Okay, no guessers on the mural location (See May 6th post). I guess that means I'm "up" $30.... Anyway, the mural is located on the side of the Safeway gas station right off State Park Drive exit at Soquel Drive.

Back to Murals: More Ocean Life

Probably many of you have seen this wonderful mural on the side of 41st Avenue cinema. (This photo represents about half of the entire mural which took a month to paint, with assistants). Painted in 1979 by Daniel Burgevin from the Ithaca, New York area, this is one of the oldest murals I've found still around in Santa Cruz.

And here is a picture of Daniel painting another sea life mural, 12' x 20', in 2005, commissioned by the Museum of the Earth at the Paleontological Research Institution which is affiliated with Cornell University.

Random Art Thought...

So don't ask me how or why I started thinking about this...maybe because I'm on vacation...but I was looking at the portraits of Claude and thinking what a nice looking face he had. Then I'm thinking, but wait - it's a self portrait and that's not really how he would look to someone looking at him. He'd be looking in the mirror and so his left ear would appear on the left rather than on the right if I were gazing at him in front of me. And so then, I started thinking about other artists who most likely did self-portraits in front of a mirror rather than from a photograph of themselves (which is kind of cheating in a way don't you think?). So I downloaded a few famous artist self portraits, flipped them horizontally, and here they are.

But notice in Claude's color self-portrait: the Mona Lisa is portrayed correctly in his work, and backwards when I flip his self-portrait! Pretty cool thinking on his part - he must've added that afterward.

Where is the mural on Bean Creek Road?

Local art conservator Chris Kenney told me about a mural painted
on the side of this man's house on Bean Creek Road. Now I really want to find it. Does anyone know the address or the current owner?

This artist is Claude Buck, born in New York City in 1890. His father gave him his first art training from ages three to fourteen. Later in his 20's he studied at Chicago's Academy of Art and Design and for awhile in Munich.

While in New York he earned money as a theatrical scene painter (perhaps his first "murals"?). He formed a group called the Introspectives and had a reputation as a "radical artist". (Uh oh! We know about those radicals!).

He subsequently moved to Chicago in 1919 where he continued his education and became a leading member of the avant-garde symbolist artists and was known for his "fantastic, sometimes disturbing images with allegorical and literary themes". In the 1920's he did a number of "hyper-real" portraits, figures and still lifes which were popular and aligned him with the opponents of abstraction and their "Sanity in Art" movement. According to Josephine Hancock Logan, the artist and founder of this movement, "Sanity in Art means soundness, rationalism, a correct integration of the art work itself in accordance with some internal logic. "

Anyway, Buck moved to Santa Cruz in 1949 until 1959. He was a member of the Santa Cruz Art League and served as its president in 1953. He moved to Santa Barbara in 1959 where he died in 1974. His work is wonderful, and I highly recommend Googling it to take a looksee. Thanks Chris for making me aware of it.

Now...where's that mural!!!?

This is such a sweet and subtle mural...not loud in the colors or "drama" or detail. But you know what? I really like it. I like the sentiment (and the fresh trail in the sand, although the scale is not correct, so this may represent a time long ago), I like the subtly of color and detail, and I like knowing where this scene is located - at one of my favorite walking beaches and my totally favorite fossil beach! (Uh oh...did I let the cat out of the bag? Cuz...I absolutely know that every time I walk this beach - which is often - I collect the totally best stones and fossils there are that day! :-) or in other words: always a great walk!

CHALLENGE: Do you know where this mural is located? The first person that can name this location by June 1, 2010, will get $30 by emailing me with the correct answer at: shunt95066@sbcglobal.net. I will publish the location of the mural, names of the winner and the first two runners up in the first week of June.

For those of you who would like to comment, or have already tried and gotten really frustrated...please try again as I have now enabled it (thanks Hank).

Sea life - a major theme of Santa Cruz murals

No surprise...we love our sea! and we love our sea life forms! This is just a partial view of the entire mural down by the Boardwalk. You know what...murals just simply make me happy!

