At a certain time of day, on certain days of the week, the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes hold a special magic. Any prints left as evidence of life are wiped away, and the massive sand forms become a source of solitude and beauty. They take on a life of their own under various patterns—flat and smooth in some places, wavy lines in others.
It’s not real magic, though, it’s weights and measures, as Dunes Center Executive Director Mario Castellanos explained on the eve of the center’s art gallery opening: “The grains of sand each weigh different amounts, and when the wind blows, the lighter ones get blown, and the grains tend to aggregate with like grains.”
The logical reason for the beauty, however, doesn’t make it less special to artists who capture it through their work. And like the very grains that make up the dunes, artists who get inspired there now have a place to aggregate their pieces. The Dunes Center boasts an exhibit space to showcase dunes-related art in all its interpretations.
The idea started with Jules Reuter, a member of the Dunes Center’s Board of Directors—who also happens to be a photographer. When room opened up at the Dunes Center, the space was remodeled to house artwork inspired by the dunes. Castellanos said the art will rotate on a quarterly basis, starting with photographs by Reuter and Cathy Gregg, and pencil drawings by Carol Daniels.
Castellanos said the idea was that visitors can learn about the dunes through the art. For artists wanting to show their work at the dunes, interpretation is fairly open. Castellanos said there are people who go out to surf and photograph the surfers, visitors who are bird watching, and folks who take pictures of the flowers as well as the pollinators.
For Gregg, the dunes themselves inspired her.
“I had never been out there, and I went with a friend, and I was inspired by seeing all the different shapes and textures around me. It was magical,” Gregg said as she prepared to hang her dunes photographs. “When I got home, some of the shots shocked me. It’s like you can’t take a bad picture.”
In her piece, Edge of Light, Gregg said she was inspired by the light hitting the rim of the dunes where one side drops off smooth and flat, creating a rim almost like a razor’s edge and the sand sparkling back at her. In contrast, Every Which Way features another dune with wavy lines in the sand, making a crazy map of trails created by the wind. The most significant commonality the pictures have is that they’re untouched by anything but the wind.
“We’d go out on week days when there are no footprints,” Gregg explained.
Or maybe there are footprints, marks that are quickly wiped away, so that the dunes become a blank canvas for the next artist seeking the magic. Reuter said the shifting nature of the dunes means no two artists see the landscape the same way.
“The dunes are ever changing. They change minute by minute,” Reuter said. “It’s another world. A world unlike where you or I live.”
[image-5] Reuter retired to Guadalupe in 2004 to be near the dunes, which he considers a spiritual location. He calls it a magnificent place of beauty, somewhere he can clear his mind. He also takes advantage of the quiet beauty to become inspired. Yet he recognizes that a lot of other artists use the dunes as inspiration, too.
“If you get 20 photographers that go photograph the dunes on any given day, you’ll have 20 different photos,” he said, “because beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
Reuter said he hopes the art will provide awareness to locals and visitors alike about what exists in the dunes.
“And it’s in our backyard, literally,” he said. “It’s a resource people don’t take advantage of. Most people haven’t walked in the dunes.”
Arts Editor Shelly Cone asks: If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, what happens if you have bad eyesight? Tell her at scone@santamariasun.com
This article appears in Apr 1-8, 2010.