This guy brought this unusual shaped kayak to the beach on top of a compact car. He paddled out through the  surf, dropped off his (collapsible) crab traps, picked them up in a few hours, and went home with 4 nice crabs. In a small car.

At long last a book documenting the art of Godfrey Stephens has been published, and it’s stunning. Godfrey has been painting, drawing, carving, and assembling all his life (he’s now 70), and his niece Gurdeep Stephens has performed a Herculean task of sifting through a blizzard of Godfrey’s art to assemble this collection. Oh yes, he’s also built over a dozen sailboats.

I’m hardly an objective observer: I’ve known Godfrey and his art since meeting him on a Mexican beach in 1964, and he’s a dear friend. I’ve never been able to figure out why he isn’t world-famous. The quantity and quality of his output is staggering. And his energy: there are almost 800 emails in my “Stephens” mailbox, over 600 photos in my “Stephens” photo folder. How Gurdeep ever prevailed to assemble this excellent collection is beyond me. High five!

It’s best to let his art speak for itself, but I’ll just point out something about his carving: when he was 12, he hung out around Mungo Martin, a famed Kwakwaka’wakw chief  who was creating totems and building a “big house”, at Thunderbird Park in Victoria. Godfrey’s best friend, Tony Hunt was Mungo’s grandson, and Godfrey and Tony started out carving little bears to sell. Godfrey has always been close to the native “First Nations” culture,  with many Indian friends, and it shows in his carving. It seems to me a blend of the powerful north coast indigenous art and wide-ranging abstract and representational artistry. Godfrey doesn’t drive and he’s never had a “job.” Just art.

https://woodstormswildcanvas.com/

https://www.godfreysart.com/

Wood Storms, Wild Canvas: The Art of Godfrey Stephens will have a first book-signing at Munro’s Books in Victoria, BC, on November 1st at 1 pm. Both Godfrey Stephens and the author Gurdeep Stephens will be signing copies at Munro’s between 1-2 pm on Saturday November 1st.  The book will be available for sale at local independent book sellers in addition to online.  For each copy sold, the publisher will plant one Native tree species locally in BC.

Victoria, BC – Today we went out to a secluded harbor and visited Godfrey’s friend Cos. Cos is deeply into building, his current project a 58′ long wooden sailboat. It’s a galleass type sailboat, this one based on a 1926 design for a Danish North Sea vessel. Show below is the keel,  9″ thick, 17″ deep, and 44′-4″ long, cut from one Douglas Fir. Also a couple of tools I like, one new, one old. The Prazi beam cutter attaches to circular saw and allows you to cut curves and odd shapes easily. Cos and I are on the same page when it comes to little planes. This the same model that I use more than any other plane, but this one was an antique, burnished by many carpenters’ palms…

See: https://www.godfreysart.com

Intersections with the natural world the past few days: I studied water skeeters in a hill pond Tuesday; a brilliant design by mother nature. They float on 6 legs; 4 long ones for skittering and 2 short legs in front. They move mostly with breaststrokes of the 2 front legs and when startled just zoom. I was transfixed, watched them for 5 minutes or so, the fact they float on their legs…Doug saw a young mountain lion; we always look for the long tail to be sure it’s not a big bobcat…Yes, a long tail, he said, also that it appeared to be a young one, with spots on its skin…I saw a big healthy coyote crossing the road Tuesday night…Yesterday I paddled my kayak across the bay and dug clams…saw 4 of the huge American Pelicans; wingspan of 8-10 feet…harvested some seaweed — Macrocystis integrifolia, a smaller cousin of giant kelp; I’ve been bringing home all kinds of seaweed and this one appears promising. It’s flavorful, with salt crystals that sparkle when it’s dried. I’m grinding it and using it instead of salt on meat, vegetables. salad.

Summertime by The Zombies on Grooveshark

Tuesday I drove up to Petaluma to look at a fishing kayak.* The hills have changed from green to dried-out golden, almost white in the bright sun. Lots of growth due to late rains, grasses waving in the afternoon wind…Speaking of which, we’ve had a week of early morning low tides, but also winds. Took my kayak across a local bay a few days ago, the wind was coming up. I thought about turning back, but it started dying down.

 No luck getting horsenecks, but I got a mess of cockles plus 2 nice rock crabs; good way to spend the morning…steamed cockles last night, but they wouldn’t open after 15 minutes steaming, tough little fuckers, and steaming them this long made them tough…gotta figure this out, these aren’t the compliant commercial clams you can buy…seaweed was thick on the beach, so loaded my truck up, it’s getting rinsed and added to compost pile…just ordered a rod and spinning reel for stripers…my ongoing food-from-sea endeavors sure are fun, plus with the kayak, I’m getting a workout…

I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but check out https://www.monkeyfacenews.com/, Kirk Lombard’s writings on fishing the Pacific Coast. Just found this video, go to 3:22 to see him catching a mess of herring to great music and with ayuda from a fellow fisherman…I’m goin’ fishin too…

*I’m pretty well settled on a 12′ Tarpon 120 by Wilderness Systems. It’s another world from my 20-year-old 12′ Scrambler by Ocean Kayak (which I’m gonna sell cheap). Having such a great boat will be an incentive to get out there often…also getting a sail (Wind Paddle Scout Sail) — minimal, will only go downwind…