Thursday, August 16, 2018

MONA, Motels, and More



Until August 26, the Museum of Neon Art in Glendale has an exhibit titled “There’s More to Neon Signs Than Liquor, Motels and Live Nude Girls” and “Motel California.”

With a touch of humor, the majority of this exhibit features signs about liquor, motels, live nude girls...and motels.

And I loved it. With designer, author, and saver-of-vintage-neon Eric Lynxwiler as our group's tour guide, we had a blast looking at the other-worldly glow that emanated from these vintage neon masterpieces. See the neon in the tube travel closer to Eric. Apparently water attracts neon!



This little guy was amazing to watch. I felt like Dr. Frankenstein in the laboratory!



Eric showed the different colors possible and how they were achieved.



I'll let your eyes feast upon the twists and graceful curves achieved by some of the neon artists of yesteryear.





A few animated gifs to show you the neon in action:







Last and definitely not least is one of my favorites:



See more MONA photos at my main website.

4 comments:

Fifthrider said...

Love these animated ones. The closeups are great!

Matthew said...

What a great name for a show about neon! Oh my gosh... that is funny. I too like The Tinder Box sign... but there is something that keeps me coming back to see the animation of the man drinking and falling over. GREAT photos and post today Dave!

Always your pal,
Amazon Belle

Janey said...

Eric is seriously one of my favorite human beings! I love the work he does for neon preservation and his book ob Knott's Berry Farm!

xoxo
-Janey

Anonymous said...

The Tinder Box sign looks familiar, but I can't be remembering one from Glendale.

I wonder if Tinder Box was a chain, or just a common name for a tobacconist, back in the pre-Google days.

The sign might have been a standard design?

Great post, Dave, thank you. I want to find this place and take the tour.

JG