My friend and I decided earlier this year that while the core mission of Quirky Berkeley is stuff in Berkeley, an occasional field trip is a good thing. On holidays, I post photographs from a notional quirky field trip. So far – just California plus one Nevada. Usually but not always easy driving distance. This is NOT mission creep – just field trips.
To date, we have these, most recent at the top:
Field Trip: Susan’s Store Room
For the 4th of July – field trip to San Anselmo. A toy store – sort of – where idea leads to idea leads to idea. Fanciful. Whimsical. Brilliant. The best of the best. Yes!
Memorial Day! Murals, a yo-yo museum, Asian clutter, crazed memorabilia and oddities on a bar wall, and a fairytale park. Who knew?
It’s President’s Day – let’s conserve on gas and just go to Emeryville. At the Home Depot/Target shopping center we’ll find tons (literally!) of Bulwinkle steel sculpture.
We continue our holiday tradition this MLK day with a field trip to Thunder Mountain, Frank Van Zant’s folk art environment in Imlay, Nevada, east of Reno. Dusty, windy, hot in summer. And intensely genius.
For our Christmas holiday field trip, we visit Clayton Bailey’s museum in Crockett and his home on the road to Port Costa. Ceramics. Robots. Phantasmagorical. And we are introduced to my friend’s friend Erskine.
Field Trip – Laurel Skye’s Mosaic World
Our Thanksgiving holiday field trip is to the mosaic home of Laurel Skye in Arcata. Sensory overload! Go slowly. Click on the photos to get full screen. This is really something.
Duane Flatmo’s Kinetic Sculpture
It’s Labor Day, so it’s time for a field trip. We visit Duane Flatmo, creator of El Pulpo Mecanico and other kinetic sculpture at his Eureka workshop.
The Labor Day field trip is – see above – to see Duane Flatmo in Eureka. While there, we checked out the preserved folk art of Romano Gabriel.
Our Fourth of July field trip – to Eureka! Getting there is a significant fraction of the fun, and here are four major manifestations of Old Weird America along the way.
Field Trip: Art Moura’s Unusual/Outsider Art
It’s Memorial Day, a holiday, so a field trip. Second stop with Susan Alexander in Sebastopol, Art Moura and his raw, crude, intuitive, outsider – unusual – art.
Field Trip: Amiot and Laurent / Sebastopol
Another holiday – Berkeley and private – and another virtual field trip, to the home of Patrick Amiot and Brigitte Laurent in Sebastopol, ground zero for Amiot’s junk art sculpture.
Field Trip – Cevan Forristt in San Jose
A holiday field trip! Part Two of Marcia Donahue takes me to San Jose, here to landscape designer genius Cevan Forristt’s Asian-inspired yard, guest house, and house.
Field Trip – Ted Fullwood in San Jose
Our new holiday tradition – field trip! For Easter I take you to San Jose to see the tile work, ceramic sculpture, and weaving of Ted Fullwood. A big wow.
Susan Alexander / Tom Tollefsen / Glen Ellen
A new feature – a field trip each holiday. Here, magic house and magic garden in Glen Ellen. Really something.
