Earth Day-Stinson Beach 4-19-08

EarthDayStinsonBeach 4-19-08 216

EarthDayStinsonBeach4-19-08 216
Originally uploaded by lauralovesart

Earth Day-Stinson Beach 4-19-08

http://lauralovesart.blogspot.com/
Okay, I know I know...Earth Day isn't really until Tuesday, April 22nd. That being said...of course there were Earth Day celebrations going on this weekend. And me...being an art lover...lauralovesART, you know...I decided to check out the art on the beach at Stinson Beach.

Environmental artist Zach Pine had his fourth annual Earth Day celebration today at Stinson Beach. Artists and regular people are encouraged to stack and balance rocks and wood and decorate with strands of seaweed to make earth day art. It is the coolest thing!

My day began with trying to rouse my children, 19 year old Alexandra and 21 year old Nick. Nick was unrousable. Sooo...Alexandra and I headed off to Stinson Beach. Shoreline Highway is so narrow and windy, it's a slow drive and it's very easy to make your passengers carsick! Luckily, Alexandra takes after me and can handle any rollercoaster ride that you throw at her.

We finally arrived in Stinson Beach city and stopped at the Stinson Beach Market for sandwiches and snacks, then proceeded to the beach itself. We ended up eating in the car, even though there is a nice picnic table area there, because it was a bit windy.

Next we headed out to the beach after disposing of our trash in the proper recycling recepticles, of course! The beach was full of people enjoying the day. The sun was shining, the water was sparkling and the wind was whipping. There were a few guys out surfing, people flying kites, a tug-o-war game of adults against kids (yes the adults won), we saw a child making a sand "angel" (that made me laugh!), and seagulls and a lone sandpiper.

We followed our instincts and headed to the left and finally found the beach art area. There were small displays of balanced rocks, (heart) THE EARTH spelled out in rocks, sand sculptures, some used a mixture of rocks, seaweed or beach grass, beach flowers, wood, driftwood. I enjoyed a family display which included a peace sign in rocks with a teepee of two sticks with some green seawed hanging from it. Spelled out in letters in front of it, "Green Peace". The most amazing display was a dragon made of a sand sculpture that includeed rocks for scales and seagrass coming out of the mouth like flames! I made my own "sculpture" by balancing one small rock on a large rock. Very Zen, I thought! Alexandra teased, "Mom, did you make art?" I nodded, "yes".

Alexandra and I had a lovely couple of hours at the beach. We couldn't stay as long as we would have liked because Alexandra had to go to work. I would definitely love to attend the event again next year. Maybe we can even drag Nick along and get there early enough to really make our own art sculpture.

As the song says, "If you have the chance to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance". If you have the chance to sleep or go to the beach, I hope you go to the beach. Sometimes you need to do a bit of work or lose some sleep to earn those coolness points! Make the choice to make your day into a memory you will keep forever. Make the choice to lead the BIG life, not the small life. I do.

I have quite a few pictures I'd like to share but I can not seem to figure out how to add them randomly through my blog. They all seem to keep going to the top! I will keep working on it!