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Welcome to Fabulous Lake Tahoe, your local's guide to the very best of America's year round
playground. I'm Jack Durst and this is my public art walking
tour of Lake Tahoe. If you're interested in: art, street art, murals, sculptures, chainsaw
bears, this is the place for you.
Lake Tahoe has a long tradition of doing art and doing it in a public way where anyone
can see it, and there is, frankly, so much public art
in Lake Tahoe that if you go by car you're gonna miss a lot of it.
So I've taken the trouble of laying out a public art walking tour that most anyone can
do. Though there's a lot of hills and mountains
in Lake Tahoe this particular route is 3 miles of very flat walk.
There is great public transportation all the way along the route so that if you get tired
you can just hop a bus back to wherever it is you were staying. It is not a very difficult
walk. Just about anyone who can walk three miles
can do this tour, and it's a really good tour. There is so much great public art here in
Lake Tahoe: all the way from Stateline all the way to
far, far into California. This particular tour covers the area from Stateline to the
American Legion.
We begin our public art tour with one of the most recognizable pieces of art on the south
shore of Lake Tahoe: The Harrah's Pony Express statue. This statue
was dedicated by Bill Harrah himself in 1967 to celebrate the centenial of the Pony express.
There used to be a Pony Express stop about 1/4 mile up the road
near Edgewood at Friday's station, where the Pony Express riders would refuel, change horses,
and get ready. The Pony Express, if you don't know, was such
a dangerous job that they would only hire orphans because
they didn't want to have to pay compensation to the families of those who died delivering
the mail in the dangerous mail conditions of the 1860s. Little
known fact about this statue: in the base of the statue is a
time capsule -- put there by Harrah's in 1987 that can only be opened in 2037.
One of the art forms that Tahoe is most strongly associated with in people's minds are the
chainsaw bears. There's a company down in Carson City called
Timeless Scluptures, that employs an artist called Jerry Toste,
who, whenever one of the trees is taken out, dead, and there would otherwise be a big ugly
stump that couldn't be easily removed; instead of
leaving a big ugly stump they have a chainsaw artist come up
and carve it into bears, eagles, and all sorts of other forms.
Now, after this, I would suggest that after you check out the fabulous chainsaw bears
in front of Heavenly Village that you go in to Heavenly Village and check
out the famous fountain. The next stop on our Public Art walking tour
is Heavenly village. Besides the famous fountain at heavenly village that freezes over every
year and is famous from a lot of my videos -- if
you've watched my videos you've probably seen that fountain many times.
There is a lot of other great public art that is available to anyone, just for visiting
Heavenly Village. The Heavenly Village cinemas also has some really
amazing public art. The lightbox art in front of Heavenly Village cinemas
is some of the best lightbox art in town. It was done by DreamsAndVisionsArt.com and
they did a truely amazing job. I want to thank +Paulo Block on Google Plus
for making the image of the Eagle from then go truely viral on Google+:
It is amazing how many hits that image got! And several of the other pieces of lightbox
art at Heavenly Village cinema have also gone viral on the internet, and
rightly so because it's some of the best lightbox art in town.
Also, if you're the sort of person who likes to see their art in a gallery, right across
the street from Heavenly Village at the Crescent V center,
there are 4 different art galleries of 4 different kinds of art.
Scott Wyland has a gallery where you can look at some of his famous paintings of the whales
and dolphins in California and Hawaii. There's an Untamed
Art gallery in that space that does a lot of local artist's art.
There is also a Jon Paul gallery which shows Lake Tahoe photography from photographer Jon
Paul. There's also a Marcus Ashley gallery that
shows a lot of local artists and does a lot of paintings of Lake Tahoe.
If you're not a strong walker and you're looking to skip a part of the walking tour, catch
the bus across the street from the Crescent V shopping center to the
Ski Run Marina, where the next major collection of art is.
If you're willing to keep walking do the extra mile of walking because there is some really
amazing lightbox art along that mile that you really wouldn't want
to miss unless you weren't a really strong walker.
As you walk down highway 50 in Lake Tahoe you will see a lot of the lightboxes have
been painted up. In 2009 and before Lake Tahoe used to have
a terrible grafitti problem when it came to people drawing on the
lightboxes. So, they decided: "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." and they hired a local
group called Sphere of Influence that diverts kids from
graffitti art into doing legitamite street art on the lightboxes.
