A Nepenthe Childhood

I was born in 1963, in Big Sur, California, and grew up at my family’s restaurant, Nepenthe. I remember so many moments from childhood, like stills from a film. Peeking through the curtains to see everyone dancing down below. Astrology parties with free birthday cake and champagne and dancing under the stars. Beating tin can[…]

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Studies and Glimpses

We’re coming back! Join us at Carmo on Julia Street for Tom’s “I Can’t Draw and You Can Too!” class December 28 1-4pm. The class is $60 and includes all materials. My slideshow “Awaken The Artist Within” follows at 4:30-5:30. Also at Carmo, it’s free and will send your home dreaming in full color! Meantime[…]

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Stealing Time

Before I was a painter, I was a writer, and the mother of two, a dedicated volunteer, and a community activist. When I picked up the brushes for the first time, I had to steal one day a week out of my already hectic schedule. I’d put my kids on the school bus and head[…]

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Color duet – painting with Kaffe Fassett

Kaffe taught me to seek beauty, and to find it in color. The beauty of a weird beige plastic card table against an array of singing red bowls in my mother’s house. The hallucinatory pink wall in a sea of white on a walk through winter in Vermont Before I was ever a painter he[…]

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Kaffe Fassett and Erin Gafill Color Duets 2020

Monterey Museum of Art May 14-August 23, 2020 Influences When I was a child I remember my uncle Kaffe returning from his travels, hanging a bedsheet from the rafters of Nepenthe and projecting slides of his knitwear to the collective gasps of the audience – dinner guests, employees, and family members all. In my twenties,[…]

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