Weird You Say?

June 4, 2015

“Lid Tree of Life” by Charles Luthene.

“Fish Lid” by Evenson Thenor

Does this sculpture on the left look funny to you? Do you wonder about that hole in the trunk of the tree? How about this one on the right? What about those eyes? Are they a little weird?

Well, maybe they look funny to you and if so, that’s fine. You know what you like. No argument there. But if you bear with me just a bit and I’ll tell you why they look amazing and clever to us. The hole in the tree and the eyes of the fish are barrel spouts. What was old has been made new again! The old spouts for pumping fluid in or out of the drum have been incorporated into the design of the new sculpture. The recycled lid is in clear evidence in the revised form.

Artist discussing his idea for a new lid design.

Barrels stuffed with leaves, ready for burning. The first stage of recycling the metal and preparing the metal to become art.

The first artist to integrate the spouts into his sculptures was Evenson Thenor.  A couple of

years ago, It’s Cactus sponsored his visit to California to do artist demonstrations throughout the Central Coast.  When he arrived at the airport in San Francisco, he came off the plane with an inspired idea in his head and a gleam in his eye.  When we asked him what he had in mind for his work he said, “I have an idea in here,” as he pointed to his head, “I don’t know if you are going to like it.  But I think you will.”  Over the next several days we watched in amazement as the idea took form on the metal.  Slowly, the features of the fish took shape around the spouts of the oil drum lid.  When it was finished, he presented it as a gift to Casey, saying, “I can make more – a little bit different, if you like.”  Yes!  We like!   His new design is “Fish Lid” pictured above right.

Weird or clever?  You decide…

Contributed by Linda for It’s Cactus

Happy Earth Day 365!

April 24, 2015

“Children of the World Tree” by Winston Cajust, made entirely of recycled metal and proudly brought to your attention on Earth Day plus One.

Yesterday was Earth Day. I had failed to note it ahead of time and only realized when I had an email in my inbox from our garbage and recycling service with the subject heading, “Happy Earth Day!” I was caught with my pants down, so to speak, but found myself at a loss as to how to respond. It kind of seems like a day for school kids to read “The Lorax” in science class and follow up by dutifully filling cups with potting soil, gently pushing bean seeds under the soil to a depth of 1/2 inch, watering carefully, and anticipating the sprout. What does a middle-aged female such as I do to be observant? Send a note, written on recycled paper to my congressman, voicing my environmental concerns? Plant a tree? Make a donation somewhere? What kind of big deal is it, anyway, really?
Well, it turns out that it’s a pretty big deal, at least if you’re logged onto earthday.org. According to their website, “The first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, activated 20 million Americans from all walks of life and is widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement. The passage of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and establishment of the EPA soon followed. Growing out of the first Earth Day, Earth Day Network (EDN) works with over 22,000 partners in 192 countries to broaden, diversify and mobilize the environmental movement. More than 1 billion people now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world.”
That’s all well and good. But I’ve thought it over and I’ve decided to play devil’s advocate here. I am of the opinion that Earth DAY is not a big deal at all. If we’re going to protect this planet we share, it’s going to take alot more than one day a year to do it. Earth DAY is a nice gesture, but we need to be thinking and acting pretty much 365 days a year. No breaks. No time off. Every one of us, every day.
I will make no pretense of being an “Earth Angel.” I am mindful of the impact of my actions, but I’m not perfect. One thing I am proud of, though is promoting our recycled oil drum sculptures through It’s Cactus. They are NOT part of a land-fill, they are repurposed as art, transformed from refuse into something beautiful. It feels good to hang recycled art in my home, and to share it as gifts with my friends and family. It feels good, because it does good. When you buy it, when you give it, don’t you feel it too?
What else shall we do? Walk to work. Take those shoes to the cobbler and have them re-soled.  Spend two minutes less time in the shower. Shop the farmer’s market with a reusable bag. Today is Earth Day plus One!

Contributed by Linda for It’s Cactus

Visit Us Online!

April 17, 2015

Casey in her new office!

