My wife Tami and I went down to San Diego yesterday to spend some time in Balboa Park to check out a few museums and then have lunch before heading home. We live about 90 miles north east from San Diego so we go down regularly as it is one of our favorite places to go for a day or a weekend. The weather was pretty much overcast for most of the time we were there and in the mid 70's so it was a nice day.

 

One of the museums we went to was the San Diego Museum of Art as they currently have the  "Gustav Stickley and the American Arts and Crafts Movement" exhibit until September 11th, 2011. They did a nice job on the exhibit and it was larger than I thought it would be considering the size of the museum. They had all kinds of history on the A&C movement with lots of pieces from Stickley's different types of A&C furniture and styles. The downside was that they did not allow any photography for this specific exhibiton as there were a few pieces that I would like to add into my "Project's I would like to build" file. The cost for entry was $12 for this single museum but if you plan on going to a number of museums you can get a "Special Pass" for $35 per person which lets you go to any 5 of the 14 museums on that same day or for $45 per person that has admission to all 14 of the museums within a 7 day period. They have some pretty cool museums there including some for the kids. They also typically have 1 or 2 of the museums that are free on a rotating schedule.

 

The grounds are beautiful with some very nice architecture and flowers, so it is great for taking photos.

 

My lovely wife Tami.

 

Then she got tired of me taking pictures of her

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice pictures! Sounds like a very good exhibit. Thanks Allen.

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Bob Kloes
www.bobkloes.com

What a great place to spend time. The scenery is outstanding alone. Great pics Allen.

Thanks for sharing.

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Wayne Mahler
God bless and protect our troops that serve so we can be free.

I've been going to Balboa Park since I was in a stroller Allen! Great place to hang out, we love it too. We are heading back down there just for the Gustav Stickley exhibit in a couple weeks. Your pictures are beautiful as always, those are pro magazine shots that look like they are straight out of the magazine San Diego.

Thanks for showing.

By the way, what piece did you love the most, if you could pin your experience down to one piece of Gustav Stickley work.

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

John,

There were a few pices that I particularly liked. There was one of his versions of a Morris Chair (he did a few different styles and there were 2 in the exhibit) which was open sided as opposed to having the vertical slats between the arm and the bottom rail. These are good "book reading" chairs and it is typical for the females in the family to curl up their legs in the seat and read, But with the side slats the toes don't have a lot of wiggle room, so being open on the sides is more enjoyable for them and I just like the looks of them over the side slats.

Here is a photo of one I found online.

 

Another piece I liked was a side board. We have a small narrow "Mission Style" table in the family room by the garage door that we drop our keys and such on as we come and go which looks nice and works well (store bought at Target but it is solid oak) but I would like something larger there with more charactor.

Here is a photo I found online which is similar.

I like a lot of the Stickley designs, but not a big fan of the large and heavy hardware on some of them. I also prefer a bit lighter wood tone as opposed to the darker tone that is on much of his stuff. I also don't like his narrower/thinner frame work as he made that change later on as people wanted stuff that was not as heavy in appearance.

One thing that they had on display which I thought was cool was a set of the original facotry "story boards". These boards were numbered for each specific piece/model of furniture that was being built with all the mortises, tenons and such marked on them for the craftsmen to check their work to for uniform sizing. They do have a little "store" at the end of the exhibit which has a few things there, but they are pricey. They had a number of books on Stickley and the period which were interesting but too rich for my blood. They did have some nice stuff there at the "San Diego Museum of Art" with a broad mix of types and styles so you should have fun

One thing that was nice while we were there at Balboa Park was that the organist was doing a practice session on the big "Spreckels Pipe Organ" which was very cool to sit down and listen to for awhile before heading out to the Gaslamp District to have lunch at "The Old Spaghetti Factory" which is one our favorite restaurants.

 

My wife loves art but I am not as big of a fan as she is as I lean towards more realisim and photography as opposed to more abstract or modern art. Like I tell my wife "I am more Ansel Adams than Gomez Addams." My wife loves Claude Monet and his work has grown on me a bit and they do have a Monet there at the San Deigo Museum of Art in one of the upstairs galleries. We do like to go out to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles a time or 2 per year as they have a very broad range of stuff and different exhibits that come and go. Also the Huntington Library in San Marino (Pasadena) has beautiful grounds and extensive art exhibits including an extensive "Greene & Greene" exhibit which is a permanent exhibit. They have a beautiful Japanese Garden but that is in the process of renovation and won't re-open until spring of 2012. Tami and I may be going there on Monday.