The first time I had the opportunity to visit Disneyland was when I was about three. Since that first visit, I have always believed it to really be "The Happiest Place On Earth".

On a gorgeous Sunday morning, Steve and I headed to Oceanside for yet another diverse, fun-filled day.

After partaking of coffee, our true first stop was at our favorite shoreside hotel- Seabird, home to OMA West's Neon Afterlife (December 30 - March 22).

"In the digital age, the screen has become our temple wall, and emojis have become the new hieroglyphs, a universal language of symbols, emotion, and identity of the new generation. They compress entire worlds into simple icons: a flame can carry desire, rebellion, or irony; a broken heart can hold grief or humor. Like ancient signs carved in stone, these icons record how we connect."

"This trio exhibition features the works of Magz Yang, Jon Savage and Evyn Hewett, all Southern California artists whose practices engage with the visual language of our time. The exhibition brings together works that remix pop culture, gaming, memes, neon aesthetics, and embodied language to explore how Gen Z is writing its own future archives."

While I'm not 100% sure of what the messages are hidden within these works, this one with the smiley faces made me happy.

Continuing on our art path, we briefly explored the Oceanside Museum of Art.

Upon entering, we were greeted with the works from the 6th Artist Alliance Biennial juried exhibition, a display of the amazing and abundant talent of OMA's artist members.

Steve and I appreciated the Palm Springs connection depicted in Daniel Warhole's The Rumors Were True. How timely after our recent discussion about Poolside Gossip.

"The OMA Artist Alliance Biennial is a powerful reflection of our vibrant creative community—an opportunity to showcase the depth, diversity, and vision of the artists who make this region such an inspiring place for contemporary art”, shares exhibition juror and Director of Exhibitions and Collections at OMA Katie Dolgov. "The 2025–26 Artist Alliance Biennial provides a special platform for both up-and-coming and established regional artists to share their work with a wide and engaged audience." We were certainly engaged! Wow.

Matrix Multiplied: Hybrid Approaches to Printmaking (February 21–August 2, 2026) had just opened so we were pretty excited to be some of the first museumgoers to enjoy these unique pieces.

"This exhibition features 18 artists who reimagine conventional notions of printmaking through hybrid approaches. Many works in the exhibition combine two or more printmaking techniques, blending traditional methods with digital technologies, or incorporate other media such as collage and drawing to create multi-dimensional artworks."

"This exhibition invites viewers to consider not only the complex process behind each piece, but also the material surfaces and the relevant narratives explored by the artists such as family history, migration, the environment, and social justice."

Because we were pressed for time, we didn't get to really study Modern Simplicity: Irving J. Gill in Oceanside (November 6, 2025–April 26, 2026). 

This small exhibit celebrates the historical legacy of master architect Irving J. Gill, a visionary who played a pivotal role in shaping early modern architecture in Southern California. Known for his pioneering use of reinforced concrete, clean geometric forms, and a philosophy rooted in simplicity, Gill’s work continues to influence contemporary architectural design. I have mentioned Mr. Gill several times on this blog. He is a true architectural Rock Star in these parts.

Our reason for being in Oceanside, on this day in particular, was a visit to the very awesome Star Theatre (1956). Its history can be found here.

"In the madcap comedy tradition of Lend Me a Tenor, the hilarious Moon Over Buffalo centers on George and Charlotte Hay, fading stars of the 1950s. At the moment, they’re playing Private Lives and Cyrano De Bergerac in rep in Buffalo, New York with five actors. On the brink of a disastrous split-up caused by George’s dalliance with a young ingénue, they receive word that they might just have one last shot at stardom: Frank Capra is coming to town to see their matinee, and if he likes what he sees, he might cast them in his movie remake of The Scarlet Pimpernel. Unfortunately for George and Charlotte, everything that could go wrong does go wrong, abetted by a visit from their daughter’s clueless fiancé and hilarious uncertainty about which play they’re actually performing, caused by Charlotte’s deaf, old stage-manager mother who hates every bone in George’s body."

