Architect Irving Gill

and the

Oceanside Museum of Art

In 1992, I was tasked by the Chairman of the Oceanside Arts Commission to find a place in downtown to display Visual Fine Art. A columnist in the San Diego Union Tribune had described Oceanside as a vast cultural wasteland.

In 2026 The Oceanside Museum of Art shines as a beacon on the Hill for our City's inspirational guide into the World of Culture and Art. Sometimes the Whiteness of it All becomes a place of otherworldly wandering as a stranger, to become another self. We become an other entering into the world of the artist. We stand, enchanted, beguiled with the possibility of entering into the mind world of another. Such is the magic of entering through the door of Imagination.

OMA is such a place. Stepping up to the grand courtyard our walk becomes lighter, expectant with the excitement of the what ifs. It has become this Community Place of Culture and Art due to the professional and empathetic work of the Staff and the unending generosity of our donors and supporters through the years.

Gill painting of Fire Station

Irving Gill was an Architect. Beyond that, an engineer, and an Artist. In the Art/Design World we have a saying, KISS. (keep it simple stupid). The simplicity of his construction* methods made it possible for him to design buildings like sculpture. The repeats, the combing of elements in the simplest pure forms made his projects unique. The “Whiteness”, was amplified by his whimsical of splashes of color. The Primary colors, used for musical sparkle, his favorite being blue for the Ocean. 

Rudy Van Hummick  

On March 1, 2026 the announcement of the  Gill designed Fire Station to become the third element of the Museum has become a reality. This final  phase of the OMA Campus covers one entire block on Pier View Way. Now, the Gill City Hall, the Beautiful Pavilion and Gill Fire Station have become One.

OMA, the past, present and future, Perfect! Gill, our heritage, our community, our world of imagination and the What Ifs of Tomorrow. He always knew...

                                               

  

* His building method. This page hows many of his designs and the beauty of pure form.  

 

I Could Stay Forever

A Place of "Blue Happiness"

One of the most splendid of all of the Arts is our place of great gastronomical reward. Such a place is where my Daughter and I were yesterday. The sky was blue with puffy clouds dancing, the harbor was still waters, and the Blue Pacific was sparkling with joy, waves softly singing the sounds of surf.

This is a place of memories of my late husband who was sure that the best burgers were only to be found at the Lighthouse Restaurant. 

As we lounged on the warm sunny deck, memories of yesteryear flooded within me. I could see him, smile huge on his face, with the burger and fries before him and the day was complete, the place of fulfillment only to be found here at the Oceanside Harbor.

The Burger Gone with Gusto...

We humans all have our "Place of Blue Happiness", the place where we return over and over again. The warmth of the owners knowing you and the remembered chairs we always sat, and we were once again carefree. This place of happiness does not have to have a Michilin Star, it has only to has to have the love of bringing you sustance with human warmth and smiles and rememberence.

The Art of a great chief is one which makes you feel that here, and only here the rewards of his/her art of wonderful enjoyment of your ordered choice is found. The Lighthouse menu is a plethora of offerings to make you want to stay forever to sample it all...The Lighthouse brings all of this to you and us, we say Thank You, and our return is forever promised ...

 

 

The Sea

&

Dear Tomorrow

The Magic of the Happy Blueness of the Pacific Ocean. It's hard to explain this aura of a place where all of our angst is taken away, and replaced by a gentle calm that is so entrancing. We sit at the edge of a creative force which is compelling, and succumb to its rhythmic heartbeat . Hours we play, gather, work, and live with this magic. The Sea, the crucible of life.

There is an Art House in Oceanside which lives by the Sea. It is 117 years old. This historical house is one of a very few which has survived the redevelopment in Oceanside. The House is yellow, the color of the Sun, One of the primary colors, the Sea is blue, the Sunsets, the red. We, the artists are primary, the issue of the salty sea.

As I walked through this vintage structure, I wondered how many children had climbed up these stairs, how many women had stared out the front window watching the sea to bring back the husband, how many artists had found this place to create their works birthed by the music of the Blue Surf Singing the song of creation.

