Mosaics in Seattle

She's back!

Two weeks away in the great Northwest, and what do I have to show for it? Besides a big grin and about five extra pounds, courtesy of tastings and flights? Pictures of mosaics!

In fact, the Fremont area of Seattle, which I'm assured is trendy and bohemian, is awash in mosaics. Well, it rains even in July there, so it's awash in just about everything.

I found Pique Assiette mosaics there, if you can believe that. The proof is in this picture.

No idea what artists were involved or if it was a community effort (I suspect yes) but the ground of this patio or plaza is covered in widely spaced tiles, with the grout being filled with things like bottle caps, screwdrivers, keys--lots of keys--and broken toys. And this pair of scissors.

The little square or plaza where these mosaics reside is most notable for an 8-ton bronze statue of Vladimir Lenin, which was cast in Soviet Czechoslovakia just a year before the communist government fell. Must have been aggravating for the artist, Emil Venkov, because he had worked on it for ten years. He portrayed Lenin against a background of flames and violence, most unusual, but the statue was thrown down.

How did it end up in Seattle? An American teacher in Poland, Lewis Carpenter, came across it in a scrap metal yard. With the help of a few others, he managed to buy the statue and have it shipped to Washington, but he had to mortgage his home to do so. He felt it should be preserved as a work of art.

Mr. Anderson died in a car crash before the statue was installed, and his family is willing to sell--but for upwards of a quarter million dollars.

The pique assiette mosaics are in the low walls and ground behind Lenin.

Have not found any mention of Lenin's red hands, and in fact they don't look red in other pictures of the statue, so I assume their color is due to local vandals or vandalizing activists, rather than the artist Venkov.

Just a couple of blocks away from Lenin and the pique assiette mosaics is this work of art by Jo Braun and Kate Jessup, installed last year. It was pouring rain when I took this photo, but it came out well.

The piece is called "Invasion of the FoundFacians." You can scroll through pictures of the artwork's elements and the planning stages on Jo Braun's website. Close up, you can see that some of the landscape is iridescent.

There was more public art and sculpture in the area, and I missed most of it because, being an Angeleno, I wimp out in rain. But I do have more pictures from both Seattle and Half Moon Bay in California, which I'll share over the next few Mosaic Mondays.

Mosaic House in Venice

This one's no secret--it's got its own website and Facebook page, both of which proclaim the address and keep folks updated on public tour dates. The photo at right came from the website, and there are many more there--but I'm particularly fond of wisteria so we'll start with that.

The mosaic house sits on Palms Blvd, between Lincoln and Penmar. It's owned by Cheri Pann and Gonzalo Duran, both busy and successful artist. Lately, their work has been focused in Los Angeles, and a big part of that work is on exhibit in their home.

As you can see from the picture below left, from the AvoidingRegret blog, there's a great deal of pique-assiette in this home--as there was in the last two Mosaic Monday posts, which focused on works by Jolina Beserra.

But it's not all one style, and the artists, while whimsical, also consider the home a work of art first, and a novelty second. Since 1994, Cheri has created the tiles, and Gonsalo shatters and scatters, according to one post--but I'm sure it's more collaborative and less simplified than that.

Cheri Pann told blogger Sandi of AvoidingRegret that she considers her home different from, say, Simon Rodia's Watts Towers. "For them [Rodia et al] it's an obsession," she said. "In art, there's planning. We strategize everything."

There are many photo essays on the Venice Mosaic House, but my favorite is at AvoidingRegret, and I suggest you scroll through for the big photos and the small details. I think I like it best because the post starts out by admitting that photos cannot do the house justice.

The rest of the photos here come from AtlasObscura, from a blog written by Robert, whose signature seems to be RJHEMEDES. Hope I got that right. There are many more pictures in his article, so please go see it.

First is the kitchen, and I must honestly state that I can't tell what is real above the sink and what is mortared onto the shelf and wall. The bananas are real right? And most of the coffee cups and bowls. . . maybe.

