Treasure Hunt

Queen Califia - Donal Hord. Coronado Public Library

I drove up to Riverside yesterday, hunting for swag. You never know where it is going to come from, the funkiest shops might have the greatest score/ignorance index. Unfortunately, with the advent of the internet and the younger generation not willing to consider matters of aesthetics beyond maybe the next tattoo, antique shops are a dying breed. Less and less of them these days. If it ain't chrome or plastic or something wretchedly modern, not a lot of traction these days. Had a young couple walk by the booth last month  and I heard them mutter that they were so done with landscapes. Big unrecognizable blobs of ochre and puce are always in.

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I am a lover of early california and the great Spanish Revival movement of the 1920's that celebrated the unique heritage of our golden state. Neither beholden to the Spaniards, the Mexicans or the Americans, our forebears strove to be Califorñios and lived independently for far too short a time.

The architecture of the movement, Gill, Neff, Requa, Goodhue all was typified by a classic beauty that paid allegiance to both spain and native america. The homes and buildings of the time had exquisitely wrought iron, gorgeous bright spanish tile. Broad, hand adzed beams and vigas.

I was blown away to see one of my favorite old spanish buildings near the Mission Inn empty and apparently slated for demolition. On the next block the historic old DeAnza Chevrolet building is now a thing of the past as well, just a few hanging beams extant. I hope that the early California that I love doesn't disappear one day. It is a beautiful testament to a wondrous time, before bauhaus decided to put everybody in little caged boxes.

People denigrate Riverside but it was once an incredible city and still has a lot of treasures if you do just a little bit of digging.

I bought a painting and a mosaic in Redlands. Goofy stuff, but cool. This is an outsider painting done by a Lee A. McAlister. The only one I could find died in 1991 and lived in Panola, Mississippi. Bet it is the right guy.

Won't be a big haul but I like the naivete of the large painting. Bought another oddball too, must have been in a mood to have fun.

This is a mosaic done in 1963 by a Redmond, WA artist named Mary Shelton. Kitschy but extremely well done and great over the right bar or barn. About 5' long, it has her bio on the back but I can't google up anything on her.