Hunters and collectors

Dear Artist,

Over a recent 48 hours, an intimate group of tail-waggers embarked on a treasure hunt of public art. Our gang, like an itinerant, vibrating organism, scrambled up and down the hills and in and out of the eucalyptus groves to identify creative miracles, dotted like superstars among the natural wonders of this coastal oasis. Like an Easter egg hunt, the expedition signalled a kind of exultant celebration of worship and quiet human endeavour.

Fallen Star, 2012
steel-frame house, concrete foundation, brick, chimney, garden, lawn chairs, table, hibachi-style grill, bird bath and bird house
by Do Ho Suh (b. 1962)

We could have easily been, instead, a gaggle of birders, skulking through a migratory bog, the taxonomy of valuable finds helped along by a guidebook and a collective company of devout eyes and hearts. While waiting, timeless, for a blinking neon riff on sin and virtue to activate on a building’s frieze, a biplane flew overhead pulling a banner selling car insurance. From there, a spotless cobalt sky cut into a hilltop feat of architectural engineering. We chorused on the recent resurgence and appreciation of California Brutalism. Past the parking lot and around the corner, each took a turn reading from a giant slab of granite, inscribed with messages of human truth. The gums, originally introduced to this area for railway ties then abandoned for their slow growing and meandering trunks, swelled and perfumed as a control group for beauty.

The hunters and collectors had each brought with them their own touch point for wonder, though words are not obligatory for cult-life. Silent questions like, “How is it made?” “What are the materials?” “How do I feel?” and “Am I inspired?” were implied as we circumnavigated the largest and heaviest or dragged our noses across the brushwork of a stand-out fresco. The makers, long-returned to the introversion of their studios, had left for everyone their ideas and execution, tucked into the landscape to compete with the sunset and public signage, construction zones and the noble reckoning of the seagull’s droppings.

Landing, 2016
7724 Girard Avenue, La Jolla
acrylic paint
by Heather Gwen Martin (b. 1977)

Sincerely,

Sara

PS: “If Venice sinks, the collection should be preserved somewhere in the vicinity of Venice.” (Peggy Guggenheim)

Esoterica: “The man who has honesty, integrity, the love of inquiry, the desire to see beyond, is ready to appreciate good art,” wrote Robert Henri in The Art Spirit. “He needs no one to give him an ‘Art Education’; he is already qualified. He needs but to see pictures with his active mind, look into them for the things that belong to him, and he will find soon enough in himself an art connoisseur and an art lover of the first order.” The Stuart Collection at the University of California San Diego and the Murals of La Jolla each exist to commission public art projects, enriching cultural life and making art accessible to everyone in their communities. “I am interested in art as a means of living a life; not as a means of making a living.” (Robert Henri)

Geisel Library, University of California San Diego, 1970
designed by William Pereira (1909-1985)
Erik Jepsen photo

The Letters: Vol. 1 and 2, narrated by Dave Genn, are available for download on Amazon, here. Proceeds of sales contribute to the production of The Painter’s Keys.

“Send all you have for loveliness, / Buy it, and never count the cost; / For one white singing hour of peace / Count many a year of strife well lost.” (Sara Teasdale)

“Design is not making beauty, beauty emerges from selection, affinities, integration, love.” (Louis Kahn)

The late afternoon sun on the tip of Savary Island's Indian Point highlights the design elements of the logs and the summer surroundings of the island.

Featured Artist

James Sclater

My enjoyment in representing the beauty of our world with strong design and bold colours is what drives my passion for my landscape painting of Savary Island and other parts of our amazing planet.