Painter Resident

This place, “DearTomorrow”, is located at 216 Tremont St. Oceanside. The captain of this endeavor of Artists Residencies,  is Ryder England. An artist, Poet, and ceramicist, he walked with us into an intriging  adventure of the possible. One room was the residence of a Painter, another a softly lit room of poetry, another a wondrous non-profit place of such incredible possibilities, that I'm still after a week, finding out the works they bring to the Children in our area. Un Mar De Colores, An Ocean of Colors.

Un Mar De Colores,  the Ocean as a Relative. When I read this on the card that Mario gave me, my heart skipped a beat. Here was a young man who is indeed a sympatico soul for humanity. I was captivated by his truth of purpose. The Children of our area are so fortunate for this truth of caring.

Lessons from the Sea

At the back of this Art House is a workshop. The artist resident, Chase Ryan, a man who loves wood. I too, love this wondrous form of life given to us for oxygen, homes, furniture, toys, and shady days of summer. Chase creates original works of art we call furniture. As I touched the kiln dried 4 x4s, I remembered the days of my father's creating works of art. The vibes of the yesteryear when this kind of workmanship was valued, was intense and welcome. Here was an Artist true to his passion and gives his senseiblities to his craft regradless of monetary compensation.

Chase Ryan

At the end of our Tour, I was beguiled. Wishing that I was 20 again, living by the Sea, drinking in the air filled with possibilities of creating the art that was so deep within my soul, finding the Art House of the Yellow Sun, finding the rythum of the creative force of the Sea, my relative the Blue Pacific...

 

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

The Arts and the Artist

The one irrepressible truth about the Arts is that No One owns the Artist! What makes an artist is that their independent voice is their own. They write, paint, compose in their solitude, and never, never will give this process up to anyone.

As I watched the Oval Office Occupant's name being attached to The Kennedy Center, I caught a sob in my throat, for this vile man's name to be on top of Kennedy's name, was like robbing our collective reverence for a President who gave everything for our Country. Stealing the spotlight by inserting his name   over Kennedy's name on this memorial building of a fallen President, for the Arts, is unforgivable. This person has contributed nothing for the Arts. It is a discernible fact that his idea of aesthetics is plastering gold painted artifacts looking like Walmart whimsy stickers all over the Oval Office.

In many ways, the Artist is as powerful as a king or president. His/Her works are conceived without any input from an outside agency, the process is singular, the making is singular, and the result is a product of original thought. The Movie, The Fountain Head, with Gary Cooper's soliloquy is one of the best description of an Artist's duty him/herself I have heard. Sometimes when a commission structure is involved, the artist still has the option to walk away, or destroy, and sometimes that happens and No One can stop Him/Her.. The original inspiration is solely owned by the Artist. The Artist listens to His/Hers Truth, and it is that truth which makes an effort become a work of Art. 

The Artists of the past and will in the Future give a voice about the world we live in and will, tell truth to power, whatever the price may be. The Arts give us beauty, musical rhythms of our day, challenge our possibilities, thoughts about the what ifs in our world, and ask us to stop, listen, read, and to consider our conditions of life's choices. The Poem, Chicago, by Carl Sandburg makes us aware of what our lives are made of and what we take for granted. I read yesterday that in one of Tyson's butchering plants, they kill 500 cows a day, this is just one plant. If this potential picture was displayed on TV commercial, it would have an impact of horror. Art describe acts of horror, writes stories, sing songs about it, and it also tells about our wondrous world and gives us reason to be hopeful . The Artist can tell these stories and songs, with truth about our real world. 

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was designed for a lasting memorial for President John Kennedy. The dominate element, of the project was to give the building a legacy of strength and integrity for a man who was loved and respected for his courage and his truth of being. To have someone who is the antithesis of this legacy insert his name over Kennedy's name is blasphemy of the highest order.

The Artists who have declined to perform on order of this would be king are in my view, heroes. They are facing a potential threat for their works to be defamed and destroyed. They walk away from this would be king, with their truth of purpose intact and honoring their own purpose of being.

The Cookers walked away...

The Arts belong to everyone, the Artist belongs only to Him/Her self, and will always, always, tell stories of truth for it is,

                        Truth that creates Great Art.

