Art & Inspiration Saturday Art Show, Prints,various Artwork, Automotive Related

also by hobrath

 

Also by Jeff Hobrath

 

Another Cool one from Jeff Hobrath.

 

Bill Williams Welding Company on Santa Fe Avenue since 1945.

Hello,
A while back, driving down Santa Fe Avenue on the Westside of Long Beach, memories stuck out by the dozens. Photos of the old business that had the 1956 Ford f100 custom truck parked outside near our last house, was typical of the clientele. I decided to keep going to possibly get a great sandwich at the Santa Fe Importers just down the street.

The old, last known Mickey Thompson business was also located next door to the Italian food store. But, as I was driving by our old welding supply shop that we went to for some hot rod/drag race welding supplies and specific parts, I could not help but notice some paintings on the outside wall of the colorful building.


Jnaki


Art Mortimer was a Long Beach local and became a great mural painter over the years. His work is plastered all over So Cal cities. This tie in with Bill Williams Welding Shop was a “knock on the brain” as that place is still in business today, under new ownership. The business along with our favorite Italian food store is just down the street. The two mainstays in this industrial laced corridor of the Westside of Long Beach.

 

artist Hoon Auto Gear

 

a mural in Sterling Illinois...

 

Gus Mannama

 

Aaron Thomas.

 

Hermosa Beach Hermosa Avenue & 14th Street.


Hello,

We have always liked murals on big empty walls. When one drives near one or is stopped in front of one giant wall mural, it is totally impressive at the talent it took to create and implement the design. Sometimes an artist just takes this portion of art as his/her own and starts a budding career.

Hermosa Beach is one of the Los Angeles County cool, beach towns. The buildings are older and quaint. The homes are just the same. They have been around for quite some time and with the land prices rising, older homes now have a distinct advantage for older home owners.


Our history starts with surfing in the waters off of the pier and surrounding beaches on our L.A. County forays. Then finding out the cool restaurants and concert venues years later. The lighthouse bar and grille was a jazz center in this beach town. It was built in 1949. During our college days, between those L.A. rock concerts, we also visited the Lighthouse to see some of the biggest names in the Jazz world. It helped that we went to school with the manager and were always treated to front row or concert area bar seats for the big name concerts.

Jnaki

The murals in this city are similar as the businesses and the actual city have proposed upgrading their community arts program and have approved plenty of installations with the permission of the businesses and their wall displays.

Hermosa Beach Murals Project
#1: Pier Avenue 1924 Mural

Artist: Art Mortimer
Medium: Acrylic on concrete

Mural #1 Art Mortimer
was born in Long Beach, California, and is a graduate of Occidental College in Eagle Rock, California. He moved to Santa Monica in 1965 and has been working as a freelance artist since 1969. He painted his first mural in 1971, on the side of the house he was living in, at the beach in Santa Monica. He lived and worked at the beach in Santa Monica until December, 2002, West Los Angeles until December 2012 and now lives in 29 Palms, California.

 

Wow! I'm honored!
-Aaron

 

Artist Hoon Auto Gear

 

Thank You ! for Your Artwork/Talent.

 

College Adventure 1968...

 

Dale Glee

 

Dale Glee

 

Hello,

We have been going to Swami’s Surf Spot in Encinitas since we could drive. Our southerly surfing road trips always had a mandatory stop at the top of the cliff, overlooking the surf break. There is a self-realization center and the surf spot took on the name that surfers used, since they saw the first waves and riders in San Diego county, quite some time ago.

The winter months had the best waves. But, for some reason, a far away storm and swell direction, there have been days that the swell hit the reef perfectly for a fabulous ride in the summer. World class waves rolled in, when the tide and swell hit it just right. Because the break is seen by people on the highway, it becomes quite busy.

We lived quite a distance away in Long Beach, CA , but we timed the long road trip perfectly to arrive just as the sun started to make the sky lighter. Usually around 4:30am was a good time to paddle out, if the waves were great. No one came down until after 8 am back then. So, we made the same type of time decision to go north to Malibu in the Summer and Santa Barbara, also in the Winter with our time measure in place.

Jnaki

Sometimes it paid off to be prepared reading everything we could on storms and swells headed toward So Cal. These days, there are beach cams showing the latest up to the minute wave action with a zillion surfers riding the waves. That would be enough to stop surfing.

