The Artist profile

The Pine Lake Voice supports the creation and presentation of original art that is rooted in community. During the coming weeks, the Voice will be posting the art works of Linda Peterson (Ahlgren) whose long association with the arts began when she moved from Buffalo to New York City in 1962. Linda became executive secretary for one year at the National Arts Club. The high light of that year was when she greeted artist Salvador Dali to a gallery of his works. Dali walked up to Linda and handed her his Ocelot; Linda, to Salvador Dali’s surprise, was not taken aback and asked him if she could hold the cat during the visit; a member of the Dali entourage retrieved the cat from Linda’s arms and Linda proceeded to escorted Salvador Dali into the gallery.

Linda heard about a vintage clothing store in Pennsylvania that was selling its entire inventory. With the money she had saved and a loan from her parents she purchased the inventory and opened a vintage and antiques clothing store called Fifties East Ltd. AKA Transformations. Located in the East Village, near the Electric Circus and Fillmore East, the venture was successful and attracted customers like young Bob Dylan, Frank Zappa, Greatful Dead band members, Woody Allen and many others. During this period she met and employed Robert Beers who later became curator of the New York Museum of Modern Art movie collection and Ann Nitschke, accountant for Andy Warhol; they became life long friends.

In 1972 Linda moved to Marin County California. For the next few years she worked as designer and sales manager for Sunflower Boutique’s in San Fransisco and as a designer for Grossman’s Paper Company in Woodacre. It was during this time Linda met and married Calvin Ahlgren, a writer and interviewer for the San Fransisco Chronicle newspaper’s arts and entertainment section, becoming a mother to Calvin’s two young children.

Linda, an activist and teacher, is a Founding Member and organizer of the Marin Peace Center and Organizer for Women’s Party for Survival. She taught art at the National Institute of Art for the Disabled. Linda’s exhibits included Merit Award, San Francisco Woman’s Artists Gallery. Corporate Art Show, Knecht, Haley, Lawrence and Smith, San Francisco Hall of Flowers Golden Gate Park, Fairfax Library, to name a few. Between 1980 to 1993 Linda traveled extensively to Europe, Mexico, Central America and Indonesia, recording her travels on canvas and watercolors.

When Linda’s photographer brother, Will Roger Peterson, moved to California in 1989, Linda, with her many connections to the Bay Area’s arts and entertainment culture, helped her brother establish himself in California. Will Peterson met Crimson Rose, Larry Harvey and others who became the founders of the Burning Man art collective. The group of Burning Man Founders met and planned early Black Rock City events at Linda’s artist studios in Bolinas, California.

Linda Moved to Pine Lake in the year 2000 because she wanted to be able to swim in the lakes warm waters which gave relief to arthritic pain, swimming almost daily with her friend Inga Witt. Linda became an Art Station member where she showed her art work receiving a first place award and two honorable mentions in Members Juried Exhibits at the Art Station. Linda participated in additional shows of her works in Pine Lake and the Primitive Eye, Decatur.

Here is a brief summary of Linda’s education: National Arts Club: Life Drawing and Water Color, New York University: Child Psychology; University of Buffalo, Psychology.’91-’92 Paper Making with Kerry Vander Meer; 1990 Mask Making With Barbara Mulhauser; 1988-92 College of Marin: Drawing, painting, Design, Print Making, Sculpture, 1985-87 Water Color with Jackie Kirk, 1981-82 Water Color with Richard Yip. Most of Linda’s original art has been sold; however, she has retained a number of her original watercolors, canvas and mixed media pieces. The Voice will first feature Linda’s water colors from her visit to Bali where she lived for a time in a rural rice growing village and her water colors of ocean side Marin County.

Call for Dialogue

A Call for Dialogue

By Dennis Rotch

Gentrification is the process of repairing and rebuilding deteriorating homes in order to accommodate an influx of affluent people that results in the displacement of citizens with fixed or low incomes. Housing that was once affordable is being turned into vaulted, marble homes in order to attract affluent buyers into Pine Lake’s real estate casino culture.

The principal instruments of gentrification in Pine Lake are the City Government, real estate brokers/renovators and the so-called ‘Involved Neighbors’, that work together seamlessly to create a fiscally toxic environment for low and fixed income homeowners and buyers.

Let’s examine how the entities contribute to the gentrification process. The mayor and council engaged and continue to engage in policies of exclusion. The most notable policy was the Park Card, an odious instrument of discrimination that enjoyed a 25 year run that was vigorously endorsed by the governing council, the ‘Involved Neighbors’ and real estate brokers/renovators.

We can take solace in the fact that the park card is no longer in place, but the impetus for discrimination is very much with us as there has been no apology or expression of regret for such an appalling and illegal device; in fact, the very opposite has occurred with some demanding that the park card be restored.

