Stretching from Malibu’s secluded coves to San Pedro’s tide-pool-strewn shores, LA County’s 72 miles of coastline boast some of the most iconic and scenic beaches in the world. Pick your activity and these beaches deliver: surfing, beach volleyball, biking, windsurfing, scuba diving and pleasure boating.
During the Renaissance, the word ART emerged as a collective term encompassing painting, sculpture and architecture. Art today is considerably different because it is more open to interpretation. An object regarded as Art may not be perceived as such by the person who created it – but becomes culturally significant because of the expression it contains for the people experiencing it at any moment in time. Art involves the skill of the imagination for the creation of aesthetic objects, environments and experiences that can be shared with others. Here is an example of how we make Art.com accessible to both lovers of high brow ART and those who wish to forever remain novices. The paint by numbers concept works in print, interactive, outdoor and Web.
Art is community. Art is how we relate to one another.
I am often told that "American high society" is an oxymoron, either by those who hold the quaint, bien-pensant belief that the United States is a classless society in which opportunity is open to all or by Europeans who believe themselves to be superior and look down pejoratively upon the social aspirations of a country that is younger than many families, social clubs, educational establishments and even socks in the Old World. Of course, America does have its high society and to pretend otherwise is simply fatuous. To quote the great sage and society figure Oscar Wilde, "Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals." It is those individuals—the very many men and women who comprise society today—who have made the pageant of American society so entertaining and engrossing. The truth is that the United States is no longer a young country; it is a middle-aged nation with its own social codes and structures locked into its collective DNA. It has its prominent families, an untitled aristocracy, who exerted such a profound effect on the nation—or who have just been around for so long—that the doings of their descendants are still a source of interest. There is, of course, the plutocracy: men and women who made so much money that they simply pay to rise to the pinnacle of the social structure, building huge mansions and amassing automotive art collections that remain among the most impressive the world has ever seen.
Once a year, 200 of the most prized collector cars in the world roll onto the famed eighteenth fairway at Pebble Beach; standouts receive official recognition for style, technical merit and historical accuracy surrounded by hat-clad ladies in lace and gentlemen in seersucker and aviators. In 2011, the event showcased early antique Benz and Mercedes tourers, Edwardian Silver Rolls Royce Ghosts, Jaguar E-types and the legendary Ferrari 250 GTOs. There were also few hot-rods, including Stutz, Dusenberg and Packard. Since its inception in 1950, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance has donated more than $14 Million to charitable organizations in the greater Monterey Peninsula area.
