The PhotoBooth is a lightweight, portable studio that can be shipped anywhere in the world.  During the past three years, Irion has traveled over 8,000 miles and made over 2,000 portraits in communities across America.  The booth is set up at cafes, in parking lots, at county fairs and on sidewalks.

Irion then creates installations of the resulting portraits taken of a particular community or group.  A requirement of the project is that the installation occur in a place that is frequented by the community in its daily activities, with pedestrian access rather than in a place apart such as a gallery or community space.  Irion considers the projects to be about community and only secondarily about art.

Irion is motivated by the concept of community.  “I am interested in strengthening the ties of a community, by showing the group back to itself in a direct and democratic fashion with the idea that viewers can directly gaze on the faces of fellow citizens and have a moment to reflect on their relationship to one another.  The installation functions as a place to meet one’s neighbors as a town green might once have allowed, so as to share with others the gaze of the community,” he explains.

The Yountville PhotoBooth project and Picture Wall installation have been underwritten by the Bardessono Inn and Spa scheduled to open in February 2009.

Click here to view photos of the Bardessono Inn and Spa construction site on Flickr.

A sunny day, good wine, good food and lots of good conversation. I’ve been here before. For the better part of two decades my life has revolved around the world of politics, and the setting at the Plumpjack winery Monday looked like any number of high-dollar political fundraisers I’d attended over the years. But looks can be deceiving.

For starters, the mere presence of the grilled leg of lamb and rapini greens served at lunch set this event apart: Both were better prepared than what you’d get at a typical buck-raking event. And the rapini greens? They would never be served at a Republican event (too foreign), and rapini’s bitter tang typically banishes them from Democratic menus as well. On the tables of politics, nothing should be too challenging: Political food is cheap, merely fuel for the conversation.

Good wine, however, does grace the tables of the political elite; just ask former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, who got himself in trouble recently for buying too much expensive French wine. He’d have done better to spend his money on the Plumpjack cabernet sauvignon or the Quixote petite syrah, both superb wines served with the lamb.

Monday’s luncheon pitted the Quixote petite syrah against a pair of cabernets: the Plumpjack and its sister winery, CADE. Which paired better with the lamb? There were even cards for the guests to cast their vote. (No hanging chads here, though) I knew I’ve been in politics too long when I started thinking that with two evenly matched cabernets duking it out on one side, and a lone petite syrah on the other, there was a whiff of this year’s presidential race in the day’s contest. Is Obama a cab?

Her first book, Notes on the Making of Apocalypse Now, was hailed as “one of the most revealing of all first hand looks at the movies” (Los Angeles Herald Examiner). And now the author brings the same honesty, insight, and wit to this absorbing account of the next chapters in her life.

In this new work we travel back and forth with her from the swirling center of the film world to the intimate heart of her family. She offers a fascinating look at the vision that drives her husband, Francis Ford Coppola, and describes her daughter Sofia’s rise to fame with the film Lost in Translation. Even as she visits faraway movie sets and attends parties, she is pulled back to pursue her own art, but is always focused on keeping her family safe. The death of their son Gio in a boating accident in 1986 and her struggle to cope with her grief and anger leads to a moving exploration of her deepest feelings as a woman and a mother.

Written with a quiet strength, Eleanor Coppola’s powerful portrait of the conflicting demands of family, love and art is at once very personal and universally resonant."(Random House, 2008)

Click here to purchase, "Notes on a Life."

Upcoming Book Signing Events:

5/19/2008 - 7:30 pm
Kepler's Books
1010 El Camino Real
Menlo Park, CA 94025
650-324-4321

5/20/2008 - 6 p.m.
Tosca Cafe
242 Columbus Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94133
415-986-9651

5/22/2008 - 7 pm
Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Blvd.
Corte Madera, CA 94925
415-927-0960

5/28/2008 - 7:30 pm
Capitola Book Cafe
1475 41st Avenue
Capitola, CA 95010
831-462-4415

6/3/2008 - 7 pm
Rubicon Estate (Click here for information on the 'Music in the Vineyards' event)
1991 St Helena Highway
Rutherford, CA 94573
To purchase tickets for this event: 707-258-5559

]]> http://www.studio-707.com/blog/archives/2008/05/_peleanor_coppola_shares_her.php http://www.studio-707.com/blog/archives/2008/05/_peleanor_coppola_shares_her.php Art Education Books Non-wine activities in Napa Valley Wed, 14 May 2008 10:54:24 -0800

“In developing an intimate understanding of horses, sculptor Deborah Butterfield evokes an interior life with which the viewer connects. Each sculpture depicts a solitary horse, introspective, unridden, at rest, which, despite their mass and materiality, appear animated. Butterfield constructs these works first with found wood branches and sticks that she twists into the horse forms. The bronze is cast from this wood, which is burned out in the casting process, to produce a unique work. Butterfield then applies patina, which conveys with astonishing accuracy the texture and nuances of the original wood.”(LA Louver, 2003)

Sculptor Deborah Butterfield created her newest work, “Madrone,” in the studios of Napa’s Oxbow School during the winter of 2007 while she worked as an artist-in residence, teaching high school-aged students. 

