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☞ A ladder was balanced on the top edge of an 18-Hole billboard. It leaned against the bottom of the "Sunday Morning In The Mines" painting, where it allowed folks inside the painting to escape. ☞ The mural is shown in context with the rest of 12th Street in Sacramento, California. The side of the Masonic Temple was exposed because of a parking lot. ☞ A contemporary businessman found the ladder. He held onto the the ladder and looked up at the rusticly dressed people escaping. ☞ A brass plaque was painted just below the "Sunday Morning In The Mines" painting. It read: Sunday Morning In The Mines 1872 See original painting at the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento View all

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☞ In the center of the second panel from the bottom was the base of the butterfly's body. It was composed of an indigenous god watching over two people pounding on a drum. ☞ The right-hand end of the lower panel showed a person reaching out to touch a crystal. The crystals, like truffles, appeared to grow around the roots of a tree. ☞ The left-hand end of the lowest panel showed a cave at night under moonlight. Inside the cave were scattered crystals and a circular object with ancient writing on it. ☞ The right-hand end of the second panel down from the top showed salmon spawning under an abstract sky, and behind the salmon the domes of a future city. View all

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☞ A series of painted murals alongside the alley, depicted various family portraits of blackbird families. ☞ The first (leftmost) portrait was a formally posed aristocratic blackbird, with double breasted coat, a top hat, and a pair of shined shoes. ☞ The blackbird murals were painted down an alley next to the former Bar Rouse restaurant. ☞ The grand madam of the house was next, with tight pearls and a long formal dress. ☞ A business man posed leaning on a stand. He looked important with his pocket watch. ☞ A portrait of a maid was next. She looked serious, with arms crossed. View all

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☞ Locked saddle bags carried the messages along the pony express route. A button on each saddle bag identified those messages as US mail. ☞ The horse's head was sculpted in harsh detail. The rider was bent over the head of the horse and carried a whip in his right hand. ☞ A mid-19th century pony express rider with a modern 21st century city skyline behind. ☞ The statue stood on a large boulder inside a fenced area near a park that bordered a noisy freeway. ☞ A plaque describing the sculpture was embedded in concrete and lay flat on the ground. It read, in part, "This statue commemorates the glory of the pony express..." View all

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☞ One of the two clock faces, neither of which told the correct time. ☞ A different view of the tower, showing it sandwiched between a parking lot and a Macy's Store. ☞ A close up view of the clock tower. The tower forms a bridge connecting a parking lot to a compact mall composed of several stores and one movie theater. The hands of the clock could be seen on either side of the tower. ☞ The other three feet stood on unbroken concrete. Here was a view of one held down with six bolts, three on each side. ☞ A wider shot reveling nearly all of the tower. In this shot, the tower really does resemble a power transmission tower. View all

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☞ The person standing under the full moon, had a face hidden inside a hood. Beads decorated the top of the hood. ☞ A large Moon floated against a starry sky above the hooded face of a person standing outside at night. ☞ The artist's signature was in the lower left of the mural. The M inside a stylized circle stood for the "M" in Monty Guy. The 18 stood for the year 2018. The package of cigarettes was litter. ☞ The torso of the person standing under a full moon. There appeared to be armor protecting the shoulders and belly. View all

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☞ A window at the back of the first landing had a plastic plant laid in front of it. The window was painted on the wall with ghostly curtains parted to reveal a black cat with green eyes. ☞ The side of a building was painted to become haunted. The windows were painted on the wall and then filled with haunted images. Even the roof line was painted with a painted cat standing on it. ☞ The topmost widows also had ghostly white curtains and also had green eyed cats looking out. Above these two windows were the painted eves at the edge of a painted roof. A cutout cat stood on the painted eves. View all

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☞ A golden metal clip held the robot's bun in place. On the clip was embossed the bear and star of the California flag, with an image of the state behind the bear. ☞ A California bear decorated the neck of the robot face. The bear too appeared to be a robot, but the flowers appeared real. ☞ The mural was painted on a wall halfway between 7th and 8th Streets on J Street in downtown Sacramento, California. J Street was one of the wide, one way Streets downtown, with lots of on-street parking. View all

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☞ A row of enameled copper squares seen higher up on the face of the parking structure. The colors here had a more formal feel, as might adorn the wall of a doctor's office. ☞ A closer look at the enameled copper. Each square was cut to an idential size and affixed at its corners in a precice manner. Colored enamels and surface applications created a widely varied look overall. ☞ A closer look at another section of the enameled copper wall. This section had a cooler, blue/green appearance. View all

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☞ The giant on the left-hand side had furry feet. Those feet rested on the alley surface just to one side of a roll-up garage door. Because this was an alley, litter decorated the street surface. ☞ Two giants were seated where the wall met the asphalt of the alley. Their appearance was dramatic as they towered over parked cars. ☞ The giant on the left had a small head with curved horns. The left-hand giant held up a tree, either to offer or to admire or to puzzle about. ☞ The giant on the right-hand side sat on the alley behind a parked pickup truck. This giant's body was interrupted by a vent in the wall. View all

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☞ The baby nestled among found pieces of plastic and metal. ☞ A closer shot of the mother and baby. As one gets closer to the mural on can see that it was not totally painted, but was created with found junk and paint. ☞ The mother's face, her eyes rimmed by wire, her mouth painted in white with drips in the corner. ☞ The application of junk and paint created the illusion of the ape's lower arm and hand. ☞ The textured mural was displayed on an entire wall half way down Improv Alley in Sacramento, California. ☞ The ape's hand gripped the roof next to a TV antenna. That hand probably aided in turning the antenna for the best reception. View all

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☞ The artist signed the mural "@artofjohnpugh." ☞ A closer shot of the two snake bodies. Note how the shadows painted on the wall help create the 3D effect. ☞ At the end of 6th Street, off J Street, John Pugh had painted a 3D mural of two California king snakes coiled and rising off the wall of a building. ☞ The two snakes looked at each other with snake-like cool disinterest. ☞ The snakes emerged from just the right sized round holes in the wall and the coiled around each other. ☞ A closer view of the two California king snakes emerging out from the wall. View all

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☞ Shore birds dotted the ice. Those birds waded in shallow puddles melted into the surface of the ice. ☞ Ice extended far out into the lake. It looked like individual pieces of ice, but that was an illusion caused by surface melting. View all

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☞ One sign marked the edge of "Old Sacramento State Historic Park." Behind that, a rail car was decorated with a sign that read "Old Sacramento Waterfront." ☞ The view across wide grass to an historic rail barn at the west end of the park. ☞ A wide, green, grassy area lay between Front and Firehouse Streets, and between I and J Streets of Old Town Sacramento. View all