Time warp Santa Cruz County...now called Neary's Lagoon. This mural is called "At Home in Neary Lagoon" and depicts an early Native American environment. I feel confident that in those days it wasn't called Neary's Lagoon. Here's an aerial view of Neary's Lagoon today:
Kinda different....

Okay, I'm still researching the Neary family (Sandy Lydon probably has all the information). But in the last hour of research here's what I have about one of the family members:

"1893 - August 15, 1893, James Neary, an old and respected resident of Santa Cruz, (and the brother of pioneer Patrick Neary for whom the lagoon is named) killed his wife with a butcher knife. He claimed that in a jealous rage he had threatened his wife with the knife, but after thinking the better of it had thrown the weapon on a table and it had bounced back up and struck his wife in a freak accident.

But at his trial, the couple's eldest daughter said that she had witnessed her father intentionally stab her mother. So it came down to it being his word against hers. It was a sensational trial which kept the family name in the papers and tongues wagging for many months.

Jim Neary was found guilty and sentenced to San Quentin for 30 years. He was released, old in ill health and died shortly after his return to Santa Cruz."

Dun dun (Law and Order tone).

Meanwhile, there was another Neary, San Francisco based, who owned a big piece of Pleasure Point in the early 20th century.

This mural, created by Dawn Wagner, on the side of Mountain Propane in Felton makes me think about the old TV show "Lassie" starring my first crush, Tommy Rettig, and before that, the movie "Lassie Come Home" and don't forget, "Son of Lassie" - starring none other than the handsome and debonair young Peter Lawford (later known as "the forgotten Rat Packer"). Oh, and he was married to a Kennedy: Patricia. Lassie and the Kennedys...both big names in my growing up years. Here's Dawn's website, she's a very talented artist:
http://www.aromaticdesigns.com/





Oh, and most of all: acknowledgments to all the beautiful collies who were stars in my childhood, too!

Come and Go

This 25 foot by 80 foot mural stood on Pacific Avenue from New Year's Eve until late July 1998. The photography, design and photocompositing was done by Darryl Ferrucci and features Moving and Storage Performance Company and Crash, Burn and Die Dance Company. Now you can see a bit of this mural at the corner of Seabright Avenue and Soquel Avenue (wall of the virtual Rio Theater).
My friend Joan said this about them: "I was reminded of an interesting mural I saw recently driving on Soquel Avenue on the left up high, are two interesting dancers that look like relatives of the wonderful group that used to be in downtown Santa Cruz on the side of the Lulu Carpenter building. They were actual models from a popular 90's dance group here called "Crash, Burn and Die" and I loved getting to look at them every time I walked over to Pacific Ave, but they disappeared when they were going to put up a monstrous building in the former Bookshop Santa Cruz site (and didn't when they economy went belly up)."

There are a number of online articles about the dance group but I haven't yet found a video clip. Will still work on that for this blog.

Here's the photo of James Dean which inspired a mural on the Brookdale Lodge many years ago (at least 20 that I remember). The mural was pretty good and very memorable in the San Lorenzo Valley...so much so that when the Lodge's new owners decided to paint over it there was a huge outcry. This resulted in a repainting of the image (left) which, well, falls way short in quality compared to the original. Notice in this mural a faint figure to the right of Dean, climbing a ladder putting a big puzzle piece up. Could this be a self portrait of the original muralist, saved from the paint over?

I have been searching for a photo of the original mural. As of yet I haven't found one, but in the process I have discovered that James Dean is a very popular figure in murals! For starters, check out: http://www.americanlegends.com/jamesdean/photos/murals.html
then if that isn't enough, try this: http://www.findamuralist.com/California/jana-pitlova-toluca-lake.php
and okay, so here's the James Dean and Elvis barn in Warwick, New York:
Or how about this fabulous one in Denver:












There are more. Try Googling them yourself and see just how many you can find!

My college degree was a major in art with a minor in education. When I graduated I looked for jobs as an art teacher (back in the day when schools actually HAD art teachers)...but it was one of those interesting situations where the schools were looking for teachers who had experience. And... you can't GET experience if you can't get a job. It was a Catch 22 back there in Iowa. Needless to say my career bent into a different direction.

