Merry Coor does not think of herself as an artist or designer. Rather, she sees herself as a supplier of goods. In her case, she is a supplier of beautiful beads. As the owner of Talisman Beads in Old Town Eureka, it is a label she has been content with for some three decades and […]
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Tule Finds a Home
Watching the young black bear named Tule scampering up redwood trees, hanging out in a hammock or playing in the pond in the enclosure at the Sequoia Park Zoo, visitors might be surprised to learn about his difficult start to life. Now a healthy, playful yearling with a perhaps unsurprising fondness for honey, Tule has […]
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Duane Flatmo’s Career in Flames
IF YOU HAD ASKED A YOUNG DUANE FLATMO where he would be in his 60s, there is little chance his answer would have been where he finds himself these days, looking down at a cuddle puddle of young partygoers from atop a stage with his wife, artist Micki Dyson Flatmo, and the flaming mechanical octopus […]
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Look to Your Culture
Soft spoken and silver haired Lyn Risling is many things: teacher, activist, historian, linguist, mother, grandmother and dancer, to name a few. To the larger Humboldt County community, she is most recognizably an artist. Risling’s career spans several decades, but her relationship with art and with her Native communities stems from a legacy of creators […]
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Shoshanna Rose is helping keep events alive and sparkling
“I love it when people get together and make wonderful things happen,” said Rose “Shoshanna” Anthony, a dancer, teacher, kids’ party planner and longtime Arcata resident. Surprisingly, COVID-19 provided her the opportunity to do just that. A Cal Poly Humboldt faculty member, the effervescent Shoshanna was growing tired of holding classes over Zoom during the […]
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Cacao Cocoon’s Sweet Mission
Food is more than what you eat — it’s also about people and the planet. For local chocolatiers Elissa Verdillo and Zach Funk, these values guide Cacao Cocoon, which is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. “I don’t make chocolate just so people can have dessert … it’s revolutionary,” Verdillo says. “It brings people together rather than […]
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Ink in the Blood
On Sept. 1, 1994, Henry Krüger worked his first day as a professional tattoo artist. But that was hardly the first time he had ever held a tattoo gun and given out some ink. “I got my first tattoo in 1987, the day after I turned 17,” the fifth-generation Humboldt native said in a booth […]
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Sonny Wong
Making aesthetic judgements is notoriously tough and rankings can be poorly received. Take mythology: When Marsyas and Arachne claimed to be numero uno at playing the flute and weaving, respectively, the Greek gods punished their hubris with flaying-to-death/transformation into a spider. When Paris went on the record regarding which goddess he found most beautiful, the […]
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A Charmed Life in Rio Dell
Standing on the river bar, Debra Garnes squints in the sun, a pair of triangle abalone earrings glint at her neck. She waves her left arm to indicate the white bluffs and their stark contrast to all the greenery around us and across the Eel River. The water below glitters jade green at a distance […]
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The Foggy Bottoms Boys
Down a winding unpaved road on the outskirts of the Victorian Village of Ferndale, you’ll find a farm nestled among many others in a verdant, fertile valley. This farm is special, though, thanks to the young couple running it. Thomas and Cody Nicholson-Stratton, the Foggy Bottoms Boys, manage and operate their family’s farm in much […]
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Curating Self, Refashioning Tradition
The video “Dragging/Undragging” unfolds on a split screen. On the left, a person turns from the camera. The T-shirt comes off and a breast-flattening compression shirt goes on; next comes makeup and a comb to tease up a tall pompadour. Humboldt artist Brittany Britton becomes Jules, a West Coast drag king. At the same time, screen […]
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The Sweet Life
As a wildlife student at Humboldt State, Berit Meyer often snuck away to the library where she spent hours thumbing through old recipes and cookbooks. After graduating in 1981, a family friend gifted her a beautiful book on gourmet chocolate desserts — how did they know? she wondered. Thirty-seven years later, Meyer is still baking […]