It is a fait-accompli: It’s Cactus, which started out as a brick and mortar store in Carmel, CA in the early 90’s, is now online only, operating strictly out of our Salinas warehouse. In February, this was an idea, quick to gel. Today, it’s the way we roll.
Or at least we’re starting to. This has not been a small task, and there’s still a good distance to go, especially in the way of re-vamping the website. Though you will continue to have unmitigated shopping opportunity in the meantime, we are only going to get better. Coming one

day in the not-so-distant future (July, hopefully) the website conversion will be complete, with

It is widely suspected that there is more Haitian metal in the warehouse than there is in Haiti. Care to count?

oodles and boodles of great folk art of every stripe. From Haiti of course, with new designs and creations in wondrous array, but also a much larger presence of our folk art from Latin America. It was in the shop, and locals had access to it there, but now it will have full representation online. Equal folk art opportunity for all – how great is that?
We’re also going to have what, in the biz, is known as a responsive website. (I confess to have learned that terminology….um……recently. Like last week.) That means that our website will be easily viewed from desktop and mobile devices alike. No more pinching and widening and shifting from side to side. You’ll be able to see every page in all it’s glory, no matter how or on what you choose to view it. Now, isn’t that a wonderful thing?
We’re pretty excited about it all. The wave of retail seems to be evermore about access and evermore driven by convenience. Our aim is to be all of that, convenient and accessible on a much broader scale, yet to remain the friendly, trusted, personable – and very fun! – purveyors of folk art you’ve always known and loved. Visit us online!

Contributed by Linda for It’s Cactus

Celebrating Hollywood at the Philly Flower Show

March 6, 2015

Roses and orchids in a brilliant array of color.

With grandeur and opulence befitting the “Golden Age of Hollywood” the 2015 PHS Flower Show is a visual wonder. Cameras click and lights flash as visitors stop to take photo after photo of the displays, almost like paparazzi photographing A-list movie stars. But it is the flowers that stand poised in the spotlights, dazzlingly flamboyant and utterly glamorous.

It’s Cactus has been delivering a few block-busters as well. The booth has been filled daily with enthusiastic shoppers. Many are meeting us for the first time, and it is interesting to see how passers-by go from gazing curiously at the metal displays to becoming enthusiastic customers, thrilled by the “story” of hammer-wielding Haitian craftsmen transforming discarded 55-gallon steel drums into beautiful works of art. Don’t we love that!!

Halfway through the show the early favorite pieces appear to be our newest additions to the inventory. When we were in Haiti in October,

we asked Peterson Remy to make up a few single humming bird samples. He came up with a great design and we ordered as many as he could make. The are such recent additions, they haven’t even made the website yet, but we are likely to sell out of them here at the Flower Show before the week in is out. Stand by for the re-order!
Other favorites are our garden stakes (See website: http//www.itscactus.com/catalog/GARDEN_STAKES-21-1.html ) They look terrific in containers and beds alike. Flower designs, cross designs, sun faces, it doesn’t seem to matter. They are gone almost as quickly as we can wrap them up.

Garden stakes have been one of our hottest sellers!

And it’s all good. Our sales here are sales for our artists in Haiti. Each item we sell is another item we can order – another cash payment for 3 square meals or housing or school or a computer for a family in Croix-des-Bouquet. “Celebrating Hollywood,” with its glitter and glamour is exciting and fun at the Flower Show, but food on a table in Haiti is by far the bigger picture. Thank you, Philly, for your support!

Contributed by Linda for It’s Cactus

Black Madonnas of the New World

February 6, 2015

Our Lady of Guadalupe retablo from Peru.

Since the first known representation of the Madonna, found in the catacombs of Rome and believed to have been painted in the second century A.D., the portrayal of her physical characteristics have been widely varied. Though images of ivory- skinned madonnas often pop readily to Western minds, there are over four hundred “officially recognized” Black Madonnas. These Black Madonnas are considered by academics to be aa type of Marian statue or painting of mainly medieval origin (12C-15C), of dark or black features whose exact origins are not always easy to determine, and most important, of particular prominence. The latter, the prominence of the Black Madonna, is mostly due to the allegedly miraculous character of the image. Read the article by Michael P. Duricy here:

http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/meditations/blackmdn.html

