Arts Benicia / Creative Work Fund: Hats 'n Dogs

A Beautiful day with a well-attended talk and walk marked the introduction of the work to the community. Dogs (well-managed, mind you) abounded, and everyone save your correspondent seemed too wear appropriate ultraviolet protection. A variety of cookies were displayed, to your correspondent's delight. Mark gave an excellent talk on the purpose of the work, both environmentally and artistically, and then answered a barrage of questions. At one point, as you will see, a small scale figure was introduced to show what a full-scale natural water-treatment device might look like in practice.

After the talk, Mark led a walk through the wetlands that separate the green from the Carquinez Strait - the very wetlands we are trying tho protect with "devices" like the one Mark has created. Your correspondent has a bad leg, so all you will see here are pictures of people departing and shortly arriving from the walk - we have a small wetland, after all.

Your correspondent is happy and somewhat bewildered by the fact that this sensitive wetland is one of the dismayingly few places in Benicia where doge are allowed off leash. My vote - more places for dogs off-leash, fewer of these places to be in environmentally sensitive areas like our wetlands - Not that I don't take advantage of the allowance with our own dogs occasionally.

All in all, a lovely display of the extraordinary visibility of Mr. Brest van Kempen's works in practice - environmental art of the best kind - attention-grabbing for the passerby and informative once the attention has been grabbed. I can only recommend that Arts Benicia station a docent with the work to explain it and engage the passersby. I think that with docents, we could both better explain Mark's work to the passerby and use Mark's work as a tool to enroll people in Arts Benicia.