SANGRE DE NOPAL/BLOOD OF THE NOPAL: Exhibit at the Fowler Museum, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA

Sangre de Nopal exhibit at the Fowler Museum, UCLA.

One of my favorite museums in Los Angles is the Fowler Museum on the campus of UCLA, with its focus on art and material culture, primarily from Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, as well as the Americas. In mid-December I made an excursion to the Fowler to do some holiday shopping in its excellent gift shop, and while I was there made a quick visit to the exhibit Sangre de Nopal/Blood of the Nopal: Tanya Aquiniga and PorfirioGutierrez en Conversacion/in Conversation, which is on view in one of the four museum galleries. While we were there we saw two groups of school children who had come to see the exhibit and participate in the hands-on displays.

Somos una tela continue (We are a continuous cloth), 2023 by Tanya Aquiniga, 2023. Found objects and stones from the Los Angeles River, low-fired terra cotta, cotton dyed with terracotta, and cotton rope.

The exhibit features fiber artists Tanya Aquiniga and Porfirio Gutierrez as well as Oaxacan textiles from the Fowler Museum collection. 

Oaxacan textiles from the Fowler collection. Installation inspired by the temporary devotional structures called Lis Dxan erected during Holy Week in Zapotecan communities.

Here are some of the items on display.

Somos Mujeres (We Are Women) by Tanya Aquiniga, 2024. Terra cotta, nickel, epoxy, cochineal dye, cochineal insects, cotton rope. 

Nopal by Tanya Aquiniga, 2017. Abaca pulp, clay, alpaca, flax, succulents, iron, horsehair, cochineal, copper, gold, human hair.

Emotional Body by Tanya Aquiliga, 2023. Cotton rope and low-fire terra cotta. Video.

Detail of Emotional Body.

Sangre de Nopal/Blood of the Nopal: Tanya Aguiñiga & Porfirio Gutiérrez en Conversación/in Conversation is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara and developed in collaboration with the Fowler Museum at UCLA. It is a multi-site project offering an expanded understanding of the scientific and Indigenous origins of cochineal, a red dye developed by the Zapotec peoples.

What is cochineal?

First cultivated by the Zapotec peoples around 500 B.C., cochineal is derived from an insect that lives on the opuntia (prickly pear) cactus. Its chemical ingenuity, stability, and chromatic intensity changed the course of art around the world. Despite the global scale and impact of cochineal, its spiritual, medicinal, and technical origins within Indigenous Mexican communities remain little understood. Sangre de Nopal offers a case study in multi-generational innovation, acknowledging the scientific knowledge and cultural heritage embedded in the cultivation of cochineal. (From the Fowler Museum website.)

The exhibit will be on view at the Fowler until January 12, 2025. I am glad I got to see it before it closes.

Entrance to Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA

THE MONARCHS ARE BACK: A Visit to the Coronado Butterfly Preserve, Goleta, CA

Monarch Butterflies. Coronado Butterfly Preserve, Goleta, CA

In early February, Art and I did a short trip to Santa Barbara, about two hours north of our home in Los Angeles. Art gave a talk at UC Santa Barbara, and while he was doing that, I visited the Coronado Butterfly Preserve in Goleta with friends who live locally. Luckily they knew just where to go--at the usual spot in Elwood Grove the butterflies were gone, but after following the path for another ten minutes or so, we found them–giant dark clusters hanging high in the eucalyptus trees and hundreds more butterflies fluttering in the sunlight. 

It was thrilling, especially since in recent years the monarchs seemed to have almost disappeared. No one can explain this year's resurgence but everyone is happy.  (Although the numbers are not what they once were–when millions of butterflies gathered at their winter homes along the West Coast–this year’s butterfly count is one hundred times more than last year.)

Pollinator display.

After parking our car at the end of the residential street near the entrance to the preserve (marked by a large sign), we walked up a small hill and past a meadow and a display explaining the role of butterflies as pollinators. 

Path into the eucalyptus grove.

From there we entered the forest, where eucalyptus trees more than one hundred feet tall reach to the sky. As we approached the Elwood Grove we looked up and saw a few butterflies high in the canopy, but no clusters in the trees. We continued on the path through the forest. Then suddenly, overhead, we spotted huge clumps of butterflies hanging from the high branches. 

Clumps of monarchs.

It was a warm afternoon and the air was filled with flapping wings as butterflies searched for food and mates. Down on the ground we had to be careful not to step on a pair in their mating embrace. (see top photo) After the butterflies disperse, the female monarch will lay her eggs on milkweed leaves and a new cycle of life will begin.

Monarchs flying among the branches.

