News/Commentary
Newsletter, 2009 --Our Particular Universe, Expanded
August 13, 2009 by Judy Vaughn
|
Watercolor is still the primary medium, but historical anecdotes are increasingly on the menu at the California Collectors Series Web site featuring Royce Vaughn's original notecards and art.
The San Francisco Chronicle fell from the sky one dayAsk any guy of a certain age about the zeppelin that fell into the ocean just south of California’s Point Sur Lighthouse and he’ll tell you all about it, adding the story of its amazing “air mail” delivery to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt the year before. See it now. FDR was on the deck of an aircraft cruiser in the middle of the Pacific in July 1934 on the way to the Panama Canal. Let’s say, just for the heck of it, that he wanted to know the baseball scores from the night before and was wishing perhaps he had a copy of the newspaper sports section. Suddenly from out of the blue came two airplanes launched from the Navy’s new reconnaissance zeppelin, the USS Macon, dropping bundles of postage stamps and the San Francisco Chronicle! Yes, it was yesterday’s paper, but the point was made. By calculating the exact spot in the middle of the ocean where the President’s ship would be and racing 3,500 miles to find it, the Navy showed how accurately the Macon could perform. |
Lighthouse at Point Sur Image courtesy of JB Imaging |
And then the zeppelin fell as well
Unfortunately, the Navy’s grand aviation experiment was about to end.
Waves crash daily against the rocks of the jagged California coastline, but on February 12, 1935, the threat of danger wasn’t in the water. It was in the air.
Around 5 PM, Point Sur lighthouse keeper Thomas Henderson suddenly saw a silent, extraordinarily large shape blotting out the sun – the same shadow FDR would have seen the year before, the same shadow Tim Thomas from the Monterey Maritime History Museum once said would be like “the Titanic floating over your house.”
It was the USS Macon (three times the size of a 747 jumbo jet airplane), built for the Navy with four Sparrowhead fighter airplanes on board that could be launched and retrieved during flight. Its already damaged tail fins were severed by a coastal squall and shards of metal pierced the airship's rear gas cells. It spun out of control – up then down -- and within minutes sank into the water.
Eighty-three men had been on board. All but two survived.
The zeppelin was built in Ohio during the Depression to provide long range reconnaissance for the Pacific Fleet and for 16 months was berthed at Moffett Air Field in Sunnyvale, California, in a specially built hangar that was "large enough to hold a luxury cruise ship." People like then Stanford student David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard Company and founder of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), were fascinated by it. It was the last rigid-body airship built in the United States.
Early attempts to find the wreckage were unsuccessful until 1990. But in 2006 a five day, multi-agency collaborative expedition conducted a detailed archeological survey of the crash site, using a deep-diving, remotely-operated vehicle (ROV).
They found the crash site 1,400 feet below sea level spread over 75,000 square feet of the ocean floor.
References: California Lighthouses, Point St. George to the Gulf of Santa Catalina, by Bruce Roberts and Ray Jones, Globe Pequot Press; www.Moffettfield museum.org; Carolyn Jones, San Francisco Chronicle, September 27, 2006; www.underwatertimes.com, October 18, 2006
“Point Sur Lighthouse” is one of a series of watercolors celebrating California lighthouses and the historic role lighthouse keepers have played in standing watch over the coast. It was done for Andrew Heston, shown at the top of the rugged 200 foot hill.
Prints and new cards available
Matted 8x10 prints of Royce’s cards are now available, including " Lighthouse at Point Sur," "Blue Angels Over San Francisco" and "Saint Paul Church Before the New School was Built“ (better known in some circles as the site of Whoopi Goldberg’s movie, “Sister Act” and in others as the site of Stephanie and Daniel’s wedding!) Check out the collection of watercolors which stretch along the California coastline -- and inland too -- from La Jolla to Sonoma.
Thank you, Porter
Sometimes there are people who come into your life, or back into your life, just when you need them. Working with UGAL.com, Porter William orchestrated the look and feel of this Web site. Gently but aggressively, he pushed this 20th century couple into cyberspace. In the meantime, he’s built his passion for architecture and interior design into his www.worldrelics.net and his own brand of San Francisco hospitality into his newest endeavor, www.entertainingpeople.com.
How do antiques and food combine? San Francisco style, he says on his “Entertaining People” weekly TV food show on Comcast. With what he would certainly call an extra dollop of panache, he’s as likely to present food on 200-year-old reclaimed terra cotta roof tiles from Provence as he is to combine Chinese scallops with Mandarin oranges and wasabi paste. Very San Francisco….Very Porter.
