The Bunker House Lounge Part One,

               The Afternoon

The Bunker House in 1886

A Quiet Place for an afternoon retreat from the madding crowd. A Place where a glass of wine, a good book, and a tasty treat add up to a little paradise in the Heart of Oceanside. I spent a Thursday afternoon here with the above attractions and whiled away the hour thinking about the yesteryear of this very old building. The Bunker House is the oldest commercial building in Oceanside. 

As a visual artist, I see the cars, the long dresses, the top hats, and the autos of that era. I see them strolling along the pathways leading to the Sea, and knowing that they have a room in the boarding house with view of the blue Pacific to come back to. The New Bunker House is a venue for the endeavors of two industrious entrepreneurs who have been so successful in the creation of the O 'side Bakery in East Oceanside. Their French Bakery has been the go to place for breakfast and lunch for the past many years. Stevie Rohano and Kevin Briens, the owners have taken their culinary skills to the Bunker House Lounge in the heart of Downtown Oceanside with new upgraded decor, expanded hours, and wine for patrons of the grape. 

 Plans for evening entertainment are in the works, and the arts too, will find a home in this vintage building with a cosmic vibe. It is interesting to me that the old is so entrancing. In the minds eye, the visuals of past patrons parade before me, entreating me to spend an hour, to breathe in the salty air, and to take a minute to reflect on my luck to be here in this quiet place. The many different uses of the Bunker House have been, a boarding house, hotel, a meeting place, church services, Music business, City offices, Art Studios, and lastly The Apotheque a spa with a Green Aesthetic.

 The Bunker house hours are 7 AM to & PM everyday, except Thursday, Friday, and Saturday when they are open 7AM -9PM. The Address is 322 Cleveland Street Bring a book, a sketch pad, a friend and find in this place of calm, a perfect venue to feel the vibe of yesteryear, and yet embrace the new, with the delectable food and friendships to be found here in Downtown Oceanside by the Sea. The smiling face of Stevie Rohano will welcome you to share this adventure at the Bunker House Lounge. 

 I listen the to the trickling of the nearby fountain, sip my wine cup, and draw in the limitless imagination of the minds eye, the breeze soft on my face, and find a sweet solitude from this frantic world,  this world of the now.

Part II will be the Bunker House Lounge at Night.

 

                                                      "Valhalla"  96 x72  Oil on canvas 1988

The Joy of Learning

The cure for boredom is learning something new. Something you feel passionate about. For Me, it is the Visual Arts. At eighty six years of age, my hands are not competent of holding the brush and putting it to good use on a canvas. Always in control of the elements of good design and feelings of great joy in the beginning of a canvas or clay lump, now the shaky hands betray me and the feelings of emptiness of control are my reality.

Clay ready for casting

Clay has always been my refuge in the whole of the thing. It transforms in my hands without any thoughts of how, or where the lines, negative spaces should be. The yielding of the clay becomes a part of the hands, and the strength of the hands are sure and firm. Today, the hands no longer have the ability to mold the clay with sureness, and the cost of casting have stilled the joy for the call of the clay and the magic of the creative process. I see other forms of sculpture and wonder if somehow, I can adapt. There is a lot of cardboard in the garage, perhaps something will wander through my musings and become a source for something new. Perhaps...

Meanwhile, the new technologies of the computer afford me with the ability to keep learning new processes of the visual arts. With Illustrator and Photoshop, the visual images in the minds eye can become something, something of incalculable possibilities. The learning processes of the digital age keep re-inventing the now into wonderful horizons of the “what ifs”. The forgiveness of the programs give the hands new vigor and sureness. Some would say that the art created in this fashion is not real art. Some would say, that originals cannot exist because of the computer's the ability to duplicate endless reproductions cancels out the creative truth of the paint pots and brush and the clay into bronze.

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In the history of art, there have always been detractors for the way art is made. The masters of old had artist assistants paint skies and the landscape. This process has not canceled out the veracity of the whole, the vision of the painting or sculpture. So to, the advent of acrylic paint. When first used by artists the cry was instant that it was not real. No oil, the luminous quality of the layers of oil were the only real paint for the creation of a painting of worth. So on it goes, the new will have its day, and the old will be the foundation for the vision of worth.

I revel in the new. The importance of learning will never cease and it will be the crucible of my digital process and keep my hands busy, the brain engaged, and most of all fulfill my desire to be an agent of change in the world for making art.

2021 A year of the new

The Cardboard in the Garage still awaits...the possibilities endless.