Saratoga News

Saratoga Sampler

Mary Ann Cook

'Winged Women' represents artist's current phase

Winged Women: Theresa Robinson is a Saratoga artist who goes through different phases of creativity. In the past, her watercolors adorned the walls of her husband Carl's pediatric office in the Westgate area and then on Good Samaritan Drive. Gradually she started adding more materials, began producing collages. Then she illustrated famous sayings with whimsical line drawings. Small versions of these witty notecards are on sale at the Los Gatos Company on N. Santa Cruz Avenue in L.G.

Later she went through a box period, producing a series of objets d'art in box form. Then followed the Winged Women series, one of which is in the front window of the Los Gatos Company, the gallery that features fine art and contemporary crafts. This one, called "Swimmer From Alcatraz," is a wall hanging crafted of wood and metal, priced at $350. Another structure of hers featured in the shop window is called "Masai Figure" and is $395.

It's hard to keep Theresa Robinson's work here," says owner Andy Bivetto. "They sell so fast." This artist works in three dimensions, creating sculptures with a folk art feel. Printmaking and etching are also part of her oeuvre. Always fascinating to see what's next in her evolution. Her work is also exhibited at Gallery House in Palo Alto and at The Gallery on Main Street in St. Helena. Her winged women could be considered angels with a '90s twist.

Katherine Maxfield sold her first short story--to American Way Magazine, the American Airlines publication. You may have seen it while airborne over who-knows-where. She got the idea for the story while searching for an arbutus marina tree at Christensens Nursery on Sanborn Road. "The tree in the story is more beautiful in fiction than in real life," she says. Even so, it is now firmly planted in her front yard, a living symbol of her first sale. Maxfield won the 1995 Jack London Short Story Contest sponsored by the California Writers Club.

Vaulting to scholastic honors: Amy Garrod, '92 Saratoga High grad, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa at UC-Santa Barbara. She received bachelor's degrees in both English and Spanish this spring. In high school days, Amy was a national champion vaulter, which is gymnastics on horseback. Isn't gymnastics hard enough on a flat surface? Evidently not for Amy. The Garrod family ranch is part of her back yard, and the Garrod family has been collecting awards and kudos in this community for the past four generations. Amy studied in Grenada, Spain, during l995 and is the daughter of the Jan Garrods.

herbs, birds & blooms: The locally famous herb garden of Virginia
and Louis Saso is featured in the August/September issue of Birds & Blooms, a magazine dedicated to birding and gardening enthusiasts, as its name indicates. Here's an excerpt from the article: "On one pungent acre, the Sasos grow hundreds of herbs that spice up their meals, add color to the landscape, invite area birds and are thought to treat some ailments."

Last year, photographs of their garden appeared in a Japanese garden book, and a young woman from Japan, who owned a restaurant, came for a two-week apprenticeship with the Sasos to learn to grow her own herbs to use in dishes at her restaurant. Both Sasos teach, reap and sow: Virginia offers wreath-making classes; Louis gives free lecture tours of the garden each month and teaches one-day seminars on designing and planting an herb garden. For a copy of Birds and Blooms: P.O. Box 990, Ste 3665, Greendale, WI 53129-0990. It's $2 a copy, and many of its stories are written by readers, though not the one on the Sasos.

St. Andrews to St. Andrewsóalmost: Many golf widows resent that small round ball, but Marilyn Reid is a special sort. She and her son Zach, 27, wanted to surprise her husband/his father Bob with a golf trip to Scotland for his 60th birthday. She wanted sons Zach and Jess, 23, to be able to go, too, and she and Zach wanted to pick up all or most of the tab. But she wanted the trip to be a surprise, so she had to resort to subterfuge: She told Bob she wanted lyposuction. When he exploded, as she knew he would, saying he would have no part of such nonsense and that if she wanted lyposuction she would have to earn the money for it herself, the coast was clear. Thus did she venture out to schools to substitute teach this year at St. Andrews and other elementary schools without arousing suspicion as to the true nature of her quest. And thus did the three Reid males enjoy 11 days in Scotland and England recently, playing at five famous Scot courses, though they didn't win the lottery for St. Andrews. A postscript for the femmes: Daughter Carson and her mother know where they are headed when Marilyn's 60th rolls around: Paris calls.

FISHBOWLS with live fish therein seem to be the latest trend in table decorations at weddings. Piano teacher Kerstin Stone fears the practice may bring back the custom of fish-swallowing so prevalent in the '20s.

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