Oceanside Post Office Art

I recently wrote about the Oceanside post office on Seagaze.  The post office was financed by the Works Progress Administration, an employment program created by President Roosevelt in 1935 to put 8.5 million Americans to work after the Great Depression.  Money was not only allocated to buildings but to art.  The Section of Fine Arts was another Roosevelt Administration conception which employed artists to embellish federal buildings and to boost US moral.  As a result, 1,100 murals and 300 sculptures were created throughout the country.  The coat of arms sculpture above the door at the Seagaze post office was hand carved by Stuart Holmes, who was a contributing artist to the Section of Fine Arts project. 

The Seagaze post office was one of at least three post offices that Stuart Holmes created art for.

Interestingly, Stuart Holmes was not only a famous artist but was also an actor.  He has appeared in over 450 films!

Inside the post office lobby is a 16' by 6' oil on canvas mural created by Elise Seeds.  Elise Seeds was active in the Section of Fine Arts project, as well as local art in general. 

Elise was 6 feet tall and had purple hair in the 1930s.

She was also an actress, appearing in over 20 films.

Out the 1,400 works of art produced in post offices with the New Deal, 1,000 are still on display. This is probably less out of respect for the art and more about lack of funding for redecorating, but good. Less money means more art. 

Isn't that ironic? 

 It really makes you want to take a closer look when you are in government buildings.  A dusty piece of poorly lit art could be more famous than you would ever imagine.

Oceanside Sea Foam

 I guess this is it for the red tide.  

It has been going on for over a month.  I don't remember a red tide ever lasting this long.

The discolored foam is created when air bubbles get trapped in the organic matter of the dead zooplankton.  

Poor microorganisms, they put on an amazing long lasting show of bioluminescence only to wind up a stinky pile of brown sea foam.  

C'est la vie!

Starfish, Sea Stars and Asteroids

Spontaneously this afternoon we decided to not pack up, and head to the beach.  Ha.  I mean we didn't pack anything because technically you are supposed to be active if you go to the beach.  You can't have chairs or beach blankets or toys or anything.  So with our baby, a bottle of water, a snack pack, bodies pre-slathered with sunblock, and a flower picked along the way, we headed to the beach.  It was the best decision, and the most fun hour, of our day.

I can't believe it!  

We even found a live sea star!  

These little hands wrapped tightly around a never seen before creature makes me feel like this quarantine is not going to have long lasting emotional effects on A1.

When I was little, I would have called this a starfish, but when I started volunteering at Birch Aquarium I started referring to them as sea stars and I never looked back.  People are against using the term starfish because fish are chordates and sea stars are echinoderms.  Apparently there is yet another name for these echinoderms, asteroids!  Asteroids comes from their classification as asteroidea.  But if starfish isn't used because they aren't actually fish, then I don't think asteroid is a great supplement.  

Whatever you call them, they are fascinating.

Sea glass in Oceanside

I went to the beach today in search of sea glass. 

Sea glass is frosted glass produced through physical and chemical weathering.

The more frosted the better.  It commonly takes twenty to forty years for sea glass to get its characteristic shape and texture.  Some sea glass comes from ship wrecks!

It is very rewarding to find, and to hold.

People's ability level to find sea glass is not equal.  My sister and my nieces are REALLY good.  

Me, not so much.  I only found two pieces!  I told myself that I would be happy if I just found one. But I guess I lied.  To myself.  

So strange that I would do that.

I really wanted to find kelly green, one of the most common colors of sea glass.  Other common colors are white, clear and brown.  These are common colors since they are typical colors for beer and soda bottles.  Rare colors like jade, amber and blue come from things like medicine bottles, ink bottles, and whiskey bottles.  Black sea glass is the rarest, not just because it is difficult to see but because of its age.  Black is one of the oldest glass bottle colors, used by Romans throughout the Roman empire.  

Bummer.  This one isn't ripe yet.  

The thing about finding glass at the sea, that isn't sea glass, is that you can't leave it for weathering to occur naturally.  Over the next twenty years, someone could step on it.  

So sorry, Glass, you are on going to be dump glass instead of sitting pretty in a jar in the bathroom.

National Wildlife Foundation Certified Wildlife Habitat

A house like this is a pretty common site in Oceanside, except this house has been certified as a wildlife habitat from that National Wildlife Foundation.  It is just $20 for the application and sign.  In return, not only do you supply wildlife with a refuge from this ever changing world, you encourage more people to do the same.  Your habitat must provide food, water, and cover for wildlife, and a place to raise young, while doing so using sustainable practices.

Yep!  Certified Wildlife Habitats work!!

Mance Buchanon Park, Oceanside CA

We are excited, Oceanside parks have opened back up and we are about to go run around in the grass at Mance Buchanan Park (a seven mile bike ride away).

Wow, it is a lot wetter than we had imagined, one may even call it drizzle.

Or maybe its just because we are so quick on our bikes we are hitting even more droplets of water.  

It is hard to say, and it is hard to see.

Just a mile or two more...

One of the great things about Mance Buchanon Park is that it has its own on-ramp/off-ramp.

Surprisingly, although the park is open, the parking is not.  This helps to reduce the crowds for sure, turning this 29 acre city park into more of a neighborhood park.

Mance Buchanon Park is beautiful.  

Developed in 2007, the park is named after a pastor/Oceanside High School bus driver, whose son played for the Chargers.

Unfortunately it was much too wet to play but since A1 ending up taking a long siesta, we were able to turn around and head home without her realizing what she was missing out on.  

Oh well, the park isn't going anywhere.

Next time, Baby!

Oceanside Walking Tour, Part 500

This Verizon store on Mission Avenue and Coast Highway was built in 1927.  

It started out as the Bank of Italy but just three years later the Bank of Italy changed its name to the Bank of America.

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows in Oceanside started holding meetings upstairs in 1924.  For forty years the downstairs was rented by JC Pennys.

I love the brickwork. 

Brick isn’t a building material you see too often in our neck of the woods, you know, because of earthquakes... 

This church is one of the oldest buildings in Oceanside, built in 1886.

Lastly, on our five hundredth (more or less) two hour long walk through Oceanside, we stopped by the Seagaze post office.  This building is Oceanside's first permanent post office.  

It was a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project, which provided work to skilled men during the Great Depression.

I am not sure if these are original, but I love the post office boxes here.

Wouldn't you love to see the WPA workers faces, pausing from their work in 1936, look outside and see this vehicle?

I know this is an understatement, but the world sure has changed over the past century.  

Art in Oceanside

Now that I know Oceanside is a California Cultural District I see art everywhere at all times.

I don't know how many times I have walked by this metal anglerfish and never noticed it.  

I am seeing Oceanside through a whole new lens.