Pasadena Adjacent

Life Lived on the Edge of Pasadena

Month: December, 2009

December 30, 2009

Parables in Concrete: Desert Christ Park

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The concrete visionary Frank Antone Martin (1889-1961) found his place as a pattern maker for Hughs Aircraft during the height of the A-Bomb scare. As an ode to peace and brotherhood Antonio started building a giant concrete Jesus on his Inglewood driveway. Antonio’s first choice, the Grand Canyon, took a pass on it. Forest Lawn wanted it but instead the artist chose to wait in hopes of better prospects. Fate intervened in the guise of desert homesteader and Pastor Eddie Garver. Eddie was a bad boy who converted to christianity after being run over by a truck. Having settled on a hillside above the townof  Yucca Valley, Eddie worked on his church between odd jobs. When he prayed stuff showed up; church bells, congregants and Frank Antonio Martin with his 3 ton Christ. The beginnings of Desert Christ Park; dedicated Easter Sunday 1951

Everyones favorite; Suffer the Little Children to Come Unto Me  (Mark 10:13-16)

MVI_4197, originally uploaded by Access Palm 2009.
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Join the crowd at the Mount (Matt: 5:7-15) say hello to Jesus, Mary and Martha (John 11:1-44) hey! it’s the Samaritan Woman at the Well (John 4:4-26) meet up at The Last Supper (Matt. 26:17-30)

MVI_4219, originally uploaded by Access Palm 2009.
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Desert quiet in the cumbling garden of Gesthsemane (Math. 26: 36-46)

.Mr V has his picture taken with the Savior

Frank Antonio Martin figured if his gesture towards “peace and brotherhood” failed to stave off Kingdom Come, his use of reinforced concrete would. Maybe so, but not a visit by the ACLU in 1988 followed by the Landers 7.2 Quake in 1992. Since then the prophets have suffered the loss of limbs and jurisdiction funding.

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December 24, 2009

Wonders in Concrete

all links provide past/present park images and addresses (please visit)

Laguna de San Gabriel Playground was the site of my seventh birthday party and the concrete opus of 70 year old Mexican born Benjamin Dominguez 1894-74; Concrete visionary and graduate of Uof M La Academia de Artes Plasticas. This particular “Folly”, located within Vincent Lugo Park (formally Well’s Park) opened to the public May 16 1965. What makes this park, as well asAtlantis Parkin Garden Grove truly unique is that Dominguez integrated animal forms into a created landscape as part of the larger design. Take note of the tree plantings on the concrete mound (no longer here) yet they’re full grown there.

Big Gulp, originally uploaded by Access Palm 2009.

I grew up around Senor Dominguez’ creations.Legg Lake; another local park supporting his earlier free standing fish and fantasy forms was the site of many large family gatherings of my relatives in the “Montes, haCiendas, Puentes and Whitiers.”

We almost lost our treasured Laguna de San Gabriel a few years back when a “master plan” was developed to rid the Gabriels of the “feral” monsters in favor of a socker field. For once people got smart and stopped this possible travisty of artistry through the formation of  the Friends of Laguna association.Las Vegas did not show the same intelligence. Benjamins son’s were able to salvage one piece before bulldozers plowed the works under in the middle of the night (a familiar civic tragedy strategy).

In 2009, Friends of La Laguna was awarded both the Los Angeles Conservancy’s Advocacy Award and a California Preservation Foundation President’s Award. In the land of teardowns and McMansions, this is a groundbreaking achievement. Los Angeles and “Friends”can take credit for creating the framework that has led to the protection of post WWII playgrounds everywhere. Isn’t that cool? not so with the links below; they’re hot

Laguna de San Gabriel.

Legg Lake .

Atlantis .

Las Vegas (destroyed).

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December 20, 2009

Desert Folly

“The English word ‘fool’ is derived from ‘folies,’ a mid-1600s Portuguese dance where one twirls until dizzy and loses control of all senses”
Frank Escher

Lucy: patented by James V. Lafferty, Margate New Jersey 1881

In the year 1513 Pope Leo X, on the occasion of his coronation was presented with a “white elephant.” The pachyderm became the pontiff’s favorite pet and was buried in a tomb designed by Raphael. By the mid-18th century, Europeans had come to regard the elephant as a fabled creature. Not always so in the States where the terms “white elephant” and “folly” took on negative connotations. Need I remind you of Thomas Edison in his quest to prove alternating current over direct current? Poor Topsy. Then again it’s worth noting that the Romans killed off an entire subspecies of North African elephants for the purpose of entertainment. Poor Loxodonta Africana.

On to Claude K. Bell, who started his career making figures of gold miners and minuteman at Knott’s Berry Farm. He had been highly influenced by a childhood visit to see the supersized elephant Lucy. It resulted in a two decades long folly beginning in 1964 with Bell’s purchase of 76 acres in the desert community of Cabazon. From here the 67 year old Bell would embark upon his $300,000 creation of Dinny and Rex. For those who take interest in arcane information, Dinny is not a Brontosaurus. He’s actually a Apatosaurus with a Camarasaurus head. A classic case of artistic license.

“The virtue of a folly is that it provides the freedom to explore without rules.” Ada Louise Huxtable

Claude Bell died in September, 1988, at the age of 91. He had dreamed of a giant woolly mammoth and saber-tooth tiger to join his prehistoric menagerie but it was not to be. What has come to be is the Seven Day Theorist pursuit and purchase of dinasour themed road side attractions. We’re putting evolutionists on notice: We’re taking the dinosaurs back,” said Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis, a Christian group who’ve built a $25-million Creationist Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky.

“Primordial soup, to the zoo, to you, is evolution true?”

creationist Folly-ers

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