Love Letters to the Road

The days grow longer, the colors glow brighter, our clothing grows lighter and sometimes nearly disappears.

It's summertime, road-trip-with-the-family time, the time of year that made Matt Leiker the man and artist that he is today.

And where did this happen? Why, on summertime road trips!

And where were young Matt and Chad and Sarah heading in the 1970s and '80s in their parents' beat-up Toyota wagon as they departed their East Bay home? Disneyland most often, Knott's Berry Farm at times, the tour at Universal Studios and, of course, the beach.

"Those might have been the reasons for going, but it was the ritual that I enjoyed the most—being on the road, passing these diners and coffee shops and hotels and motels, with playful signage and stuff," says Matt, a young man of 52.

"There's an idealized version of what an American road trip is, what a summer vacation is. And I feel lucky to have kind of experienced that as a kid," he says. There was the thrill of driving through 'the Grapevine' on the approach to L.A., past the Caravan Inn and other Googie and modernistic treasures. "That's when I would get excited."

Soon they'd arrive at Anaheim, home to Disneyland, and young Matt's emotions would hit a fever pitch. "You're seeing this stuff everywhere," he says of the mid-century modern treasures that surrounded the amusement park at the time.

He recalls the "resin globe lamps on the walls and the topiary trees" at Stovall's Inn of Tomorrow. "And the lights are chasing each other up the marquee in the front of the hotel, and on the side of the lobby. All that stuff to me was magical."

These summertime excursions are at the root of Matt's art today. Many of his artworks are drawn directly from childhood trips. Others explore varied aspects of pop culture, Googie style, and modernist pleasures.

From Anaheim there's his image of the Eden Roc Motel, with its immense angled, freestanding sign offset by a pair of equally angled palm trees. Nearby was the Dunes Motel, with its onion-domed caravan tent atop a freestanding sign. Matt's painting adds a genie riding a magic carpet.

Other of Matt's works—some done for a book, David O'Neal's Anaheim Vacationland—depict additional aspects of sunny-time summer pleasure:

A sunbathing woman in bikini reading 'fluff' while listening to a stylish Bakelite transistor radio; a guy holding his surfboard by the Sun-n-Surf Motel; a beaming pigtailed gal riding the curl of a wave.

Then there's a picture of a blue automobile crammed with kids putt-putting past a 'See Disneyland' sign. The kids in the car are all smiling with anticipation—except one, who glowers.

Even Disneyland, Matt acknowledges, is not always paradise.

"It's going to be the best thing in the world, and we're going to have fun, and we're going to go home with a bunch of memories," Matt says, describing the anticipation of visiting one of his favorite places. "It doesn't always play out that way. A lot of people go and have a terrible time."