I purposedly did not read the description of this afternoon's production before going. I wanted to be surprised. It wasn't until the director stated that, "They had put the F in Farce" that we figured out what we were in for. With Farce not being our favorite genre, we were pleasantly surprised when the talent of the actors and the enthusiasm of the crowd won us over. We thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon of live theater.

I have spent six of the last 10 days in Palm Springs. Today's foray was a unique opportunity and we just couldn't pass it up. I had never been to a car auction and McCormick's 80th was an ideal opportunity.

Featuring five original gowns and costumes alongside a curated selection of sketches created between the 1970s and the 2000s, the presentation highlights Mackie’s unmistakable blend of glamour, wit, and storytelling. The works on view reflect his collaborations with some of the most iconic performers, including Carol Burnett, Carol Channing, Cher, Diana Ross, Elton John, Liza Minnelli, Madonna, Mitzi Gaynor, and Tina Turner.

How fun is this dress created for “Starlette O’Hara” sketch associated with Carol Burnett’s legendary parody Went With the Wind?

The exhibit included an important note: "This presentation offers an intimate glimpse into Mackie’s creative legacy. It is not a comprehensive retrospective, but a focused tribute created to coincide with the museum’s annual Art Party gala." How fabulous that Gala would have been!

With limited time, we chose to ogle the work of Howard Smith, which is on exhibition for the first time in the United States since the 1980s.

Julie and I attended a presentation on this talented, diverse artist during last year's Modernism Week. A more thorough overview of his life can be found here.

Smith (1928-2021) was an artist from New Jersey whose textiles and ceramics were produced by some of Scandinavia’s biggest design firms during the heyday of post-war modernism. One of the few Black artists of his generation to successfully collaborate with industry, he brought exuberant color to curtain design and decorated his ceramics with a unique pictorial language that fused abstract forms with African symbols.

In his studio work, Smith did it all: painting, sculpture, drawing, assemblage, screen-printing, ceramics, and collage. He adapted army field jackets into wall sculpture, contrived shamanistic masks from vintage hats, and elevated the humble paper cut into high art with elaborate compositions.

Smith had over 40 solo exhibitions during his life. Yet, because he emigrated to Finland in 1962, he is unknown to all but a small group of design connoisseurs in the United States. His unique body of work is the product of an artist contending with the grand historical forces of his time: racism, modernism, cold-war ideology, and the African diaspora. This is the first retrospective of Smith in his home country and we were there for it. Wow.

Our final stop on the road home was at Cabazon to admire its dinosaurs. This is not our first visit to these fun creatures but it was the first time we had seen them painted so cutely. Some history for those who don't know of these oddities. Formerly Claude Bell's Dinosaurs,  this roadside attraction features two enormous, steel-and-concrete dinosaurs named Dinny the Dinosaur and Mr. Rex. Located just west of Palm Springs, the 45-foot tall, 150-foot-long Brontosaurus and the 65-foot-tall Tyrannosaurus rex are visible from the freeway to travelers passing by on Southern California's Interstate 10.

The creation of the Cabazon dinosaurs began in the 1960s by Knott's Berry Farm sculptor and portrait artist Claude K. Bell (1897–1988) to attract customers to his Wheel Inn Restaurant, which opened in 1958 and closed in 2013. Dinny, the first of the dinosaurs, was started in 1964 and created over a span of eleven years. Bell created Dinny out of spare material salvaged from the construction of nearby Interstate 10 at a cost of $300,000. The biomorphic building that was to become Dinny was first erected as steel framework over which an expanded metal grid was formed in the shape of a dinosaur. All of it was then covered with coats of shotcrete (spray concrete).

Bell was quoted in 1970 as saying that Dinny was "the first dinosaur in history, so far as I know, to be used as a building." His original vision for Dinny was for the dinosaur's eyes to glow and mouth to spit fire at night, predicting, "It'll scare the dickens out of a lot of people driving up over the pass." These two features, however, were not added.