Over the last 3 years the City of South Lake Tahoe has comissioned Sphere of Influence
to cover almost 50 lightboxes all over South Lake Tahoe.
There's also a lot of dumpster and lightbox art all over Tahoe.
And, all of the lightboxes you see in this video that aren't otherwise credited are by
Sphere of Influence.
[music playing]
Our next stop on the Public Art Walking Tour is the complex at Ski Run.
Ski Run Marina has an amazing collection of public art that you can see totally for free
just for walking in. There is a wonderfull chainsaw sculpture in
front of the Riva Grill that depicts an American Eagle with the
"United we Stand" logo. It was made in 2005 by chainsaw artist Toste who has done a lot
of the chainsaw art in Lake Tahoe. He also did the bears in front
of Heavenly Village. There is also a lovely mixed-media map
of Lake Tahoe on the side of the Riva Grill building, a very impressive fountain, and
most importantly of all, this is one of the concentrated places where
you can find galleries in Lake Tahoe. Dirk Yurkitch has a lovely photography gallery
in this complex. There is also the Tahoe Art Connection gallery
where you can buy some lovely paintings. In the summertime they have meet the artist events
at both galleries, and there's a lot of great stuff to be seen
here.
Also, while you're here definitely check out the Tahoe Queen, which is usually docked at
Ski Run marina. If you're interested in seeing more of the
Tahoe Queen click the annotation to see my video of the
"Dixie vs. Queen Sternwheeler race" that we have every year. I did a great video last
year of the Dixie vs. Queen Sternwheeler race in 2012.
and you should definitely check that out too.
[music playing]
Those of you in my audience who are history buffs will really enjoy this next mural on
the side of the El Dorado County building. It depicts the S. S. Tahoe, which was the
first ever steam powered tourist boat on Lake Tahoe and is one of the most famous shipwrecks
in Lake Tahoe. it depicts a woman with a period camera waiving goodbye, presumably to the
last voyage of the SS Tahoe from Glenbrook. It's a really awesome mural, it was put up
in 2001 by Don Gray and his partner at MacSigns.
[music playing, music stops]
I'm here at Lakeview Commons, which is one fo the great public art locations in Lake
Tahoe. First of all, it is one of the most photographed sites in the area. If you want
to take a good vacation photo of yourself in front of Lake Tahoe, Lakeview commons is
a great place to do it. They have great concerts in the summertime, and if you click the annotation
you'll see my video of "The Lake Tahoe Paddle Festival" which happens here every summer,
but, I'm here for the mural.
Lakeview commons just happens to have one of the most overlooked pieces of public art
in Lake Tahoe and it's really much less famous than it deserves to be. There is a great tile
mural at Lakeview Commons that actually predates Lakeview Commons itself. It was originally
proposed by Patrick Ferris Bennett in 1996, unfortunately he didn't live to see it completed.
It was dedicated in 1997 by then vice president Al Gore as the centerpiece of the very first
Tahoe Summit.
The front of it depicts the view from Lakeview Commons and what all of the fish in the lake
are, what all of the mountains that you can see across the lake from Lakeview Commons
are, but I strongly encourage you to look at the back of the mural. The individual tiles
on the back of the mural were made by individual high school kids in South Lake Tahoe, and
there are tiles from some rather famous people. Famous college basketball player Jared Hass
who is now a commentator on ESPN has a tile on there. There's a tile commemorating Tahoe
Tessie, there are many, many other great tiles. You can learn a lot about the people of Lake
Tahoe in 1997 and the cool thing is that because I went to south Tahoe High School I was in
high school with most of the kids who made the back of this mural. It's really cool.
[music playing]
Here on the side of the Tahoe Daily Tribune building you will find one of the most impressive
local history murals in town. It was painted by Alan Wylie and Mike Svob about 10 years
ago. It depicts the famous Tahoe Hotel at the peak of it's popularity in the 1930s.
It's got a great 1930s automobile, some wonderfull people in Great Gatsby era dress. It's a great
thing!
Also, if you've worked up a bit of an appetite doing this walking tour -- I know I have,
just walking down here. You will definitely see some great restaurants just walking by
here. There's a sub sandwitch place less than a block from here. There is also the Sno-Flake
Drive in, which is famous for having some of the best mildshakes and season fries in
town right next door to the tribune building, so you can eat and be satisfied before you
continue on or go home from your walking tour.