Monarchs east of the Rockies spend the winter in Mexico; west of the Rockies they gather along the California coast, assembling in large clumps in pine and eucalyptus groves where they have access to fresh water and flowers to feed on. The preserve in Goleta is just one of many places where monarchs gather in California. Typically, they arrive in October and November and stay until mid-February and March.

Clifftop path.

After viewing the butterflies we went up onto the bluff for a walk with a spectacular view of the ocean and the beach below.
Soon the butterflies will disperse. I hope some of them will come to my yard in LA and feed on the milkweed I have planted in pots on my patio.

For an excellent article in the Los Angeles Times about monarchs and the people who study them, click HERE. 

For directions to and information about the Coronado Butterfly Preserve, click HERE. 

Note: For our visit to Santa Barbara, my husband and I stayed at the Upham Hotel, the oldest continuously operating hotel in Southern California, opening in 1871. We stayed in one of the cottages surrounding the interior garden. As one reviewer says, the property exudes Victorian charm without going overboard. I had a tasty dinner in the accompanying restaurant, Louie’s Bistro, eating outside on the side porch. The hotel is just two blocks from State Street in Santa Barbara’s downtown.

Sign at the beginning of the path into the butterfly preserve.

 

CLIFF TOP WALK, Santa Barbara, CA

View of Pacific Ocean from the Douglas Family Preserve, Santa Barbara, CA

Santa Barbara sits between the coastal mountains to the east and the great Pacific Ocean to the west and is one of California's most beautiful cities. In early May, I went on a day excursion to Santa Barbara with friends, visiting the Museum of Art on State Street in downtown Santa Barbara, then lunch at the Boathouse Restaurant overlooking the beach, and ending with a nature walk along the top of the cliff above the ocean in the Douglas Family Nature Preserve.

Entrance to Preserve

The path was lined with towering eucalyptus trees, pines, oaks, some fallen and weathering and providing seats to rest.

Wild phlox, daisies and a host of other flowers bloomed along the path

Throughout there were patches of spring flowers wildly in bloom after a winter of super heavy rains. And at the end is a spectacular overlook of the ocean and beach below.

Overlook of beach and Boathouse Restaurant

On our return we stopped to read the memorial plaque placed at the intersection of the cliff top path and one of the paths going into the woods. On it is this poem honoring the Santa Barbara citizens who worked so hard to preserve this beautiful area for all to enjoy.

Here you may walk in peace.
Here you may walk in time and history.
Here you may experience an ancient beauty.
Here the community said yes,
this place is ours to preserve,
this precious wind of trails through the native plants.
Here you may lose yourself in oak and cypress
bend to wildflower and lift to the song of ocean breeze
through pine. Here you may watch the sun east down
over the horizon and at night feel the brush of owl wings.
Through the people of Santa Barbara’s generous spirit
and ability to prevail, here you may find yourself.
    by Perie Longo

Memorial Plaque

The walk is easy and not too long. It was the perfect ending to our day, before driving back home to the busy city of Los Angeles.
Depending on traffic, the drive between LA and Santa Barbara is between one and a half and two hours. For directions to and information about the Douglas Family Preserve, click HERE.

FLAMINGOS, GIRAFFES, CONDORS AND MORE: Santa Barbara Zoo, Santa Barbara, CA

Chilean Flamingo, Santa Barbara, Zoo

Recently, on a trip to Santa Barbara, California, I decided to go to the zoo where I had not been for a long time. I stopped first at the large sundial on a plaza near the zoo entrance and stood on the marker for the month.  My shadow told me that it was 4:00–exactly the time on my watch! It was a great time to visit–the zoo was not crowded and the animals were up and about.

Sundial Shadow, 4:00

I then proceeded to the flamingo display, always a favorite, and watched these elegant and beautifully feathered birds. (They were Chilean flamingos, a species I had seen in the wild with my family on our trip to Patagonia in 1995.) After I left the flamingos and was walking down the trail to the next exhibit, I suddenly realized I was being followed.  I turned around and saw a group of flamingos (and their keepers) coming down the path!  I asked, and learned that the flamingos go out for a walk every day to get their exercise.

Flamingos Out for a Stroll

I took a circular path around the zoo past capybaras, some lively tamarin monkeys, and other animals, until I came to a sign that said “Giraffe Deck”. There I saw a group of children, under the supervision of a keeper, feeding treats to a very friendly giraffe.  As the giraffe stuck out its long blue tongue to grab the treats, the kids squealed with delight. (The cost for giraffe feeding is $6 or $5 for zoo members.) I learned from the sign that the blue color of the tongue is an adaptation that helps keep the tongue from becoming sunburned as giraffes feed in the wild.

