Art I'm Making: Untitled Collage No. 310 (Santa Rosa)

Here's a comparatively recent collage. This is Untitled Collage No. 310 (Santa Rosa). Completed February 25, 2025. Acrylic on paper, acrylic monotype, collage. Image size: 14.0cm x 28.8cm (5.5in x 11.3in). Matted to 11in x 14in. Signed on the mat. Signed and dated on the reverse. Click on the image for a larger view.

For more of my abstract monotype collage work, visit my website at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site/ or you can purchase my recently published book commemorating ten years of working in the collage medium – Colin Talcroft: Abstract Monotype Collage: 2103–2023 (ISBN 979-8-218-37717-5). Available on the website.

In person, my work can be seen at Calabi Gallery in Santa Rosa, Hammerfriar Gallery in Healdsburg, and at the Ren Brown Collection in Bodega Bay or in my studio by appointment. Sadly, however, Calabi Gallery is closing at the end of this month – a great loss for Santa Rosa and Sonoma County, California.  

Books I'm Reading: Remaking the World: Adventures in Engineering

On my recent trip to Japan, I took along Henry Petroski's Remaking the World: Adventures in Engineering (Vintage, 1997) to read while traveling. Being a series of independent essays, it seemed well suited to episodic reading. In the end, I had little time to read while overseas, but, back home again, I've finished it. 

This group of essays ranges widely, covering topics as diverse as the Panama Canal and the Ferris Wheel, Christian Schussele's painting "Men of Progress," the Channel Tunnel, and the Petronas Towers. 

Petroski, in my experience, is always entertaining. He writes succinctly, with enthusiasm for a subject that might at first seem less than exciting, and with a knack for making a rather technical subject more than just accessible, always bringing to life the personalities behind the projects. 
 

Places I'm Visiting: Palo Alto Clay and Glass Festival (2022)

Yesterday, for the first time in many, many years, I went to the big clay and glass show they do in Palo Alto every year. I ran into the Nichibei Pottery team and potter Bill Geisinger, both down from Sonoma County. I came away with a souvenir—this spiral-decorated turquoise bowl—which I've decorated with Meyer lemons, for the time being. 

Rain: A little more rain

Since last reporting, we have had rain on and off, mostly recently yesterday, March 14. We've had 1.70 inches of new rain. That brings our total for the 2020-2021 rain year to 12.00 inches--still very, very low. By this time of year, normal rainfall is usually about 30 inches. Rain is in the forecast again for later this week. We'll see....

[Since writing the above, we've had an additional 0.7 niches or rain, bringing our total for the current rain year to 12.70 inches. The above still applies. We have had very little rain this year. This is the lowest level of rain we've had in the 20 years I've lived in Santa Rosa.]

Rain: A little more rain in early February

In the past week, we had some rain again—a total of 1.15 inches of new precipitation. That brings our total for the current rain year (ending September 30, 2021) to 10.30 inches. By this time of year we should have had well over twice that much. This remains the driest winter I've experienced in the 20 years I've lived in Santa Rosa. 

Rain: End of January Rain

In the past few days, we've had some more rain, although today, January 31 was clear and sunny. Since last reporting, we've had 2.65 inches of new precipitation at my location in northeast Santa Rosa. That brings are total for the 2020-2021 rain year to 8.20 inches--still about ten inches below normal for this time of year. Rain is forecast for tomorrow and the day after (February 1-2). Let it rain, let it rain, let in rain.

[Edit: More rain did come. We've had an additional 0.95 inches since the above was written, bringing our total so far to 9.15 inches. Every bit helps, but we remain further behind normal than I've ever seen before. At this point in the season, we should have had more than twice that amount.]

Rain: A Little More (January 10, 2021)

Since last reporting, we've had a little more rain—1.30 inches to be exact. That brings our total for the 2020-2021 rain year (which runs through September 30, 2021) to 5.55 inches. As I keep saying, anything is better than nothing, but we're still far below normal for this time of year. Average rainfall for January 10 is approaching 15 inches. No new rain in the forecast at the moment.

Rain: More Rain (December 12-January 2, 2020)

A little rain overnight on the 11th and this morning has added 0.40 inches to our total for the 2020-2021 rain year. That total still stands at only 2.0 inches. Normal rainfall by December 12 is four to five times that. We will be seeing serious drought conditions in the coming year if we don't start getting some good storms soon. Some new rain is forecast for tomorrow morning, but we're unlikely to get the 6-8 inches we would need to catch up. 

[Edit: Additional rain has added another 0.45 inches to the total. So, as of December 15, we have had 2.45 inches or rain this rain year at my location in Northeast Santa Rosa--seriously below normal.]

[Edit: More rain on the night of the 16th and into the morning of 17th added 0.70 inches of new participation. That brings the total so far for the year to 3.15 inches. Still way below normal, but, every little bit helps.]

[Another update:] Rain subsequently added 1.2 inches to our total, bringing the total as of January 2 to 4.35 inches at my location---still woefully low. Normal rainfall by this time in the year is a little over 14 inches, so we're about 10 inches below normal. More rain is forecast for this week. We'll see.]

Rain: First real rain of the season (November 2020)

Last Thursday, November 12 we had a little rain--about 0.4 inches--but yesterday (November 17) and today we've had a decent downpour. It finally feels like fire danger is over for the year after an evacuation in August (much earlier than usual--because of fires started by lightning in many parts of the state in the absence of rain) and then fire scares again in October. 

The last rain we had was on May 13, in the 2019-2020 rain year. This new rain is the first of the 2020-2021 rain year, which goes from October 1, 2020 to September 30 2021. So far there is 1.20 inches of new rain in the rain gauge, bringing our total to 1.60 inches (way below normal for this point in the year), but it looks like there will be at least a little more rain today.

Birds I'm Watching: First Bird of 2019

2019—First bird of the year: White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis). This portends good birding in 2019, I think, as White-throated Sparrow is a relatively uncommon species here. I saw one under the feeder this morning as I pulled up the blinds on the living room windows. I've started putting out seed again after a hiatus of a couple of years prompted by the presence of young cats in the neighborhood. I'm hoping for the best now (but will remain vigilant).

To all my birder friends: I wish you a bountiful 2019 with many exotic, rare birds among the regulars.

Miscellaneous: Colin

The name Colin is fairly popular in the United States today. It wasn't so when I was a child, in the 1960s. I was teased at school, called Colleen, called a girl. On those rotating drugstore racks selling bicycle license plates for kids, there was never a Colin.

None of this bothered me much, but I did grow up thinking my name was rare, so that, even now, I notice the name when it pops up. Recently in San Francisco I was a little pleased to find there's a street there with my name on it--Colin Place. It's only an alley, and one with no public access at that. But it's got my name on it.

[Update: Strangely, two days later I walked into a wine shop in San Francisco and the first thing I saw, literally, was a bottle of Champagne with my name on it--a producer I had never heard of before.]