Edgar Payne's The Scenic Journey
at Sacramento's Crocker through
May 7, and then to Pasadena in June

We were thrilled to learn of this recording of Jimmy Swinnerton speaking about his cartooning career because it is the only known recording of Jimmy's voice.

Jimmy is one of the four founding fathers of the newspaper comics. His famous strip "Little Jimmy" was published in Hearst's newspapers in New York, and later he created a strip featuring Navajo children called "Canyon Kiddies" which appeared in Good Housekeeping Magazine from 1922-1941.

This audio interview was conducted by Air Force Master Sergeant Percy Brown Jr., and was broadcast in 1963 via short wave radio to American troops stationed overseas. A tape of this interview was kept by lifelong comics fan Milt Kagen who has now made it available to the public. This interview is unedited, and for best viewing and listening, set the player below to full screen.

Jimmy is also known for his fine art paintings of the California Desert and his close friendship and association with so many of the California Desert School, including his San Francisco art school classmate, fellow Bohemian Club member and close friend, Maynard Dixon.

In 1906, Jimmy's cartooning career was soaring. But Jimmy fell ill and was diagnosed with tuberculosis. His poor prognosis given by three different doctors said Jimmy had only weeks to live. William Randolph Hearst suggested (ordered) Jimmy get himself out to the California Desert to recuperate. He soon arrived in Palm Springs, long before air conditioning and Palm Springs' wealthy population. But the fresh dry warm desert air did its magic and helped Jimmy recover and thrive.

This very large exhibition of nearly 100 major paintings shows the evolving range of Edgar Payne's style as he proceeded through the early twentieth century with paintings done in Europe and the Southwest. The exhibition is accompanied by drawings, photos, and other artistic objects from his studio.

Payne's painting employed a vibrant palette and animated brushwork all offering a shimmering light of impressionism. Many of his works are mosaics of texture, done in an almost tiled technique. He possessed a reverence for the natural world, and he

strove to present his subject's rugged beauty. During Payne's lifetime 1883 - 1947, few people covered as many miles as Edgar and Elsie. On exhibit are Southern and Central California works, but also numerous paintings done in the Swiss Alps, the harbors and waterways of France and Italy, the Canadian Rockies, and stunningly dazzling works showing Arizona's Canyon de Chelly. Throughout his career, Payne forcefully sought to preserve the vitality, largeness, nobility and grandeur of the landscape before him.

Edgar was born in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri, and because his father was displeased with Edgar's choice of a career in art, he left home at the age of 14, gaining a life's education from being a youthful tumbleweed, moving through the Ozarks. Texas, Mexico

and eventually landing in Chicago. He gave a nod to formal art education by attending the Art Institute of Chicago for two brief weeks, but soon left formal art instruction. He always considered himself "self taught." He wasn't an artistic hermit though. He did maintain associations with other artists and was active with the Chicago Society of Artists and the Alumni Association of the Art Institute.

In 1916, Edgar was commissioned to paint the Southwest for the Sante Fe Railroad. In fulfilling his commitment, he spent four months in Canyon de Chelly, the scene of some of his best work.

In 1917, Edgar Payne was asked by the Congress Hotel in Chicago to provide murals for all eleven floors of their new hotel. To get the job done, he and his artist wife Elsie Payne marshalled the talents of other artists, Jack Wilkerson Smith, Peter Nielsen, and Grayson Sayer. They rented a warehouse in the town of Tropico (now Glendale) near Eagle Rock, California and began production.

In Eagle Rock, CA, a young artist named Conrad Buff heard of the project and applied for an assistant's position at $3.50 per day. Buff would stretch the canvases. Payne would then sketch out the painting. Buff would paint the sky and clouds, Payne and Smith would paint the foreground, Nielsen painted garlands and garlands of flowers, and Sayer and Payne would finish the foreground. By the end of the job, Buff was making $5.00 a day.

Later on, Conrad Buff said of the experience, "For five months we did thousands of feet of that stuff. And we finally finished -- paintings for the hallways of an 11 story hotel. All of us felt for a while after we got through that we never wanted to see a tree or a flower or a lake or a cloud again!"

