C For Men

Sarah Kersten 6-quart vegetable fermentation jar, $280, sarahkersten.com. Photography by Erin Scott.
Cameron Marks boutique, 402 Ingalls St., Ste. 15, Santa Cruz. Photography by Keeley McGowan.
Good Stock boutique, 4198 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Photography by rosey lakos.
Marlon Williams Make Way for Love vinyl LP, $18.
2. The Practice of the Wild by Gary Snyder (Counterpoint Press, $11.50).
Manresa State Beach, Santa Cruz. Photography of Manresa State Beach, Santa Cruz Cty, CA by Marcel Holyoak © 2009 (flickr.com/photos/maholyoak/5902844310), licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0).

Garden Variety

by slh

Florist Katie Chirgotis picks favorites

KATIE CHIRGOTIS. Photography by: Sarah Falugo.

“Negative space and movement in my arrangements [are] usually what catches people’s eyes,” says Santa Cruz-based florist Katie Chirgotis, describing her innovative designs. “Things seem to be turning and pointing, they feel kinetic.” In Chirgotis’ case, art imitates life. She’s not one to sit still. The Virginia native left an advertising career and headed to Santa Cruz to study floral design—then decamped to Spain, followed by Oakland, before recently settling in Corralitos. Along the way, she apprenticed at San Francisco’s Studio Choo flower shop, then launching her own studio, Eothen (meaning “from the East” in Greek), two years ago. Her spontaneity leads her to seek out ephemeral trellises of wild honeysuckle, tall roadside grasses and even driftwood strewn along the region’s beaches. “Part of the romance of flowers is that nothing is permanent,” says Chirgotis. Here, the free-spirited creative shares some of the more lasting items and places that are catching her eye. eothenfloral.com.

Written by ELIZABETH VARNELL.