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The Getty Center in Los Angeles, part 6 — The Arts might have a chance!

The State of California is still broke, which means that the very thing this nation needs most is the thing that gets cut first — Education.

When I graduated from Texas A&M University and moved to Houston in the late 1970s, my home state of Texas announced that it had a $6 billion surplus for the current fiscal year. I was thinking, “Yeah! They are going to refund us some money like Alaska does.” Nope. They just went out and looked for more stuff to spend it on. (Why don’t governments and corporations have savings accounts for rainy ~~days~~ years? Or endowment funds like colleges and universities have?)

Anyway, Texas succeeded in spending the surplus, and about ten years later, when the Texas oil boom went bust, Texas announced that it was broke. Possibly implementing a state income tax caused an uproar that was not seen again until a black person was elected President of the United States. Property taxes and sales taxes skyrocketed.

My hometown in Texas cut all of the arts programs in its public schools — no painting, no choir, no band, no orchestra. Gone, gone, gone. I do not know if those subjects were ever implemented again when things improved.

With the current situation in California, school budgets are still getting slashed, and the first programs that went were the arts. Many of them are now after-school extracurricular activities. Some teachers are unpaid volunteers from the community. That’s why what I saw at The Getty Center gave me hope for the Arts:

That’s not just some random art student visiting The Getty Center and doing a sketch. See the sketch to his left? That other sketch is not his. It was done by yet another person. Now you’re probably thinking “art class.” Nope.

This area of the Center is The Sketching Gallery. There were four large paintings and a couple of sculptures in the room with several sketching seats like the one the guy in the picture is using. Anyone — even me! — could sit down and sketch. No, I didn’t. Lots of people did. Even more wonderful is the sketch board where budding artists could leave their sketch on display:

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one visualizing a young artist proudly placing his sketch on the sketch board while his equally proud parents take a picture.

I had never seen a Sketching Gallery before but apparently they have a long tradition in the art world. Explained on a mural in the Gallery (see cropped second and third pictures to read the text):

If one has not been to The Sketching Gallery before, a mural on the wall provides instructions:

Although the Gardens were my favorite part of The Getty Center, I think The Sketching Gallery was my favorite experience.

The Arts might have a chance in this world after all!

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Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

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Posted in History, Manmade, Out & About, Photos

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Tags: getty center los angeles pictures, getty center pictures

The Getty Center in Los Angeles, part 4

Jul 21

Posted by Russel Ray Photos

The Getty Center in Los Angeles, part 1

The Getty Center in Los Angeles, part 2

The Getty Center in Los Angeles, part 3

I have always had a fascination with time — the 1960s TV show “The Time Tunnel” — the huge grandfather’s clock that my wise old grandmother got for Christmas in 1966 — my first watch, one of those red LED digital watches. Instead of going to sleep, I used to hide under the covers watching the seconds change.

I don’t wear a watch anymore because my cell phone has a clock. Never dreamed in 1966 that a phone would tell me the time………well, other than calling 555-1212 to get the time……….can’t believe I still remember that number……….

There were clocks galore at The Getty Center, which sent my clock fascination into overdrive. Kind of driving this. Okay back to clocks, although I’m pretty sure that car has a clock in it……….lol

Long-case musical clock, Paris, 1712

Model for a mantel clock, Park, ca. 1710

Clock on bracket, Paris, 1758

Porcelain wall clock, Chantilly & Paris, ca. 1740

Planisphere clock, Paris, ca. 1747

Wall clock on bracket, Paris, ca. 1764

Long-case clock, Paris, 1775

Mantel clock, Paris, ca. 1772

Mantel clock, Paris, ca. 1789

Mantel clock, Paris, ca. 1747

Mantel clock, Paris, ca. 1720

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Posted in History, Out & About, Photos

10 Comments

Tags: antique clock pictures, clock pictures, french clock pictures, getty center los angeles pictures, getty center pictures

The Getty Center in Los Angeles, part 3

Jul 20

Posted by Russel Ray Photos

The Getty Center in Los Angeles, part 1

The Getty Center in Los Angeles, part 2

Ask me what my favorite part of The Getty Center is and my answer is the gardens. When I first saw a picture of the Cactus Garden back in 1997 when The Getty Center opened, I knew I had to go see it to complete my life as a Cactus & Succulent fan:

How famous and beautiful is the Cactus Garden? Well, as we were leaving, we were asked to complete a questionnaire about our visit. For doing so, we got a free postcard showing, of course, the Cactus Garden with Studio City and the UCLA campus in the background:

Gardens and water are an integral part of the landscaping of The Getty Center, and the Central Garden was the most magnificent:

Everywhere one looked (outside), there were plants and water features:

In this last picture, look at the bottom and you’ll see a photographer taking a picture……….of me! He and I would raise our cameras, see the other guy, not take the picture, lower our cameras, see that the other one had lowered his camera, raise our cameras………. Finally we both took our pictures and walked away. I wonder where his blog is….