Masai Giraffe

I then walked along the California Trails, which includes exhibits of a Channel Island fox, desert tortoises, and other animals native to the state.  I looked up and saw three condors sitting on their perches in their huge flight cage enjoying the afternoon sun. The Santa Barbara Zoo is one of only four zoos in the world to display California condors, along with Condor Ridge at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, Elephant Odyssey at the San Diego Zoo, and the Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City. I have seen wild condors in the California mountains and along the Big Sur coast, but never this close up.  A distinguishing feature both in the wild and at the zoo are the large numbered tags on the birds’ wings. There are so few of these birds left, that each one has an identifying number. I learned about condors and their extreme plight when I researched and wrote my book On The Brink of Extinction: The California Condor.  No other bird in North America has a wingspan as wide as a condor’s–a spread of more than nine feet from tip to tip.

California Condors

The Santa Barbara Zoo is a relatively small zoo, but well worth a visit.  Its impeccably landscaped trails and large, well designed exhibits make it a perfect place for an afternoon walk or for a longer visit, with or without children.  As the attendant at the ticket booth says when you come to the zoo: “Have a Zooper Day!”

Santa Barbara Zoo
500 Niños Drive
Santa Barbara, CA 93103
Main Phone: (805) 962-5339
Info Line: (805) 962-6310

Open every day 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.,  10:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas.

Crocodile

MONARCH BUTTERFLIES at the Ellwood Butterfly Grove, Goleta, CA

Monarch butterfly, Ellwood Butterfly Grove, Goleta, California

Among nature’s most incredible journeys is the annual migration of monarch butterflies.  After spending the summer fluttering and feeding in woods and fields in the United States and Canada, the butterflies travel south for the winter, flying up to 80 miles in a single day.  Monarchs east of the Rockies fly to the mountains of central Mexico. (See update below.)  Monarchs west of the Rockies make their way to California where they gather in eucalyptus groves along the coast.

On a recent sunny afternoon in early October, Art and I visited one of these butterfly groves near Santa Barbara, California--the Ellwood Grove and neighboring Coronado Grove in Goleta, not far from the University of California Santa Barbara campus. Tucked between a residential neighborhood and an open coastal mesa, giant eucalyptus trees grow along a seasonal creek. At the peak of the season, in December and January, more than 50,000 monarchs cluster in the trees in this grove.

We knew it was a bit early to see the giant clumps of butterflies hanging like bunches of orange and black living leaves, but already some of the monarchs had arrived for the winter.  As we walked the shady paths through the grove (which is protected as a nature preserve) a parade of butterflies flitted over our heads, their colorful wings catching the sunlight.  And then we came upon a bush where we found hundreds of butterflies perched like jewels as they fed on the flowers.  As we watched them up close, we could see their tiny legs and antennae and their coiled proboscises sucking up nectar. 

Monarchs have an amazing life cycle.  An adult monarch lays its eggs on milkweed leaves.  When the eggs hatch, the caterpillars eat the leaves. After a few weeks, when the caterpillars are about two inches long, they stop eating, attach themselves to a leaf, and form a beautiful light green chrysalis. Inside the chrysalis, the caterpillar grows wings and metamorphosizes into a butterfly. After about two weeks, the butterfly emerges, gradually unfolding its wings. When they dry, the butterfly is ready to fly.  It will look for food, lay eggs, and the cycle of life will begin again.

When monarchs eat milkweed sap, a little bit of the poison in the sap becomes part of their bodies.  It helps protect them from birds and other predators. (Predators do not eat monarchs because they taste bad.)

Information sign at Coronado entrance to grove

Monarch butterflies have a life span of about a year.  Each butterfly makes the migration trip only once.  The amazing thing is that they know where to go even though they have never been there before. If we return again next year to see the butterflies, we will see the descendants of those that fluttered over our heads on this trip.

Coronado Butterfly Preserve:  Located adjacent to the Ellwood Grove.  Click HERE for more information:

Video: For a great video of the butterfly migration and information about other monarch groves in California click HERE.

Directions to the Ellwood Butterfly Grove and Coronado Butterfly Preserve: Click HERE for directions to the Coronado entrance to the Elwood Butterfly Grove and links to other hikes in the Santa Barbara area.

UPDATE February 23, 2014:
Monarchs, milkweed and the spirit of Rachel Carson. See this article in the Los Angeles Times about how pesticides are endangering the monarch butterflies.  Fewer butterflies have migrated to Mexico this year than ever before.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-nabhan-monarch-butterfly-extinction-20140223,0,7973387.story#axzz2uBU4ETM3

Marker showing paths from the grove across the mesa to the beach in Santa Barbara