Born and raised in San Diego, Deborah Butterfield studied at the University of California, Davis and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. From the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s Butterfield taught sculpture at the University of Madison, Wisconsin and Montana State University, Bozeman. Both of Deborah’s sons attended Oxbow.

Anybody who loves fruits and vegetables as much as Jeff Cox clearly does is, for me, a kindred spirit. Cox, a prolific writer, has spent his distinguished professional career promoting organic gardening, wine appreciation and good cooking, all passions I share. For those of us who believe that good eating begins with a home garden—or, lacking that, a local farmer’s market—Cox’s two new books, The Organic Cook’s Bible and The Organic Food Shopper’s Guide (both from John Wiley & Sons), reinforce our prejudices. Like him, I’m persuaded that varieties matter (nothing beats an O’Henry peach), that the season should steer the menu, and that fresh produce offers endless inspiration.

A Sonoma County resident and longtime restaurant critic for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat,  Cox spent much of his early career at Organic Gardening magazine. Organic food was a fringe movement then; today’s shoppers have many more organic choices, and Cox’s new books give readers the tools to make the most of them.

]]> http://www.studio-707.com/blog/archives/2008/04/summer_garden_cooking_inspired.php http://www.studio-707.com/blog/archives/2008/04/summer_garden_cooking_inspired.php Books Organic Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:51:42 -0800 One day in 1969, a curious New York teenager bought a ticket—and discovered his future as an artist.

Dawoud Bey wasn’t looking for anything more than a little excitement when he took the train from Queens to Manhattan to see an exhibition called “Harlem on My Mind,” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“I wanted to see what all this controversy was about,” recalled Bey, who was less interested in the photographs on display than in the protests the show had sparked in both the black and white communities.

But that day was a quiet one, with no protesters or police on hand.

“So I had no choice,” Bey said, but to tour the gallery—“and that turned out to be a very transformative moment,” he told the audience during his Oxbow Public Lecture at Copia March 30.

]]> http://www.studio-707.com/blog/archives/2008/04/photographer_dawoud_bey.php http://www.studio-707.com/blog/archives/2008/04/photographer_dawoud_bey.php Art Education Non-wine activities in Napa Valley Oxbow School Wed, 09 Apr 2008 07:59:12 -0800 Is food styling all about food or styling?  I mean, is it possible to make anything look appetizing by employing a few of the stylist's secrets? Endlessly curious free-lance journalist Chris Colin examined the possibilities in his article, “Sweat Sock: The Other White Meat," for the third issue of Meatpaper Magazine. .

Sunday, March 30, I joined Chris, Meatpaper editors Amy Standen and Sasha Wizansky and several hundred of the magazine’s enthusiasts at San Francisco's Serpentine restaurant to celebrate the publication’s third issue.

Perbacco restaurant, Fra' Mani Handcrafted Salumi , wine educator and author Courtney Cochran, were on hand to pour wine and talk about the splendid pairings of syrah and petite syrah with meat. Meyer Family Cellars, Pretense, and Verge were a few of the wines being poured at Serpentine.

Click here for an exclusive glimpse into issue three of Meatpaper with Chris's commentary on the art of food styling.

Click on the below links for images from the Meatpaper release event:
Meatpaper Flickr Link
Bici Girl Meatpaper Flickr Link
Studio-707 Meatpaper Flickr Link

-Ashley Teplin

Sarr works with barbed wire, rusty tin, and old metal skillets to create her often life-sized figures. One of her most prized tools is a chainsaw. Injuries are always a possibility.

“I’d like it to be a collaboration, but it ends up being a contest between me and my materials,” said Sarr, who also incorporates dirt and plant roots into many of her works.  So why, asked one young Oxbow School art student, was Sarr drawn to sculpture?  “I’m a very tactile person,” Sarr answered. “I understand my world through my hands.”

]]> http://www.studio-707.com/blog/archives/2008/03/shovels_and_skillets_sculptor.php http://www.studio-707.com/blog/archives/2008/03/shovels_and_skillets_sculptor.php Art Education Non-wine activities in Napa Valley Oxbow School Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:01:42 -0800 One of our favorite winos, Tony Poer, the National Sales Manager of Meyer Family Cellars, is featured on Tablehopper this week. Where he shares some of his wine favorites with us. Click here to read Tony's article on Tablehopper.

Tonight, the Oxbow School's Visiting Artist lecturer is Los Angeles sculptor Alison Sarr, whose work often evokes themes of race and culture. She will speak and show slides from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Copia auditorium, 500 First Street, Napa.

Fresh from his latest gallery-opening in Milan, photographer Ari Marcopoulos touched down in Napa last week for the latest installment of the Oxbow School's Visiting Artist Lecture Series.