Second is the bath. Third is the front porch. Such mundane words for such wondrous sites.

More pictures of the kitchen from other angles are on the other websites  mentioned, including this page from Cheri Pann's website.

Boardner's

Boardner's--on Cherokee, near Hollywood Blvd--has been in business since 1942. The picture at right is recent though. Boardner's was used in the movie Gangster Squad (starring Ryan Gosling) and that's why Cherokee was lined with vintage cars and men in fedoras.

The tilted neon sign is exactly the same, but the painted brick and posters, as well as the red awning, were added for the movie. 

Below is a picture of the sign at night--taken in 2012, same as Gangster Squad: the year that Boardner's turned 70. Not sure who to credit these pictures to--they are posted on several sites.

Before it was Boardner's though, it was a speakeasy upstairs, and a beauty shop called Morressy's Hair Salon downstairs. And before that, when it was founded in 1927, it was called My Blue Heaven, after the song. The owner was none other than the songwriter, Gene Austin.

Steve Boardner came along in 1942, when he lost his lease at the Cross Roads of the World (at Sunset and Las Palmas) and was looking for a new place for his bar and restaurant. Steve established the Boardner's we know today--upstairs and down. Out with the beauty salon, in with the bar.

Here's a short list of the movies Boardner's has been in:

• Ed Wood
• LA Confidential
• Hollywood Homicide,
• Wag the Dog
• Leaving Las Vegas

TV shows include NCIS-LA, Don't Trust the B in Apt. 23, Numbers, Angel, and Cold Case. That is not a complete list at all.

Boardner's biggest claim to fame may be that it's believed to be the last place where Black Dahlia victim Elizabeth Short was seen alive. Other stories are mentioned at Boardner's website.

That picture of W.C.Fields was over the booth I sat at. It's real. He signed it back in the 1940s. 

Through the main bar is a patio with stage, and the floor out there is authentically old but not conducive to spiky heels. Here's a shot of it from above through a window, and another of some of the detail. Only a true history geek would take pictures like these (thanks, Flo!)

Back in the early days, this patio was for customers who parked behind--the building was the first in LA to have a drive-in business. 

The entire building that encloses Boardner's is called the Cherokee building, and was designed by Norman Alpaugh--including the patio.

The upstairs room, which used to be the speakeasy, has been goth-ed up with an antique bar that once was at the Biltmore Hotel, and murals that replicate stained glass from the Pere la Chaise Cemetery of France. So what's not original, in other words, evokes a sense of "divine decadence." Although you do need to give your eyes time to get used to the darkness.

I'd just like to add that they serve great macaroni and cheese. And other stuff, too--fabulous nachos--but good mac & cheese is a big weakness of mine.

If you ask really nicely they'll probably give you a copy of their 5-page history, which includes a list of the celebrity regulars that have stopped by over the years. Some of the names have their regular drinks listed--W. C. Fields, it turns out, drank Coke there. Ed Wood liked scotch and water; Mickey Mantle came in for bourbon & ginger ale. Phil Harris ordered coffee and anisette.

South Pasadena Library Mosaic

Another week, another library, another children's room, another pique-assiette mosaic by Jolino Beserra. Could that possibly get old? Take a look at the picture on the left, and you tell me.

This mosaic pillar was installed in 2011 in the Children's Room of the South Pasadena Library, and I believe the Friends of the Library covered the expenses.

And that's all I know--I will leave you with this lovely photo of the pillar, up on a Flickr photostream by one Walterrr.

Tiki Bars in Los Angeles and Beyond

Monday again? Yikes, where does the time go?

Don't answer. I know. I have 3 facebook pages to update daily, a twitter feed, and my lovely WritersCalendarLA.com site--check it out--just for a start. BUT . . .

While I gather pictures for a new Mosaic Monday post, here is some recommended Los Angeles History reading material on Tiki Bars! Who doesn't love Tiki Bars?

• This Bucket List Bar post features the five oldest such treasures in the country--and included on the list are TWO from Los Angeles County.

