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Artbound
The Pioneering Aviatrix Who Helped Preserve Native American Basketry
If ever there is a Palm Springs LGBTQ Hall of Fame, Rose Dougan will surely require her own wing. Named Flying Rose, she lived an adventurous life learning to fly with Wilbur Wright, taking "the longest all-woman drive," and eventually working to help preserve the art of Native American basketry for generations to come.
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Artbound
In the Desert, Henry Ford's Strongman Finds His Artist's Heart
From stopping union uprisings for Henry Ford to a desert landscape painter, Harry Bennett wasn’t just a militaristic figure in corporate America but also, strangely, a skilled artist.
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Artbound
Before Bob Ross: Jon Gnagy Was America's First TV Art Teacher
As America’s first TV artist debuting in 1946, Jon Gnagy was a predecessor to the now-trendy Bob Ross. Hundreds of artists and artists credit him as their inspiration, from New York contemporary artist Allan McCollum to Andy Warhol.
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Artbound
The Real World of Transcendentalist Agnes Pelton
Agnes Pelton’s Cat City home is no majestic artist enclave, but unable to drive, she still found her mystic inspirations in her small hometown. Walk in her shoes.
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Artbound
No LSD Required: The Electric Landscapes of Sharon Ellis
Sharon Ellis' luminous landscapes draw on nearly the whole history of landscape painting. Think American Luminists, Charles Burchfield and his "animated landscapes" and even Light and Space artists James Turrell and Robert Irwin.
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Artbound
Beyond Martinis and Modernism: An Elusive Mapmaker Reveals Another Side of the Desert
"Desert Magazine" published from 1937 to 1985, offered readers an appealing world of mirages, ghost towns and lost treasure. Its maps sizzled with life and adventure. They were created lovingly — and it turns out painstakingly — by an elusive mapmaker.
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Artbound
The Lost Colony of Sven-Ska: Christina Lillian and the Cathedral City Artists
She was a beautiful blonde artist — a friend to Greta Garbo, D.H. Lawrence and Agnes Pelton — and she ruled over a Valhalla of early artists, Sven-Ska, somewhere out in the California desert.
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Artbound
The Real-Life Hobbit Houses of Palm Springs and the Nearly-Forgotten Architect Who Created Them
A masterwork of organic architecture by a virtually forgotten 1920s Palm Springs architect, R. Lee Miller, the Araby Rock houses could be mistaken for the Shire from "Lord of the Rings," and over the years, it has attracted its own vivid residents.
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Artbound
Mysterious 'Invisible' Land Art Can Only Be Seen From Above
Over decades, Hazel Iona Stiles created an uplifting — almost invisible — piece of land art that could only be appreciated from the elevation of an airplane, or even higher.
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Artbound
Into the Chuckwallas: Rediscovered Desert Photographs of Susie Keef Smith and Lula Mae Graves
In the 1920s, armed with a .38 revolver and a large format camera, Susie Smith and her cousin Lula Mae Graves set out to photograph the last of the prospectors, burro packers and stage stops in the remote desert to the east.