Sen. Blakespear presented a check to the City of Oceanside for Oceanside Museum of Art’s planned historic renovation and expansion project. Pictured (left to right) are Oceanside Deputy Mayor Eric Joyce; Oceanside City Manager Jonathan Borrego; OMA Executive Director Maria Mingalone; Allyson Handley, President of the OMA Board of Directors; Sen. Blakespear; Kristi Hawthorne, Director of the Oceanside Historical Society; and Oceanside Mayor Esther C. Sanchez.

“Oceanside Museum of Art’s historic renovation project is truly deserving of state support, and I am happy I could help make it a reality,” Sen. Blakespear said. “This investment will not only expand access to the arts for local residents, improving the quality of life for the community, but will continue the growth and development of downtown Oceanside into a center for culture and tourism.”
 

 

TOP GUN

The Thrill of a Movie in a Real Theater....

Oceanside has Two Historical Venues

Stars Falling in never ending Wonder

I remember the first time I saw the Top Gun film in 1986 at the Lido Theater in Newport Beach. The wonder of seeing a film in surround sound, thundering, screaming F14 Tomcat jets, the incredible throbbing mind bending music and Tom Cruse was and is a lasting memory. This kind of wonder of a real Theater cannot be duplicated at home on my smart TV. No matter how convenient it is to sit at home with popcorn made in the micro, it is a solitary form of entertainment, and in the theater it is a melding of others and yourself with the Ooos, and awes, and when home alone, the thrill is not the same...

What is this community of entertainment? The watching, the hearing, the roar of the crowd yelling and laughing together? Sharing experiences of a new story, people close to you having the same visceral reaction is what I call Community Ethos. A Coming together to experience an art form which is so easily understood and instantly communicated through a common visual experience building memories for all of us.

Today, the San Diego Union Tribune had a feature article on historical theaters in San Diego county, which have been saved as one screen theaters for films. The Paloma Theater in Encinitas was the dominate venue which I have been to once long ago, and was a wonderful experience of old time appreciation of when we had this common appreciation of togetherness in a venue of timeless merit.

In Oceanside, the multiplex of ten screens has been voted by the Council to be replaced by multi-use retail and living units of apartments. We have two vintage Theaters which show films and live entertainment. The Star Theater, and the Sunshine Brooks. I celebrate these venerable grand Theaters. They are the Vault of collective memories.

The Sunshine Brooks Theater is host to the International Film Festival and is attended by people far and wide in Southern California and beyond. The Entries are from the world over, and is in the 16^th year of its showcasing new Intentional talent of exceptional creative achievement.

The Star Theater is an instant presence with it's glorious Large marquee Built in 1956, the 65-foot wide marquee was originally the largest in San Diego County. Sources have also referred to it as the largest neon marquee west of the Mississippi. Animated "waterfall"A key feature of the sign is the "electrical waterfall" of neon stars that appears to cascade 48 feet from the top of the sign. We have attended the Star Theater and was wowed by the production of “Annie” at Christmastime...

My appreciation for these of one screen movie theaters and the beauty of the unique architecture of times gone by are dear to my heart as an artist. The design, the lines of timeless truth of an art form of the day when the venue was inviting and feeling of a special place of enchantment. These buildings of community entertainment are worthy of our efforts to keep as the spirit of our history of film and live productions.

And, we do have here in Oceanside, The Top Gun House overlooking the Blue Pacific as in the film of so long ago. And Yes, I do often play on my smart TV with a soundboard the opening scenes of Top Gun just to hear the Music and hear the Roar...

The history of the Top Gun house and its move to a new location.

 

Frank Webster Dalurinn (The Valley)

TechneArt Center

Unknown Frontier

Opening October4^th5PM~8PM

FrankWebster, a Painter of our world's wonder. Looking at his paintings on line, I have the feeling of one who's power of creating comes from the melding of his human cells connecting to the vibrations received from the ground of reality he stands on, and the silver strands emanating from above.

 I can't wait to meet this artist who has the ability to capture the beauty and the way we all should see the greatest gift to mankind, our Planet Earth.

This post will be updated as more artists images become available

 

Ken Goldman

The Magical calling of the Sea. It fills us with the oneness of our greatest longing, melding with the greatest creative force, the Sea. Our cells, our viral connections, our very brain waves are in concert with the rhythms of the Sea. It calls, it dances in our minds eye with the remembrances of our childhood when we were all dancers in the waves of our Oceans with our very soul.

