OPINION -- Contrasting Visions of Santa Monica

December 12, 2019

Dear Editor,

The removal of the powerfully optimistic "Pleasures Along the Beach" left a hole in the public art space that, not coincidentally, was filled by Los Angeles activist and artist Ed Massey with "In the Image."

"Pleasures Along the Beach" (Photo by Peter Leonard)

The City staff’s failure to protect Millard Sheets’ cherished work, that once graced 26th and Wilshire, provided Massey with a blank canvas on which to make this powerful contrast between two visions of Santa Monica.

“In The Image” by Ed Massey (Courtesy of Olmstead Williams Communications, Inc)

The latter is even more heart-breaking by both its comparison with and the loss of the former, iconic image ("Homeless Sculpture Installed in Former Home of Iconic Mural," November 20, 2019 and "How Santa Monica Lost Its Iconic Half-Century Old Mosaic," June 7, 2019).

Corin Kahn
Former Vice Chair of the Santa Monica Arts Commission