Oceanside with Tahoe Friends!

Our Tahoe friends Jeff and Janet are thawing in SoCal for a couple of weeks and we were all able to find time to connect for a day of camaraderie in the beauty that is a beach town.

We began with coffee at Pannikin which has the distinction of being located in one of my favorite buildings in town, the Bunker House. First owned in 1886 by Theodore C. Bunker, this two-story building is one of the first brick buildings in Oceanside and one of three brick buildings built in the 1880s which are still standing. It has an interesting history found here.

After catching up and fueling up we headed to OMA West, the Annex Gallery of Oceanside Museum of Art. It is located inside the Seabird Resort. The hidden to most people, the gallery is on the ground floor towards the back of the building, accessed through the front of the hotel. It is one of our favorite places to take people because it is such a treasure once you've discovered it.

We were there for the new exhibit Stitched and Forged: The Art of Kelly Witmer and Mônica Lóss.

"This exhibition brings together the works of Kelly Witmer and Mônica Lóss, two artists whose diverse backgrounds and unique approaches to art offer a rich dialogue on contemporary practices. Both artists, though hailing from different parts of the world, share a commitment to exploring the intersections of culture, environment, and personal expression, and engage in a compelling conversation between metal and textile mediums."

"When brought together in this exhibition, metal and textile do more than simply contrast; they engage in a dynamic interplay. Their combination reflects the interconnectedness of various artistic traditions and materials, blurring the lines between the industrial and the domestic, the rigid and the pliable, the masculine and the feminine. This fusion becomes a rich visual and tactile conversation, illustrating how art can transcend cultural and material boundaries, speaking to a universal language of creation and expression."