Coming Attractions:
Saint Paul Spires in the Neighborhood; a "Blue Angels over San Francisco" feature from Captain Julie Richey, Deputy Director, National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC), Wright-Patterson Air Force Base; referral to excellent biographical educational films from William Greaves Productions.
Stick with us! This is an island evolving in cyberspace...
###
Comments (0)
Who Is That Woman Walking In Front of Me?
June 18, 2009 by Judy Vaughn
Sue Walsh of San Francisco hiked seven miles within the Grand Canyon to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in 2007.
In 2008 she race-walked her first marathon, this time a 26.2 punishing miles through Rome.
So is she tired yet? Hardly. Now she's preparing to race-walk the Nike Women’s 26.2 mile Marathon on October 18, 2009, in San Francisco. And she’s thanking her donors with handwritten note cards of the Golden Gate Bridge from the California Collectors’ Series.
The way marathon participants personalize their trek on the pavement is to put on the backs of their T-shirts the names of people in whose honor they walk.
So if a walker begins to huff and puff and think no way can she go one step further, all she has to do is to look to the person in front of her and see the names of people who have been afflicted by this disease.
Among the names on Sue’s back again this year will be Pat Eberling, a woman who for over 30 years was a terrific Salvation Army social worker, consultant and friend. She died of multiple myeloma in 2007.
Look sharp, walkers. You're following Sue, and she's walking for Pat.
An ardent cheerleader for the City, Sue leads tours of the Ferry Building and North Beach by Night for San Francisco City Guides (www.sfcityguides.org) and this year co-created its popular Noe Valley tour of Victorian homes.
###
Comments (1)
California Poppies and Gold
June 5, 2009 by Judy Vaughn
|
Yes, we call it the Golden State because the sun is always shining – except in the summer, of course, when tourists are flabbergasted to find it’s not. Locals know that when it's hot in San Francisco, it's hotter in the central valley. So after a glorious day in San Francisco, that pent-up heat in the valley rises, creating a vacuum...and you know how Mother Nature abhors a vacuum. Hold onto your hat. Here comes the cold air rushing in from the ocean to fill it up. Copa del oro (cup of gold). That's what Spanish settlers called the golden California poppy(eschscholzia californica),citing a legend that its petals turned to the gold which filled the soil. Natives prized it for food and oil extract. Now our State flower, it's also the logo of California Collectors' Series. To understand why we like it, fly from Yosemite over a hillside of poppies some day. Watch as everybody on the plane huddles at the windows while the pilot makes a circle around to gawk. Sailing up the Pacific Coast in the 18th century from the south, the Spanish would have seen enormous fields of these native wildflowers. German botanist Adelbert Von Chamisso, who named them in 1816, was also a poet. Imagine his wonder at seeing hillsides of orange. And, finally, there's the Gold Rush-- golden for some, slim pickings for others. In 1848 there were roughly 400 people in this town we now call San Francisco, half of them Mormans who had come around the Horn to escape persecution and settle in a new territory. In 1849 after their leader -- that enterprising entrepreneur Sam Brannan -- marched through the streets shouting that gold had been found on the American River, the rush began! More than 600 ships from all over the world arrived. And many never went home. Crews jumped ship and immediately headed for the hills, stopping, of course, at Sam's hardware store to buy their shovels. When they returned, some were rich but more were poor. And suddenly the population of the town had jumped to 40,000! Historian Charles Fracchia describes it best. San Francisco was an “Instant City.” Check out note cards on the main menu to find the California Collectors' Series card of "The Bridge at Sutter's Mill" where gold was first discovered. ### |
From the Ernest Clayton Collection of California Wildflowers Image courtesy of the |
Comments (0)
Lord, We Are Able
May 19, 2009 by Judy Vaughn
Royce Vaughn named his California Collectors' Series for people who appreciate and collect fine art. The name he chose for his greatest success story with teenagers comes from the chorus of an old Methodist hymn, "Lord, We Are Able."
Make the last word a practical acronym, ABLE. "Arts and Business Learning Experience." In addition to describing what motivates him, ultimately it became a specific program for talented but unmotivated young people.
Art is his overriding passion. Every segment of his life has revolved around it. Business, oh my! that's the business of making passion profitable. Ask any artist from the beginning of time how that works. Learning, it never stops. Look at the bookshelves on every floor of this house. If a book has been written on the subject, he wants it. If it's not in its proper place, woe to the housekeeper who has moved it. Experience comes with the territory. Royce has always opted to be a trailblazer. And the territory has no boundaries.
