it's time to face this sex thing

August O'Connor

 it's time to face

this sex thing

 

It makes us men.

It makes us women.

It makes a joke

to please us

to see us smile.

It makes Beauty

to open our hearts.

It makes Love. 

 

            August O'Connor 

 

Fulton-Bennett Woodblock Prints

Kim Fulton-Bennett: Boulder Creek Library

Kim Fulton-Bennett is a man of many talents, marine biologist, science writer, composer and performer in several musical genres, primary traditional Celtic music where for several years he was half of the Dobhran ("otter" in Gaelic) duo with August O'Connor which entertained at coffee shops, festivals, weddings and private parties in the Santa Cruz area. More recently he performed with Blarney, a larger Celtic band. Inspired by his work at MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) he is currently authoring a website Seasons in the Sea which recounts the life stories month by month of conspicuous plants and animals living in and around Monterey Bay. Inspired by his contact with nature through marine bio;ogy, through hiking in the California wilderness and by surfing off the coast of Santa Cruz, Kim has been producing a series of woodblock prints some of which are now on display (Sept--Oct 2023) at the Boulder Creek branch of the Santa Cruz Library.

"I live in the redwood-covered hills behind Santa Cruz," writes Kim, "and spend my free time hiking the mountains and surfing along the wild North Coast. That's where I get the inspiration for most of my wookblock prints."

"My first woodblocks were simple designs for friends and relatives. But I soon fell in love with the magical process of carving a design into a block of wood, inking the block, and then seeing the design on a piece of paper."

"I carve my woodblocks by hand and make prints in small editions of 5 to 15 prints. Each print is signed, numbered, and dated. Because they are hand made, each print is unique."

Mt Lassen from Spirit Lake

Point Sur

 

Pigeon Point Lighthouse

Rockview: Moonlight

Plum Blossoms

August O'Connor (1951 - 2023)

August O'Connor in meadow with big bodhran.

 AUGUST O'CONNOR (1951--2023)

Born in Southern California in 1951, the middle girl between two brothers, Raleigh and Greg, August O'Connor early experienced a love of animals, drama and mystery. She raised pet rats and played with snakes. And face-painted, dressed in leotard, rabbit skins, leather aviator helmet and shaking a coyote-skull rattle, she entertained her high school classmates as "Animal Woman: Protector of all speechless creatures." She starred in student plays, performed in an all-girl band and, starting as a freshman, she edited her high school's literary magazine.

 

After graduation, while living in Claremont, she met and married Bill O'Connor. Shortly afterwards they moved to Capitola where they attended St. John's Episcopal Church before moving to San Francisco to work at Grace Cathedral.

For eight years at the Cathedral, August O'Connor served as assistant verger, supporting Bishop Swing in ceremony, designing vestments and providing counseling, For six years she worked as chaplain at San Francisco General Hospital during the rise of the AIDS epidemic.

In recorded conversation with San Francisco social historian Lynne Gerber about her AIDS and other work, August recalled: "Lots of different lives but there is a chaplaincy thread running though it. The thread is love, I'd say, the thread is willingness to love. And to be loved, you know, because when you open your heart to someone, you might not be loved, you know." August's motto, painted on her gate post, is: "Every blessing on all beings."

 

August has worked in every aspect of the visual arts from large oil paintings to cartoons. In the 70s she was Art Director of Good Times, Santa Cruz's largest weekly newspaper. She designed logos for several businesses including Zoccoli's Deli and Pink Godzilla; producing signs, murals and window displays for numerous local shops. She also fashioned necklaces, earrings, bracelets, Celtic knot tattoo designs and unusual hand-hammered copper sculptures based on double spirals which she called "Buddha-mind roller coasters."

