Local Business Highlight: Jamie Tablason
THE MAGICAL WORLDOF JAMIE TABLASON An Illustrator and Artist in All Things Fun. By Lindsey Goodrow Calm ocean waves, playful sea creatures, smiling children, the colors turquoise and hot pink, and California landscapes - these are some of the recurring elements in Jamie Tablason’s body of work. She is the artist behind the Whipple Group postcards, masterfully capturing the magnificence of Long Beach’s historical buildings. She also illustrates children's books and teaches upper-division art courses at CSULB. Self-described as having a finger in every pie, Jamie Tablason brings a magical touch to all the work she takes on. “I like to draw cute stuff!” she explains with great fervor. It's not surprising, then, that her artistic journey led her to illustrate children's books: creating entire worlds for them to imagine while they read. Her journey is as animated as one of the stories she helps bring to life, beginning with the objects and colors that inspire her each day Jamie has always been drawn to California landscapes - endless stretches of arid desert, the sudden peak and cascade of a mountain range, and the golden light that catches every cactus needle, tree leaf, and mountain peak. Imagine taking all of this scenery in while driving with the windows down in a 1967 Chevy Nova and you have Jamie’s well of inspiration. Tablason spent her childhood vacations in the Eastern Sierra and around Tahoe, driving up and down the 395 highway. Hours upon hours were spent in the backseat of the family car, gazing out the cool-glass window, soaking up this classic California landscape; from Mount Whitney to the eastern entrance to Yosemite National Park, this side of the sierra is awe-inspiring. Jamie Tablason grew up, like most children in her generation, watching Disney films. She was so mesmerized by their intricate and colorful stories that she decided to become an animator. She hoped to learn how to create the magical worlds that she saw play out on the big screen. However, while she earned her BFA and MFA at California State University, Long Beach, her education led her to illustration. “The stuff I did in college was very narrative-based. I enjoy telling stories, so I started to stray away from being an animator. With some connections I made through teachers, I got to work on my first children’s book”. One project led to another, and eventually, her portfolio was full of children’s reading and educational books. The first book she worked on is called Santa Claus and the Molokai Mules, which waswell-received and eventually garnered the interest of Beach Ocean Press, a publishing house specializing in Hawaiian books for kids, including picture books, board books, and activity books. Reminiscent of the playfulness in the Lilo and Stitch movies, the images, characters, and backdrops Tablason illustrates for this publisher are vibrant and whimsical. Her work lends itself to young children AND the young-at-heart (as she said, she enjoys drawing the cute stuff). While she's creating memorable characters and beautiful scenery in picture books, she's also teaching as a professor in Illustration and Color Theory at her alma mater, helping other creatives broaden their skills and grow their portfolios. Her work is incredibly rewarding: not only does she create imaginative worlds for children but she teaches others that they have a certain kind of magic in them as well. Jamie’s students paint using gouache, which happens to be the style she uses for the historical buildings of Long Beach for The Whipple Group. The Whipple Group discovered the magic of Jamie’s art through a PleinArt competition on social media called PleinAirpril, wherein the artist has to create a Plein air piece every day during April. Plein air means outdoors in French and refers to the practice of completing a painting outside. She uses a limited color palette with gouache, which is an opaque watercolor. The process involves staining the paper first with an “obnoxious neon pink” and then she paints the historical building in its scene on top of that. The neon happily glimmers through. Her favorite part of this process is saving the sky to complete last, which brings the final touch of magic to the painting. Jamie finds that creating work for Whipple has been a breath of fresh air from children-themed illustrating - allowing her to delve into interests she doesn’t usually get to explore. Her love of vintage, kitsch, and Americana shines through in the small details and pops of color in all of her work, however, no matter the subject, and we can't wait to see what she does next. You can visit Jamie Tablason’s website here.