From 1922 to 1924, Edgar and Elsie painted in Europe. The couple spent a great deal of time studying paintings in the museums of Paris as well as venturing to the French and Italian shores and to the heights of the Alps. In the 1923 Paris Salon, Payne won an Honorable Mention, quite significant in light of the fact that there were 7,000 paintings being exhibited that year.

For much of their life as a a celebrated painting couple, the life of Edgar and Elsie Payne seemed charmed. Behind the scenes though, the relationship between the two painters wasn't doing as well. Edgar and Elsie separated in 1932. Elsie left because she felt her talents were sacrificed and suppressed by Edgar's demands. Once out on her own, she did well, but was convinced to return and live with Edgar when he was ill. She remained through Edgar's death in 1947. Their daughter wrote that "the last words her father spoke to her on his last day of life in 1947 were that "he was sorry he had been so selfish and that everything had been for his art."

So, whether you are in Northern or Southern California, you have an opportunity to see this extraordinary exhibition. The show is available at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento through May 7. Then it will head south, and be open in Pasadena in June. Please take the time to view the grand body of work, the sweeping scape of Edgar Payne's Scenic Journey.

When describing Chicago, Carl Sandburg wrote "Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders." Chicago is certainly that and more. It is an original, brassy and proud, daringly willing to compete on the world's stage.

Chicagoans are a diverse and vibrant group. Their civic culture is filled with

style. Their music ranges from the Chicago Blues to its famous Symphony, its architecture ranges from early Frank Loyd Wright homes to its well known marvels of modern towering creativity.

Chicago thrives at the nations crossroads, where America's great rivers meet the Great Lakes, and where rail and air travel have their hubs. First "Chicago" was home to native Americans, and then discovered by French explorers. In fact, the name "Chicago" is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, which means "wild garlic," from the Miami-Illinois language.

As America edged its way west, Chicago grew as a center of political activity, flexing its considerable muscle with the debates of Senator Douglas and a political upstart named Abraham Lincoln. And quite recently in November of 2008, Chicago held a celebration in Millennium Park as one of its own, Barrack Obama, became the first African American to become President of the United States.

Many a visitor to Chicago has entered the city via O'Hare's United Airline's outer terminal. To get from their planes to the main terminal, travelers must transit a very long people mover through a tunneled cascade of a pulsing and calming neon color, all accompanied by subdued music. Here's a piece of public art with a big job, to sooth the wearied traveler, reduce stress, and welcome travelers from points near and far.

The city's most iconic artistic treasures adorn Millennium Park. Buckingham fountain has long put on fascinating shows, day and night, summer and winter. The Lions standing guard at the Art Institute exemplify the city's confident kingly stature.

Graceful abstract works lean forward to Chicago's future. The Cloud Gate by Anish Kapoor reflects the soaring thriving city, bending its lighted reflection as pliable as the city's embrace of its possibilities and potential. Richard Hunt fits with the Chicago spirit as graceful flames, hot and radiant, the presence of burning lively freedom in his Freeform. Marc Chagall's Four Seasons not only embraces the beauty of the four seasons, but also seems to say variety is part of Chicago's spirit, in wide ranging cultural, civic and cultural tastes.

The biggest lesson here is how art works in a societal context. Art is not an add on, not an extra piece of beauty thrown in as an ornamental bit of bling. Art expresses the heart and soul of the citizens who exhibit it. It both reminds them and professes to others what is of importance and what is of substance for them. Public art provides a communal reflection and an expression of the essence of the citizenry's best aspirations.

If you were to ask the 3 million plus Chicagoans their definition, you would get at least that many answers, but overall, you would get a large segment who express great pride and satisfaction with their public art, and certainly an overwhelming unwillingness to part with it.

Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery's
Watercolorist Jean Warren (NWS)

"The creative process blends structure with a flurry of passion and intuition."

"I use abstraction or fractured images to express the rhythms or movement that are inherent in the scene."

Stop in and enjoy Jean's paintings.

Also look for Jean at the Marine Mammals Center booth at this year's
Bodega Bay Fish Fest,
April 28 & 29!

Jean's page on our website