The third speaker in this year’s spring lecture series, Marcopoulos confessed to the audience assembled at Copia that he’d rather just put on some techno music and dance, “and invite everyone to join me.” He then launched into a 90-minute presentation that mingled music – Bjork and Dylan – with the arresting images that have become his trademark. Snowboarders, skateboarders, and kids’ skinned knees: Whether in color or black and white, Marcopoulos’s photographs and videos have a powerful, almost physical immediacy.
]]> http://www.studio-707.com/blog/archives/2008/03/endless_winter_sonoma_photogra.php http://www.studio-707.com/blog/archives/2008/03/endless_winter_sonoma_photogra.php Art Education Non-wine activities in Napa Valley Oxbow School Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:48:42 -0800 Yountville, Calif., March 13, 2008—Having watched Yountville’s Amy Giaquinta transform a rangy half-acre horse pasture into a wildly productive storybook vegetable garden, it’s hard to imagine that just a few years ago she was a young urban professional living in Los Angeles.

Giaquinta is a lifelong city girl and was raised in San Francisco.  But in 1996 she and her husband, Jerry, then an Executive Vice President of Corporate Communications for Sony Pictures Corp. bought their first wine country property as a second home. At first Amy says she was lured into gardening to improve on a field that presented them with such a dismal sight during winter visits she feared her husband would see the property as a bad investment.  Disciplined and thorough, Amy started researching gardens in earnest.  By Spring, plans at the ready, she flew to Northern California and began carving out her first garden.

All these years later, with sons Jeremy and Jason, the Giaquinta family resides fulltime in an idyllic, two-story home on the edge of town.  Urban life is a distant memory. Amy’s garden has become central to her life, to be shared with her sons, friends and neighbors.

With 900 seedlings in her greenhouse, two dozen subscription clients relying on her annually for tomato seedlings, gourmet grocer Dean and DeLuca stocking her produce (under the I Fratelli Giaquinta label) and her Yountville Seed Company up and running, Amy’s garden has graduated from hobby to commercial enterprise.

Yountville Seeds is a joint venture between the Giaquinta family and neighbors, Peter and Gwenny Jacobsen who weekend here.  Together the two families farm neighboring gardens.   Amy credits the Jacobsens with being her gardening gurus, noting they are exclusive purveyors to the French Laundry.

Their seeds, available now from Kitchen Library in Napa’s new Oxbow Market or www.YountvilleSeeds.com, are certified organic and from the 2007 crop.
]]> http://www.studio-707.com/blog/archives/2008/03/neighbors_cultivate_community.php http://www.studio-707.com/blog/archives/2008/03/neighbors_cultivate_community.php Non-wine activities in Napa Valley Organic AmyGuaquintaseedsblog.jpg Thu, 13 Mar 2008 09:05:17 -0800 In Stanford University’s Peterson Gallery Misako Mitsui led me on a stroll through Japanese history intended to provide some understanding of a phenomenon in textiles that may have occurred in no time or place other than mid-Meiji period (1868-1912) Kyoto.  We were surrounded by an exhibition you may see for yourself between now and April 16.   Zuancho In Kyoto:  Textile Design Books for the Kimono Trade  lifts the curtain for the sparest glimpse of the proud three-century legacy of Misako’s merchant class family.

Misako grew up with these design idea books, tools of her family’s trade, which she quite naturally took for granted.  It wasn’t until years later when she looked at them with fresh eyes that she found herself captivated by the work of kimono textile designers who created an original woodblock print for every single page.  And, was struck that each book of designs opened with a woodblock print of calligraphy by one of the country’s most famous artists, then was custom bound and stitched. 

Today, what we find most remarkable is that the designs so exquisitely presented in these books were not necessarily chosen for replication in kimono textiles, rather they were tools for dialogue between textile artist and client.  Something like, “Is this what you’re looking for?” 
]]> http://www.studio-707.com/blog/archives/2008/03/misako_mitsuis_zuancho_in_kyot.php http://www.studio-707.com/blog/archives/2008/03/misako_mitsuis_zuancho_in_kyot.php Art Education Wed, 05 Mar 2008 12:29:39 -0800 Katy Stone’s waterfall installations – some three stories tall – glisten with cascading light and color. She has created permanent, site-specific works in both her native United States and in Taiwan.
]]> http://www.studio-707.com/blog/archives/2008/02/from_gesture_to_monument_artis.php http://www.studio-707.com/blog/archives/2008/02/from_gesture_to_monument_artis.php Art Education Non-wine activities in Napa Valley Oxbow School Wed, 27 Feb 2008 10:53:37 -0800 “No One Knows Our Name”

If you read, “Dressed: A Century Of Hollywood Costume Design,” published by Harper Collins last November, you’ll be hypersensitive to the difference between red carpet fashion and the art of costume design when you watch the Academy Awards Sunday night.  Written by Deborah Nadoolman Landis, president of The Costume Designers’ Guild, “Dressed” takes the reader from the lavish productions of Hollywood’s Golden Age to contemporary blockbusters, illustrating the pivotal role the costume designer plays in creating the authentic characters that move an audience to tears and to laughter.