I had a chance last week to catch up with Mark Hilbert, who with his wife Janet, founded The Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University in Orange, California. The Musem houses their collection of 1,000 20th century paintings documenting California and one of my first blog posts documented a private reception I went to when it opened in 2016. The original space, at 7,000 square feet, was beautiful and it is currently being expanded to 22,000 square feet due to open early next year. The Hilbert collection includes works by Maynard Dixon and many of my favorite California Painters. They opened the Hilbert Temporary gallery off The Circle in Orange to stay engaged with the public as they prepared for the unveiling of their beautiful new museum space.

Mark Hilbert explaining the expansion of his museum which will be completed early in 2024.

The temporary gallery space is obviously only a fraction of the size of the coming new museum, but the space is still decent and located right off the Circle in Orange. The area has great restaurants, eclectic shopping, and is a great place to spend a few hours on a weekend. I’m hopeful that someone maintains this space as a gallery after the new Hilbert Museum opens. I also encourage everyone to visit the Hilbert Temporary while it is up because the works on display are worth the trip to see them.

My Favorite Painting in the Exhibition

Dean Cornwell (1892-1960) “Mission San Antonio de Padua - 1949 Oil on Board

I have heard many photography scholars talk about how a viewer’s past experiences influence how they perceive a photograph. People will connect, or not connect, with a photograph often because of their past experiences, their understanding of the subject matter, or even their believes. Every viewer’s experience is unique, so their response is also unique and that is a good thing. Every person’s opinion has value, even if only just to that person. In talking with Mark he expressed frustration with political viewpoints impacting viewing experiences and an increasing lack of tolerance for differing opinions, I completely agree with him. As in the world, the art world also needs to be inclusive to differing points of view, including conservative ones. The First Amendment is important for all of us.

Dean Cornwell’s 1949 painting Mission San Antonio de Padua really stood out to me and I think may be of value to my blog post readers to explain why so I can expand upon what I wrote above about a viewer’s past experience influencing their reaction to an image.

I have written blog posts before about the Father Serra statue that was in downtown Los Angeles. For me it was an important monument because both Robert Frank and Garry Winogrand had photographed in the 1950’s. I searched for the statue and photographed it on May 29th, 1995, and returned again 25 years later to the day and rephotographed it. Two weeks after photographing the Father Serra statue a second time Indigenous activists invited Los Angeles Times reporters to the statue to witness them tear it down as part of the George Floyd protests. I don’t get how it was connected other than tolerance was being shown to civil unrest at the time.

I am respectful of the opinions that Indigenous Americans have towards colonization and the influence that Catholicism had upon their culture, they have a right to be upset with injustices of the past. But that shouldn’t give them the right to destroy public property or cancel things they don’t believe in. We need to remember history, not erase it. Cancel culture is a slippery slope and should never be tolerated. For me when they tore down the Father Serra statue for that minor LA Times article, they took away my connection to two of my favorite photographers, they destroyed an artifact of California history. They did it all for a soon forgotten moment of attention that was quickly overshadowed by so many other events with the pandemic. Having that experience impacted my thoughts when viewing this painting. I was drawn to the graphic shape of the cross and the stylization of the people in the painting. I took note how the priests were supervising (ordering) the indigenous people doing all the labor to accomplish their task. I also noticed how the indigenous people were colorful and bright and the priests were ashen and less dynamic. I saw elements in this painting supporting the outrage of the indigenous people who tore down my Father Serra statue. For someone of strong Catholic Faith they might see the impact the church had bringing the ministry to the new world. Both viewpoints are valid. No matter what opinion a viewer has the painting is an amazing piece of artwork, wonderfully crafted, and is something to be enjoyed by all. Hopefully it will inspire various dialogues for years to come.