Teaching Kids Film, Photography and Videotape
In the late Sixties at San Francisco State where he worked in the Audio Visual Department, Royce and philosophy professor Art Bierman conceived the idea for ABLE -- a film, photography and videotape training program for young people.
Networking is Royce's middle name. Soon he had partners like the Neighborhood Arts Alliance, the Redevelopment Agency, the Department of Labor and local corporations like Fibreboard and Kaiser Industries.
Ultimately the building loaned by Redevelopment at 2209 Bush Street was renovated with friends hammering nails and often applying dry wall late into the night. Opening weekend was stunning. Several hundred guests arrived, all excited about ABLE's potential. Professional filmmakers offered to teach. The phone rang incessantly. Eventually nearly $500,000 was raised in grants, including $250,000 from the Ford Foundation. And when it was time to move on, another building with expanded darkroom and meeting space was renovated at 641 Golden Gate with the same kind of enthusiasm, the same nail hammering, the same dry wall, the same intensity.
"They taught me far more than any professor I ever had!"
Throughout its ten years of life, students signed on eagerly as they learned about themselves and the profession. "They were so excited," Royce remembers. "You didn't have to tell them to come in early in the morning. They just did. Came in every day with things to do and places to go. They were up and down the street taking pictures from every angle. And they couldn't wait to get into the darkroom to see the results. It was a decade in which a great deal of happiness and fulfillment came through ABLE and those kids. They weren't just students. They were associates. Like students of the Greek philosophers, they were my teachers. They taught me far more than any professor I ever had. "
Go to boxed sets on the California Collectors Series main menu to see ABLE photos. Proceeds from sales of cards in the "Lord, We Are ABLE" and "Tuxedo Series" will go to The Salvation Army.
###
Comments (0)
The Rain It Hath a Friendly Sound
May 5, 2009 by Judy Vaughn
“The rain it hath a friendly sound to one who’s six feet underground.” That’s what the youthful poet Edna St. Vincent Millay used to say.
As a gentle, much-appreciated rain is falling today, I think about 91-year-old Colonel Marie Koerner, whose funeral was yesterday. I think of her body lying in The Salvation Army plot at Cypress Lawn Cemetery in Colma, California. And I think of the lovely phrase Salvationists use to say that a person from their ranks has died.
“Promoted to Glory!”
In other words, Salvationists not only believe in heaven, they believe it’s something to be accepted and embraced, an assignment with eternal rewards. Would there be a contingent of former colleagues on hand at the Pearly Gates waiting to welcome the gentle Marie? Of course, smiled the officers in unison.
The Salvation Army grew out of the Methodist Church, so the service brought back memories of a long time ago, hymns from out of the past, songs that once you know you can sing by heart.
Some songs, like some poems, stay with you forever.
Marie Koerner and her husband Henry served as career officers in The Salvation Army’s Western and Central territories. They were avid historians and invaluable resources to the writing of “The Bells of San Francisco, The Salvation Army with its Sleeves Rolled Up.” Proceeds from the sale of California Collectors' Series black and white photgraphic note cards from the "Lord, We Are ABLE" and "Tuxedo Series" go to The Salvation Army.
Comments (0)
SF Symphony Store Carries California Collectors' Note Cards
April 29, 2009 by Judy Vaughn
The San Francisco Symphony Store is now carrying scenic note cards created by watercolor artist Royce H. Vaughn of the California Collectors’ Series.*
Give Modest Mussorgsky credit for making it happen.
Vaughn is an ardent fan of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” as arranged by Ravel. As he walked into a Thursday afternoon matinee at Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, he spoke glowingly of a performance he had heard years ago. That one had been directed by Fritz Reiner of the Chicago Symphony and Vaughn’s memory could hardly contain the feelings he had watching it as a young college student. He was sure no one could match the excitement of that day.
However, a standing ovation in San Francisco had a similar effect. In an ironic turn of events, both conductors Oliver Knussen and then Alasdair Neale called in sick. Donato Cabrera filled in and brought down the house!
Filled with the exuberance that filled the auditorium, marveling over the precision of the violins and drama of the percussions, humming the grand finale, Vaughn marched into the symphony store proposing that they carry note cards representing pictures from his own body of work.
His enthusiasm showed. Within the week, his cards were in the shop.
*California Collectors’ Series cards can be found on the main menu under “Note Cards” or “Boxed Sets.” 11x17 prints are available by special order.
Comments (0)
Mission Dolores School Students Are Terrific!