Long Beach Landmarks: Pike
PIKE A Brief History of Long Beach's Century-Old Entertainment Center By Lindsey Goodrow The Pike is a 344,000 square foot open-air shopping destination that spans the distance between the Aquarium of the Pacific and the Long Beach Convention Center. It houses more than a dozen premier retail outlets and another dozen restaurants to keep you satiated while you shop by the sea. It is also known for its giant movie theater and a solar-powered Ferris wheel. While this area is currently known as a fun retail destination, at the turn of the 20th century, Long Beach Pike was a grand amusement park that turned a sleepy seaside resort town into a bustling city. Below is the brief but rich history of the Pike and how it came to be. WILLMORE CITY Before Long Beach was incorporated and given its current name, it was called Willmore, named after William E. Willmore, who leased the 4,000-acre plot from Jothan Bixby and developed it into a seaside resort town in 1880. It was essentially a bare-bones community with a pier and some basic wooden structures. Willmore’s plans for a city fell apart quickly and he resold the land with an enticing advertisement at auction reading, “Willmore, the future city by the blue and bounding sea”. It was purchased and renamed Long Beach, which was much more fitting with its four-mile stretch of shoreline and also less narcissistic. The city began to grow exponentially after this, and in 1902 there was a rush of modernization and an influx of residents and tourists with the completion of the Pacific Electric Railway Long Beach line, which happened to stop right at the end of Pine Ave. This railway stop would become the place of origin for The Pike. PACIFIC ELECTRIC RAILWAY The Pacific Electric Long Beach line brought new curious people to the city and it was quickly realized that they needed to be given a reason to stay; to live, grow, and prosper in a brand new city. The railway gave people work, but it was difficult and grueling. While the transformative transportation line expanded along the Southern California coast, elaborate swimming pools were built to cool down and entertain the subsequent railway workers. THE LOST BATHHOUSE How do you convince hundreds of men to build a railway in the desert? Put in an elaborate indoor swimming pool nearby! Extravagant swimming pools were all the rage at the turn of the 20th century. Financed by prosperous railroad companies, these pools were constructed and filled up to entice workers to work happily in the sweltering heat of the California desert. They could cool off, get clean, and socialize while they swam and splashed around. The Seaside Water Company opened up a state-of-the-art bathhouse in Long Beach called The Plunge in 1906. It was a stunning sight to behold when you walked up to its domed circular portico entrance. Pillared corridor wings jutted off on either side and the gabled roof was adorned with decorative cupulas - and that was just the outside of the building! Inside was a state-of-the-art pleasure pool fit with stadium seating for onlookers to watch trapeze acts, acrobatics, and ballet that was all taking place in the water. The Plunge is what brought residents to Long Beach, keeping them cool and entertained while they developed the city further. To keep up with the heavy foot traffic that began once the bathhouse opened, a long wooden boardwalk was built in front and along the beach, with shops, venues, and restaurants quickly sprouting up along the way. One could hardly keep up with this level of expansion - but in 1906 The Pike officially became an amusement park with its first rollercoaster. THE CONEY ISLAND OF THE WEST COAST While the bathhouse brought the railroad workers, their families, and tourists to Long Beach, The Pike’s rollercoasters and rides kept them from ever wanting to leave. Walking around the Pike was like discovering a brand new world full of wonder and light. A series of coasters were built throughout the years, growing bigger and bolder along the way. The most famous and at the time the second-largest rollercoaster in The United States was the Cyclone Racer, a dual-track wooden coaster whose railings extended out over the water. There was also a beautifully designed Looff carousel, a station for saltwater taffy, a strong man, pony rides, and much more. In The Pike's golden era in 1954, it was listed as one of the five largest amusement parks with 218 concessions. But nothing good lasts forever. The Plunge closed in 1966 followed by the demolition of the Cyclone Racer in 1968, as well as the handing over of control of downtown and shoreline development in 1974, and the beginning stages of development for what would come to be the Convention Center in 1975. Most traces of the wonderful Pike amusement park have vanished. While there has been a shift from finding entertainment in bathhouses and rollercoasters to finding it in the best deals at the outlets, we still have a wonderful time down at the Pike Outlets. Head down there now and take a ride on the solar-powered Ferris wheel for some of the best views of the harbor - maybe you’ll be able to picture what it must have looked like one hundred years ago. Painting by Jamie Tablason