But I have always loved "kid art". Fresh, imaginative, colorful, inspired.

Here are a few details from the Bay Elementary School mural at the intersection of Bay and Mission. This is a mural that was guided by mural artist James Achbacher. The young artists of these mermaids were around 9 years old at the time.

Interesting to observe the differences. I wonder if there is a reason why all their tails curve to the visual right? And having queried that, I realize that when I draw people or animals, I have more difficulty rendering them posing to the visual right than left. Hmmmm. What's with that?

Now I'm going to have to experiment: being a right handed person, will drawing with my left hand make it easier to draw people and animals facing the visual right? I'll give it a try.

Here are a few pix of the mural on the side wall of Sylvan Music. It's a long mural and looks like it's spray painted. Pretty cool. I especially like that the artist, Lanny Markasky, created a whole bunch of Fender strings packages...okay - I play guitar and Fender strings...what can I say?!

Oh but wait! Here's Lanny in a break dancing video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCAUSjESNoQ

Lanny is a young artist who works in many different media: oil, acrylic and spray painting, and he is also a tattoo artist, graphic and web designer, break dancer, and a magician. Is that enough?? Big artist!

Well, even though the rain and a holiday and work-in-general have kept me from driving around taking pictures, I have continued to do research and put together a spread sheet to keep track of the murals I need to follow-up on. Right now I have about 100 mural sites and I haven't even explored much of mid or south county yet! How cool is THAT?!

Last post I included a couple of details from a mural in Santa Cruz. Above is the full mural (picture credit I think to the artist) out on Mill in downtown Santa Cruz, created by Josh Yoches and Elijah Pfotenhauer. Here is a YouTube video of the work in progress: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoS9eZ7cJ6Y

And here is Josh's website, which is pretty awesome. Interesting and talented young man:
http://joshyoches.com

In future blogs I will include websites and other information about some of the mural artists that have created pieces in Santa Cruz County. Some deliciously amazing talent here!!

The mural I saw but didn't see...

Here are a couple details from the mural I've seen over and over...but never really saw.

MONTEREY BAY LIFE FORMS

Back at it today. I was meeting a friend out on the west side of town so thought I'd focus my efforts there. On my way to lunch made notes on a couple murals to go back and shoot. Had a fabulous lunch at Avanti's...I mean - where ELSE can you get a baby radish, cucumber and Monterey Bay sardine salad?! And did I mention: to die for?! But it wasn't enough cuz I was pretty hungry having had no breakfast, so I also ordered the did-I-mention-freshly-made asparagus soup?! OMG!

Okay back to the project...in the area of Avanti's...is the intersection of Bay Avenue and Mission. There were three murals here: two painted by (I think the same artist) Lanny Markasky on Sylvan Music's building and one across the street which was a mural project with locally conspicuous artist James Carl Aschbacher and the then fourth graders (now ninth graders) of Bay Elementary.

I had the interesting experience of nearly colliding with a very large man wearing tie dye while coming around the corner of the Sylvan Music building after photographing the mural. The man cheerfully and immediately said, "How nice to run into you!" Then he introduced himself as John and proceeded to tell me a joke about a man who had purchased a large clock, and while on the way home with it passed by a local pub. A rather intoxicated bar goer was coming out of the pub precisely at that moment and managed to collide with the clock festooned fellow. Whereupon the drunk said "Can't you wear a normal watch like the rest of us?" .....Get it?!

John toted a mandolin, noticed my Santa Cruz Blues Festival tee shirt and we shook hands as fellow musicians. John gave his blessings for the mural project and we both wished each other a great day.

After photographing the murals I decided to head down Bay Avenue to the ocean. Well THAT was a huge distraction! I drove up West Cliff Drive and down West Cliff Drive. What an amazingly gorgeous day. I stopped to take a bunch of photos...couldn't resist.

