Once or twice a year, a stack of newspaper maps with a title like "PENINSULA OPEN STUDIOS 2003" will appear in the public library, or some other place I happen to see it. Looking them over will show you where and when the studios will be open in your area. It so happens that this weekend and last weekend were the ones for this area. I spent some of Sunday afternoon biking around the area looking at stuff. Here is some of what I saw.

The woman who was wearing this bead explained she had gotten it from a Maori in New Zealand who told her it was the hook that had been used to pull Aotearoa out of the sea. She had a table in the garage of a friend whose home was part of the studio tour. I'm sorry that I didn't get her name.

I'm not sure if that is Debbie Hudson or Barbara Stone, but I'm sure she is the artist behind the photo she is holding. The frame has a light built into it, which is why it glows relative to everything else in the picture. It was quite a sight.

There were actually at least half a dozen artists at this studio, each of them with a room full of their work. Judy Gittelsohn was the only one who was actually painting at the time. I would have taken a couple more pictures, but the artists were nervous about the possibility I might trample their intellectual property rights, or something like that. These just wanted to be credited for their works.

This shadow box by Lorraine Capparell was actually a study for a bronze sculpture titled Five Women that is bigger than life size. Her studio was neatly hidden behind a house and some trees.

I saw this picked. These leaves were grown in a bed next door to the studio where the weekends art tour ended for me. I came out of the studio, and this woman was picking some for her supper. I talked to her a bit, and to make a long story short I traded one of my stickers for it. Those cheddar bunnies adding crunch are from Annie's, one of the vendors at the green festival. The organic tofu and tomato are from The Milk Pail Dairy, which I passed on the way home. The rest of the ingredients came from the Mountain View farmers market. A yummy way to end a day of looking at art.