Oceanside, California

Vista, Oceanside, and Carlsbad are small municipalities north of San Diego.  I don't think we gave them much consideration the last time we were here.  Maybe we were too busy exploring San Diego.  This time around, however, we have been checking out those three towns and enjoying them.

Pictured above is the Oceanside Municipal Pier, someone informed me that it is the longest wooden pier in California, its length being 1,954 feet.  Not sure if that is true.

Oceanside's welcome sign hangs at the edge of this beautiful park with large fountains in it.  In the background is the Oceanside city hall and off to the left is the town's library.

We were in Oceanside Saturday, and returned to it yesterday to tour Oceanside museum of art.  Certainly a small museum, but we enjoyed it very much.  The museum's main gallery features some 200 local artists.  Their work includes oil paintings as well as watercolor, photography, collage and sculpture.  Pictured below are some very realistic sunflowers.  This was done in bronze by Natalie Tyler in 2002.

   On the second floor of the museum are more works done in bronze, this exhibit runs to October 8.  The  title of it is "Meaning in Bronze".   This is VetArt, which uses bronze casting to teach art-making skills and create opportunities for people in the military to tell their personal stories.  As the museum explains it, the exhibit is "positive healing" for veterans and their communities.

Another part of this exhibit is called "A Time To Heal".   It is a collaboration between artist Trinh Mai, armed service participants, and photographer J.Grant Brittain.

A small group of veterans wrote letters to themselves reflecting on hardship and healing during workshops facilitated by the artist.  The letters they wrote were incorporated into the "war wounds" that the members created artistically using a variety of materials.

The third part of this exhibition may seem a bit creepy, but it was meaningful to me. The title is "Scared for Life".  The artist Ted Meyer has created graphic depictions of people's suddenly altered bodies and the resulting scars.  The wounded are not only veterans, but people who have been scarred by a variety of types of trauma, or by surgery.  I am a bit familiar with some of the surgical scars, having been a pediatric nurse.  Scars are shown of those children who needed surgery for  spinal bifida, scoliosis, and rhizotomy.  The artist must have been roaming a neurological ward!   Also, I did not know that in the past fraternities branded new members.  That scar is pictured above.  With each picture the story of how that person received his or her scar.is told and their journey of healing.  One parent wrote on how her child's scar affected her as a parent.  The artist also did a painting of his cat's amputated paws.  When his cat was declawed the wounds became infected necessitating amputation of two of his paws   The owner no longer wanted the cat so the artist took him in.  There was a lot more to this little museum than I was expecting!
We are leaving Vista tomorrow as we need to start moving eastward and back to the Midwest.