Finished up with a couple murals along Front Street. And one of them, I have seen for at least a couple years regularly...at least a couple few times a week...and while photographing it I realized...I never really actually SAW it before, not really. It was amazing....I'll post a couple photos in the next post.

Here is a fun detail of the mural on the Boulder Creek hardware store...

Day One - March 23, 2010

Okay, after thinking about documenting the many and amazing murals in Santa Cruz County, I said to myself - let's start! I have commissioned myself to do this: find them, photograph them, learn about them and the artists, compile all this into a book to publish and make available to others. A document of public graphic art, and a period of time of Santa Cruz history. I first contacted about 300 people on my email list who live in the county and asked them for help: to give me locations/addresses of mural art they might know of. I have already heard from a little over 30 of them in the last 48 hours and THANK YOU ALL for your support and input!! Then I contacted the Cultural Council and the Community Foundation to support this project . They were enthusiastic and I will formalize my interests to them in grant requests in 2011.

Today was was my first day...started in Felton and up through the San Lorenzo Valley.

After photographing the first two murals I realized that I needed to measure them. So my next stop up Highway 9 was the hardware store in Ben Lomond to buy a tape measure. I actually own a couple of them but didn't want to drive back home to get one. I found a 25' one for a little over $6...and then I found my ACE rewards card I hadn't used for $5 off...so I got the tape measure for a whopping $2.62. Pretty cool.

I'd seen a mural there in Ben Lomond at the art center (appropriately), and asked the clerk if she knew of any others in the area. She reminded me of a couple, like the Orthodox Church, that I would not have thought of. And she reminded me of Jimmy Dean in Brookdale. She told me about how the new owner of the Brookdale Lodge had started to paint over this long standing mural, and because of community outcry, had it re-painted it. So off I went with my tape measure.

Well Jimmy looked pretty second class compared to the original. I'm hoping someone out there has a photo of the original that they'll contribute....

Then in Boulder Creek. I started photographing and measuring the hardware store there which had several murals depicting local history. I think I'm minding my own business and then this woman shows up and says' "What are you doing?" After taking a moment to write down the measurement numbers in my head I explained, "I'm on a mission to document the murals in Santa Cruz County." Anne Marie Conrad, who owns the hardware business with her husband Doug says, "Well, we heard the sound of the measuring tape and wondered what was going on." Of course! I thought - hardware business...they would totally know the sound of a measuring tape! I apologized, not meaning to cause any consternation. She was then kind enough to give me some of the history around the mural and point out some fun details I did not see. A very nice and unexpected connection.

I toured a couple other streets and then started heading back down Highway 9 toward Scotts Valley. As an aside: while I am driving around I make note of murals I see along the routes so that I can get back to them. One of these was a mural on the side of Mountain Propane. So on the way back down Hwy 9 I stopped to take a picture. Well, there were a bunch of cars in the way of the artwork so I went over to the shop and asked when the best time would be to come back for a pix. I talked to Selby Henderson who was very congenial and helpful. Then he asked one of his workmates, "Who did the mural?" and that young fellow said, "My mom." How cool is THAT?! She even has a website which I will be checking out. Selby also informed me of a couple of tagger murals made in tribute to a number of local young people who died in accidents. These are in rather remote, non-obvious places...I am looking forward to seeing these. Thanks Selby.

Later this afternoon I had a reason to travel down Soquel Avenue and noticed murals along the way. And I also noticed spaces where there had been great murals that have been painted over!

What I learned today, my first day on this project:

- Measure the mural
- Notice where the sun is and get an idea of the best time of day to photograph
- Take notes
- How many public art pieces there are out there when one actually LOOKS for them!
- How many of these pieces are just sort of in our "peripheral" vision.
- Becoming aware of those pieces that I always enjoyed in my peripheral are gone...and I miss them and feel a bit of sadness that they are gone.
- Asking myself: what defines a mural....

I am really stoked about this project. Aside from appealing to my artistic sensibilities, it is causing me to think about the process in ways I hadn't imagined. What to document? How to photograph? Where to get the history? What are the relationships of store owners to their artwork, etc?

New doors opening.