Skip to main content
Donate

Valerie P. Cohen's Summer Watercolor Journal: Mono Craters and June Lake

By Valerie P. Cohen
October 8, 2013
Support Provided By
valerie_2.jpg

In partnership with Boom Magazine, a new, cross-disciplinary publication that explores the history, culture, arts, politics, and society of California.

This article was originally published in Boom: A Journal of California.

My cabin sits on a small plateau in the Eastern Sierra of California, above the west end of June Lake, in the upper watershed of the Mono Basin. It is a small wooden cabin, built in the early 1940s. It is inaccessible in winter, but open from late spring until mid fall.

Looking northeast, one sees the lake, then the terminal moraines, the two highest Mono Craters, and sky. The first time I saw the cabin, I didn't even go inside. I just sat down on the front porch, looked at the landscape, and thought, a view of my own.

By now I have spent more than twenty long summers there and have always vaguely considered painting that scene. Finally, I got around to doing just that -- over and over and over at different times of day or night, changing angles of sunlight according to season, snow or rain or wind or fire. This is a certain kind of traveling.

These six paintings are taken from the book "Mono Craters and June Lake: A Summer Journal," containing twenty-six watercolors originally painted on Arches 300-pound rough rag paper. Each original is 7 by 9 inches.

Valerie P. Cohen
Valerie P. Cohen
Valerie P. Cohen
Valerie P. Cohen
Valerie P. Cohen
Valerie P. Cohen
Valerie P. Cohen
Valerie P. Cohen
Valerie P. Cohen
Valerie P. Cohen

Dig this story? Sign up for our newsletter to get unique arts & culture stories and videos from across Southern California in your inbox. Also, follow Artbound on Facebook and Twitter. 

Support Provided By
Read More
An 8mm film still "The Kitchen" (1975) by Alile Sharon Larkin. The still features an image of a young Black woman being escorted by two individuals in white coats. The image is a purple monochrome.

8 Essential Project One Films From the L.A. Rebellion Film Movement

For years, Project One films have been a rite of passage for aspiring filmmakers at UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television. Here are eight Project One pieces born out of the L.A. Rebellion film movement from notable filmmakers like Ben Caldwell, Jacqueline Frazier and Haile Gerima.
By Allison Noelle Conner
A 2-by-3 grid of Razorcake zine front covers.

Last Punks in Print: Razorcake Has Been the Platform for Punks of Color For Over Two Decades

While many quintessential L.A. punk zines like "Flipside," "HeartattaCk," and "Profane Existence" have folded or only exist in the digital space, "Razorcake" stands as one of the lone print survivors and a decades-long beacon for people — and punks — of color.
By George Sánchez-Tello
Estevan Escobedo is wearing a navy blue long sleeve button up shirt, a silk blue tie around his neck, a large wide-brim hat on his head, and brown cowboy pants as he twirls a lasso around his body. Various musicians playing string instruments and trumpets stand behind him, performing.

The Art of the Rope: How This Charro Completo is Preserving Trick Roping in the United States

Esteban Escobedo is one of only a handful of professional floreadores — Mexican trick ropers — in the United States, and one of a few instructors of the technical expression performing floreo de reata (also known as floreo de soga "making flowers with a rope"), an art form in itself and one of Mexico's longest standing traditions.
By Cynthia Rebolledo