Only a few did calculations like we did, since driving for hours and coming up empty handed just was not right. We were prepared and also had alternative spots that we knew would pick up the incoming swells, during each particular season. Then, there was always Baja California for great waves, just a short distance further South on Highway 1 in the USA and Coastal 3 in Baja. We still called it Highway 1 back in those teenage times. YRMV

 

artist Hoon Auto Gear

 

Paul Whitehouse

 

Hello,

There are some places that just seemed to have it all in the surfing circles. We enjoyed the Orange County coastline as it gave us a lot of choices to surf every day. From long piers to sandy bottom beach breaks, rock jetties, and to reef point breaks that crash with authority, it was all there in approximately 45 mile coastline.

But, if there is another place to live and play at the same time, it would be in Encinitas/Cardiff area of the San Diego County coastline. The towns we remember on our southern sojourns for good surf played a good part of our explorations. This area had the best surf breaks of the whole Southern coast line. Sure, there were other outstanding places individually, but not to the extent of great surf breaks within several miles of each other, with Encinitas/Cardiff being the center.

The coastal area attracted us due to the waves and the smaller coastal homes back then. Today, that whole area expanded and now the small beach towns have expanded across the I-5 freeway and homes have popped up that were not there years ago. But, that was to be expected. Everywhere on the Westcoast has seen so much development as the society improved the way of coastal living and its rewards.

Jnaki

The beach towns still have the vibe of a sleepy coastal community, but it gets harder to go to see the old “sleepy” towns like we used to see on our surf trips. Encinitas is becoming famous for the “traffic slow downs” that are created with this mass of humanity traveling in the whole area. So, the I-5 freeway has a nickname from Oceanside to Torrey Pines. The “Encinitas Slow Down” on the I-5 going south to San Diego is a given, on any day,twice as much on the weekends. The heaviest area is in the Encinitas proper, city limits, down to Cardiff and Solana Beach.

Coming home or back up the I-5 freeway going North is now becoming a timed travel location. If you go early enough, the time to get back to the OC is good due to less traffic in the “Encinitas slow down area.”

We saw the development of those towns into larger coastal cities. Within the last 8 years of travel to San Diego weekly, it just grew worse. Sure, there are hot rod cruises down the coast and even on the I-5, but the traffic is pretty depressing when it adds 30 minutes to an hour to the normal timed driving from the OC to the San Diego Harbor.

But, little things, like the fabulous tile drawing art in Encinitas and elsewhere, makes those little towns that grew up, still enticing for a day trip or two. The coastal drive down Highway 1 along the waterline, makes up for the hectic I-5 action anytime of the year. “It still is the journey and not battling the elements…” to paraphrase a famous quote. YRMV

 

artist Hoon Auto Gear

 

Hello,

Pacific Beach in San Diego County is an odd ball place. It is a long sandy beachfront that goes from La Jolla in the North to Mission Beach and the Mission Bay in the South. It takes only minutes to continue down the coastline to get to Point Loma with the goal of the nearby greater San Diego Harbor and huge bay. We have been going down to San Diego area ever since 2012 and enjoyed the different coastal living/activity adventures.

Pacific Beach has some cool surf spots from a long time ago, to the current crowded beach breaks. It has the most unusual pier arrangement in all of the West Coast. It is one of the few ocean piers (Crystal Pier) that allows driving out on the pier. But the most unusual part is that it has vacation rental cabins right over the sand and water.

One of my memories from the 1949 to 53 era was that our dad rented a cabin on the pier for a family vacation. He loved fishing and wanted to try fishing off of the pier as well as down the beach for some surf fishing. He was relentless in his fishing adventures. If he had to take the family, it was usually surf fishing or jetty/rock fishing, so there is something for everyone to do while he gets his kicks fishing. Deep sea fishing is/was his thing and he took my brother and I fishing in the deep ocean a couple of times.

The Pacific Beach area was just suited for our family. Our dad was off fishing and our mom took us exploring down the boardwalk and downtown areas. Afterall, it was a family vacation.

Jnaki

In more recent times, murals on blank city walls is a “thing” for local city councils to get the public behind "Art in The City." What would have been classified as ‘graffiti’ in the early days is considered “Art” in these modern times. The pandemic does not stop anyone from going places, although caution is always a good thing. But to find these art murals on big blank walls of downtown or just in commercial areas brightens up a normally drab place or two.

 

Saturday here in Aussie
artist Hoon Auto Gear