 

After leaving Grace Cathedral, August and her friend Nick Gardner began attending Native American sweat lodge ceremonies in Marin and Shasta counties under the direction of Karuk medicine man, Charlie "Red Hawk" Thom. When she moved back to Capitola, August mentored under medicine man Indio, eventually running her own sweat lodge events when Indio became ill. August's sweat ceremonies, carried out with Nick Gardner on the beach a few miles south of Pigeon Point lighthouse, drew a wide variety of attendees primarily from the nearby University in Santa Cruz. Also with Nick Gardner, she enjoyed many trips into the wilderness which she loved. 

 

In her home in Capitola, on one city lot, August put together a voluptuous Mediterranean garden crowned by an orchard of olive, apple, plum, lemon, loquat and persimmon trees. In addition to wild profusions of flowers, the garden produced food – lettuce, tomatoes, beans and potatoes as well as fruit from its trees. August's garden was a haven for bees, butterflies, bats and small mammals and had been officially certified as Wildlife Habitat #29951 by the National Wildlife Foundation.

 

August was a splendid chef, could create a tasty meal out of most anything. At San Francisco gatherings, she garnered admiration for her party specialty: chocolate truffles. Her turmeric toast made an unusual breakfast treat and August's mushroom omelettes were arguably the best in the known universe.

 

August sang and played guitar and bodhran (Irish frame drum). With flute-and-whistle player Kim Fulton-Bennett, they formed the Celtic duo Dobhran (Gaelic for "otter") which played at weddings, wineries, coffee shops and private parties and they also recorded a few instrumental CDs. Dobhran has performed at numerous Scottish and Irish festivals in Santa Cruz and Ben Lomond. A familiar presence at local Irish music sessions, August recently started a new group called Blarney with Kim, Nick Herbert and Matt Johnson, which has performed on stage, at private parties and most recently at an Irish wake in Boulder Creek.

 

Friends have described August's character variously as "playful dignity", as "innocent sophistication", as "kaleidoscopic life force",  as "remarkable, unique, eccentric",  and as "a tempestuous whirlwind." She herself explained "My life/is one kiss/with life."

 

She was hospitalized recently in Santa Cruz for a serious infection. And, on March 24, a week after St. Patrick's Day, early in the morning at age 72, this former chaplain, artist, musician, sweat lodge leader, gardener, beautiful and loving woman, August (Augie) O'Connor, passed away peacefully in her sleep.

Says Nick Herbert: "August came from a larger place and shared some of that with the rest of us."

Said one good friend: "August filled pages; she was a tome."

Added another: "August was an Irish rose."

I LIKE MY HANDS
https://quantumtantra.blogspot.com/2023/07/i-like-my-hands.html

I Like My Hands

August playing her bodhran (Irish frame drum)

 

I LIKE MY HANDS

Hands, I like my hands
They do so many things
Well for me.
Hands, I like my hands
They do me well.

Feet, I like my feet
They do so many things
Well for me.
Feet, I like my feet
They do me well.

Friends, I like my friends
We do so many things
Well together.
Friends, I like my friends.
We do so well.

Lord, I love my Lord
He does so many things
Well for me.
Lord, I love my Lord
He does me well.

Life, I love Life
It's so good to be Living
And, and when I die
I'll be so glad for what
I've had.
And, and when I die
I'll be so glad.

AUGUST O'CONNOR SEPTEMBER 1977

SWALLOWTAIL JIG
https://www.tumblr.com/quantumtantra2/721702466218065920/blarney-band-matt-johnson-august-oconnor-kim

THE AUGUST O'CONNOR KNOT
https://quantumtantra.blogspot.com/2023/05/kauffman-flypes-rolfson-into-oconnor.html

DEEP IN MY HEAD
https://quantumtantra.blogspot.com/2023/06/deep-in-my-head.html

Deep in my Head

August O'Connor

DEEP IN MY HEAD 

by August O'Connor

 

I was deep in my head
Deep in my head
Deep in my head
When you startled me.

I was deep deep
Deep in my head
When I saw you
And you startled me.

When I saw you
And you startled me
I saw you
And you startled me.

