After many weeks of planning a group of us went out to the di Rosa Preserve in Napa. This is a vineyard and meadow site housing a collection of contemporary artworks by San Francisco Bay Area artists collected by Rene di Rosa and his wife Veronica.
It is an amazing facility in the true casual-elegance that can only be Napa Valley. Farmhouses that are somehow old and modern in the same breath house absolutely fascinating pieces of art. Ranging from art cars to flying Virgin Mary's, the world's tallest filing cabinet to a house made of glass bottles, this is a feast of whimsy.
I was surprised by how many artists, from the Hearts in San Francisco project that I managed, were represented in the collection. Only now, four years after the event, do I fully appreciate the significance of the artists who were asked to participate. The project's creators were in effect commissioning art from the Bay Area's most edgy emerging and seasoned artists.
Most of the preserve pieces are out in a meadow and we were warned to wear comfortable clothes and shoes. However, I felt like being quite girly and decided to wear my one and only pair of high heals. Everyone was concerned about my ability to teeter totter on all the bits of rock and to step over the high grasses, but I am proud to say that I did not fall, twist an ankle or even clunk around like a ostrich on stilts. I looked quite good thank you.
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