Digital Arts Club at Berkeley City College

Open Studio at BCC Gallery, June 2008
Pearl Jones Tranter - Digital Photography

Drydock Number One [made of granite from Folsom, California] with non-flying cranes, one of them a spoil of war from Germany. The first drydock built West of the Mississippi.	Baby Joe’s remains in Building A167, an exploded ordnance at rest, a mobilized flag in a golf cart. Decisions of war and peace made by men on golf courses.

Narrowing our options, obfuscating our view	Destined for demolition, these pipes no longer work on Mare Island.
My current work documents the transition on Mare Island, Vallejo, California, from a military base and shipyard building and repair facility[active from the 1850s through the 1990s] to National Historic Preservation site, developer’s housing projects, Army Reserve Facility, medical university and cancer treatment center, regional park, 18 hole golf course once again, industrial use. The developer, Lennar Insustries, now wants to tear out the railroad tracks and opposition is growing against this wastefulness of potential use and historic importance. Fascinating stories are now beginning to come out of the historic records, some top secret, about this undervalued historic gem. The make-nice people are on the move to remove spectacular eucalyptus trees [they will have to be replaced in kind!] and now the railroad tracks. They plant petunias in wine casks to “beautify,” painting ochre yellow and deep red trimmed warehouses a dull gray and bright white, not at all in keeping with the island’s traditions.
pearl.tranter@gmail.com

Pearl Jones Tranter