In the New World, two “Black Madonnas” have special significance, though both have their roots firmly planted in Europe. Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Mother of the Americas, was the dark-skinned image that appeared on the cloak of a poor indigenous man that Mary visited on a hilltop in Mexico in 1531. She came to be called, “Guadalupe” because of her similarity in origin to an earlier Black Madonna, Santa Maria de Guadalupe in Caceres, Spain. That Madonna was a wooden figure that had reputedly been carved by St. Luke and given to the Archbishop of Seville. During the 8th century Moorish invasion, the statue was hidden and remained so during the years of occupation. Seven hundred years later, a cowherd by the name of Gil Cordero was visited by the Virgin Mother. The cowherd ran to the priests and told them to dig at the site of his vision. There they found the long-lost sacred statue, now blackend after its years of “entombment.” A shrine was quickly erected, which grew over time to become the Royal Monastery of Santa Maria de Guadalupe in Extramadura, Spain.

St. Luke was also the reported creator of “Our Lady of Jasna Gora,” a Black Madonna on canvas which he painted on a cedar table belonging to the Holy Family

Image of a Black Madonna as Erzulie Freda adorns a sequined bottle from Haiti

. The painting was “discovered” by St. Helen in Constantonople in Jerusalem in 326 and worked its way over the next eleven centuries to Jasno Gora Monastery in Czestochowa, Poland via Constantinopole and Belz, Ukraine. It is this image of Mary that Polish soldiers, fighting on both side of the Haitian Revolution, brought to the Caribbean. There, black slaves and free men embraced her as their own. In Haiti, Our Lady of Jasna Gora was absorbed into Voodoo culture and became associated with the Voodoo spirit, Erzulie Dantor. See Blog:here:https://www.itscactus.com/blog/2013/04/10/erzulie-dantor-the-fierce-mother/

In both cases, the arrival of Black Madonnas on New World shores resonated with local populations. They recognized her as the Universal Queen. To them, her message was clear: “Am I not here with you as your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Surely you recognize me, for I am of your kind.”

Contributed by Linda for It’s Cactus

Unexpected: Polo in Haiti

January 28, 2015

“Animals Garden,” by Salomon Jean Belony. An alternate title could be “Polo Ponies off to Play.” Could be, right?

Every once in a while, Haiti makes the news for something that is completely unexpected. Today it came to me in the form of a recent article by Carine Fabius in The Huffington Post entitled, “Playing Polo in Haiti.” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carine-fabius/playing-polo-in-haiti_b_6419634.html ) And not just playing; the Haitians are winning hardware, having brought home titles from the likes of the San Francisco International Polo Classic in the U.S., the China Open Polo Tournament in Shanghai, China, and the International Master’s Cup in Pilar, Argentina.

Apparently, global participation in the sport is on a meteoric rise, according to the polo-dedicated periodical, “Sideline,” so why not in Haiti? Haitian Polo Team Captain AND President Michel Martely’s recent appointee as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, Claude Alix Bertrand is spear-heading the effort revitalize the sport in Haiti. It had reportedly enjoyed some popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, but lost ground to football (soccer) in the ensuing decades. Bertrand is hoping to change all of that by leading the Haitian national polo team and winning big. So far, so good on that score.

He also hopes to make polo more accessible to Haiti’s (generally underprivileged) youth. He proposes to do that by helping to develop a world-class polo resort. The five-star 8,000 acre vision for Cote de Fer on Haiti’s southeast coast includes a polo grounds and school, golf courses, a marina for sailing, and a track for Formula One racing.The resort project is favored by some impressive financial backers includ Audi Sportscar Experience, Duty Free America and Digicel; it also has a healthy working relationship with the Ministry of Tourism in Haiti. (This was the same office that brought ice skating to Port-au-Prince in 2014. See blog https://www.itscactus.com/blog/2013/08/30/port-au-prince-the-chill-factor/ ) “Haitian youth will have access to polo like never before, says Bertrand, “because they will not be required to have club memberships to learn and play. All they’ll have to do is pay for their lessons, which will include instruction, gear,

This centaur would be SOME polo player! “Man and Horse” by Edward Dieudonne.

horses, and time on the practice grounds.”

