California Inspiration Part 1

Thanks for the comments on my previous travelogue posts. I'm happy to hear that at least some of you are finding it interesting. As promised, in this and the next post I'm sharing some things that caught my creative interest. Let's start with Dave's Stuff: Utterly Useless, Absolute Necessities. This hard to define Wofford Heights business caught my eye as we turned to climb up the steep twisty road to our cabin and I was fortunate to talk the niece and her daughter into stopping there after an emergency run for forgotten supplies. However, if you look closely, you will see a chain across the entry and we quickly noted a "closed" sign. Well, I can't blame Dave - it was Christmas eve. Bummer - it looked a really interesting place.

And then I spotted these - oh man. I had to get out and take a picture. Out jumped the grand-niece with camera as well. (We found out later that these are made from old propane tanks and are meant to be garden planters.)

We thought a few pics of these guys and we'd be on our way. But our eyes kept catching more faces, more critters. I've started following the Twitter Feed "Faces in Things @FacesPics (Admit it, you see a face)". I already have the tendency to see faces where none exist. After looking at a few on this feed, it just made it worse. I don't know what this "automatic action" thing is but I definitely see a face. Can you?

This one reminds me of an old animated cartoon figure, something I think in one of the original Micky Mouse cartoons perhaps. What's that bright yellow thing lurking in the background?

Well, no two ways about it, someone has been having fun accentuating faces in things without them. We realized we were surrounded by all kinds of repurposed metal objects, transformed into art. The cameras snapped away.

Oh, dear, our enthusiasm got the attention of Dave himself, who lives on site. He offered to let us inside, and warmed to us once he realized we thought his collectibles were very cool, not just a bunch of junk. That's when we learned that he was the one who had made the various sculptures, his thing being taking steel parts, machines, whatever, and transforming them into fun critters and other things. We also learned that he is descended from one of the first pioneers in the area and with a little prodding, Dave shared some interesting history with us. And much to Dave's surprise and delight, we actually made some purchases. Merry Christmas, Dave!