Visuals 03.19.20

Monterey Walking Path of History

It turns out those little embedded gold emblems all around Old Monterey are a kind of yellow brick road to the city’s history. Monterey State Historic Parks has cancelled its popular tours for now and shut down the historic adobes, limiting visitors to the Custom House Plaza, but this path is a great alternative for a self-guided tour. It’s two miles if you do the whole thing and it begins wherever you want it to in Old Monterey – whether you want to begin where Spanish conquistadors first landed in 1602 or see where Robert Louis Stevenson began writing Treasure Island. Plus, you can get more insight at each stop by calling 998-9458.

Dick CrisPo’s Colors of Darkness in a new Light

The long-time local artist just so happens to be an extensive collector of masks from different cultures. He took his fascination to a new level in his exhibit Colors of Darkness in a New Light, which opened at Carmel Art Association in January 2020. The show draws on Crispo’s aforementioned love of masks and his annual trip to Mexico. Swirls of neon mask-like faces pop against stark black, reminiscent of various aspects of Mexican mainstream and subcultures like lucha libre. His work for this show is viewable at carmelart.org/artist/dick-crispo.

“Hat in Three Stages of Landing” by Claes Oldenburg at Sherwood Park

They are hard to miss. They’re big. They’re yellow. They’re in the middle of a massive open-space park. During non-apocalyptic times, you can find kids climbing all over them (usually on the phase-three hat) and various soccer teams using them to demarcate the penalty area. But now there’s a good chance to see them unobstructed and perhaps ponder the question, why are there three massive hats in the middle of a lawn? If you’re out for a walk, take a look see atSherwood Park, 920 N. Main St., Salinas.