I would like to be
Startlingly beautiful
Deep in my head
When you startled me.

I would like to be
Startlingly beautiful
I would like to be
Startlingly fair, fair, fair.

Fairer than a rose
Fairer than a perfect rose
Fairer than a dawn
Fairer than a perfect dawn.

Fair as the light
Shining from my lover's
Bright eyes

Fair as the words
Spoken from my lover's
Sweet lips

Fair as the love
Deep at the heart of everything
I would like to be
Startlingly beautiful.

I was deep, deep
Deep in my head
When I saw you
And you startled me.

 

Kauffman Flypes Rolfson into O'Connor knot

August O'Connor, Celtic knot maker

KAUFFMAN FLYPES ROLFSEN INTO O'CONNOR KNOT

My friend and musical partner, August O'Connor, designed me a personal Celtic knot which became part of my business card plus a rubber stamp, and which she also painted on my back, my bald head and on a hat box containing my black derby hat.

O'Connor knot painted on a hat box

I recently discovered that knot theorists have classified knots according to the minimum number of their crossings and that the O'Connor knot is an example of a seven-crossing knot. According to the official knot table constructed by Dale Rolfsen there are only seven seven-crossing knots. So I naturally wondered which one of the seven Rolfsen knots corresponded to the O'Connor knot. After a simple but long and tedious calculation (presented in my previous post) I proved that the correct Rolfsen knot was 7--6.

In other words I had proved that it must be possible just by twisting and turning Rolfsen 7--6

The Rolfsen 7--6 knot

to transform it into the O'Connor seven knot. 

 

The O'Connor seven knot

By tying a big rope in the shape of the Rolfsen knot and trying over and over again to turn it into an O'Connor knot (which I had proved must be possible) I ended up with nothing but featureless tangles and usually was unable to even return to the original Rolfsen. Then I had to untie the rope and try again.

In short, Nick could prove it but not do it.

For reasons unknown to me, Nick's dilemma attracted the attention of prominent knot theorist Louis Kauffman who demonstrated a simple set of three moves that easily turn Rolfsen into O'Connor.

Knot theorist Louis Kauffman

 Kauffman summarized his three moves on a single sheet of paper which I reproduce here. He also hinted that he might assign this exercise to his students as a homework problem.

Kauffman's first move

 

The O'Connor knot might be visualized as two outspread wings positioned over a "tail". Kauffman noticed that the O'Connor "tail" already occurs in the Rolfsen knot at 2 o'clock on the standard diagram, So Kauffman's first move is to rotate the Rolfsen till the "tail" is now at the bottom at 6 o'clock.

Kauffman's second move

 For the second move we notice that the O'Connor knot's two "wings" are symmetric around the vertical axis but the Rolfsen knot is not. The Rolfsen knot has two crossings on the left-hand side (A) and zero crossings on the right (B), in the rotated sketch drawn by Kauffman.

For his second move, Kauffman then applies a twist that equalizes the number of crossings on the left and right hand sides. This twist (illustrated in the upper right corner of Kauffman's sketch) subtracts a crossing from one loop and adds it to the other. After this twist, technically called a "flype", both loops now contain the same number of crossings, and with a little bit of rearrangement, can be seen to resemble the "wings" of the O'Connor knot: Kauffman's third move.

Kauffman's third move

Kauffman's first and third move are nothing but simple reaarrangements that can be accomplished without lifting the knotted rope from the table. The real trick resides in Kauffman's second move in which he applies a simple twist (called a flype) at precisely the right position. The word "flype" is derived from a Scottish word meaning to skin or fold as in turning over the edge of a sock.

Now I know how to turn a Rolfsen into an O'Connor knot. And so do you.

With grateful appreciation for Louis Kauffman's timely aid, I offer for your enjoyment the seemingly effortless liveliness of August O'Connor's "Knotted Hare"

August O'Connor's "Knotted Hare"