Local Business Highlight: Randy's Donuts
RANDY’S DONUTS HISTORICALLY WACKY AND DELICIOUS By Lindsey Goodrow With a perpetual line that wraps around the block, there’s no denying that Randy’s Donuts in Inglewood is offering up something delicious. It is also no mystery, with their giant donut plopped atop the otherwise ordinary building, what that delicious item is. There isn’t an easy choice to make when picking a favorite donut here, so you might as well order one dozen - a box filled with buttermilks, glazed twists, long johns, jellies, Devil’s food cakes, coconuts, french crullers, and perhaps an apple fritter if you’re feeling indulgent. The huge donut on top of Randy’s Donut shop is a magnificent structure, designed by a structural engineer named Richard Bradshaw to stand 32.5 feet tall. He accomplished this architectural feat by rolling steel rods together and covering them with gunite, a material composed of concrete, sand, and water. This substance is often used to line tunnels, pools, or to fill in leaky cracks that may otherwise lead to structural damage. Gunite can withstand a lot of wear and tear, so it’s no wonder this ginormous donut has endured since the 1950’s. The Randy’s Donuts that Inglewood and the greater Los Angeles area has grown up loving was originally Big Do-Nuts, a donut chain started by Russell C. Wendell. Wendell sold his donut-making stand to Robert Escow in 1976, who renamed the shop after his son, Randy. But the weight of this giant donut was apparently too much to bear, as he sold it two years later to the current owners - his cousins and true donut-enthusiasts, Ron and Larry Weintraub. Grand opening (originally Big Do-Nut), Endeavor space shuttle, Russell C. Wendell DONUT DRIVE-THRU HISTORY To own Randy’s Donuts is to own a classic Southern California architectural monument. When it originally opened in 1953, the concept of a drive-thru had just emerged with the now well-known In-N-Out chain. Russell C. Wendell cleverly thought, if they can tempt the masses now driving in automobiles with burgers, why can’t he do that with donuts. And he was right! Driver’s mouths were watering for those glazed cake treats. While In-N-Out used a neon yellow arrow to attract drivers and customers, Wendell figured that sticking a giant donut on the building would get their attention and strip away any mystery of what they had to offer their guests. Randy’s Donuts is just one example of novelty architecture, a style that began to dot the California roadsides and freeways in the 1950s. Otherwise known as programmatic architecture or mimetic architecture, these novelty buildings meant to advertise or copy famous buildings, characters, animals, people, food, or household objects for the purposes of attracting consumers. All of this wacky architecture was meant to capture the attention of people whizzing by in their cars. Following WWII there was a flurry of economic activity, and automobiles, which were once high-luxury items, suddenly became accessible to the average person. In order to stop all of the citizens who were now driving along the roads and highways, roadside curiosities and attractions were built to spur consumerism. What better way to advertise a cup of joe by using mimetic architecture and designing your coffee shop as an actual pot of coffee, or a donut shop with a 32 foot gunite donut. THE FAMOUS DONUT With Randy’s Donuts being in such close proximity to Los Angeles, the city of motion pictures and movie stars, it seems only fair that the giant donut would appear on film. The donut can be seen in movies such as Iron Man 2, music videos such as Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling”, and television shows like Arrested Development. Randy's Donuts is even known to be the only donut shop that has had a space shuttle pass by its doors. In 2012, the historic space shuttle was ferried past the shop to its final residence at the California Science Center in Exposition Park, drawing in huge crowds to get photos of this incredible moment. Due to this significance in pop culture, this giant donut is iconic and most likely the most famous donut in the world. Randy’s giant donut might just be a bunch of steel rods rolled together and covered in a cement-like paste, but it is a landmark destination that represents California’s post war optimism with its novelty architecture. It continues to endure, bringing joy to its community and tempting them from miles away with a delicious cake treat. “Come for the selfies, and stay for the best donuts you will ever sink your teeth into.” Illustration by Jamie Tablason
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