In a Bay Area news telecast in October, Bertrand told the interviewer that a single polo lesson in San Francisco costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $120. Now, I am sure there is a certain price adjustment to be made from the Bay Area to southeastern Haiti, but in a country where the minimum daily wage is right around $5 and forty percent or the workforce is not employed at all, that seems like a bit of a financial stretch.

Nevertheless, hope springs eternal. Bertrand should certainly be applauded for bringing pride and success home to Haiti. His sport is a great one, combining outdoor exercise, spirit of teamwork, competition and camaraderie, and working with animals. All positives, to be sure. Why not polo in Haiti? Maybe it will work, who knows?  It’s just a little unexpected.

Contributed by Linda for It’s Cactus

Cherishing Christmas

December 24, 2014

Presents under the tree are wonderful, but greater still are the people who will surround it on Christmas Eve.

Part of me will always be a little kid. Its quite true, and the more I think it over, the more I believe that this is not a bad thing. Take Christmas, for instance. I look forward to it with child-like anticipation and as The Day draws nearer, the more excited I become. The reasons have changed since I was a child, however. Whereas I used to be breathless with wonder at what treasures lay beneath the tree, I am now most eager to pick out that very most perfect tree with my husband. I am excited to see our daughter arrive at the airport, the joy in her face radiantly acknowledging that the holiday travel gods have smiled upon her yet again . I can’t wait to take up the cheese fondue project with our son that together we produce as a featured item on the Christmas Eve menu. In short, the gifts are still the point, but they are gifts I have everyday: My family. Christmas time is simply the time I seem to reflect upon them and cherish them the most.

May your holidays be a time for cherishing too.

Contributed by Linda for It’s Cactus

Keeping up Tradition: The Nativity Scene

December 11, 2014

Ceramic folk art nativity from Ayacucho, Peru. See more like it here: https://www.itscactus.com/catalog/Nativities-29-1.html

Nativity scenes are one of the most cherished of holiday symbols. Displayed publicly and privately around the world as performance art or as sculptural groupings made of paper mache, wood, metal, ceramics, or other media, expressions of the Holy Night are as varied as Art itself. It was an idea originally conceived in 1223 by none other than St. Francis of Assisi and blessed by His Holiness, Pope Honorius III. Francis organized the nativity display in Greccio, Italy as a living pagent, with friars and the local folk enlisted to portray the Holy Family, shepherds, Magi and livestock from a neighboring farm to round out the cast. The event was an immediate success and was adopted as a holiday traditon that spread throughout Christendom in the years that followed, including the creation of nativity sets carved from wood.
As Christianity arrived in the New World, so too did the tradition of the nativity scene. As with many other Old World practices, it was adapted by indigenous cultures to it’s new environment Thus, nativities took on characteristics that were suited to it’s viewers. In Andean locales, for instance, Joseph and the shepards were likely to wear knitted hats and mantas, rather than keffiyehs and robes of the eastern Mediterranean. (There is a great article with photos of many renditions of the nativity that just came out online this week in the Huffington Post that you can read here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/09/a-creche-course-at-christmas_n_2252966.html 

That is one of the things that makes them so interesting and so tempting to collect. Folk art interpretations of the humble stable setting, the attending animals, the adoring Magi, the simple

Haitian metal nativity by Jean Marie Soulouque. See more metal sculpture nativities here: https://www.itscactus.com/index.php?p=catalog&mode=search&search_in=all&search_str=nativity&x=32&y=21

shepherds, and the Holy Family are uniquely wonderful. Whether the shepherds are bundled against European winter chill, or wrapped in sarongs in tropical heat, the meaning, the message of the nativity is a clear today as it was in the time of St. Francis: The Birth of the Child was a Heavenly Gift for all Mankind.

Contributed by Linda for It’s Cactus

The Visual Feast: A peek into the workshop of Gerard Fortune

October 21, 2014

Where did the time go? Already it’s been a month since our return from Haiti – and such a great trip it was! Of course we spent a good deal of time in Croix-des-Bouquets visiting the metal artists, but we also took a trip up the hill beyond Petionville to Montagne Noire to pay a call on one of the pre-eminent naiive painters in the country, Gerard Fortune, It is nearly impossible to resist the charm and innocence of his paintings, so why try? We came back with an armload!