April 22, 2009 by Judy Vaughn
Always, always, this California Collectors Series web site starts out with the premise of creativity. We paint. We photograph. We write. And boy, do we love it when we see kids who care about learning. Recently a group of eighth graders from Mission Dolores School in San Francisco visited Grace Cathedral. What a group! They had done their homework. They were respectful, energetic and full of lively questions!
Their thank you letters took note of the commemorative AIDS “blanket” in the healing chapel, making a pilgrimage through the “really mellow” labyrinth, seeing that the church is open to all faiths, learning the role Bishop James Pike played in completing the structure and the profound sadness they sensed in the “Wounded in America” exhibit deploring gun violence. They left prayers “stored” in candles they lit throughout the church.
The mural of Saint Francis was a big hit, of course. And Saint Clare with her long beautiful hair about to be shorn. The illustration of the Portiuncola chapel in Assisi intrigued them, as well as information about the facsimile built by Angela Alioto at the corner of Columbus and Vallejo. Added to that was another piece of pertinent information
What kind of nickname would St. Francis have had? Author Donald Spoto who wrote “Reluctant Saint, The Life of Francis of Assisi,” says the early Italian nickname for Francisco or Francesco was Sco!
To our knowledge, nobody ever called him Frisco!
The California Collectors' Series has note cards featuring Mission Dolores. See "Lord, We Are ABLE" boxed sets on main menu. Proceeds for this series go to The Salvation Army.
Comments (0)
PIlgrimage at Grace Cathedral
April 7, 2009 by Judy Vaughn
In the Middle Ages, people usually went on pilgrimages for three basic reasons: 1) to ask for healing; 2) to give thanks for healing; or 3) to ask forgiveness.
On the Labyrinth at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, California, visitors make pilgrimages daily.
It’s a trek. Whether they come from across the continent or across the world, they've made a pilgrimage to get to the cathedral...even if all they did was climb the California Street hill!
In the courtyard and again inside, a labyrinth beckons. It's a vehicle for meditation. A symbolic pilgrimage. A metaphor for life, if you will. Start at the beginning. Keep on the path. Follow the rules. And you WILL reach your goal. Of course, when you think you’re almost there and ready to sit back and savor your success, it may seem as if you have to go all the way back to the beginning. And while you're bemoaning the fact that you’re far away and never, ever going to get ahead, hurrah, suddenly the path opens up right in front of you! Be respectful of the people you meet going forward, say the sages who know such things. You’ll probably meet those same guys on the way back.
Children chase each other joyously through the intricate design. Adults, seeing it for the first time, tend to avert their eyes as if to say, “Better wait until no one is looking.” But eventually, even they realize no one’s really watching. One person inches forward, lost in his thoughts. Others briskly pass him by.
Last year, on the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, the American Friends Service Committee created a very special pilgrimage at the cathedral by placing more than fifty pairs of combat boots on the labyrinth. Some were old and beat up. Some were brand new. Each had a name tag with the name of the person who had died wearing them. It was crowded and quite astounding. As many as a dozen people at a time walked the path, stopping every few steps to remember the Northern California troops whose boots they passed.
Outside on the cathedral steps were hundreds of other shoes -- high heeled pumps, baby shoes, house slippers. These were civilian shoes -- a silent salute to families whose lives have been touched by the war. Again, a powerful sight.
A year later, the fighting continues. As of April 5, a total of 4,585 troops had died.
California Collectors' Series does not currently have a note card depicting Grace Cathedral. However, we have a close connection with the Cathedral's docent program. In preparation for a trip to Ravenna, Italy, and in general preparation for a better understanding of world religions, we continue to look for ways that profound ancient ideas have found their way to the present.
Comments (0)
Why Man (and Woman) Creates
March 17, 2009 by Judy Vaughn
Tenacity wins! For years Royce Vaughn has been talking about a Saul Bass film he showed to his students at Project ABLE (Arts and Business Learning Experiences) in the 1970s. The animated “Why Man Creates” film was a huge hit with the teenagers, mostly drop-outs, mostly unmotivated young adults dipping their toes for the first time into the world of film, photography and videotape.
Over the years, Vaughn periodically sent up flares looking for a copy of the film that inspired them. Calls to the archives at Kaiser Aluminum which sponsored the production and then to Richard Kauffman* finally led to www.pyramidmedia.com.
Project ABLE ran for ten years with $250,000 in funding from the Ford Foundation with matching funds from the Rosenberg, Miranda Lux, San Francisco and Wells Fargo foundations, and produced films for clients such as the US Department of Labor. Almost thirty years later, Vaughn no longer has regular contact with the students. But in chance meetings with one who had become an engineer at KRON-TV and another who became a self-employed photographer, he knows some have succeeded in the film world. While the odds are great that others possibly have not, he maintains the basic tenet that money spent on encouraging young people to study creative arts takes them into new spheres of thinking, new groundwork for finding sustainable jobs, new respect for their ability to succeed.