Cheryl Tall

Oceanside is the magical place for all who love the Sea. It shines, sparkles with the blueness of happiness and it calls us to Be with it. It is a place for the arts of the Sea. It has the artists who live on it, play with it, and use it as our muse. It is deep within our hearts and is the crucible of our creativity. As I write this post, I am listening to Debussy's La Mer. Emotions run high with the pulsing sounds of the stormy Sea. The Sea inspires all who has ever stepped foot in this liquid birthing place of life on planet Earth. 

And So It Is...the Oceanside Museum of Art presents it's newest exhibition, of the Sea, and those who love it best. The Surfers. 

Thomas Rogo

A dual exhibition CaliforniaSurf Museum and the Oceanside Museum ofArt (OMA), this exhibition will explore art that has emerged from the surf lifestyle and surfing’s influence on artists. 

“Surfing is part of a defining identity of California’s image and has had an indelible effect on global society,” says Jim Kempton, Executive Director of The California Surf Museum and co-curator of the exhibition. “Everyone who has experienced the feeling of riding a wave understands just how hard it is to describe that incredible sensation, referred to as ‘stoke.’ 

Sandow Birk

The Oceans have inspired artists from the beginning of time to create our homage to the Sea. To capture, and record the linkage of this blueness of happiness, this compelling force, which pulls us in, saturates our vision, and orchestrates our heart beat with the endless waves of forever....

 

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Art, a Third Place

Where ICE is not Welcome

There is a place in my City of Oceanside, which is my Third Place. A small bakery in East O'side that is the center of friendship, good food, art and comfort in this time of dissonance gestating in our World at large. 

As long as there has been art, there have been places like this, cafes, coffee houses, and pubs, places where gatherings of friends, strangers, and the proprietors who welcome all with warm cheer and a smile of engagement. For the past couple of years with the pandemic, I have forgone these simple pleasures of Community.

About eight years ago, I started a program for the local artists to display art in the Bakery. ARTWALLS has kept the promise of bringing artists and community together. Engaging in topics that bridge the right and left of both worlds, as we consider the art world and our political world. 

Fine Art of the Museum world has always dictated of what is considered to be great art, and popular art has always been the art of the People. Toulouse Le trek's   art of consequence grew from these places of Community. Things Change. Art changes, political discourse changes, change is constant and sometimes it changes for the worse. We are experiencing the demolition of many elements of our Community. The National Endowment for the Arts, the proposed elimination of Public Press, food programs that feed our children, educational programs to be cut along with health and healing services that make our Community a Democracy.

Today, I, decided that the need for connection should be answered. As I waited for my food, the owner of the bakery's wife and children stopped by my outdoor table. Lively, the little boys taking me back to my own days of delightful laughter with little ones energizing my life force. Speaking with the Father, we considered the problems of ICE and restaurants. He said that he had not yet had any ICE visits, but at some of the homes east of his place, Ice was knocking on doors and causing fear.

Patrick Brown  ArtWalls O'side

No matter where I have lived, there always have been these small places of Community. From Eureka California, to Lido Isle in Newport Beach, to Oceanside CA, these places of coffee, art, and community have given me a human connection of warmth and belonging. The Third place for our Human species will be within the refuge of Community.

ICE can be kept at bay if we care...Enough 

                                                                     

Picasso's Guernica

Historically, Art has contained messages concerning, Political, Religious, Environmental, Race,War and dealing with many rights of the marginalized peoples of our Country and beyond. Picasso's Guernica was one such work. While this post is certainly not of Picasso's caliber, I have taken my plea of our current status concerning my political angst in a very simple and easy way to tell a story of what it means to me about America's Values...

Make America True Again Make America Friendly Again Make America Green Again Make America Legal Again Make America Smart Again Make America Readers Again Make America Responsible Again Make America Voters Again Make America Savers Again Make America Thinkers Again Make America Generous Again Make America Protectors Again Make America Honorable Again Make America Respectful Again  Make America Truthful Again...

I believe that more words are needed to be mentioned. The words that are important for leadership. Leaders for America should be of the highest, brightest and most qualified with backgrounds in education and experience pertaining to position.

