SEND ME A POSTCARD

    Today many people take a vacation photo using their smartphone and Instagram, immediately sharing their experiences with friends and family. I love though, the postcards of old. There should be an app to turn your vacation photo into an old style postcard (let me know if there already is).
    Here is a collection of old postcard art that depicts many of the great locales in California.

LET'S GO FOR A RIDE

    In 1957 my father bought a Volkswagen Beetle, but I think in his mind he had bought a Jeep. He packed our family of five into that Bug and we drove and drove. Sometimes indeed, we went to places where the only other cars were Jeeps. We drove from California to New England several times. On the first transcontinental trip, when we reached the Midwest and stopped at gas stations, people would stare at our car because they had never seen a Volkswagen. They were even more amazed when they saw five people climb out of it.

    These early family car trips gave me affection for "going for a ride". My all-time favorite cruise is the Pacific Coast Highway, or California Route 1. In the 1950's and 1960's we had the good fortune to live only about three blocks from Coast Highway in Newport Beach. But PCH runs all the way from Dana Point in southern Orange County, up the California coast to Mendocino County. It passes through elegant and crowded beach cities, tacky little beach towns, and rugged natural coastlines. It is simply wonderful.

    From the early days of the automobile, people have loved driving along the coast. This photo from the LA County Library collection shows how wildly popular it was, as seen along the Pacific Palisades.

    Such rich scenery as found along Pacific Coast Highway is of course inspiration to painters. Below, New Orleans born artist Warren Keating gives us his bright impression in "View from the Coast Starlight", and Southern California's John Comer peaks down at PCH in "Agave and Pacific Coast Highway".

    This graceful time lapse nighttime photo taken by photographer Luis Sinco and printed in the LA Times, documents where Sunset Blvd. meets Coast Highway.

    Two great atmospheric depictions of Route 1 were done by LA's Relja Penezic in his "California Road Chronicles #8", and by Marin County's John de Lormier in his nighttime depiction "From Bodega Head".

    Southern California's Michael Ward produces works that are more tightly focused upon the life along PCH. His "Lanai Apartments" reflects the scourge of Polynesian themed apartment complexes built in the 1960's, along with everybody's favorite surf wagon, the VW Bus. In "Nice Work If You Can Get It" he humorously depicts the challenge of parking at the beach on a beautiful day.

    From Laguna Beach, as seen in "Cycling on Forest in Laguna" by Frank Dalton, to Sonoma County's Linda Sorensen's "Road to Pt. Bonita Light", I love seeing depictions of this favorite roadway that we west coasters are so fortunate to have.

EGOS UNCHAINED

    Ever since human beings first used reflecting water to see their own images, they became entranced with themselves. As art and civilizations developed, leaders of every kind made sure that their personas were immortalized in painting and sculpture.
    More than a thousand years B.C. in ancient Egypt, the symbolic image of a boy god/king named Tutankhamun was created. It became an icon for that age, and its worldwide recognition continues to this day.

    Half a millennium later the Greeks became profoundly good at creating sculptures that honored Greek citizens of accomplishment. But one thing about their style of art: you won't find any less than ideal figures in Greek art.

    A.D. and now the Roman Empire takes its turn in the limelight of history. They too excelled in sculpted portraits, but this time reality ruled.

    As soon as the mirror got into the hands of artists, the self-portrait was born. Studying the form of the human face is a wonderful tool for honing artistic skills, and with a mirror an artist needn't ask a model to endlessly hold a pose. The incomparable Leonardo da Vinci used this method with the high skill which he applied to everything he did.

    Two Dutch artists produced amongst my favorite self-portraits: 17th century's Rembrandt Van Rijn, and 19th century's Vincent Van Gogh.

    The 20th century took the egotistical self-portrait to new heights, as done by the Spanish rascal, Pablo Picasso.

    Andy Warhol was a force for the promotion of celebrity images, but he also applied that to himself. For those who missed the boat when Andy passed away in 1987, there is still a thriving industry of artists who will immortalize your image in the Warhol style.

 

    An artist who is completely transparent about the fact that her art is all about her is American Cindy Sherman. It is literally all about her, that is, every personality in her photographs is portrayed by her. She has made a very solid name for herself in the art world.

    One of the most stunning self-portraits done in recent times is by Britain's Lucien Freud, who passed away in 2011. This raw look at his self was truly both an artistic and a personal examination.

    The grand prize for the most egotistical artistic commission was two years ago when the Governator Schwarzenegger had a giant bronze statue cast of himself at what he considered his peak physical glory. Did he really think that we are going to forget him?

    And today, every ego that has possession of a smartphone can instantly take and share with the whole world a "selfie". We've seen some pretty sad/disgusting examples of this in the media, done by people who should have known better. But here's a selfie that exudes nothing but goodness.