Gerard himself is a bit of enigma. In three tries to determine even the year of his birth, I came up with three different answers. In fact, I found out that a friend of ours asked him directly once and the reply was, “Well, I don’t really know.” The closest I can pinpoint is somewhere between 1925 and 1935. Working most of his adult life as a pastry chef, and also being a practicing hougan, Gerard began to teach himself to paint in the early 1980s.
In 1988, Selden Rodman published his masterful book on Haitian art, Where Art Is Joy, he included several of Gerard’s paintings – most in full-color plates. At once, Gerard’s place in the art world was established. Today, his work is part of permanent museum collections in the United States and in Europe, and is avidly sought by private collectors as well.

That having been said, he is a man of modest means. He lives and works in a two-room dwelling of cinderblock, mortar, and corrugated tin in the space between two towering mansions. Without running water or electricity, he and his older brother and younger sister, each in similar shanties nearby, share the chores of fetching water, laundry, and cooking. I use
the term “shanties” with a bit of reluctance. The word seems accurate, but it doesn’t convey the cheer of the brightly painted walls or the grace of the banana trees shading the windows, or the laughter of children playing outside. Theirs are the humble homes of the working poor, but they
are far from dreary.

Inside, paintings are everywhere. In stacks, hanging layer upon layer on the walls, and those in process on the table. A visual feast, to say the least. The hard part, as always,was choosing which ones to bring home.  Look here: https://www.itscactus.com/catalog/Haiti_Folk_Paintings-126-2.html  Now don’t you feel the same?

Contributed by Linda for It’s Cactus

Stealing the Show

August 11, 2014

My husband and I rarely agree on movies. I like dramas, historical films, documentaries, and the occasional rom-com. He on the other hand, favors sci-fi, thrillers, and action-adventure movies. You see the problem, I’m sure. Maybe you even sympathize. But it was a dog-day-of-summer afternoon and although both of us had things we SHOULD have been doing, neither of us wanted to do them, so my husband said, “Think there’s a movie we could go to?” Quickly, I spun up Fandango and started perusing the possibilities. “A Most Wanted Man”? ” Nope.” “The Hundred Foot Journey? Oh, no, wait. I’m saving that for Girls Night Out with Sylvia and Angie.” (There was a “whew” from the male in the room. I heard it.) “Ummmm…..Would you go see Chef? It’s got Dustin Hoffman and and Robert Downey, Jr. and Sofia Vergara and it’s about…” “Yeah, I’ll go see that.”

It didn’t matter that he didn’t know what it was about. I knew I had him at Sofia Vergara and it started in exactly 20 minutes, which was just enough time, so off we went.

In case you’re not up to the minute on this summer’s hot movies, “Chef” is a light comedy road movie about the recently fired chef-de-cuisine of an A-list LA restaurant and his efforts to simultaneously re-build his professional life and his family life in the back end of a food truck. (For the trailer,  click  here: http://www.fandango.com/chef_165720/movieoverview ) We enjoyed it – and why not? The cast is stellar, the story is heart-warming, the soundtrack is awesome, and all of that is well and good.

However, there was a scene-stealer and truthfully, I think it made the movie. I don’t know if

everyone would notice, but I did. And pretty much the rest of the theater audience became appreciatively aware of it when I jumped up in the middle of a dialogue between Jon Favreau and Sofia Vergara and pointed it out in not-very hushed tones. There on the patio wall, right over Sofia Vargara’s left shoulder, was REC22. “OMG. ‘Birds in Flight’ That’s OURS!!!”

You want to talk about product placement! Promenantly hung on the mocha-colored stucco wall, delecately framed by bougainvilla. It was lovely. It was perfect. It was OURS!

So when do you want YOURS to ship? It’s not every day that you have the chance to order a genuine piece of Hollywood memorabilia. This is your moment! Don’t wait! (“As seen in ‘Chef’ ” plaque sold separately.)

Contributed by Linda for It’s Cactus