My friend and I decided that while the core mission of Quirky Berkeley is stuff in Berkeley, an occasional field trip is a good thing. On holidays, I will 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:
Labor Day Field Trip – San Juan Bautista
For Labor Day we visit Vicente A. “Bobo” Banuela Jr. and his astonishing collection of electric line equipment and models. Decades of a passionate pursuit by a passionate man.
Holiday Field Trip: Dorothy Herger in Vallejo
QB Superstar Doug Heine took me to Vallejo for our Memorial Day field trip to visit his high school art teacher, Dorothy Herger and see her world of art made, bought, given, and collected.
Field Trip: Dragon House in Sacramento
For President’s Day, a notional trip to the Curtis Park neighborhood of Sacramento and the Dragon House – spectacular tile work and high-production-value small worlds.
For our notional Thanksgiving field trip, we visit Junkee in Midtown Reno. Antique clothing, kitschy antiques, and handmade crafts, all in a super heavy dose of quirk.
Field Trip: Plastic World in Santa Cruz
An undersea environment created with plastic reclaimed from the ocean and beaches. Aerialists. Teaching the dangers of plastics in the ocean. Mark your calendar – October 5 in Santa Cruz.
Avenue of Giants – Bell Plastics, Hayward
Our 4th of July notional holiday field trip is to Bell Plastics in Hayward, where owner Bruce Kennedy has collected and restored several dozen fiberglass advertising giants. Ut vides credere. Do you believe in giants?
Memorial Day – Time Travel to 1969
For our holiday field trip today, Memorial Day, we will travel time, not space. We will visit Berkeley on Memorial Day 1969, when 30,000 people marched in support of People’s Park and against state violence.
Allen Sawyer – So Clever! Such collections!
Our notional holiday field trip to see Allen Sawyer’s collections – Disney, plaster fish, mermen, paint-by-number swans, male ballet dancers, gay and queer book titles and oh so much more.
Holiday Field Trip: The Art of John Abduljaami
For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we find the wood carvings of the late John Abduljaami, focal point being an eco-industrial park in West Oakland.
Christmas Field Trip – Dave Seabury in East Berkeley
Continuing with our All-Seabury long holiday weekend, a field trip to Orinda and the home of Dave Seabury and his life of music and art and found treasures. And four cats, three of whom are shown here.
Field Trip – Alameda Point Antique Faire
It’s Thanksgiving, and this holiday notional field trip is to the-once-a-month faire at Alameda Point. Marcia Donahue and Jon Balderston were my guides. Lucky! An incredible experience.
Holiday Field Trip – Quirky Reno
Day three of a three-day weekend – a third post. A first taste of Quirky Reno – the Flintstones, a big VW Bug/Spider, and the Generator DIY workspace. Shown here, Maya’s Mind by Mischell Riley.
Holiday Field Trip -NIMBY in Summer
Snook suggested in the winter that we come back in the summer as NIMBY gets Burning Man real. We did. It was hot and dusty and sizzled – and on its way to Burning Man Real.
Holiday Field Trip – NIMBY in Winter
The first of three Labor Day weekend field trip posts. Michael Snook is the creative genius and owner at NIMBY in East Oakland, a DIY/makers space with strong connections to Burning Man.
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.
