Cazadero Sunlight

/ Ken Gierke / rivrvlogr

Cazadero Sunlight

True color revealed
in the filtered light
of Doug fir and redwood

Vibrant moss on stone walls,
outcrops that speak
of time

Madrone on meadow’s edge,
bark peeling to reveal
a grain of survival

A bay tree’s carpet of leaves
beside hundreds of years
alive in an oak

A vista of beauty
under the watchful eye
of the keeper

Centuries old oak embracing moss covered granite,
wrapped with yarn to symbolize “Marriage”

The Cazadero Art and Nature Conservancy is cared for by my dear friend, Margaret Fabrizio. Since 1986, she has maintained her 40 acres of redwood forest and meadows above the Russian River as a site where art is in harmony with nature. At eighty-nine, this artist and musician continues to make the two hour drive from her home in San Francisco to tend to it, clearing fallen branches and cutting the grass of the meadow by hand with a scythe. She is as one with The Land, and she is a marvel.

I’ve also written about Margaret and The Land, here
(click images to open larger view in new tab)

Margaret Fabrizio 2011

25 thoughts on “Cazadero Sunlight”

    • Thank you, Merril.
      Margaret is a classically trained pianist who toured here and in Europe with a harpsichord. (She has even written pieces of her own.) She went on to visual arts, creating “Portrait Masks” (this from her website: “One of her masks made of eyes appeared on an album cover of The Grateful Dead.”), collage, and painting. Her current focus is quilting. For several years she has been creating kawandi, a technique learned by visiting the Siddi, African-Indians, to create unique works of art. This video shows her energy/exuberance, and includes one of her kawandi at 1:50.

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  9. Also, I love those siddi quilts. They are wonderful merging of African and Indian textile arts. They are perhaps not really well known by name, but if you love quilts you definitely know about the technique.

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    • Margaret visited to learn the technique, sewing with them daily. It’s done by working out from the center, with no distinct pattern, except that she usually has certain pieces she wants to accent within the style. She then does all of her quilting by hand. She travels to India every few years, usually for the temple festivals, but she makes a point of going into fabric shops there, never coming home empty handed.

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      • There was an exhibit at one of the libraries that I went to a few years ago of Siddi quilts. A friend of mine, an African-American quilter, knew all about them, although she doesn’t use the technique herself. So that’s how I found out about them, and I tried a little sample. You definitely need to work out from the center! How lucky Margaret is to go and see in person how it’s done.

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