This is weird. I haven't blogged in ages (clearly evident), but a friend who read my latest email about my travels in and around LA suggested that I do something more with my writing. She suggested that I blog or journal or publish my travel writings. I am opting to do the former for now. It's been too long. I need to write to keep my brain active, so I shall cut & paste the email I sent to my friends about my latest solo excursion. A little background: I sent an email to my group of 9 other friends to see if anyone wanted to go to the California Museum of Art. I found free tickets on Goldstar and although it was located in Thousand Oaks, long car trips never bothered me. My friends were courteous but succinct -- I was on my own because...it's Thousand Oaks and too boring to be worth the trip. Here is my take:
I went out to Thousand Oaks, searching for this museum. I didn't see much of the city because GMaps showed my destination was right off an exit. I drove, slowly and aimlessly through the parking lot of the Thousand Oaks Mall, noting all the various and familiar store signs (Cheesecake Factory, check. California Pizza, check. Macys, check. You get the point.) and despite the fact that I drove right over the icon that was the museum on my map, I saw no sign of the museum in this commercial mecca. So I called the museum and this person, trying to be helpful, told me to look for Luna Road, then a bridge. Of course, I found neither, so I was thisclose to giving up until I found a coveted parking spot and entered the mall. Again, using the Google Map, I walked around and OVER the icon for the museum but I was outside a Wetzel's Pretzel! So I went to the interactive directory, but it was no help. I was ready to ditch Thousand Oaks permanently when I noticed the mall management office. The woman who opened the locked door in answer to my knock told me, "It's on the 2nd floor, directly across from JC Penneys." FFS! The museum worker could have told me that instead of sending me hunting for a damn bridge (which I never did find).
CALIFORNIA MUSEUM OF ART
The museum is in storefront that I was told used to be a Taco Bell (I am not making this up, I swear), and it didn't have an extensive collection. But what it did have was certainly very whimsical and clever. I'm attaching a few photos, but they don't do it justice because there were poems that accompanied each of the paintings, solicited to pay tribute to what each poet believed their picture represented. It was very moving.
Thousand Oaks had been the site of a facility that kept animals from many familiar shows & movies of years past. The city was home to a park called "Jungleland" where people could see and ride on elephants, ostriches, and horses. It was a place where people could see many other exotic animals and performers. Before it was Jungleland, it was "Goebel's WIld Animal Farm." From "The Story of Jungleland" website:
Goebel's Wild Animal Farm was home to Leo the Lion, of MGM Pictures fame. Over the years, other animal celebrity residents included Mr. Ed, the talking horse, Bimbo, the elephant from Circus Boy and Tamba, the chimpanzee in Tarzan films and "Bedtime with Bonzo" starring Ronald Reagan and Diana Lynn.
Artist Kevin Sloan's work is dedicated to conservation, and for this exhibit, local poets added their own observations to each of his paintings. I am attaching some photos, but it's hard to see all the detail this way. For instance, right in front of the elephant's trunk is a bee, threatening the precariousness of the balance of that enormous creature. The poetry was so perfect and engaging that I spent a lot more time in this space than I thought I would.
In short (haha!) I would say it's a worthy exhibit to see for the clever paintings & sublime poetry. It made my day for sure, but I am not 100% sure whether it made up for the frustration of riding around the parking lot when I could have been told to "just go into the mall & look for JC Penney."
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