October 7, 2011 – El Camino Real

Yesterday afternoon I was standing in the middle of El Camino Real. No, I was not on a busy road of big box stores and strip malls on the Peninsula, nor was I standing in the middle of the 101 Freeway. I was in San Juan Bautista State Historic Park. There, below the plaza, next to the old mission is a small stretch of The Royal Road. You get a good connection to history when you stand on a dusty trail that served as a road over 200 years ago. Back then the road itself was more a series of interconnected trails linking Spanish missions and presidios. After Mexican independence the name El Camino Real fell into disuse. No Spanish king would be traveling up through Alta California any time soon. It wasn’t until the 20^th Century, when California was redefining itself and mythologizing its history that the moniker El Camino Real came back into use along with the reproduction bells that line the route.

History real and re-imagined, I am glad that little bit of the old road is still there. San Juan Bautista became a quiet town bypassed by railroads and freeways. The good news is that it is now the only mission town that really feels old.

October 6, 2011 – Circles and Grids in 3D

Much of my 2D work encompasses a meeting of circles and grids. I thought it was time to take it to a third dimension. I also have been inspired from a bit of a retro cinema bender I have been on. I have been watching the Sean Connery Bond films. It can be rather inspirational. Who needs faux 60’s on those we-won’t-mention-them popular TV shows. Give me the real thing. Campy, kitschy and groovy – this piece may be a prototype for some new wall panels when I have the time….

October 5, 2011 – Travel Rules – Antiques and Junk

When I travel I do something I never allow myself to do at home. I always check out antique malls. Being on the road is a good way to restrain myself from getting more junk — or at least too much junk. Sometimes I find something I can’t resist, especially when I can use it in an art project.

Today I was at one of my favorite antique malls. The Five and Dime Antique Mall is in an old Woolworth’s in downtown Bakersfield. I always find something I need there. The building is an art deco gem, well preserved and similar to Woolworth’s that used to be in downtowns all over the country. It is very similar to the one that used to be in downtown Buffalo. I can still see myself in the toy department picking out matchbox cars. So, yes it’s a source of cool junk, but also a nice nostalgia trip as well when I stop in Bakersfield.

The latest stop was a chance to get some old dime store paperbacks. Cowboy stories with lurid covers — I love these things. And while even on a road trip, art was still made, tonight in a motel room (see below).

October 4, 2011 - Walker River

I did this piece along the Walker River in Toiyabe National Forest up in the Eastern Sierra. According to the calendar it’s fall. The mid-morning sun is low in the sky and I had to deal with the blinding glare off the river. It was warm and one could say, the last moment of summer. Later in the day I headed south down Route 395 to get out of the way of the first snowstorm of the season. As I drove south I could look towards the peaks of the Sierra and see the storm looming over the Tioga Pass and Mammoth Lakes. The Eastern Sierra is like California’s attic. It’s up there, a hidden quiet place full of treasure like Mono Lake, Bodie, Devils Postpile National Monument and the Walker River.

Below is a photo of today’s piece drying on rock along the river. Actually it dried very quickly in the mountain air.

October 3, 2011 – Travel Rules - Wupatki

If you like to travel, you might have your own a set of rules. The rules are yours and yours alone. It’s not about rules for everyone to follow but rather, you figure out what works best for you when you travel. One of my travel rules is always to look for places near popular destinations that often get overlooked. Some of my favorite places are often missed. Many people are looking to get somewhere else, somewhere more famous, etc.

One of those places is Wupatki National Monument. It’s just north of Flagstaff and most travelers drive right by on their way to the Grand Canyon. I am not complaining, I kind of like having the place to myself. I’ve photographed it, I’ve painted it, and I’ve visited the magic breathing hole. Yes, did I tell you about that? Over to the side of the pueblo ruins, there is a reconstructed Aztec-style ball court. Next to it is a small opening in the earth. When the temperature is warm, air comes rushing out of mysterious caverns somewhere below the earth. There is a sign explaining in National Park Service-speak that it is believed this site was held as sacred. Duh! The earth is breathing. Wupatki is one of the reasons I love road trips.

October 2, 2011- Groucho’s Moustache

It’s hard to find a more humorless bunch than a room full of Marxists. There’s the newspaper hawker variety, the kind of odd crypto-Stalinists cult members who think their paper will usher in the revolution. Then there are the hardcore academic Marxists. I encountered a few too many of those in a dark year of grad school at Northeastern. Your grade was based on your ability to think the “right” way. Extremism of any variety is such a bore.

But don’t give up — there is another kind of Marxism. And it’s a more fun that Trotsky drunk on tequila. I am a committed Groucho-ista. Groucho Marx was born on this day in 1890 (and it’s only a rumor that he was Karl’s grandson). Groucho and his brothers were my kind of Marxists.

October 1, 2011 – Stripes

I like stripes. I like striped shirts and striped sox. I like striped patterns in weaving. I like stripes on pottery. And I like painting with stripes, Jasper Johns, Sol Lewitt, Sean Scully among many of the artists who can work magic with paint and geometry. There are plenty of stripes in my collages and today for the 2011 Project, a little painting all about stripes.