enamel mural by jackson + ellamarie woolley, 1962

in 1947 jackson and ellamarie wooley attended an enameling workshop at scripps college. this completely changed the course of the san diego based artists' lives. they started out doing a few plates but quickly progessed to much larger scale projects such as this 3 x 8 foot mural that was selected for the 1962 california design show.

i just had the thrill of seeing some of their work in person at the long beach museum of art's new show "painting with fire: masters of enameling in america, 1930-1980". what an inspiration it was for me to see the work of the fifteen artists featured in the show. i was especially blown away by the bowls and serving pieces by jade snow wong.

(image from "california deisgn/eight" pasadena art museum, 1962)