Without Lifting A Finger

Finally snuck into the cafeteria (when it was empty) and had the lengthy canvases to myself. Not exceptional work (IMHO), and of its time, but still worth preserving.                                          

Never heard of her till now: apparently big on American Indian Art. I'm guessing another WPA work? (This is not the "whole painting." It was behind a table piled high with papers. I quickly took a snapshot with my phone camera.)          

According to Wiki, the actual title is Sculpture of the Muse of Music, Dance, and Drama . Saw it as we debarked the bus at the Bowl. I told my wife I didn't remember the bus pulling in on that side before; she claimed it always did. Perhaps I just hadn't been paying attention. According to the inscription (I didn't get a good shot of that) the work was another product of the WPA (1940).             

Jason Herron's name is on the bottom of the "buff" b-baller sculpture at Belmont HS ( see my earlier photos of the sculpture ). On the other side (also along the bottom) is something about the Federal Art Project (FAP) and a date (must be 1937). Apparently (but I could be wrong) Jason Herron = Jason (Jessie) Herron and the artist/sculptor was a female not a male. She is listed--along with Henry Lion and Sherry Peticolas--as the "artistic team" responsible for design and construction of "The Power of Water" (sculpture now in Lafayette Park in LA).

I looked at the woodcut (bas relief) in the main office (Belmont HS) again this morning and the artist's signature (not easy to read) was Gordon Newell. Turns out he was a relatively big artist around LA in the 1930's (a bio I run across said he taught at the Chouinard Art School and Occidental). He died near Carmel in 1998. His "The Horseman" is apparently in the Hollywood Post Office: The United States Post Office in Hollywood , Los Angeles, California, also known as Hollywood Station , is an active U.S. post office located at 1615 Wilcox. It is on the National Register of Historic Places . Design In 1937, renowned Art Deco architect Claud Beelman , a partner at Curlett + Beelman, was commissioned by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to design the Hollywood Post Office Building. A wooden bas-relief inside, titled "The Horseman", was carved by artist Gordon Newell as a WPA commission and still stands above a door. The ground breaking was...

Been hanging out at Belmont HS (downtown LA) this year (teaching a little math, "enjoying the ride"). I've seen these artworks for some while (two of the woodcuts stare at me when I sign in) without fully understanding their genesis. On Friday, as I was taking a few photos, the ex-dean (now an ESL teacher) told me they were found in the "basement" (or some such dusty niche for castaways) and returned to semi-prominence. He says they're WPA. Two of the pieces (a woodcut and the sculpture) have names on them, but I haven't been able to "dig up" the artists (though the sculptor: *Mason Herron is possibly listed in the Los Angeles 1940 Census). *It's not Mason Herron but Jason Herron. The other "readable" signature was Gordon Newell's (took me a long time to decipher his last name).   by Gordon Newell (1905 - 1984)                  by Jason Herron (1900 - 1984)      ...

The Works Progress Administration (renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration ; WPA ) was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency , employing millions of unemployed people (mostly unskilled men) to carry out public works projects, [ 1 ] including the construction of public buildings and roads. In much smaller but more famous projects the WPA employed musicians, artists, writers, actors and directors in large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects. [ 1 ] Almost every community in the United States had a new park, bridge or school constructed by the agency. The WPA's initial appropriation in 1935 was for $4.9 billion (about 6.7 percent of the 1935 GDP), and in total it spent $13.4 billion. [ 2 ] At its peak in 1938, it provided paid jobs for three million unemployed men (and some women), as well as youth in a separate division, the National Youth Administration . Headed by Harry Hopkins , the WPA provided jobs and income to the unemployed during the Great De...