Mendocino Holiday - Day 6

June 30, Friday - Day 6

Traveled: 139 miles

Success!!!  Pam's jewelry was juried into the Mendocino Art Gallery today - so she has a number of pieces in Mendocino and at The Dolphin in Gualala.  She's jazzzed!!  Now she has to get cracking on more pieces next week.

1939 Studebaker never looked better. This guy's got the eye.

A real down home vibe to the entire place. World's away from the S.F. MoMa in style, yet devoted to the same aesthetic spirit. While we were there a grizzled guy and his wife backed up to the entrance in an old truck and proceeded to unload more of the whimsical rusted scrap metal concoctions of the type that were already there, lower left. He must make them 24/7 based on the number he brought.

65 degrees with a chill sea breeze at 10:30 in the morning, but you'd never know it from this cheery twosome.

Driftwood bear on a rebar skeleton. Looks like a Native American evil bear spirit become corporeal.

Mosaic angel...maybe. Without a head it's hard to tell. 

A whale as sculpted or cast by someone who has never seen a whale.

Our house and yard are filled with color - color is good. It's limbo and purgatory that are shades of gray and other neutral blah. So raise a banner to honor color in all its variety.

On our way from Mendocino to Gualala...and then from Gualala further down the Pacific Coast Highway to Jenner by the Sea, vista after fabulous vista. You want eat the vistas, drink them, absorb them into yourself. As a poor substitute, take a picture as a reminder.

Our new Honda Fit - photo worthy of an auto calendar! We knew that we got this Aegean Blue for a reason.

Some hikers walked by and offered to take our photo.  Gorgeous, breezy, crisp air. Sacramento eat your heart out.

Stopped in at The Dolphin to meet with Larain, the gallery manager.  We've always loved this gallery and the Gualala Arts Center.  They are always so friendly and do a wonderful job of arranging Pam's jewelry in the gallery.

After we left Gualala, we headed to Santa Rosa.  Before we turned away from the coast, we still got quite a few shots of the glistening ocean and the seals sunning themselves.  What a day to be driving along the coast!  And yes, those really ARE seals and not sardines.

We had to STOP for ART in Russian River.

We're now in Santa Rosa to visit the Charles Schulz Museum. Good ol' Charlie Brown is the very first Peanuts character seen as he greets visitors at the museum entrance.

Fun info: Schulz drew Peanuts from 1950 to two days before he died in 2000. It appeared in 75 counties, 26 languages and over 2,600 newspapers. In 2010, ten years after Schulz died, revenue from Peanuts merchandising, royalties, etc., etc. amounted to 1.1 billion dollars. Fame and cultural influence are measured in a variety of ways. That said, Charles Schulz certainly deserves this testament to his genius.

Cricket wasn't too sure about this huge Snoopy!  He only knows that the humiliation goes on.

So many years of cartoon strips to ogle. So much context is provided, context not obtained by reading the daily Peanuts strip still appearing in endless reruns in print and digital form around the world (including our local newspaper). 

Design sketch for a Christo wrapped Snoopy doghouse.

And here's the real McCoy, the wrapped Snoopy House by Christo and Jeanne Claude.

Pam is writing her own novel: image achieved by sitting in a small booth with a backlight.

Schulz' desk, his drawing easel and various office bric-a-brac, waiting for The Creator to return...and waiting. It is all dusted daily.

Although he had limited formal education, Schulz was an avid reader.

Charlie Brown on Broadway...more royalties.

Snoopy in Baccarat Crystal - "Cricket in Crystal" has a nice ring to it, that much is crystal clear.

This statue is made out of mosaics with little pieces of cartoons embedded. Pam is now deep into mosaics and not adverse to borrowing ideas.

Pam finally wrestled the camera for a shot of Norm with this wonderful bench...sitting on it seemed like sacrilege. Which characters do you block out?

Cricket thinks that this continual business of holding him up and out toward odd looking statuary is getting pretty lame. "Please, just let me sleep in peace in my little carrier!"

The 4th of July Snoopy: And sorry Cricket, a dog's work is never done. Besides, you're the star!

This is the ice rink next to the museum that Schulz built where many Olympians have performed.  He loved ice hockey and played every week with a "senior" team at this rink.

Schulz jersey:

Nearly every day Schulz would walk over to this restaurant from his studio for breakfast and lunch.

The entire skating rink is viewable from the restaurant through the glass wall shown in the right half of the picture. Schulz paid for the whole thing, so you might say he did it his way.

His table is still "Reserved": from this table he could watch the goings on in the entire rink. 

This is a pan shot of the large gift shop. Remember, merchandising, etc...his heirs still own 20% of the money machine.  

More characters outside of the arena: As for Cricket, this means that the agony is at an end. To sleep, perchance to dream....

Any takers?

The Peanuts gang is obviously heading somewhere, just as Norm and Pam will leave Santa Rosa tomorrow heading for Gold River and the patiently waiting home. 

But first, one more final day blog entry.