Personality
Jack Haye
DUMPSTERDIVER
BASUREÑO
ARTIST
HUSBAND
FATHER
STEP-FATHER
OPA
MENTOR
BURNER
COOK
ART ADVOCATE
(in no particular order)
Michael “BUG” Deakin
Petaluma has such a significant and accessible geographical location in the bay area, with an excellent combination of urban and ag, and an intriguing blend of the arts, sustainable intent and community outreach!
Michael “Bug” Deakin, a British Columbia native, built his first home out of reclaimed materials in 1970, and that was just the beginning. Along the way he has planted trees, designed, built and remodeled custom homes, boats, movie sets, rock walls, gardens, parade floats, tree forts, dog houses, ship models, furniture and a splendiferous array of art forms from repurposed materials.
As a member of Ivy Deakin’s story telling family of 10 children, everything was re-used and recycled, especially all the great stories. Bug takes to heart the story and origin of the buildings, people and materials that make their way in and out of the Petaluma yard. With relentless focus on sustainable enthusiasm and talking story, Heritage Salvage has become a center of creativity and sustainability.
As he waltzed his way through years of planetary wanders and events of wonder, he learned from many teachers and was affected by design without limits. From an Amazon Tree house to a Japanese Teahouse, a Balinese Birdhouse, a Driftwood Palace and the pleasing decay of a Western Barn, every nuance notched its niche.
Bug’s passion is the art and reward of re-purposing, re-using, and recycling as a part of a sustainable way of life. Teaching others to see the beauty in what is here, sharing treasures and stories of the past, and sharing the joy of turning old, sometimes falling down, structures into beautiful new things fuels each day.
Just as in the Deakin family, there is always enough to share, and Heritage Salvage goes out of it’s way to help those that need it and those that help others.
Michael Bug has a sprawling enthusiastic family in British Columbia, including a fabulous Daughter Suzy and two grandsons in Salmo!
Michael Garlington
how does one make a dream in to a reality
there is no better place to do this than petaluma
there is a perfect cross of cultures farmers and artist
and what it has to be sure is community.
i use art to communicate to others
though dark comical satire.
i want anyone to be able to relate with my photos even if they think it untasteful
if they look away i want them to have to look back then i know i have done my job
Jason Webster
Jason Webster hovers above Petaluma, like a dark bird on a wire in the early evening. He scans the color and motion below, yet he’s comfortable and calm on his monochromatic perch. You’ve seen him downtown, capturing and preparing art at Picture Perfect. Thirteen lucky years framing our images, Jason, totally embracing responsibility to wife and baby, takes care of business. You trust him to display your art in the appropriate light. After closing time, Jason slides back to black, to hearth and home, where his family awaits and the walls vibrate with news from other worlds and ages. The place he prefers is made by hand and exudes not so much sadness as nostalgia for a time “when people had more dignity.” His space varies dramatically from neighboring living rooms where television prevails, but he doesn’t judge. Jason’s always been this way – bit of a death obsession; black-on-black; other-worldly – but in a happy way. “I’m sort of a death hippie,” he says proudly. Jason rarely ponders moving elsewhere. “I grew up in Petaluma. I’m notorious here, which appeals to me.”
Chili Empress
I became the Chili Empress in 1997 with the first Great Petaluma Chili Cookoff, Salsa and Beer Tasting. People actually started calling me the Chili Queen, but you know, I really felt more like The Chili Empress, so I self proclaimed as such. Every April when I have to convene with the Weather Goddess to make the sun shines down on our event and she holds back the rains, I feel they’ll listen closer if it comes from the Empress.
We’re now heading toward our 12th Annual event and each year it gets a bit more crazy and more successful. It’s the biggest fundraiser of the year for the Youth Program at Cinnabar Theater and the money goes towards scholarships, help for the teachers, directors, costumers, tech designers and others who make the kids program the best in the Northbay. My own kids went through the program and now are out in the world using the skills they learned at Cinnabar everyday in their jobs as adults. So I feel very dedicated and thankful to Cinnabar for the confidence they have given my kids to go out and tackle the world.
What I love about the Chili Cookoff is the lighthearted sense of extreme wackiness and good spirits that the challengers and the guests share. They come in team costumes, decorate their booths, make outstanding chili and salsa, and do it all with exhuberance and joy. Some go home with hand made art trophies and some just go home smiling with aching feet….but they all have had a great time and yell “See Y’all Next Year!”. And our guests do the same, altho they don’t get a trophy for it.
It’s a well loved Petaluma experience and I’m proud to be The Chili Empress.
Ashley Karnes
I have always said that the best towns are those that you get stuck in, and Petaluma is the best of the crop (I have lived in 5 countries and been round the world two and half times, visiting over 15 countries). I came for a month…four years ago. My man and I found storage for our newly purchased school bus, Bertha, in the downtown area. We were planning to just pack our things up and leave for Canada in four weeks, but engine trouble followed and then complications with elements of the rebuild. So I got a job at Dempseys and started to refurbish her into a mobile home while we waited for the engine to be running. My living situation has been alternative while in Petaluma, to say the least!
Pet is one of the few American towns I’ve been in that has such a quant character and such an obvious, rounded history – from the immigrant wars to the invention of the incubator, American Graffiti film and all the great Victorian architecture. It’s also one of the few towns I have felt has a real sense of community, a diverse one at that. Everything I need is within cycling distance and I bump into folk i know all the time….I love bumping into the street kids along the river, all the parents at the dog park and all the folk propping up my favourite dive bars near closing. A friend is never far away.
I have had a bunch of visitors from England – who have all loved the place – I got married, found my fabulous little dog Pippi, learned alot about wood, patience and hustling for work.
I’m going to miss everything very very much.
Amelia Webster
If you could siphon the color from Monet’s “Woman with Parasol,” you’d find Amelia Webster. Classically attractive and cut from the Gothic cloth, she’s bored by newer incarnations of that aesthetic. Yes, she wears black, all the time, but she has no desire to be part of any scene. Amelia is more interested in the history of the Gothic Era, and she follows a literal interpretation of its sensibilities. Actually, she’s obsessed by beauty, art, literature and fashion, and she wears that obsession on her sleeve. Some people don’t get it. “People say mean things. They attack what they don’t understand. But I wouldn’t trade my sense of self for anything.” With a death grip on the past, Amelia admits to casting an occasional glance to the future. “We want to go into space,” she says, gesturing at her husband and child. “We’re fascinated by what we don’t understand. And I want to go underground. Do a Google search on ‘The Bloop.’ You’ll want to go too.”
