When I saw the fully-installed show for the first time it was one of those dream-come-true moments. I’m referring to “Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking?” which opens at the Palos Verdes Art Center on Saturday, Sept. 25, with a 6 to 9 p.m. reception. Now, let me explain what I mean.

Two summers ago, I was at the Peninsula Library looking over an art show that was nice enough, but probably not too much more than “nice enough.” Most of the work was fairly conventional: the artists had painted landscapes, seascapes, flowers and pets. That kind of thing. A few pieces skirted those mundane subjects, but not many. And I said to one of the people involved that if I gave them unusual titles, and then each artist had to paint something based on that title, then maybe the pictures as a whole would be a little more exciting or “eye catching.”

***Carol Hungerford - Echoes on the Wrong Side of the Glass***

Conversations like that usually wither on the vine, but not this one. It gathered steam and took off. Debbie Giese (one of the artists in that show) and I spent an evening extracting fortunes from bags of fortune cookies and replacing them with titles from my arsenal of potential “chapter headings,” which I’d been adding to since back in the last century.

***Debbie Abshear - Castle in the Wind***

Plans advanced. There was to be a brunch reception at La Venta Inn followed by a two-week show in the Malaga Cove Library Art Gallery. The pandemic of course nixed those plans, but not before we’d convinced 35 artists to spin a wheel of fortune cookies and to find their fortune, that is, the title their next work would be based on. The “challenge” was also to do the artwork in a style that was removed from their usual way of doing things. For example, Drica Lobo, a lush colorist to the max, created a stark black-and-white piece.

The works were completed before the pandemic shutdown, but then there was a delay of a year and a half. One artist moved away, another withdrew for personal reasons, and one was a late addition. So, instead of 35 we had 34, which as it turns out fits the room perfectly.

***Emily Brantley - Eating Candy in the Beehive***

Early on, I’d met with Brad Webster, a longtime friend, and I invited him along to one of the initial planning meetings. Originally, just to observe. Later, when everything was postponed, he proposed that I write lyrics inspired by the artworks, and he would write music, based on or inspired by my words. That didn’t really come out of nowhere. He and I had been in a band while in high school, and both of us wrote original songs. He continued with music and meanwhile honed his skills on a variety of instruments.

If you’re wondering, yes, we originally did envision the idea of writing 35 new songs, and although we’ve fallen short, with just 21 ready to be heard on opening night and thereafter, others are in preparation and we’re hoping to have more and maybe all of them completed by the time the show reopens at the end of January, 2022, for an enhanced exhibition at the Malaga Cove Library Art Gallery (yes, our original destination). Now, what do I mean by enhanced? The next step, after title to image to lyrics to music, is to add a video component. But that’s a few months from now, and we’ll come back to it at a later date.

***Larry Manning - Which One of Us is the Cat?***

I realize that I am talking up the songs as much as the art, but that’s because this added feature is quite uncommon, where one person’s vision leads to another’s and then to another’s still. It’s all about interpretation, isn’t it? And of course the imagination that gets applied to it.

Some of the titles in the show? “Who’s Whistling at My Antiquities?” “From Swan Lake to Swanee River,” “Thursday Night at the Aquarium,” and “I Fell in Love with a Woman from the Spanish Armada.”

I would be irresponsibly amiss if I didn’t point out that in the main gallery downstairs one will find “Eugene Daub: Monumental,” a retrospective of the nationally-known sculptor whose larger-than-life bronze figures are in state capitals and also in the U.S. Capitol building. Daub’s work needs to be seen in person, and those who attend the opening reception will be able to meet the great (and humble) man himself.

I do not intend to ignore the artists in “Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking?” and for the first time here’s a complete list: Debbie Abshear, Fei Alexander, Lynn Attig, Emily Brantley, Robin Cowles, Don Crocker, Dan Dempster, Bernard Fallon, Deborah Giese, Joy Gonzalez, Errol Gordon, Judy Herman, Carol Hungerford, Carolyn Liesy, Drica Lobo, Larry Manning, Stephen Mirich, Margaret Missman, Hung Viet Nguyen, Lois Olsen, Tom Redfield, Nancy Sewell, Steve Shriver, Janice Shultz, Val Simon, Richard Stephens, Bronwyn Towle, Katrina Vanderlip, Joyce Welsh, Aaron Westerberg, Karen Wharton, Susan Whiting, and Jody Wiggins.

***Composer Brad Webster, left, and recording engineer Warren Tarbell. Webster wrote music to go along with Bondo Wyszpolski's lyrics, which were inspired by various paintings in the art show.***

Almost all of them are local, and their skills run the gamut. We sought that kind of diversity, a range of talent and a combination of artists who might not normally be on view together. Anyway, this isn’t the MET gala, but we think it’ll be a memorable evening and I hope Peninsula residents will come and have a look.

Now, here are some details:

The Palos Verdes Art Center is located at 5504 Crestridge Road, Rancho Palos Verdes. Both shows (“Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking?” and “Eugene Daub: Monumental”) open with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 25. They will remain on view through Nov. 13. To learn more, call (310) 541-2479 or visit pvartcenter.org.

Many of you have seen Bondo Wyszpolski with notepad and camera in hand at all kinds of community events, ready for interviews and photo shoots. Bondo has also reviewed thousands of plays, movies, concerts, books, art shows and operas. He prefers the Baroque operas by Henry Purcell and Handel, while his favorites among modern composers are Sergei Rachmaninoff and Ralph Vaughn Williams, and he also enjoys some African music. He favors the Symbolist painters of the 1890s and though he studied the standard authors from Poe to Hemingway in college, he now reads mostly foreign writers such as Portuguese novelist Jose Saramago and Gabriel Garcia Marquez from Colombia, both Nobel Prize winners. In fact, it was after The Los Angeles Times published one of Bondo’s book reviews that Kevin Cody, the owner and publisher of the Easy Reader, hired Bondo full time as an arts and entertainment editor in 1993. Before that Bondo wrote for the now-defunct Beach Cities Newspapers. Bondo grew up in Palos Verdes Estates, attended Lunada Bay Elementary School, Margate Middle School, and Palos Verdes High School.