• While we're on the topic, here is a much more comprehensive article from LA Weekly, one year ago (OK, 13 months) listing the five top Tiki Bars in Los Angeles. I could get into that kind of research.

• The hits just keep on comin'. Thrillist published "The 17 Best Tiki Bars in America" last January. Only one (Tiki Ti) is from LA.

• The Chow blog narrowed the LA tiki-themed bars down to three in this post: Tiki Ti, Tonga Hut, and Damon's Steak House (and I'm using their picture).

Maybe this will inspire you to do your own research, because the solstice is right around the corner and where better to celebrate?

You're welcome.

Alhambra Library Mosaics: Pique-Assiette

Pique-Assiette means taking bits from others' plates, as near as I can figure. In mosaic, it means incorporating broken bits of ceramic and found objects into the artwork. I wrote about pique-assiette and this week's artist, Jolino Beserra, in 2011 when the Los Angeles Times featured the mosaics he created for his own house in a story.

Today--and next week too--the spotlight is on mosaics that Beserra created for a couple of local libraries.

The archway leading into the children's area of the Alhambra Civic Center Library comes first. That's it to the left, with the artist. The picture comes from Lisa Yee's blog. The little yellow fellow in his hands is named Peppy, belongs to Lisa, and sneaks into most of her photos.

This library is new; it just opened in late 2008. Ms. Yee has photos of the opening too, here (and on the right, below).

Jolino Beserra's website has a beautiful photo presentation of the library mosaic, which I urge you to look at. Close ups of many of the panels.

Here is part of the statement that opens the slide show:

"The concept is to mix technology and the arts & sciences in a way that will inspire children to explore all the possibilities available to them in books. My goal was to create a magical gateway to the joys of reading and imagination."

(Do you know how many ways there are to misspell Jolino Beserra? Hopefully I'll have them all corrected before I hit "publish." And yes, I know my own name is worse.)

Skipping around Google, I can tell you he has five rescues, which endears him to me.

Beserra was born in East Los Angeles, grew up in the San Gabriel Valley, spent two years at Pasadena City College and got his BA from the Art Center College of Design. That was in 1982, and he went to work for an advertising agency. In 1985 he started his own studio with his partner--now husband--David Edward Byrd.

Almost every article about Beserra mentions that Simon Rodia's Watts Towers had a deep influence on him. He worked there as a summer intern restoring the Towers in 1989, and his yellow-and blue room-sized homage to Rodia may be the topic of another Mosaic Monday.

Other early influences that molded his career was seeing, during a trip to Arkansas, some folk art: bottles that had been lovingly covered with buttons, service medals, and more, made by a grandmother for her grandchildren, and the discovery of folk art animals.

As he says on his website, "My goal as an artist has always been the desire to create visual stores."

Music and Eco Fest at the La Brea Tar Pits

Today's guest post is from Lee Gale Gruen, a docent at the Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits, (the picture at right is of the Tar Pits in 1920). She's also the author of the Featured Book in the right column,Adventures With Dad: A Father & Daughter's Journey Through a Senior Acting Class :

A few years ago, I was one of several docents staffing the Page Museum booth at the Music and Eco Fest held on the grounds of the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California, where its attendant museum, the Page, is located.  We had a lot of people of all ages stopping by our booth to check out the reproductions of a mammoth tooth and skulls of a saber tooth cat and dire wolf.

One boy, who was about 10 years old and obviously autistic, excitedly recited more about those animals than even I knew while continuously fingering the skulls. I commented that his favorite seemed to be the saber tooth cat as he talked on and on about Smilodon.

“Yeah, that’s his favorite this week,” responded his mother.

She said that her son had learned all about the animals by watching television programs devoted to Ice Age mammals.

 Another child appeared at our booth clutching a DVD of a computer-animated, adventure movie called “Ice Age” which he had bought at another booth.

After a short while, a women appeared at the booth clutching a white plastic bag.

“Is there anyone at the Page Museum who would like to have this dead snake?” she inquired of me.

