 2,500 guests when, in fact, about 10,000 showed up. This coincided with a Home Expo up the hill on the same property at the Event Center here. The resulting traffic nightmare was a veritable Car-Mageddon with bumper-to-bumper traffic snaking back from Madonna Road to the Event Center and into our parking lot nearly paralyzing it. Traffic coming in backed out onto the 101 Freeway at times. We held our ground and made it work despite that and the heat we endured. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Snakebitten by Mojave Green

Tonight I was in San Diego as part of a trip to the area to visit my friend Jannine in the hospital (and throw in a little vacation in the process). A mutual friend of our's named Jon Marsh with whom we grew up joined us (Jannine's mom Patsy who is also my friend) for a small concert at The Merrow in the Hillcrest District of San Diego. The concert featured several local bands the best of which was one led by a mutual friend of Jannine, Jon, and I (we all grew up together in Atascadero and were Class of 1989) named Mike Mariotti. Mike is the frontman of Mojave Green and they brought down the house to the degree it could be considering the place was not packed. This photo was captured with my iPhone 3 so it is what it is quality-wise.
Image by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved). 

Picture of the Day - Blood Wine

Last night I attended the 2015 California Mid-State Fair's Artist Reception. This annual event reveals the voting results of the fair's art contest across a variety of art media, competency levels, and age groups. It is an invitation-only event wherein submitters and their entourages are welcome. For the third consecutive year I was in attendance by way of my friendship with local artist and photographer Susie Christian of Morro Bay. This year I was less excited by the entries than last year's crop or that of the year before.

This painting by Jim Alberter was the only one that really got my attention. Perhaps I am misinterpreting what it means but I see it as containing a negative impression of the local wine industry. The center bottom shows a newer vineyard which is a rather ubiquitous sight in these parts nowadays. Adjacent to it on both flanking sides is the old landscape the vineyards are replacing. As such the vineyard which is the insurgent landscape is stabbing into and penetrating and violating the old landscape that preceded it. The vineyard appears to go on forever into the distant horizon as if the vineyard never ends.

The wine glass is inverted which brings to mind an inverted cross and/or an inverted flag. The former is symbolic in the modern popular culture of blasphemy which around here would be any sort of criticism of the wine industry. An inverted flag represents a distress signal whcih suggests distress regarding the invasion and occupation of the Paso Robles region by the insurgent wine industry.

The red fluid roiling and rolling down the inner surface of the wine glass appear both ominous-looking and is highly symbolic in one or two ways. Since ancient times wine has often symbolized blood which it potentially does here while also representing itself. Representing wine the painting suggests the wine is descending and covering everything as if to suggest the wine industry and its interests are becoming ever more dominant in the area. Representing blood the painting suggests there is a heavy price to be paid locally for the wine industry here and the idea of blood as a cost for something (ex: blood, sweet, and tears) is a common metaphor.

My personal views on the local wine industry are highly complex and nuanced and internally contradictory. I see it as both good and bad depending upon the context. Water-wise and land zoning-wise it is bad. Revenue-wise and employment-wise it is good. In any case I really like this painting!

Picture of the Day - Firestorm At Dusk

In my summer school version of Fire & Society at Cal Poly we have an art assignment. After initially planning on doing something involving internet memes involving fire I dropped the idea in favor of something more traditional. Today I painted my first acrylic painting ever and the first painting of any sort I have done as an adult. The requirement for this assignment was something fire-themed. Here is "Firestorm At Dusk." I hope I have earned an "A" on this. Note: doing this was also in keeping with my ongoing theme of challenging myself to go outside my comfort zone and try new things. I am a photographer, not a painter!
Image and painting by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Sampling Of Selections Of Central Coast Wine Classic

As mentioned in the previous post HERE, a couple of weekends ago I worked two consecutive 12-hour overnight security shifts at the 30th Annual Central Coast Wine Classic held at Avila Beach Golf Resort at Avila Beach, CA. In addition to the photographs I shot of the facilities which can be viewed in the previous post, I also took photographs of some of the wine and art that was up for auction at this charity fundraiser.

Note: I obtained official permission to post these images. 

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).