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One creative guy responsible for
humanizing and educating about the life of the farm workers in the Salinas
Valley "lettuce bowl" is artist John Cerney, a Cal State University Long
Beach art school graduate. Uniquely carving a career out of oversized cut
outs of people working in the fields, Cerney has spent nearly several
decades documenting the life of farm workers in the fields along Highway 101
and Highway 68 in Monterey County. His work has also appeared in other
states and even in the Steinbeck Museum in Salinas, though he did hesitate
about that assignment. A true artist, he wasn't sure if he wanted to
create a life-sized Marilyn Monroe shape for the museum's display to
commemorate her winning the Miss Artichoke contest in Castroville during the
late film stars launch of her career. Cerney liked creating outdoor,
oversized characters and Marilyn would indoors and true to size. He took the
gig anyway.
With more work than he can handle, the Carmel native who grew up in Salinas,
went to college in Los Angeles County and returned to the place he loved.
Working initially without pay, Cerney created scenes on a local car service
garage and a barn. In 1991 he created a mural of a truck loaded with produce
and was paid by packinghouses whose labels appeared on boxes on the painted
truck. River Ranch packinghouse, Dole and Crown Packing Company are a
few of his clients. Cerney creates each work through a series of photos,
laying a grid for enlargements that are scaled to 3 times the original size.
He then transfers the images to larger squares on sheets of 1"
paper-surfaced plywood. He cuts out the figure and paints them using
acrylics. The figures are then braced with steel and set on embedded timbers
to withstand wind. For motorists breezing by at 65 to 70 miles per hour, the
first impression is, Wow, did you see that? The art looks realistic except
for the size.
Cerney conceptualized the size by
factoring the speed people are driving and a how much a person can absorb in
seconds. If you've never driven on this stretch of road along Highway 101,
take the route the next time you must go between the north and south.
Interstate 5, the faster road, doesn't offer this kind of scenery. It
is something you'll remember and enjoy.
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