One of the reasons I reccomend the visitor's center is that there is a lot of very interesting
public art right in front of the visitor's center on your way there if you're walking.
There is a great big metal bicycle that was put up to celebrate the America's Most Beautiful
Bike Ride and the Amgen Tour of California coming to Lake Tahoe a couple of years ago.
There is also another fine example of a chainsaw bear, this one with an eagle on it. There
is also a lot of other really cool art that is within walking distance of the visitor's
center.
Stay tuned to Fabulous Lake Tahoe later this month for coverage of the Tahoe Business Expo
put on by the Tahoe Chamber. The Tahoe Chamber of commerce has been nice enough to let me
cover their business expo again. If you click on the banner if the video is up, the video
will play.
And here we come to the end of our walking tour of Lake Tahoe for most of you, unless
you're a really strong walker, because we've covered most of the public art on this side
of town. I choose to end it at the history museum partly because you can get all of your
questions answered right at the Tahoe Art Leage next door to the history museum, and
the history museum will teach you a lot about the great public art that we have in Lake
Tahoe and our long tradition of public art.
We have here at the Tahoe Historical Society museum a fine example of a mural in Lake Tahoe.
This one depicts the discovery of Lake Tahoe by Kit Carson and John C. Freemont in 1844.
In February of 1844, John C. Freemont and Kit Carson crossed over the Carson Pass to
Lake Tahoe, to the very first sighting of what they called "Lake Bigler" after the then
governor of California. And it is a really, really interesting story.
John C. Freemont, if you don't know, went on to become the very first Republican candidate
for President of the United States. He was opposed to slavery 20 years before it was
trendy, and Kit Carson has become so famous that they have a statue of him in Carson City
in front of the Nevada Legislature. Carson City, the Carson River, and the Carson sink
are all named after Kit Carson, and, as Mark Twain said: "When they erected the statue
of Kit Carson in Carson City, they made sure the horse's *** faced the legislature." Yeah,
that is still how Nevadans feel about their legislature.
This is a good place to end our tour because there's good public transit access here and
you can catch the bus back to wherever you came from from right in front of the visitor's
center. Also I would strongly encourage you to stop by the Tahoe Art League's art center
and gallery where they can answer any of the questions you may have come up with over the
course of this walking tour.
Though I told you that a good place to end your walking tour is the museum, there's actually
a lot of great material after the museum going towards South Lake Tahoe. Here on the side
of Meeks Lumber is one of the most impressive murals in town. It's from the Art 4 Tahoe
project and was painted exclusively by local kids with paint that DeVoe and Meeks donated
for the process. It's actually one of the most impressive murals in town, and if you're
willing to cross the street, usually the American Legion Hall in the summertime has meet the
artist maker fairs where you can meet artists and actually buy some stuff, and there's a
bus stop that's convenient to get you back to Stateline right there. It's almost as convenient
as ending at the Tahoe Arts Project but a little longer walk.
So, I want to give a few shout outs to the people who inspired me to make this video
in the first place. First of all, Josh Baldwin (PHEXID) has a great channel about Ottowa
and he has a lot of street art presentations on his channel. I would suggest you subscribe
to him on YouTube. Also, Dirk Schoenfeld on Google+ does a great feed of street art, If
you love street art and murals follow +Dirk Schönfeld on Google Plus and he will cover
just about every cool mural in the whole world.
So, I also want to give shout outs to some of the good resources that you can do: You
should follow The Sphere of Influence facebook page if you're interested in being informed
of when there's new box art in South Lake Tahoe. The sphere of influence facebook page
always posts because they're the ones who have the contract to do the box art.
Also, if you're interested in art in Lake Tahoe in a more general sense, I would suggest
you check out Tahoe Art League's website at www.TALart.org. They have a lot of great information
about art showings, gallery openings, and such in the Lake Tahoe area.
So, Stay tuned to Fabulous Lake Tahoe and there will be a video of the concert report
for April coming out right around April 1st. So, stay tuned to fabalous lake Tahoe -- I
want to tell you guys that if this video gets more than 100 views and more than 10 thumbs
up I will make part two of this video describing the public art from the Y all the way back
up to Johnson Blvd where this part leaves off. So, if you want to see the rest of the
public art in Lake Tahoe thumbs-up this video or send me a message and I will be glad to
make part 2 of this video. Thank you, and keep Tahoe blue, bye.