The Socolofsky Family and the Amazing Small, Small World in my Studio!
You all know that trivia game, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon based on the concept of the small-world phenomenon?... Well, here's one for ya:
Kathleen Socolofsky from this awesome place at UC Davis, visits my studio the other day with her sister, Mary Sue Ingraham, from Phoenix, and parents Esther and "Soc" Socolofsky from Baton Rouge, La.
Kathleen is the director of the UC Davis Arboretum in Davis, CA. It's a wonderful, magical place of more than 100 acres with some 22,000 trees and plants.
After Mary Sue and I talked about escaping the heat (her from Phoenix and me from my former hometown of Bakersfield, CA), we chatted about the more pleasant aspects of Kathleen's domain – the wonderful UC Davis Arboretum.
They are launching a big project there at UC Davis called the Art/Science Fusion Program.
Through interactive lectures and studio time, students learn scientific concepts and turn them into works of art. The class schedule is amazing... Why didn't they have this when I was in college? Perhaps science would have been a lot more palatable for me!
Here's the amazing thing: The sisters mentioned ceramic artist Donna Billick, explaining that she is one of the founders of the program. Donna has pieces in major collections, created big public art projects, teaches workshops at her own place in Baja... You know, she's a big deal.
Many years ago, Donna was living on "The Farm" near Davis with a bunch of my husband's friends and they were all buddies "back in the day," as he would say. (This is waaayyy before I hooked up with him, which was, in fact, 29 years ago this past Sunday - yes, it was my anniversary... only we forgot until the next day... That's a whole 'nother story!)
We have a Donna Billick original in our front yard here in Cambria, CA. We've carted it around with us, giving it the star position in our landscape for three decades! The hubster talked her into giving it to him when years ago. It had broken in the firing and he convinced her that she couldn't sell it broken like that and that she should give it to him. (He's pretty convincing, that guy.)
Here he is with the piece in our front yard in Cambria. It's had a bit of "wear and tear" through the years, but we love it!
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