The Good, The Bad, The Funny, The Serious: 2017 in Review

photo by Alan Sailer

Well Christmas has come and gone… and 2017 is following close behind.

Good riddance, if you ask me. Here’s why:

Locally, we’ve been dealing with the Thomas Fire, the biggest fire in California’s history which burned a block away from my home, burned the homes to the ground of many friends and acquaintances, disrupted the lives of hundreds of thousands of people,  and that has superseded the shenanigans in the White House for the past few weeks.

And speaking of the White House, here’s more reasons why I’m ready to say good riddance to 2017:

and more reasons…

Not to mention this…

which does have some positive moments… because honestly, 2017 wasn’t all bad.

However, my three best moments in 2018 –in addition to wine events that I’ve written about on Wine Predator —  were all protests:

For example, January’s Pussy March — oh I mean the Women’s March or, in Ventura, the March for Justice. And now that it’s cold again, I’ve been wearing my pussy hat.

And in February, there’s the RESIST! event I organized at Ventura’s beach where 200 people gathered to use their bodies to spell out the word RESIST:

… where we also made two hearts…

… and a line in the sand:

Then there’s the People’s Climate March in April that I co-organized where we did this:

Ventura Climate March, Mission Park, Drone photo by Maxwell Mandell, Rainbow and Unity Circle.

and this:

Marchers organize to climb Ventura Botanical Gardens trail for “Therm-O-Climb” a human banner event concieved by Gwendalyn Alley and John K. Golson.

and this:

Marchers climb the lower trail, arranged by color of clothing. We painted the trail with a human rainbow of unity.

and finally this…

We gathered, We swarmed, We climb. Ventura Climate March 2017

In December, Climate Change induced weather patterns including drought and high winds fueled the Thomas Fire and torched that whole hillside along with over 280,000 acres and nearly 450 square miles. .

photo of Ventura Botanical Gardens by Stephen Byrne; note the VBG is CLOSED for restoration

My plan in 2018 is to participate in Santa Barbara’s Women’s March January 20, to co-organize a Thermoclimb in winter 2018 at the Ventura Botanic Gardens while raising money for restoration, and in spring 2018 and possibly on April 21, to be part of a group to create a globe using our bodies. This is something I wanted to do last year but went with the Thermoclimb and now in 2018 Brad Newsham is organizing an event to do just this in San Francisco.  With Brad organizing a similar event there, it will be easier to do this here.

Subscribe and stay tuned here at Art Predator for more details on these actions in 2018.

Please join me in attending to the arrow.

Name the problem.
Reflect on solutions.
Take action.
Repeat.