I was speechless, to say the least. That was definitely the first time in my life I had ever been asked such a question, and I guess my expression conveyed it. The snake owner explained that she was helping staff a nearby booth of the Southwestern Herpetologists Society. Various members had brought their snakes, giant lizards, and other assorted reptiles to display to the festival visitors.

The owner first got the snake 25 years ago and had displayed it many times at fairs and festivals. Today, when she opened the snake’s cage, she found it was dead. She seemed heartbroken.

I didn’t know how to answer her inquiry. Shortly, the docent coordinator arrived, and I suggested the woman pose the question to her. The coordinator was also stumped. The woman finally left, taking her snake with her.

Awhile later I took a break. I walked into the Page Museum to get some snacks set out for the booth volunteers. When I was about to leave, I walked up to the front desk where a few young men were selling tickets to the public. There was a lull in the visitor traffic, so I started chatting with them. Of course, I told them my amazing snake story.

“I’d like it,” said one.

“Why. What are you going to do with a dead snake?”

He explained that he wanted to pursue a career after college mounting ancient animal bones on scaffolds for display to the public. So, whenever he found a dead animal such as a squirrel or bird, he would bury it in his backyard. Eventually, he would dig it up to practice rearticulating the bones. He planned to use the snake for that purpose.

Off I went to the herpetology booth. I found the snake owner and explained about the museum employee, his pursuit of such an unusual career, and his interest in the dead snake. She agreed to give him the snake, but insisted upon accompanying me to meet him.

Just before I left, she was telling us that the snake had glaucoma. I caught a quick glimpse of its cloudy eyes. That was another first in this day of firsts. I had never before thought about snakes getting glaucoma.

I returned to the herpetology booth to see the reptiles. One of the people staffing the booth offered to let me inside the tape barrier since I was also a volunteer at the festival. He showed me all the reptiles and let me touch them. One, a crocodile monitor lizard, was about a yard long in the body with a tail at least one and a half times that length. It had long, black claws and a forked tongue that darted in and out.

“This kind of lizard can grow to a maximum of 19 feet in length,” he explained. “They are found in the wild in New Guinea, Timor and Indonesia, and are extremely dangerous.”

The crocodile monitor lizard, named Snowball, was two years old and not dangerous as it had been bred in captivity and was docile. I petted Snowball on the back. Its skin was bumpy, dry, and leathery to the touch. The owner took a picture of me with my new friend.

One never knows what being a docent at the La Brea Tar Pits and Page Museum will bring. Each of my experiences at the Music and Eco Fest would have been wonderful on its own. Putting them altogether, it was an amazing day.

Architects at Home Tour

The pictures at right are of Bunch Design's Elysian Cottage, a small house in Solano Canyon that doesn't attract much attention from the outside. It's a 105-year-old cabin, basically. But inside, it's been redone to incredibly lovely--"contemporary, but also warm and intimate," as the blurb at de LaB says.

The ceiling is Douglas Fir and makes "the house feel bigger as well as cozy". And I would add compact, efficient, and full of views that bring nature right in to you.

You can see Elysian Cottage and several other homes designed by the architects who live there this Saturday, May 10. The tour is $45, and you can get tickets here.

The tour lasts from noon to 4 p.m. and you'll drive yourself to the different locations. Not all are wheelchair-accessible, and no children allowed.

Other homes on the tour are the Paige Residence by Tom Marble, the Murnane Project in the Moreno Hills of Silver Lake, and Buzz Court, also in Silverlake. But while the others are single homes in various styles, Buzz Court is six homes on a small lot with a snaky driveway that has views of the Observatory and more. Two of the units are occupied by the designers and will be open on the tour.

de Lab stands for Design East of LaBrea: a nonprofit that celebrates and supports local creatives in their efforts to improve and engage the city (borrowing loosely from their blurb).

