Olema means "Coyote" in Miwok

Some folks might be under the impression that, with my sign, I was proposing a name change to our town. That's wrong. I love the name Olema. It is very special to live in a town with a Native American name. The sign is an artistic expression meant to bring a smile during the election season. Thats all.

Word gets around

Thank you to the blogs and news outlets who included my sign on their sites. First, The Obama Art Report where you can see about 250 different entries from creators of Obama related artwork.

Here's our daily newspaper in Marin County, The Marin IJ. I was shocked when I went to get the paper on Saturday that this story and photo made the front page! It is depressing to read all the nasty online comments but one I agreed with was that it must have been a slow news day.

I love this local blog, Point Reyes Weekend, a labor of love from You Mon Tsang. You can get a nice feel for what there is to see and do when you visit West Marin.

Here's a blog entry in Arts Journal that attempts to sort out the meaning of it all.

Obama Sign Update

The County of Marin contacted me yesterday and very nicely let me know that, unfortunately, there were complaints about the sign. It appears that it needs to be completely on private property and not in the public right of way (sorry!). The county employee sent out to remove it brought along his camera and photographed it instead (because he liked it!) and then kindly allowed me to take it down myself by the end of the day and I did.

I completely understand the County has a job to do and rules to enforce so I have no problem with the county. It is the complaints that astounded me. I asked if people thought the sign posed a hazard (I was very careful to place it further off the road then any other sign) or if it blocked other signs (It did not, I was careful about that as well.) This was the nature of the complaints:

"The sign is confusing."

Wow! OK, so, like, you've got the kids all loaded into the SUV for a fun day at the seashore and you come down the hill into Olema and - "Oh no! This isn't the town of Olema. We're in Obama! Darn, where did our on-board navigation system steer us wrong?! Oh well kids, we gotta turn around and go home because Olema isn't here."

Who knew it was this easy to confuse people.

Obama Sign in Olema

Here's a new sign in Olema. (Olema is in California, 1 hr north of San Francisco in the Point Reyes National Seashore Area of Marin County). It is not an altered public sign. It is cut from wood and hand painted. It is about ten feet tall:You can see it on Sir Francis Drake Blvd as you're approaching the village of Olema from the east.
Below is the street sign that was the inspiration for my sign. This sign is on Shoreline Highway as you enter Olema from the north.

Thank you so much Rob and Lisa for all your love and help with painting and putting up my sign.

Comments are welcome!