Father Serra Statue two weeks before being torn down by indigenous protestors in 2020 - William Karl Valentine

Selected images in the exhibition at the Hilbert Temporary

Anton Otto Fischer "Peach Harvest"

Phil Dike "California's Best"

Charlie Dye "Big Catch"

Arthur Saron Sarnoff "Supervised and Unsupervised"

Steven Dohanos "Mutually Beneficial Friendship"

Maurice Logan "Ghirardelli's Pioneers"

John Phillip Falter "Schlitz tastes so good"

John William Walter "I own this dream"

Pruett Carter "Depression Kid"

Walt Disney Productions

About five years ago, I created and curated the artwork for RSM’s Orange County, California office. RSM is a global professional advisory firm providing technology and financial consulting services, tax and attest services. RSM moved to a new office space during the pandemic, so I removed the work from the walls of the old office and prepared the work for the move. Last month I hung the work on the walls of their new office.

When I started the dialogue with RSM about the project they told me they were looking to modernize their office space and were interested in my photographs. I came up with the concept to only use images only form Orange County to help the office showcase their identity and to be a component of team building. I knew that an entire office of similar images and frames would not work so I curated my work to use various photographic styles. Since I had lived in area for over twenty of years, I had a fair number of images to choose from. I also knew the area well enough to know where to go to photograph to get the images I still might need. The photograph above shows two images I went out looking to photograph once I began this project. These two prints are in the lobby and large conference room which are the focal point of the office upon entering it. It was a great opportunity for me to display some of my images that aren’t in some of my better-known portfolios plus it allowed me to reexamine some images that I hadn’t looked at in a while.

The RSM collection includes 35 framed prints of various sizes, a small aluminum print, and a large (40’x60”) three panel aluminum piece. RSM’s new office has less useable wall space than their old office but my photographs fit better in the modern brand-new building. The installation took about 17 hours including the time it took time figuring out useable wall space and pairings. The new building also had some surprises for me with wall material considering all walls were internal. There were several times where I had to redrill holes or move mounting brackets on frames because I hit steel supports, but it all worked out and by the second day of hanging frames I had my system down again.

Below, one of my favorite images for this office still remains the theatre marquee for the movie “The Accountant”, just a perfect image for this office.

I’ll share some insight into my installation process. I use a T-lock locking system to attach the frames to the wall in commercial settings. I developed a system to speed up the process by making templates out of strips of scrap mounting board. Each template has the positions for the brackets on the frame as well as the corresponding positions for the wall mount clips. I use the template to position the clips on the frames in consistent manner then I use the same template to determine the wall clip positions. By using a level, I just have to determine the center point of each frame on the wall and mark that with painter’s tape. Most of the frames in the office were hung with their center point being 63” which is higher than museum standard but visually it fit the space better. So, for each frame I would measure the wall at the floor level to find the center point. I then measured up to where I wanted the top of the frame to be (63” + 1/2 the frame height) and that determined my center point. I lined the template’s marked center point with the mark on the wall and aligned it with my level. I then marked the two drill holes and I the frame would be aligned. I found it best to mark the bottom T-lock drill hole with the frame on the wall and tracing the edge of the lock bracket on the bottom of the frame. Aligning the T-lock is the hardest part, and more than once I was a fraction off, but luckily usually close enough a hammer could correct the alignment. I got smart the second day and put all my tools on a cart to speed up the process.

This panel below was the prominent piece in the old office’s lobby. These panels are each 40” x 60” aluminum prints. The old office had a slightly curved wall which was a problem to hang on. We chose a flat interior wall in the new office which was much simpler to deal with. These pieces hang on strip of grooved wood and then I secure the bottom of them with a removeable mounting adhesive. Surprisingly they are from a single image my lab cropped into a panorama and then made three prints out of it. The camera was a Canon PowerShot G12 with a 10MB one inch sensor. It showcases the incredible capabilities of digital technology, especially considering this is now old technology. The image is of the Balboa Peninsula looking South towards Corona del Mar and Laguna Beach. When my son was a freshman in high school his PE class was surfing, and it was first thing in the morning. I would park near their surfing spot then walk the stand with my camera until his class was over. This image came from one of my walks.

And finally, the of the office exterior. RSM is one of the first tenants in this building and the entire complex is still under construction. The modern design of the space really fits photography artwork, I am proud of how well the collection looks here.

My Favorite Painting in the Exhibition

Selected images in the exhibition at the Hilbert Temporary

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