KIM SCHOENSTADT

Sight Line Series: California Respite
Mural
2021

Kim Schoenstadt’s artwork, California Respite, features an imaginary architectural structure perched atop a dreamy landscape, grabbed from a vintage postcard of the perfect beach day.  The impossible building points to the ability to invent and to propose alternate futures. Schoenstadt invites viewers to consider the built environment, to reflect on alternative realities, and to construct their own destinies. (With a bit of humor, the image also gives us momentary aesthetic relief from the stress of college life, asking why we all aren’t at the shore.)

Schoenstadt’s work draws inspiration from architectural history. The composite structure combines elements from several famous buildings from Brazil, Switzerland, Germany, Egypt, and notably, Garcia House in Los Angeles, designed in 1962 by mid-century modernist architect John Lautner.