Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Rose Parade Mural

Since I completely missed Mosaic Monday this week, I will instead post photos of about one-third of  Millard Sheets' Rose Parade Mural that used to sit in the Pasadena Home Savings and Loan/Washington Mutual/Chase Bank.

I once repeated the story that Chase Bank was about to paint over the mural--that was not true. But they were remodeling the Pasadena branch lobby, so the artist's son removed the mural and will soon be installing it in a new home in Pasadena, where we can view it in all its glory.

Tony Sheets, who is Director of the Fine Arts Gallery (actually, the Millard Sheets Fine Arts Gallery) at the Los Angeles County Fair, has this portion of the mural on display at the Gallery.

The walnut panels have lightened over the years. The grayish shadows on people's faces were once much lighter than the wood, and so created realistic faces--but now, with the wood lighter than the paint, the effect is almost like looking at a photo negative. Here's a close-up of the dogs, cause I like dogs.

No comments: