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Organic Reprisal

We leave the troubled shores of the US soon, for the exotic environs of Indonesia where Donna Von Hoesslin’s creative muse lies, on the Isle of Bali. We are a tightly knit crew, who all will donate time and our own efforts in a collaborative endeavor to contribute to something that matters, and in the process, create something beautiful and compelling. The excursion will be a little different than Donna’s usual solo pilgrimage to her mecca of creativity and harmonic bliss. This time she brings along a group of young women whose names have become synonymous with her Ventura based

The Chase

Surfing is not a sport. Not in any conventional sense. It falls into the genre of life’s laundry list of activities, better described as a life style. So broad in scope, it permeates all facets of a participant’s cognitive and subconscious thought processes, to the extent that you are surfing, even when not actually riding a wave. One of the reasons for this life style moniker is The Chase. This facet of surfing dictates that the participants be die hard, or more accurately: die never, optimists. Finding waves, developing technique, expanding performance range, and increasing the difficulty level of ocean

Project Cupcake

What started out as a Facebook discussion on my friend West Cooke’s mad cooking skills, and his hidden away restaurant, Cooke’s Smokehouse (A couple blocks away from the location of one of my old surf shops) got a little out of hand. Funny what can inspire us to create something special. It is remarkable what can arise in both cause and affect via inspiration. A few of us had been joking around online. Kat Merrick, Jim Scolari, Jim Rice, West, the usual multifaceted blend of community that is the town we all refer to fondly as Ventucky, our land of

Voice

Lone Voice Extreme athlete Garrett MacNamara has been visiting, and we are working on a few projects. He sat next to me as I rapidly did a search for a print file that a client had requested. In ten minutes this is what I pulled out of one of this season’s file folders. I doubt many, if any eyes have seen them or hearts heard the songs these images sing. In my files they are nothing particularly unusual. So does the fact that many people do not know they exist matter? What about the other thousand or so similars? Oh,

Crazy Is

as crazy does. But sometimes it is really all just a part of the ebb and flow of the creative process. What appears to be madness on the surface or at the least, just a bad idea, is often the seed of something quite remarkable. I have learned to always have my ear to the wind. The song it sings may carry that which I seek. My friend Kara Block, who is about to receive her Master of Fine Arts degree from Brooks Institute, had stopped by for a visit and to contribute to the planning of an expedition that

Inherent Risk

On this Fourth of July, a short note. As we memorialize our Nation’s birth it is a point of honor and gratitude that we recall the quest to embrace and engage in risk. Forward momentum and a new horizon would be found for those willing to set foot and family on a leaky ship. The amount of passion, victory, birth and new life that is our country, well it all began with that first risk taker. There is much ado about American Imperialism these days. I just returned from a short visit to camp Pendleton and a Navy corpsman told

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