22 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY AUGUST 28-SEPTEMBER 3, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com where he received a visit from his favorite author, Henry Miller. Today, Miller is recognized as a significant figure in American literature. When he first met Varda in 1944, Miller’s novels were not yet commercially successful; he was struggling financially and needed a place to stay. Varda introduced Miller to Big Sur, setting off a chain of events that would forever change the region. Miller lived in Big Sur for 19 years and was at the center of a bohemian circle that included his creative neighbors on Partington Ridge. Mosaicist Louisa Jenkins had a studio there, as did Dorothy Bowman, who often painted with Miller. Close friends Harry Dick and his wife Lillian Bos Ross, longtime Big Sur residents, also had artistic pursuits. Dick was a painter and sculptor, and Ross penned The Stranger (1942) and Blaze Allan (1944), bestselling novels about pioneer life in Big Sur. (Her books are displayed in the show.) Primarily known for his writing, Miller was also a painter, a practice that recharged his creativity. “I turn to painting when I can no longer write,” he explained. “Painting refreshes and restores me.” He earned a modest income from selling his watercolors, helpful before his commercial success as an author. Miller encouraged his friend and assistant, Emil White, to paint as well. Despite being untrained and colorblind, White took to it immediately; his unique style is characterized by detail, pattern and what Lawrence Ferlinghetti described as an “innocent imagination which exists beyond place and time.” Miller also attracted visitors from further afield. His controversial and explicit novels were popular with the Beat Generation. Enticed by Miller’s presence, these Bay Area beatniks traveled down the coast to escape city life and clear their heads. As poet Richard Barker explained, “we need that country place—that Big Sur—and the balanced state of mind it makes.” Beat poets Ferlinghetti, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg—to name just a few—experienced Big Sur in ways that informed and influenced their work. During the mid-century, Highway 1 served as a physical and spiritual conduit between the bohemian communities of San Francisco and Big Sur. Most Big Sur artists preferred to be left alone to delve inward and discover their own creative paths. Many felt that solitude was essential, and they regarded their studios as private—almost sacred—spaces. Sculptor Edmund Kara explained, “I want to be alone…The less distraction, the more intense the focus.” Emile Norman described his studio as “my private place. I don’t want anybody down here when I’m working.” “The artists up here have never been a particularly close-knit or homogeneous group…Some were gregarious, others practically hermits,” Emil White said. Another local stated, “There is no ‘art colony’ to be found here.” Geographically distant from established art centers, few Big Sur artists were influenced by mid-century art movements such as abstract expressionism; instead, they took individualized approaches to their work with an emphasis on craft, design and tactile materials. Many spoke of the artistic freedom they experienced in Big Sur; sculptor Barbara Spring explained that “freedom is very important, and freedom is what you need.” This freedom supported independent thinking and experimentation. Spring incorporated fiberglass in the interiors of her sculptures to reduce their weight and refined the exteriors with a chainsaw, while Dorothy Bowman and her husband Howard Bradford were innovators in the technique of fine art silk screen printing (serigraphy). Emile Norman invented a process to seal his wood mosaics by applying layers of epoxy colored with different hues of sawdust, explaining “every time I do a work of art, I learn something. I’m an experimenter.” Although they derived personal satisfaction from their creative work, most Big Sur artists were financially dependent on the sale of their art. Norman had his own gallery in Carmel, and Ligare shipped his paintings to a gallery in New York. Bowman and Bradford made their living making serigraphs and had art dealers on both coasts. Local artists also benefited from tourism, which provided a new market for their work. Tourists who dined at Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn could purchase wooden bowls carved by the proprietor, Helmut Deetjen. Additionally, artists relied on the Coast Gallery, where they dropped off artwork and returned to pick up their proceeds, leading them to affectionately refer to this Big Sur institution as “The Bank.” While many artists subsisted on the sale of their artwork, some regarded the opportunity to work independently as more important than any financial success or critical acclaim. “[My] sculptures have nothing to do with money or what somebody wants,” Kara said. “They have to do with myself.” Creating small sculptures from leftover fragments of her husband’s larger pieces, Emilia Newell dedicated her life to making art, but rarely sold or exhibited her work. Sculptor and ceramicist Loet Vanderveen affirmed, “I love doing what I do. I don’t care at all about leaving a mark.” Most Big Sur artists were drawn to—and impacted by—the natural world surrounding them. During the mid-century, a time of explosive growth and suburbanization in California, Big Sur remained wild and undeveloped. Seascapes, ocean creatures, abundant wildlife, and majestic trees were constant sources of inspiration for the artists in the region. The influence of the area’s remarkable flora and fauna can be seen in Emile Norman’s stylized bird forms, Loet Vanderveen’s fluid animal sculptures, and Jean Kellogg Dickie’s colorful tidepools. Many artists worked with natural materials found in their environment. Newell favored stones found on Big Sur beaches for his sculptures, while Kara’s friends and neighbors brought him wood from abandoned orchards and the surrounding forest. The creative work of authors, poets, Jean Kellogg Dickie’s “Blue Shell” from 1963. The artist routinely featured tidepool imagery in her work and liked to make art at Partington Point. She led the charge in successfully fighting against the development of a granite quarry there. GIFT OF CMDR. AND MRS. RICHARD RODRIGUEZ, USN (RET.), 1978 These artists, fiercely protective of Big Sur’s unique and fragile ecosystem, influenced the burgeoning environmental movement of the 1960s.
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