Desert Introductions...

Our day was one of discovery and meeting new people.

We began at the Rubine Red Gallery with an introduction to the amazing art of Malcolm H. Myers.

Curated by gallery owner, and awesome guy, Jason Howard, this extensive exhibit showcases much of Malcolm Myers' 60+ year career, where the Animal Kingdom was a source of inspiration.

Malcolm Myers (self portrait above) is considered one of the greats in American Intaglio Printmaking. He is widely recognized for revolutionizing the Art Department and developing printmaking at the University of Minnesota, where he began teaching in 1948. As a printmaker and painter his work has been shown worldwide and can be found in famous collections both public and private.

He created creature characters big and small, including: Fox in Costume, The City Mouse, Balzac the Bear, Minnesota Rabbit, Charlie Wolf, Owls and Aardvarks, Cows and Crows. Appearing prominently across all of Myers' artist genres his animals delight art lovers with their simplicity and happy nature.

Jason took the time to explain to us intaglio printing. The word comes from the Italian intagliare, meaning “to incise” or “to carve.” In intaglio printing, the lines or areas that hold the ink are incised below the surface of the plate, and printing relies on the pressure of a press to force damp paper into these incised lines or areas, to pick up ink. It was very cool that the gallery had one of Mr. Myers' plates for us to study and get a grasp of just how complicated the process is. Wow.

Our goal was to explore a bit of Palm Desert before I had to head home. Here we were introduced to the Faye Sarkowsky Sculpture Garden.

The Faye Sarkowsky Sculpture Garden features significant sculptures surrounded by beautifully sculpted, rolling terrain. The four-acre garden features 14 outdoor sculptures and over 60 desert plants.

Set in a lushly landscaped desert oasis replete with water features, native plants, and winding walkways, the sculpture garden houses the art of modern masters, including works by Donald Judd, Betty Gold, Yehiel Shemi, Felipe Castaneda, Jesús Bautista Moroles, Dan Namingha, Gio Pomodoro, and Dave McGary.

The most impressive was Dave McGary's life-size bronze Walks Among the Stars.

"It depicts a late 18th century Lakota woman displaying her beautiful heirloom star quilt. As the Indian Wars ended and the North Plains tribes faced relocation to reservations, the Sioux women began making patchwork, quilts as replacements for traditional buffalo robes. Today, the star quilt is a symbol of prestige, sentiment, belonging and status within the contemporary Lakota culture."

Look at the texture and flow of this piece. We couldn't believe it was a bronze and not a real quilt. It was breathtaking.

The plants in bloom reminded us that Spring is truly on its way.

A first for Sharon was a visit to the Palm Desert Historical Society Museum.

The early maps labeled it as a Sand Hole. In the 1930s, a few homes were built and lots sold in a development north of Highway 111 called Palm Village. World War II brought General Patton here to train for African warfare; but no one ever dreamed this would become a world-class destination resort. No one except Cliff Henderson and his brothers Randall, Phil and Carl, who with brother-in-law Tommy Tomson and investors, including Edgar Bergen, Leonard Firestone and Harold Lloyd, turned a sand hole into a sparkling jewel called Palm Desert.

The brothers' first glimpse of Deep Canyon and the Santa Rosa Mountains triggered a sense of the magic and potential of this place. They envisioned fine homes and swimming pools, schools, churches, and culture that would draw visitors and families from far and wide.

The Henderson brothers began development of 1,600 acres. Construction of the Shadow Mountain Club and the Desert Magazine Building began soon. A new spirit and energy was evolving. The rest, they say, is history!

Sharon introduced me to this very interesting gal, Susie Keef Smith. Getting away from a troubled home life, she became the postmaster at the lowest elevation post office in the US, on the northern edge of the Salton Sea, in 1926. She wore a full leg brace due to childhood polio and was picked on by her peers because of her disability. She set her sights not on nearby Palm Springs and its budding Hollywood scene, but to the empty desert to the east: The Big Unknown.

Escaping with her cousin, Lula Mae Graves, Susie set out to photograph the last of the prospectors, burro packers and stage stops in the remote desert east of California’s Salton Sea. They traveled by burro, foot and Ford though sandy washes and roadless canyons, armed with a .38 revolver and a large format camera. While making postcards for the P.O. spinner rack, the women were remade in the wilderness and wound up creating an unparalleled portrait of one of the lesser-known deserts in the West.

Susie Smith's 1,500 photographs of the early desert were almost lost to history. When she died in Leucadia in 1988, a San Diego county estate administrator tossed her life's work into a dumpster. A quick-thinking archaeologist leapt into the bin and rescued what we now know to be an unparalleled portrait of a neglected corner of the California desert. WOW.

Our final stop was to ogle a surprising midcentury modern home in the middle of town.

Hidden in the middle of a nondescript neighborhood lies the beautifully restored Miles C. Bates House, or known more familiarly as ‘The Wave House’ — for it’s roof that slopes from one side to other like a flowing wave, intended to mimic the curves of the San Jacinto mountains that sit behind it. Designed in 1955 by architect and industrial designer Walter S. White, the wave house was the epitome of a bachelor pad for artist Miles C. Bates (described as a playboy heir to a cement fortune, and also a very keen bongo drum player). Go figure. Bates entertained at the house often, including the likes of James Dean.

After a series of additions had begun to overtake the legibility of the Bates House’s iconic form, and a number of unoccupied years threatened its structural and material integrity, Stayner Architects bought the house from the city of Palm Desert as part of an effort to see the innovative, patented roof structure and emblematic mid-century interior renovated and re-activated as a publicly accessible amenity.

So many of my favorite things were encapsulated within this day: history, new discoveries, cool architecture. thrift store finds, delicious food, and the company of a good friend. What a fantastic close to this season of Palm Springs.

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