Carlsbad Art and Culture

Many personalities and colorful backgrounds wander our village streets. They are present daily, but are rarely acknowledged. Over time, they become as visible as a recently cleaned window, as transparent as a pane of glass and as important as a roadside dandelion. Their participation in our community is rarely accepted, yet they frequent our village streets more often than the city council, business owners and local residents.

The local colorful backgrounds of our village are only acknowledged by most when they are shattered… when their absence is discovered and their story ends.

The above illustrations were created circa 1975 in the Vista City Jail by an unknown artist in Cell 1. Rick Sturgis recently passed away on a bench in the Carlsbad village, but is shown here years prior staring within the thick prison bars of his shenanigans. The below photo, drawn at the same time, shows another long time village local who has asked to remain nameless. Fortunately for him he was able to kick some habits that Rick continued…

Though transparent, the local homeless have the most colorful backgrounds. What stories have you heard and how have they inspired you? What have you learned from them?

Thanks to the local crawler who donated these priceless doodles to carlsbadcrawl.com!