By Daily Press staff
Haven’t you always wanted to find a sunken pirate galleon overflowing with precious jewels and priceless cargo? Perhaps you’re longing for an aquatic estate — perhaps a comfy trailer home about 50 feet below sea level with all the oxygen you can breathe? And wouldn’t your child love to munch on a hot corn dog on a stick while petting Rocky the scuba diving pig? If you answered “yes” to any one of these questions, you can find them at the Santa Monica Pier.
The city of Santa Monica’s Cultural Affairs Division, the Santa Monica Arts Commission and the Santa Monica Pier Restoration Corp. are unveiling the Santa Monica Pier banners, created by local artists Michael C. McMillen and Steve Galloway. The banners will debut on July 1 at the opening night of the 2004 Twilight Dance Series with Fishbone and The Bonedaddys performing.
Artists Galloway and McMillen found their inspiration in the facts, folklore, myths and legends of the pier’s early history. Each banner depicts an image representing historical events that might — or might not — have actually occurred.
Galloway and McMillen were selected as the artists for the project through a competitive process in 2002. A panel of art experts and community advisors declared their proposal the best based upon its originality, the high level of artistic quality and the appropriateness of the banners to the pier, officials said.
Galloway, a practicing artist since his graduation from California Institute of the Arts (CALARTS), received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, has shown work throughout the country and locally at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), and is represented by the prestigious James Corcoran Gallery.
McMillen, also an NEA Fellow, received the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Young Talent Award in 1978 and has shown his work at LACMA, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., and many others. McMillen has been honored by the Getty Trust, the California Arts Council, the Flintridge Foundation and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 28, 2004. Read the original PDF.