"Why Man Creates" was winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film in 1968. With wonderfully animated humor, satire and irony, "it emphasizes the uniqueness and creative potential of each individual."
*Kaufmann's wife Tina also does original note cards, featuring photographs and watercolors of the Oakland hills. We especially like her "Poppies in the Diablo Foothills." Poppies are not only California's state flower, they're the California Collectors" Series logo.
Comments (0)
Newsletter,2008 -- Some Thoughts on the New Year
December 29, 2008 by Judy Vaughn
The Content of His Character First, because it sets the tone, we have so much hope for the administration of Barack Obama – not because of the color of his skin, but because he seems so elegantly smart, measured and willing to address the mess this country is currently in. In that spirit, we reach across many aisles this year. We send you greetings in the best sense of personal note cards and holiday letters wrapped in hopes for the future.
Royce Reaches for the Stars On his easel today is an oil painting of the Nebular Hypothesis he did several years ago which he is now expanding as he keeps re-pondering the universe. Julie’s “Blue Angels over San Francisco” is a popular note card. Perhaps, he wonders, would it be good to make prints for SF tourist shops? The note cards are now in gift shops in two San Francisco Kaiser Hospitals. And finally, with sadness but great resolve, Royce is resigning his post as CEO of the Oceanview, Merced, Ingleside Business League (OMIBL) to concentrate on Ravenna. (Italy, not Ohio!) Will this Renaissance artist ever relinquish the dream to study the influence of Asian and African art on early Christianity? Even as we talk, he’s looking for a sponsor.
Grace A tourist asked the lady docent why San Francisco’s Episcopal cathedral is named for Grace and not Saint Somebody. “What exactly does grace mean?” he asked. The answer, remembered from Salvation Army Colonel Ray Robinson years ago, was just two words – “unearned favor”. For us, the cathedral is a blessing, a remarkable gift of ideas and solace, a place so inclusive that symbols of the world’s great religions are placed equally in the AIDS interfaith chapel of healing – Islam, Christianity, Taoism, Native American, Shintoism, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Jainism and an all-encompassing circle recognizing other traditions.
We ask the question again and again. How can we ever heal if we don’t reach across the barriers which separate us?
All That Jazz A few years ago, Jerri Lange* and I were sitting across the table from each other at a Sunday brunch in Oakland. Some African-American guests were giving wonderful histories of their heritage. Jerri teared up and said, "God, I love black people!" "Me, too, Jerri," I said. "Me, too! I did not marry the black community. I married Royce Vaughn. But what a world he opened up for me…."
This November we went to the 80th birthday party of Dr. Willis Kirk at the Oakland Boat Club. Royce knows him as the former president of City College, a drummer of note, composer of a jazz Mass, author of a book on drum brush skills, mentor to many and a good customer of California Collectors' Series cards. In addition to City College people, a wide variety of old friends from Willis’ jazz drumming life were present, including San Francisco favorite John Handy. They arrived with instruments in hand and after a down-home catered meal, the music began! Keyboard, drums, trumpets, saxophones, trombones, bass - each with solos and then all jamming together. At one time there were six trumpets, two saxes and one trombone playing at once.
Next, a fabulous surprise, “scat”, that special variety of vocalizing like an instrument that Ella FitzGerald made popular. The man who did it was incredible! Until now, “scat” was a word this Indiana honkey knew only through crossword puzzles. I was spellbound and ran back to Jerri who was sitting at another table, and reminded her, "Jerri, I love black people!" "Me, too," she said. "Me, too! Jazz is so much of our heritage. Kids today don't know how important this music was to us.”
After that, a young woman sang (make that wailed!) the blues. Using a California Collectors Series card, Willis presented $100 to a 99 year old in honor of her years. A 90 year old who still performs on Thursday nights at a club in San Clemente, crooned "You Make Me Feel So Young."
The musicians -- both black and white -- had come from all over the country, including Indianapolis (Nap Town), Kokomo, Akron and Cleveland, those places we came from, too. It was a magical evening full of memories of people remembering fondly the days of Max Roach, Cal Tjader, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker....
An incredible evening.
From our family to yours, from our part of the world to yours,
we hope your pilgrimage this year is full of healing, peace
and wonderful adventure.
“We are a part of all we have met,” said Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
We believe that. We really do!
* Author of “Jerri: A Black Woman’s Life in the Media”
Comments (1)