Palm Springs Art Museum

Every year since my retirement we take a road trip to California and stay in Palm Springs. I like to visit the art museum on free Thursdays. In 2017, there was an exhibit called, "Women of Abstract Expressionism", celebrating the “Divine 12”, often unknown or unrecognized female artists of the 1950s. My favorite was Helen Frankenthaler. The more vivid piece on the top left is reminiscent of the Jackson Pollock work I saw later that year at SFMOMA.

There was a Chihuly free-standing glass sculpture called "End of the Day #2" in the atrium. (Another of the End-of-the-Day chandeliers may be seen suspended in the domed lobby of Tacoma's Union Station.) Above the PSAM chandelier are 100 blown glass vessels, each made by a different artist to precise specifications and containing different objects, making up "Golden Rain" by Michael Petry. His art is inspired by the Greek myth of Danae, who was impregnated by the god Zeus in the form of a golden rain shower. One of the PSAM curators told me that one of the sealed glass droplets had contained gunpowder (of all things) and it had to be opened and confiscated on its way to the museum.

In 2018, there was an exhibit of Andy Warhol at PSAM, including many of his iconic images of Marilyn Monroe, Campbell's Soup Cans, and various other familiar icons collected from old advertising campaigns. When I was a kid, my parents made all three of us boys wear Bermuda shorts with Campbell Soup labels on them for one of our vacations. Apparently, the shorts were more memorable than the vacation!

Warhol made a series of unusual portraits of artist Georgia O'Keeffe and added diamond dust (trust me, it's there). What's neat about my photograph of it is that I accidentally captured his reflection from what was hanging on the opposite wall. Even creepier!

This painting by Thomas Moran, entitled, "Grand Canyon (Mist in the Canyon)" (1915) captures the atmosphere magnificently. When we left California, we stopped on our way back home at several national parks, including Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Antelope Canyon, and Zion. The artist captured the atmosphere well and is reminiscent of many photographs from our trip, only his clouds are much moodier than mine.

This year's PSAM exhibit was called "Unsettled". When you approach the entrance to the exhibit you are greeted by three totem poles yet upon a closer look you are surprised by what they are made of. Do you recognize anything?


Part of their "Lines in the Sand" exhibition is this large Native American basket, but again upon closer examination, it's really a recycling project.







We also visited the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios.

On our road trip South we ran into flooding on I5 from the rainstorm that hit on Valentine's Day. When we visited Joshua Tree Park there was still snow on the ground. We had to cancel our excursion to Yosemite due to snow so instead, we stopped in Ventura, CA, and my daughter and I hiked Santa Cruz Island, part of the Channel Islands just North of Catalina Island.

And we did some side trips to a couple of wineries. Note the whimsical sculptures of a boar and a little girl!