EVERYONE KNOWS THAT ONE

    There are a handful of artworks in the world that just about anyone would recognize, even if they passed through life asleep at the wheel. The obvious greatness of some of these works earns them this honor. Some of them touch a mysterious point in our psyches, and some of them are just not so clear as to why they make the list. Here are some of the honorees.
    Michelangelo Buonarroti Simoni's (1475-1564) unbelievable marble sculpture named Pieta', created around 1498, is his only signed piece of art. His masterpiece frescos on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel include The Creation of Adam, painted around 1511.

    Fifteenth century genius, Leonardo da Vinci's (1452-1519) The Last Supper is painted on the wall of a convent refectory in Milan around 1495. Leonardo did not use true fresco technique, causing the piece to deteriorate and need extensive restorations. His intriguing portrait (around 1503-1506) of a woman named Lisa Gherardini became known as the Mona Lisa. If you want to see her now at the Louvre Museum, you will only have about 15 seconds to gaze upon her. A piece only occasionally displayed in it Venice home is his Vitruvian Man from 1490. Originally a study in proportions, it is now used frequently as a symbol for scientific study.

    The next honoree is unusual in that the artwork was never finished. Gilbert Charles Stewart (1755-1828) painted this portrait of George Washington in 1796, and used it as a reference piece for himself while he painted 130 more copies which he sold for $100 each. This painting became the basis for the portrait seen on the one dollar bill.

    Why do we have such fascination with Whistler's Mother? Massachusetts born James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) actually called this artwork which he painted in 1871, Arrangement in Grey and Black #1. The model he had arranged for that day never showed up, and his mother stepped in.

    Who does not love the grace and wonder found in Starry Night, painted in 1889 by Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), a troubled soul who saw the world in a way that others of his time did not?

    The power of human thought was never so well depicted as in the 1904 cast bronze sculpture by France's Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), The Thinker (originally called The Poet). There were actually 28 castings made of this massive sculpture.

    French impressionist Claude Monet (1840-1926) had an obsession with the images of the pond lily, and for that the world is grateful. He produced around 250 paintings of water lilies between 1897 and 1926.

    Undoubtedly the most famous Norwegian artist, Edvard Munch (1863-1944) produced from 1893 to 1910 four versions of The Scream (three paintings and one pastel). Although most of us see this as an image of horror or mental anguish, Munch recounts that he was walking over a bridge and heard "a scream through nature". Ok.

    1886 brought the dedication of the Statue of Liberty by French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904). A gift from the citizens of France, it was shipped across the Atlantic in pieces and assembled on its waiting pedestal on what was then called Bedloe's Island.

    The turn of the century became very sensuous with the works of Austrian artist Gustav Klimt (1862-1918). His 1908 The Kiss was but one of many of his artworks that broke ground in the subjects of erotica and design.

    Our minds were bent in the 20th century with surrealist artists Rene Magritte (1898-1967) from Belgium, and Spain's Salvador Dali (1904-1989). I can't imagine what people thought in 1931 when they first saw Dali's Persistence of Memory. By the time Magritte painted this self portrait called The Son of Man, in 1964, it actually reflected the years of cultural unrest that were just beginning.

    I'm not going to bother to show you, because everyone recognizes a Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) painting when they see his cubist style.
    A prolific painter from Iowa, Grant Wood (1891-1942) had one of his Midwestern portraits become one of the most parodied artworks ever. His American Gothic was painted in 1930.

    From 1927 to 1941 Gutzon Borglum (1867-1941) and 400 workers carved away at a mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota, creating portraits of four of our finest presidents in stunningly monumental size. At that time it had to be traumatic to the people who belonged to the remnants of the Plains Indian tribes, as the Black Hills was regarded by them as a very spiritual place. These gargantuan likenesses represented the culture that had helped destroy the Native American way of life. It is said that the idea for the project on Mt. Rushmore simply began with brainstorming about how to get more tourists to the area. Well it certainly worked, and there is nothing else quite like it.

    Don't we all wish that we could sit in at that diner and hear the conversations of the Nighthawks? New York state native Edward Hopper (1882-1967) brought us this intriguing image in 1942.

    Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) in 1948 brought us a portrait of a woman gazing toward a farmhouse, Christina's World. America has loved to speculate about her ever since.

    Hungry for some art? Andy Warhol (1928-1987) came to the rescue with his art piece, Campbell's Soup I. Everyone asked at the time, "How can that be art?" Well, not only was it art, but it is now considered iconic pop art.

    Has anyone from around here created art that absolutely everyone knows? Santa Rosa's cartoon artist, Charles M. Schulz (1922-2000) successfully drew a cast of characters that people all over the world watched never grow up, but who gave out tidbits of wisdom that we all can use.
    All of the aforementioned artworks have fallen victim to many parodies. I think that is a compliment to their status in our culture.