This Week on the Central Coast…
The power is finally back on! Our area’s artists are continually being featured, whether it’s in murals, festivals, or galleries. Also, a rare whale was spotted in Monterey Bay.
Monterey
A whale watching tour spotted a rare endangered whale
A group of whale watchers were treated to a very special sighting last week. The tour spotted a North Pacific Right Whale, a species that is so rare that only about 30 are believed to live along the US and Canadian coast. Jessica Chance, a research biologist for the NOAA, confirmed the photos. This sighting is only one of about 20 sightings since the 50s. The most recent sighting was in Half Moon Bay last year.
Right Whales are baleen whales, which means they eat by filtering small organisms from sea water. They are black and have no dorsal fin, which is what tipped off researches to what species the whale was. Other identifiers of this species include rectangular pectoral flippers (as opposed to tear-drop shaped), a V-shaped blow when they exhale, and the presence of callosites, which are hard white growths that are known to grow on Right Whales. These are unique to each whale, similar to a fingerprint.
There are about 300-400 North Pacific Right Whales in Russian and pacific waters, but only about 30 along the North American coast. The species has been endangered since the 70s when they were almost hunted to extinction. Researches have also stated that males outnumber the females 3-1 and it is not known if the remaining females are past reproductive age. This theory is reinforced by the fact that there haven’t been sightings of a calf since 2005, though juveniles have been spotted. Scientists don’t even know their migration routes.
“If there was ever a more rewarding and kind of validating feeling, it’s seeing all of the whales that we see that have been almost hunted to extinction in the past,” McDermott said.
A Monterey artist is having her first show
Monterey-born artist, Grace Aniela Wodecki, is having her first art show at Sylvan Gallery in Seaside. She will be showing about twenty different pieces, all of which will be for sale. Most are abstract watercolors made on wooden panels and some include collage elements.
Wodecki holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Cal Poly and says she was inspired by her grandmother, Carol Harrison, who was also a watercolor artist. “There’s a theme of tracing objects around me,” she says about her pieces. “I take an object, outline it, and deconstruct its form. I like combining objects, making new energy.”
Her art was also a way of helping her cope with the feeling of isolation and depression that so many people experienced during the COVID lockdowns.
The gallery will be on display until April 8 at Sylvan Gallery in Seaside. In addition to creating amazing works of art, Wodecki currently works as a graphic designer and wine label illustrator. You can see more of her portfolio on her website.
Santa Cruz
Watsonville’s Film Festival in Seaside
Watsonville’s 11th annual film festival started a second streak when it came to Seaside for the second year in a row.
The festival, which was from March 3 to the 12th, took place at the Henry J. Mello center at Watsonville High School and at the Watsonville Public Library. Over forty films were shown, including one by director Carlos Perez Osorio (called “Los Tigers del Norte: Stories to Tell”), who was flown in from Mexico for the event.
The final two films were shown at Palenke Arts in Seaside, titled Strawberry Picker and Stir the Heart.
Strawberry Picker tells the story of Juan Fuentes, a Watsonville native and artist, who attended Watsonville High School and went on to make art for various civic movements in the area.
Stir the Heart is about a small city in Mexico that is recovering from a disastrous earthquake. Artists come to the town and help the children heal by giving them a means of expressing themselves through art.
Juan Sanchez of Palenke Arts is happy to bring the festival to the young filmmakers of Monterey County. He hopes to soon offer filmmaking classes through Palenke Arts.
Watsonville Filipino community to be honored with a mural
This week, the Filipino community in Watsonville picked a design for a mosaic mural to honor a leader in their community. Rosita Tobasa will be featured in the art. She was one of the few Filipino business owners in the area in the 1930s and provided a safe space for farm workers, who were being violently attacked at the time. “It means a lot, actually. Not only for the sake of my only family and having their name honored in history, but also for what she represents for the Filipino community,” said Angela Cruz, the granddaughter of Rosita who will be at the event to receive the honor.
The mural will be displayed on a new affordable housing apartment building which will be known as the Tabasa Gardens.
The building and the mural are planned to be completed by December of this year.