What a Week: Historic Events

This is the week before my own birthday, so maybe that's why I am so struck by the number of historic anniversaries that occur this week and into mid May. These are events of national import, not just for Angelenos. Consider:

130 Years Ago:

May 1, 1884: Moses Fleetwood Walker plays baseball, becoming the first African American to enter the game professionally five years before the National and American Leagues began banning players of color. He was catcher for the Toledo Blue Stockings. His brother played professionally too.

Pro sports, race, and athletes must be on my mind; can't imagine why.

60 Years Ago:

Brown v. Topeka Board of Education

This was actually one of five cases brought to the U.S. Supreme Court over legal segregation in education. For decades, the doctrine of "separate but equal" schools for different racial groups had been the accepted, legal norm.

After new Chief Justice Earl Warren read the unanimous decision on May 17, 1954 (and Warren worked hard to make it unanimous), everything changed. Even in California, which strictly speaking was not a segregated state, the decision turned school districts upside down.

The picture at right, from the LA Library's collection, was taken at a protest in 1963. Yup, here in Los Angeles, we did not jump up and de-segregate with all due dispatch. Surprise!

Like most places, separation of the races was entrenched. The city decided that our schools were integrated enough that busing students to different schools was not needed; many folks disagreed. According to this timeline from UC San Diego, another lawsuit filed in 1963, Crawford v. Los Angeles, pointed to our failure to integrate. That lawsuit made it to court in five years, and a busing plan was ordered in 1970, put in place in the late 70s, but the issue wasn't really settled until 1982.

It's very complicated, involved a voted referendum and more, and you can read the entire decision here.

And you can read a very thoughtful analysis of Los Angeles school desegregation history prepared after the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education here.  It puts school desegregation efforts in context with other civil rights, hot-button issues of the time, as well as discussing the changes and politicalization of the LAUSD Board.

50 Years Ago:

The New York World's Fair opened on April 22, 1964. I remember reading all about the Unisphere, the 12-story high globe, in My Weekly Reader and wishing I could somehow see that.

Did you know that fair introduced Americans to Belgian waffles? Oh, the things you can learn on Wikipedia!

Picture Phones were on display, as well as a big mainframe computer, courtesy of IBM.  The Ford Mustang was debuted there, too.

Disney created four separate attractions for four separate companies at the fair that Angelenos remember well--not because we were at the fair, but because the displays turned out to be prototypes for Disneyland installations in their theme parks:

• Progressland for GM, which became the Carousel of Progress in Anaheim (both venues included the song "It's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow") 

• It's A Small World, at the Pepsi Pavillion

• Magic Skyway, for Ford Motors. This first version of Disney's Peoplemover (an aerial tram that closed in the 90s) put folks in Ford-designed cars, like the Mustang, and took them through a land of dinosaurs.

• "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln" at the Illinois Pavillion

Also in early May we saw the first protests against the VietNam War, in New York an San Francisco, an the first burning of draft cards.

40 Years Ago;

On May 9, 1974, impeachment hearings began in Congress. The target? Richard M. Nixon. Only a few days before, April 30, the transcripts of the infamous tapes that chronicled the Watergate break-in and subsequent conversations about cover-ups, had been released. Those introduce the lovely phrase "expletive deleted" to the public.

Congress would vote to impeach in the summer, leading to Nixon's resignation in office--the first time a president had ever resigned.

Here's a pretty thorough timeline of the whole Watergate miasma, with lots of pictures and links.

30 Years Ago:

On May 8, the Soviet Union announce it would boycott the Summer Olympic Games, held in Los Angeles. Guess what? We had a great time anyway.

20 Years Ago:

Riverdance debuted. Yes, a 7 minute long performance first took place at the Euorvision Song Contest on April 30, 1994. Michael Flatley was the main dancer, and the performance was not an entrant in the contest, but an interval act. An audio recording was released on May 5, just a few days later. Both went viral--or whatever we called viralness in 1994.

In 1996, the full show included Los Angeles in its world tour. . . and then of course, there were the PBS specials. Forget "Hips Don't Lie." Riverdance proved that hips don't even have to move.

