A wildflower tour of Fort Ord

I was joined by my childhood & current best friend Lesley through our favorite hiking trails in Fort Ord! Wildflower picking was an extremely important part of our young days and we spent more time outside wandering, getting poison oak, climbing trees, and getting our feet poked by burrs than we did doing just about anything else.

We switched off about 1/2 and 1/2 with the camera in an attempt to photograph every distinct type of wildflower we came across. I hope you enjoy the photos we took together! These sure make me feel nice and calm.

I have been taking digital photographs for most of my life, and this is my first year with a DSLR. I have a Canon EOS Rebel. A few years old, but I don't need it to be too fancy for my camera to serve me well. Though I am still learning how to utilize all the settings properly. Maybe the next time I go out to take photos in bright daylight I won't have to go back and correct their overexposure in Lightroom? A girl can dream.

My photographer friends, please leave a comment with your current favorite camera and what you like to take photos of! I would love to know!

Celebrating YAC, my first door into the art world.

Tomorrow I give this speech at Youth Arts Collective's birthday celebration luncheon. I wanted to share with my web followers & anyone who can not attend, so that this program's influence on my artistic growth can be known!

“I may be the last to speak, but I was the first one here!
My name is Meheen Ruby Hauge and I first joined YAC 10 years ago as a high school sophomore. Back then, all I wanted to draw was my favorite video game characters and pages copied from my favorite comic books. Now, I do abstract painting and woodblock printmaking if that tells you anything about how YAC helped expand my expressive abilities.
YAC was my internship, and gave me skills I needed to complete my Bachelor’s degree in Art. And, because of a letter of recommendation from Meg and Marcia, allowed me to get a scholarship that paid a chunk of my rent in college. YAC’s professional network is the reason that I have my current job as a studio assistant to a local Etsy seller.
I moved back suddenly to the Monterey area after my life in Humboldt fell apart and YAC immediately welcomed me back. Getting to know this new generation of artists has been a gift and a joy. I am endlessly inspired by the work they produce, and I cherish the fact that I can be a small part of their growth. They blow me away.
YAC taught me that I could achieve a career in the arts. More than that, to see myself as an Artist. It didn’t have to matter that nobody with my name was one before me; I had a place for my diverse voice in the art world.”

Unexpected avian customer! aka, the story of Pigeon Wrangling.

Typically we go about our day under an assumption that there is a Human world and a Natural world. This fits neatly for society; in an interior space we use climate control, walls, windows, and closed doors to separate our affairs from the long-since-developed wilderness. The soil deep beneath the concrete foundations of our office buildings can’t remember when it last felt the rays of the sun or the wriggle of a seed germinating. Today while I was grabbing a bite to eat for lunch, that dividing line shattered like the false glass it is made of.

*insert dramatic flourishes*

Let me explain.

I dropped into Plume’s, a great little coffee shop & study nook, to grab coffee and a sandwich. There was a bit of a wait, but I didn’t mind. I had left my phone back at the studio, mostly because I have a habit of distracting myself with it and everyone needs a break from screens, even for just the length of a little lunch run.
To occupy the time I was checking out the very full bulletin board, ripping phone numbers for odd job listings and taking some joy from the variety of workshops, massage therapists, photographers, and babysitters making themselves known in the community. I’m corny.

THUD! THUD!

A pigeon smacked right into the large glass windows (more like a wall than a window to be truthful) and flew inside in a rush of feathers and noise. It flew back and forth, alarming all the grad students tapping away on laptops and the lunch-goers at their tables. It circled the entire span of the cafe, settling onto a table where it displaced three women who had been eating. They rushed to their feet, chairs squeaking across the floor, polyester sport jackets swishing.

In some commotion, a rough-looking man with kind eyes and a plethora of face & neck tattoos managed to gently corner it and take hold of it in his hands. Relief began to radiate through the space as everyone realized that the possibility of being shit on while indoors had passed.

Laughing, he held the pigeon up and gestured with it to the cafe, saying “All right! Say goodbye to everyone!” in a tone both comforting and silly.

He proceeded to take the pigeon outside and with a grand flourish, tossed it straight up into the air as if releasing a single dove from a balcony in an old romantic movie. As it ascended, like magic it was joined by a flock of its kin and was lost in the crowd of circling pigeons heading off toward the ocean.

The cafe quickly settled back into business as usual.

Trying to be profound, I turned to the young man sitting near by on his laptop.
“Just a nice reminder that we still live in nature!”
He looked at me like I was a cornball weirdo. I burnt my tongue on my coffee as I attempted to downplay my own awkwardness. Yeesh. Guess not everyone was having as much of a "moment" as I was.

I got my sandwich and went to leave, but stopped to thank the pigeon-wrangler for his excellent pigeon wrangling. He thanked me and told me that he loves animals and has always had a good communication with them. Always interesting to meet someone who at first glance seemed intimidating display an unexpected gentle side and grace under pressure.

I am thankful for these small moments between strangers and nature. I couldn’t help but smile the whole time I walked back to the studio.