A usual, so-called benefit of gentrification; such as a revitalized business district has not occurred because demographically Pine Lake is too small to support even one restaurant. About the only thing, the city residents are capable of supporting is a monthly breakfast held by the ‘Involved Neighbors’. While most citizens enjoy few, if any, of the benefits of gentrification, the detrimental effects are amplified when it forces residents to leave the community through high property taxes and valuations.

Gentrification usually leads to negative impacts such as forced displacement, a fostering of discriminatory behavior, abuse by people in power and a focus on housing that excludes low-income individuals and people of color.

One of the City’s principal instruments of gentrification is the costly part-time Police Department which creates an illusion of enhanced security. Twenty years ago the City was facing a crisis brought on by an intense citation regime on Rockbridge Road that allowed the City to keep taxes low by turning 1500 feet of Rockbridge Rd into a ‘cash cow’; 75% of the City’s budget was covered by the citation frenzy. As a result, protesters demanded an end to the predatory practice. I should note that the City is well within its right to patrol Rockbridge Road; however, the ‘lay and wait’ policy faces a serious obstacle as parking on Rockbridge is illegal.

Gentrification occurs because of a lack of policies that value community. Without policies that attempt to remedy the trends that cause forced displacement, gentrification will continue to displace low and fixed income residents. To develop remedial policies, we must recognize the disproportionate and destructive effects of gentrification. Remedial policies will require a political realignment combined with the reigning in of the ‘Involved Neighbors’ from its outsized influence over governing policies. The ‘Involved Neighbors’ is a political device, known as a ‘wedge’, that divides the constituency and promotes gentrification that degrades community.

Formation of a non-profit whose mission is to preserve and promote affordable housing, would be a good place to start.

“Be transparent. Let's build a community that allows hard questions and honest conversations so we can stir up transformation in one another.” Kent

Invasive Plant Eats the Mayor’s Ego Arts Project

Pine Lake Voice, Media and Publishing

Art Fence 2017

art fence June 7, 2022

A tribute to superficiality.

Mayor’s Vanity Project ‘Trumps’ the Code

Stormy Weather

When the storm knocked out the power I rediscovered the art of writing with a pencil and paper. I used the grill to keep the tea water hot and herded the sweet-gum balls off the deck with the broom before sitting down to read the open records request that I had requisitioned from the City of Pine Lake regarding the “Art Fence”.

I requested the minutes of all council meetings in which the ‘fence’ is mentioned by the Council. There were five council meetings between, September 2016 and March 2017, where the fence is reported on by Council Brandy Hall. There is no description of the fence recorded in the ‘minutes’. The ‘minutes’ did not provide enough information for the public to determine what the City’s Municipal Arts Panel was actually planning to build.

The City paid $4200 to Gould Construction for the posts, lights and electrical conduit.

I obtained a copy of the ‘Fence Permit Application which was approved on the same day it was received. The information on the form is sparse. At the bottom of the application it reads: applicant/administrator with two signatories: Council Brandy Hall & Clerk Valerie Caldwell. ( Brandy Hall is the current Pine Lake Mayor). Clearly stated on the permit is the fence height limit: 48 inches.

The Council is limited to acting within the code and cannot make up rules to suit its convenience. The rules apply to everyone, including those who govern.

Basic principles of governance; not a feature of the City of Pine Lake.

The Council approved the construction of an ‘Art Fence’ that violates the City’s fence/sign Code, which limits the height of the fence to 48 inches. The art fence is six feet tall, 64 feet long and topped with 16 gooseneck lights making its overall height about 7 feet. It is in fact very much like a freeway billboard. The design is inappropriate for the residential district and in violation of our residential Code. The project is a wasteful expenditure and is an example of abuse of power. Public Works building is in need of repairs and painting.

The Pine Lake public works building was designed to fit into our residential district. Note the vent copula and the large dormer bay. Our antecedent council and citizens who ordered the construction of the building knew the importance of a robust and attractive Public Works building.

The Mayor Zarus administration named the building after longtime public works manager Boyd Adams; Mary Adams lives in Pine Lake. The building fits into our residential district. the clay footed art fence is an example of invasive stupid governance. The Council needs to spend our tax dollars maintaining this important structure, the Public Works building.

What are we to think of a Council that holds itself above Code? Is the Mayor suffused with whimsical powers? It is a sad day when our elected public officers succumb to whims.

Is there a vision for art, that lives within our Code? Murals designed by artists with a connection to Pine Lake, like the one at the beach house. Murals made to last for a generation. Murals on an existing building is the precedent for public art in Pine Lake; not the Mayor's clay-footed ‘art fence’.

By violating its Code and ignoring precedence, we see a City government pandering to the ‘Involved Neighbors’ at the expense of the greater good.

Well, I’ve finished sweeping the sweet-gum and the kettle is whistling tea time; ahh, the day after a storm is the best.