Oh, and South Africa held its first multiracial elections on April 27,  elected Nelson Mandela as president, and inaugurated him on May 10.

Mosaic Monday--Aquarium of the Pacific

A post from three years ago gives the history of the mosaic fountain outside the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, but today's post is on two other sorta mosaics inside the gates.

Still, here's the picture from the old post. The artists are from San Pedro: Theodora Kurkchiev and Dimitri Lazaroff.

The mosaic doesn't look like that now because the fountain has been turned off due to the drought. It's dry and unshiny--not nearly as pretty. Hopefully things will improve for all of us soon and the waters will flow . . .

Inside, near the children's playground, is the metal and glass piece of statuary on a mosaic base, titled "Not Seen, Not Heard, But Felt."

My picture on the left (below) leaves off a canopy top, also of glass, that represents the top of the ocean. I hadn't read about it in advance so I didn't realize that by focusing on the mosaic--which was added later--I was leaving off part of the artwork.

I am sorry. I am a Philistine.

Below right is a photo that accompanied the press release, showing the entire piece but on a different base.

James Stone of San Diego, an environmental artist, created the work and it was installed here in 2008. It's 14 feet tall, and this is how the Aquarium's 2008 press release describes it:

The sculpture depicts sea life under the thin veil of the ocean surface struggling to survive among pollution and debris. Stone shows his interpretation of fish trapped in ghost nets – nets cut lose by fisherman, left floating in the oceans, trapping fish never to be released. The sculpture was inspired by a recent scuba diving venture off Grand Cayman Island. Stone was aghast to find a lack of fish amid destruction of the ecosystem by pollutants, contamination and the environmental changes barren of marine diversity.

“I just want people to think,” Stone said. “I don’t want to tell them what to do. I just want them to make better decisions. Every person on the planet can make a difference with just a few good choices.”

Stone is a diver and has seen dramatic changes in the ocean over the years.

This piece was not designed for our aquarium. Originally it was an entry into the San Diego Port District's annual Urban Tree contest for artists, and it stood on the North Embarcadero of San Diego Bay for a year. Stone and his crew restored it (weather & graffiti had damaged the sculpture) before it was brought to Long Beach.

Here is what a larger article/press release has to say about some of the features of the artwork, the ghost nets and oil drum:

Ghost nets are fishing nets made of synthetic fibers that can last for hundreds of years and which are lost by fishermen but continue to catch fish. These eventually die and are eaten by other fish who also get caught in the nets, starting to weight them down until they sink to the ocean floor, where other critters feast on them. When the nets are emptied, they become buoyant once again and float back up to the top, where they catch more fish, and the cycle repeats itself. 

The glass fish have dichroic glass on once side, and thus will look ghostlike in the net as the sun shines on them and the dichroic glass becomes a multi-colored prism of sorts. They represent the dead fish caught in the ghost nets. 

Also included in the sculpture is a representation of a leaking, corroded metal oil drum and a depiction of the Canadian Destroyer Escort, the Yukon, which was successfully sunk about one mile off the San Diego coast in “Wreck Alley,” an area of artificial reefs that includes at least seven other scuttled ships; before being sunk, all the ships were made safe for divers to enjoy as they explore the diver-friendly area.

This second mosaic (very loosely defined) is a hanging sculpture of two Hump Backed Whales and their names--no joking--are George and Gracie.

They are made of ocean trash, and were created by special effects artist Greag Aronowitz and the Roddenberry Dive Team. Here's the PR on what fills the whale's exoskeletons:

The Roddenberry Dive Team participated in coastal clean-ups at the Los Angeles River and Avalon Harbor at Catalina Island to collect the marine debris for the sculpture. This includes plastic water bottles, bags, pill bottles, balls, food wrappers, cigarette butts, and pieces of Styrofoam. The frames of the whales were made from shower curtain rods, fishing poles, baby carriages, and pipes.

You can read a bit more about George and Gracie, see more photos, and continue on to learn about the work Rod Roddenberry (Gene's son) is doing to make the world a better place here.