The San Diego Union Tribune reports about the Surfing Madonna.
Test subject: The Surfing Madonna’s new digs
The big picture: Fourteen months after its sudden (and unauthorized) appearance beneath an Encinitas train bridge and one year and four days after its much-contested removal from her clandestine spot, artist Mark Patterson’s mosaic of Our Lady of Guadalupe on a surfboard found a new home this week in a courtyard in Leucadia. Has Our Lady of Perpetual Civic Hand-wringing found a spot worthy of her beauty and pot-stirring power? Clearly, a pilgrimage was in order.
Location, location, location: Let’s just say karma has been very, very good to our Madonna. After spending the first part of her life lurking under a bridge on a busy stretch of Encinitas Boulevard, she is now ensconced on the wall of a bucolic courtyard near the corner of North Coast Highway and Jasper Street.
As the Madonna made herself comfortable in her spot between the Cafe Ipe coffeehouse and the Surfy Surfy surf shop, the sun was shining, the lattes were foaming, and her faithful subjects were worshipping at her tiled feet.
“I have to send these out to all my friends who wanted her back,” said Patty Gomez, an Encinitas bookkeeper and Surfing Madonna fan who was taking cellphone photos on behalf of the faithful. “It’s a beautiful piece of art, and I’m so glad they didn’t destroy her. Now we have this and the Cardiff Kook just down the road. People love this stuff.”
Room for a view: Enough about her, what about us? Fortunately for guerrilla-art lovers and lookiloos alike, the Madonna’s new digs are superior to the old in almost every way.
While the old spot was creepy and smelled like exhaust and asphalt, this one is so bright, the mosaic glows like the gem it is. Also, the courtyard smells like organic, fair trade coffee, which the conservation-minded Madonna must surely appreciate.
And while the original location gave you a choice of three equally bad viewing spots — right under her nose, across the street or in the middle of Encinitas Boulevard traffic — this one offers many views of the face that launched a thousand City of Encinitas meetings. Not to mention one inspired Cardiff Kook costume.
“It’s much safer here,” Cafe Ipe co-owner Erin Thomas said from one of the outdoor tables with primo mosaic sightlines. “In the old place, people were standing in the middle of the road to look. You couldn’t even see it that well.”
Pray for parking: You can’t have a surfing paradise without at least one bummer, at Chez Guadalupe, parking is it. Pulling in and out of North Coast Highway traffic is a little scary, and spots on the winding neighborhood roads behind the building are scarce. If you plan on a weekend visit, you’d better hope mosaics can grant miracles.
Parting gifts: There is no Surfing Madonna swag for sale at either the coffeehouse or the surf shop, but that doesn’t mean you have to leave empty-handed. Surfy Surfy’s “super groovy handmade hemp and beer tab bracelets from Canada” have the right pro-environmental spirit. And at Cafe Ipe, the lack of an official Surfing Madonna beverage did not stop manager from Whitney Lang suggesting one.
“I would probably go with an iced vanilla latte,” Lang said. “Something sweet and cold is nice after a day of surfing. That’s what I like.”
The verdict: There is no question that the Surfing Madonna is sitting pretty in her new spot. Even better, we won’t have to sacrifice life or limb to pay our respects. I believe that qualifies as a blessing.