Make America's Leaders Truthful Again, Make America's Leaders Honest Again Make America's Leaders Constitutional Again Make Americas Leaders Work Together Again Make America's Leaders Accountable Again, Make America's Leaders Civil Again Make America's Leaders Honorable Again Make America's Leaders Scientifically Qualified Again Make America's Leaders Have Term Limits

 

Last Night after the opening at the Techne Art Center, I dreamed the dream of wondrous art in Oceanside. The melding of the Artists from New York and San Diego county had the effect on this viewer of being in a New York gallery in Chelsea NY. Teleportation was experienced in East Oceanside CA on a Saturday night and I was in overdrive viewing art from new artists giving us works of rare beauty and intellectual excitement.

Ben Godward

Today, I am in a state of afterglow feeling that somehow, I took with me elements of art given with such great heart from the Teche Gallery, Art that stays in my minds eye and sings in my heart.

A long time in coming, Oceanside, a town that was called by the local newspaper as a vast cultural wasteland has transformed. We now have an Art Center with an important gallery and proposed residency studios for artists coming this year.

I spoke with two of the Artists of their art and how the making of their work imbued me with wonder and the correlation to my own background of sculpture and painting. The two processes often overlap in unconscious and inexplicable ways.

Ben Godward spoke with me the trials and tribulations of resin sculpture. The making of molds and the toxicity of the media its self. Pouring liquid resin is an effort which combines the artself with the dexterity of learned muscle memory. When successful, a thing of incomparable beauty will emerge. The concave structure of the giant transparent rainbow colors are mesmerizing and the work draws you in with a gentle vibration of color music. The shadows are infinite and give the work a feeling of a dream...

Mathew Bacher   is a painter's painter. His brush strokes of elegant fury give way to images of imaginations of which, “I have been here before”. I stood here for a long time, recognizing my own past experiences which of course are far different that his art works, but have an otherness basis coming from the silver strands of our collective efforts to do the stuff we call art. 

 One of the paintings give hint to his background in sculpture, the pouring of the liquid bronze. However, this painting gives the pour of angst of time, a white hot stream of imagination and strength desiring and overcoming new competition of mankind...

Mathew Bacher

Techne Art Center

T:   917-972-1752

Hours:

Thursday 1-6pm

Friday 1-6pm

Saturday 1-6pm

​

 1609 Ord Way

Oceanside, CA 92056

"You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength"

Marcus Aurelius

 Eureka CA...my place for being

Intermission

Last week, my journey from the madness of our daily life, created by our Nation's new course of leaving a two hundred and fifty years of Democracy and Constitutional rule, I found a few moments of reflective interaction, an intermission if you will, with the artists now on exhibition at the Oceanside Museum of Art.

The Starlings

Matt Devine's sculpture captures the inner wanderings of his emotional ties to his environment of Oregon's unspoiled nature and the beauty of just being. His work, an abstraction of the flora and fauna on his walks are translated into steel and aluminum. The overlay of layers of the long and beautiful strands of steel bring rhythmic dancing shadows enchanting to the viewer. As I moved around the sculptures, the enchantment caused a Mind Meld that caught me in an endless embrace. “The Starlings”, flying across the vast end of the gallery, soared with a wonder of flight and lightness of the birds and belied the heaviness of steel.

A path in Matt's world "Walk with Me"  

There was a video entitled, Walk with Me. I sat on the designated bench and watched with remembrance of when I lived in Eureka CA. Often, I walked paths in the Great Sequoia Forrest and felt a great solace of peace. The Music of Nature is our greatest treasure, and Matt has given us a look of his paths translated into permanent works of Art.

Mary Jhun

The other artist that was deeply relevant for me is Mary Jhun. Her paintings of the mind numbing experience of wearing a C-pap for sleep apnea. The paintings haunted me with memories of my husband wearing this machine to keep him breathing through the night. He hated it, and called it Damascus...

Mary Jhun however, painted this machine which took away her dreams in surreal elements of color and exquisite detail of her mind intertwined with the parts of the machine. I was stunned by the recognition of what my husband had tried to tell me about his experience with this machine, but his telling was told in terms of computerize...Her journey of living with this device became the vehicle of her finding dream painting. The images are profoundly beautiful and giving this viewer a greater understanding of how machines can not only be life saving but, a telling of stories to the public of how one person's experience brings the realization of a new and wondrous path to create art.