Several years ago, I had already roamed the pre-Hispanic exhibits, the halls of the stars of modern art such as Chagall, Dali, Miró and Picasso, as well as collections, both ancient and modern, from Greece, China, Japan and Italy, when the insight happened. The African collection sparked a startling awareness, somewhat like when a central piece of a thousand-piece puzzle with no image as a guide suddenly reveals the pattern.
For hours I had walked through the life-work and collections of one man. Pedro Coronel, featured artist and art collector of the Museo de Pedro Coronel in Zacatecas, Mexico when I thought …
I am walking through the mind of a genius!
This reaction overwhelmed me. I wanted to know more about him but language proved to be a barrier. Wikipedia describes Coronel as a restless child, a dreamer and very rebellious. He did not like school, often skipping classes taking twelve years to finish his primary education.
Not having access to more than biographical details, I put this idea away and definitely did not expect to have similar reactions when I returned to the US. However, I continue to bump into similar creative minds and now wonder what made them who they are. Here are brief introductions to three similar experiences and one still on the horizon:
![Three creative marvels](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff37b9974-c57b-4693-a25c-f5ec3630dd51_784x650.png)
![Three creative marvels](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5c7eecb3-71ac-4e0e-99a4-4ee4ddda6c3a_1048x984.png)
![Three creative marvels](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5a06c150-55ed-4530-be99-0836b1ef0379_696x424.png)
But, first, Salvation Mountain
It was four years later and I was living in the mountains east of San Diego when a friend told me about Salvation Mountain, the creation of one man and just a few hours away. I planned a road trip and what I found was slightly off bubble from what I was expecting … well more than slightly.
Colorful, fun, one man’s vision and obsession, but, genius?
![Salvation Mountain](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F49c6b900-8366-4171-982c-3d6b45665858_4032x3024.jpeg)
![Salvation Mountain](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45b39bf3-8c79-4f7b-95ba-e68066012405_4032x3024.jpeg)
![Salvation Mountain](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1de3df9c-0ad1-43f2-a358-3f0af9d3d73c_4032x3024.jpeg)
History of Humanity in Granite …
I was expecting that outlaw artist vibe when I later heard about Felicity, California, and “The Official Center of the World.” What I found, once again, was that feeling of wonder that such a creation might come from one mind. Inscribed on 500 granite panels is the history of humanity, designed to tell our story when future archeologists uncover and translate the panels. Click here or on image below for a brief visit to this monument:
“In the late 1950s, after drilling a well and confirming an aquifer, Jacques-André Istel bought over 2,900 acres of near-worthless desert land “to do something with in the future.” Over decades, inadvertently at first, he decided to create a work for future generations.”
Amargosa Opera House …
I first heard about Marta Becket and the opera house she created in the middle of nowhere for an audience of no one from
at Imaginative Storm. The story she told captivated my curiosity and another road trip to the desert began.
You can read more about Marta Becket and her opera house here and get a more in-depth look by clicking this flipbook or the image below:
The Hermitage Santa Barbara …
The latest example of these poly-math creatives was found right here in Santa Barbara. Theodore Roosevelt Gardner II, writer, sculptor, painter, poet, collector, has created a unique, 18-acre compound of art, whimsy, off-plumb architecture, and exotic plants. Here is a brief description from his website:
“Located in the hills overlooking Santa Barbara, the Hermitage offers an outstanding collection of original sculptures, inspired by whimsy and humor. Works of art are on display in both indoor and outdoor settings, as the museum opens into a subtropical garden with trails winding through the hillside. Our visitors come to appreciate art in new ways – and discover fresh insights into the unfamiliar, the provocative, and the unexpected. The collection includes more than 260 bronze busts: 43 presidents, 126 authors, 72 composers, and 22 others.” —
https://hermitagesb.org/
And, for my take on this wonder, click here or the image below for a flipbook from my recent tour.
Coming in 2025: I am trying to figure out how to make reservations to tour Michael Heizer’s megasculpture ‘City’ in the Nevada Desert … 50 years and $40 million. Michael Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art states “It’s an artwork aware of our primal impulses to build and organize space, but it incorporates our modernity, our awareness of and reflection upon the subjectivity of our human experience of time and space as well as the many histories of civilizations we have built.”
Apparently, there will only be six tickets per day, current price $150. Anyone up for a road trip?
More info at: http://www.tripleaughtfoundation.org/
The Questions
What prompts these outsized works of creativity and a lifetime dedicated to an art vision?
Have you experienced current works of art like these? I would love to know about them.
Does anyone know of any studies of works like this? … they fascinate me so I want to know more about the minds that create these outsized works. I’m gathering descriptors as I ponder them and, so far, have gathered a bunch of “c” words … curiosity, challenge, constructed confidence, control … and cash since it takes resources to create these amazing works. Also, there always seems to be a component of wanting to share with others.
Is this an American-individualism thing or does it happen everywhere?
Or could it just be passion as indicated by Mozart in the opening quote?
Comments always welcomed.
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If you want your mind blown by one woman's output in the art world, look up Niki de St Phalle. She had a crew to help her with construction and mosaicking, and did many outsized sculptures, even made a major arcana tarot deck and lived inside the Empress! (It's on the border betw France and Italy.) She also did the Grotto and Queen Califia's Magic Circle Gardens in California (Kit Carson Park in Escondido). I got into her through my love of mosaics and mosaicists. Don't stop at the Nanas! She died too soon, of silicosis - from working with the resins and mortars; silica dust wrecks the lungs. I believe she was only 61. As a young woman, she did a lot of feminist stuff, including shooting things, paintings, etc to make statements. She was fearless and boundlessly creative.
Unfortunately I am poor so am only an armchair traveler but I have long fantasized about buying a roadworthy live in van or something I can sleep in, and touring the country to find these places. But to answer your question about geniuses, they are all over the world. I love learning more about the geniuses in Mexico and other countries. Imagining myself visiting all these art installations is my greatest fantasy.
I am missing being here reading your substack. all my energy is going into the overgrown garden I'm trying to battle back from under seasons of weeds. Never been so exhausted. So glad to come here and I look forward to getting back to your memoir, where I only read up to #4 in the series. I'm so behind!
Coronel's paintings or prints remind me a lot of Joan Miro's work - I wonder if they knew each other or if Coronel had ever been to Spain to see them. Such a wide world, full of wonders from some of the best of humanity - art, architecture, music... that buoys me up when I get weary of bad news and endless wars that destroy these priceless treasures of imagination and spirit.
What a great post, Joyce. I really enjoyed all the info and images of really astounding, not well known places. The Zacatecas gallery-museum with Colonel's paintings, amazing. I'd think this type of other creativity exists world-wide. An example that I liked was in Bacalar, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Hotel Laguna Bacalar, (for years $12USD/nightly-now $32) had a vast stretch of land right on the Lagoon of 7 Colors. The older man who owned it made it a work of art, first for his wife, then for her memory. He made her a chapel so she could pray daily without going too far. He embedded small seashells into all the stucco throughout the many rooms and dining room, lobby, and on the 3-tiered walls going down to lagoon, he embedded pebbles and stones. It was simply incredible, the amount of hand-work that went into it. Love this kind of stuff. Thanks for your post!