On Sunday, September 28, 2025, two remarkable Belvedere spirits, Charles Edward Auerbach and Carole Mignon Stitt-Bruner, were remembered in a grand way with the gift of MIRANDA from MARIN SERIES (the character from Shakespeare’s The Tempest). The 35mm film photograph is printed on Awagami Kozo natural paper (Japanese mulberry).
Gifted by the Auerbach Artist Colony to the Lyford House and the Richardson Bay Audubon Center and Sanctuary.
Artwork by light artist, Melissa Auerbach Schaeffer
Hand-sewn textile with calligraphy text dedication by John C. Morris
MIRANDA stands as a visual echo of Angel Island with views of Belvedere Island and Belvedere Lagoon, where Carole and Charles resided and gave for decades to their community.
The Children’s Tea Gathering at Richardson Bay Audubon Center and Sanctuary intended to bring a whimsical, fairy-like afternoon to children and families in the Marin community. Attendees frolicked in the meadow lifting a parachute to the sky expressing their inner child.
May the memories of Charles Edward Auerbach and Carole Mignon Stitt Bruner be a blessing.
Historic Bottle House at
Marin Art and Garden Center
The Iceland Series
October 9 – November 2 , 2025 – extended to January 16, 2026
Ten 35mm film transparencies by light artist Melissa Auerbach Schaeffer
From Curatorial Statement by John C. Morris: “The light artist utilized her camera as a tool to capture light and the finished framed artworks serve as windows and glimpses into the raw and textured landscape of Iceland. They evoke meaningful internal external feeling along with the power to slow the viewer down and encourage contemplation, meditation, and gentle healing space, which is especially important to the artist.”
Viewed by over 1,300 visitors, hundreds of curious children and their families in the three months the Iceland Series sat with grace in The Bottle House. Before this exhibition, The Bottle House was known as a mysterious, scary house; now, children refer to it as the fairy house.
Exhibition curated by John C. Morris, Masters (MA) Museum Studies, Johns Hopkins University brought a feel of Scandinavian domesticity, and magical Icelandic elf feeling to the space for children to wonder and imagine.
Thank you to the Marin Art and Garden Center staff for opening The Bottle House and exhibiting artwork for the first time in this space. Thank you to both Keisuke Hagiwara with installation on October 9, 2025, honoring John Lennon and lighting of Yoko Ono’s Imagine Peace Tower on Videy Island, Iceland, and to Sy Auerbach with deinstallation on January 16, 2026.
