{"id":8753,"date":"2013-11-08T16:20:06","date_gmt":"2013-11-09T00:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=8753"},"modified":"2013-11-09T19:47:39","modified_gmt":"2013-11-10T03:47:39","slug":"fairfax-protester-artist-playfully-jabs-at-societys-toxins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/fairfax-protester-artist-playfully-jabs-at-societys-toxins\/","title":{"rendered":"Fairfax protester-artist playfully jabs at society\u2019s toxins"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sierra Salin blows bubbles at Fairfax Festival parade. Behind him is his \u201cplastic drag,\u201d a \u201cvisual and visceral\u201d political statement about toxic waste and environmental destruction.<\/p>\n

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Sierra Salin, in one of his artistic boxes at a Fairfax town picnic, wears tinfoil to poke fun at those who refer to some homeless as \u201ctinfoil loonies.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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To say Sierra Salin is unconventional is to state the obvious.<\/p>\n

According to a character-reference by former Fairfax Mayor Pam Hartwell-Herrero, it \u201cmight be easy to look at him as some sort of wacky, offbeat, troublemaker.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that, she said, is because \u201che challenges the status quo, makes us think about our role in community, and always brings a smile and fresh insight to the dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n

He tells me he\u2019s primarily a carpenter and artist.<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s also a photographer, jewelry-maker, environmentalist, documentary filmmaker and playful inventor of words.<\/p>\n

Sierra, added Hartwell-Herrero, \u201cis a wonderful family man\u2026ever present at town gatherings and important meetings. He is a\u2026good person who cares deeply for the planet and all the creatures living on it. He volunteers his time on campaigns that benefit the town.\u201d<\/p>\n

I find it tough to encapsulate him.<\/p>\n

The physical part is easy: He sports shoulder-length, curly dark hair and a bushy gray beard. A gold tooth shines from the rear of his mouth when he smiles.<\/p>\n

But when he declares, \u201cI never grew up,\u201d he\u2019s not referring to his six-foot stature.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s his man-child passions I can\u2019t boil down.<\/p>\n

He usually writes on medical forms, \u201cI am allergic to bureaucracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

He frequently scratches that itch.<\/p>\n

A recent protest by the midlifer targeted a tower that would facilitate more cell phones. \u201cWhy are we filling the air with electrosmog?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

His street theater in Fairfax Festival parades have included a Styrofoam drone augmented by 20-foot high \u201chomeland insecurity\u201d surveillance cameras; a mock nuclear reactor spewing dry-ice radiation fumes; and a \u201cplastic drag,\u201d a \u201cvisual and visceral\u201d statement about waste and environmental destruction.<\/p>\n

When I asked about his first protest, he friskily replied, \u201cWhen somebody didn\u2019t give me milk.\u201d<\/p>\n

As we sit now on a log in Bolinas Park, conversationally flitting like fireflies escaping a real blaze, he tells me he recently moved, a stone\u2019s throw from his old place (if you have a strong arm).<\/p>\n

But when I first chatted with him, in his old Fairfax backyard a year ago, I ascertained he superimposes original thinking on familiar subjects. He\u2019d created, for instance, a \u201cpeace is patriotic\u201d pinball machine for the 2011 Marin County Fair.<\/p>\n

His environmental focus seems ingrained, I decided \u2014 then and now.<\/p>\n

He drives his car \u201cas little as possible,\u201d for example, opting to ride his bicycle.<\/p>\n

And he fulminates: \u201cWe\u2019ve got fracking here, Fukushima there, we\u2019ve got Gulf Oil spills, we\u2019ve got genetically modified organisms everywhere. I\u2019m really, really distressed about the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he needs to escape, he puts on headphones and stares at stars. \u201cI like solitude and my own space,\u201d he tells me.<\/p>\n

Outside his former home, he cherished his gardens and beehives. Inside, he surrounded himself with what others might call clutter.<\/p>\n

I was particularly taken with his wife\u2019s weaving-looms and their huge Buddha (\u201cjust your basic garage-sale find\u201d). But Sierra is nothing if not eclectic, unattached to a single dogma. Miniature kitchen flags represented major religions plus Sufi, Gaia, Om, Native Americans.<\/p>\n

Fascinating, too, were frames filled with photos of his mother and her shadow.<\/p>\n

His art, forever scattered, falls into a pigeonhole of \u201cwhatever strikes me in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

While comforting, neither artwork nor protests are relaxing. So he unwinds by singing tenor in a barbershop quartet, and by playing dulcimer and guitar.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a Drake High grad who attended two colleges and earned certification as an EMT, which he practiced for years. He\u2019s proud he\u2019s \u201cbeen physically and vocally involved in the schools \u2014 Manor and White Hill \u2014 and my community for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sierra was born Lothar Norber George Salin in Marin General but toyed with his moniker ever since. He switched to Sierra, although he sometimes sports Shinybright now, because he adores the land \u201cbetween Truckee and Whitney.\u201d<\/p>\n

Occasionally he uses Tunafish as a middle name. \u201cPeople remember it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

His name-switches occasionally bring trouble \u2014 and First Amendment tilting at judicial windmills. Such as a skirmish with El Dorado County traffic officials who cited him for using a pseudonym, \u201cLove Heals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, he was sentenced to 32 hours of community service.<\/p>\n

He once signed checks \u201cBush Sucks!\u201d \u2014 \u201cout of frustration with the state of America and the world.\u201d He acknowledges that was \u201ca little confrontational.\u201d<\/p>\n

He once stood in front of Good Earth with a dried-out Christmas tree and sixty $2 bills he distributed while suggesting passersby \u201cdo something for someone else.\u201d\u00a0 Many folks, suspicious, ignored him.<\/p>\n

He once walked into a police station and said he wanted \u201cto turn myself in because society is a menace to me.\u201d \u201cScram,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

When I asked, \u201cHow do we change the world?\u201d he responded: \u201cLove each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still obvious that the more he talks, the more I agree. Maybe I\u2019m just a bit wacky, eclectic and playful, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  To say Sierra Salin is unconventional is to state the obvious. According to a character-reference by former Fairfax Mayor Pam Hartwell-Herrero, it \u201cmight be easy to look at him…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"