Name/Title
2018 Mary Porter Sesnon and Pino AltoDescription
Born in Soquel in 1868 to Benjamin F. Porter and Kate Hubbard, Mary Sophia Porter was the sole survivor of three children. She spent her childhood in Soquel, CA, before moving to Los Angeles and San Francisco. As a young woman, she traveled to Europe with her family and was tutored in music, arts appreciation and civics. In 1890, her father built her a studio on the property, a place of solace for her throughout her life. She witnessed a changing California landscape in the late 1800s and married William T. Sesnon in 1896. Together they returned to her childhood property, where they built their summer home, Pino Alto, and hosted cultural salons from 1911 to 1927. Pino Alto, named after a tall pine tree near the driveway, is now called the Sesnon House and serves as headquarters for the culinary arts program and restaurant for Cabrillo College in Aptos.
The exhibition contains many sketches and watercolors from an historic scrapbook made during these salons, calligraphy by Ms. Sesnon, along with paintings by California artists Will Sparks, Ferdinand Burgdorff, Haig Patigian, Frank Unger, Charles Dickman, Margaret Rogers, Leonora N. Penniman, and Cor de Gavere. The work of Ms. Sesnon’s great-granddaughter, Molly Porter Cliff Hilts (Porter College ’81), and other Sesnon family members is included in the exhibition. The exhibition places Ms. Sesnon at the center of it all, organizing creative salon-type parties that helped break down social and intellectual barriers and brought a variety of people together in new ways. These salons were gatherings that lasted for days. Guests included thespians, musicians, and dignitaries.
California historian and writer Geoffrey Dunn, who is contributing a catalog essay states, “While the family names Porter and Sesnon are sprinkled throughout Santa Cruz County and are familiar to anyone who has lived here for any length of time, their significant impact on regional history has been somewhat overlooked. In particular, Mary Porter Sesnon’s contribution to the local art scene at the end of the 19th and well into the early 20th century has remained virtually unknown. This exhibition richly and lovingly helps to fill that void.”
Curator Shelby Graham mentions,“This narrative has been brewing in my mind for the past twenty years as director of the Sesnon Gallery. Students at UC Santa Cruz are eager to hear this tale of bringing friends together to share art, stories, food and ideas that question the political climate of the time.” To further reflect this, the gallery will host weekly salons for performance and discussion. Guests will be provided with paper and art supplies to create a scrapbook capturing the thoughts and images of today’s political and cultural landscape, much in the same way as Mary Sesnon’s scrapbook did.
In tandem with this historical display, and enriching the sense of family tradition, Molly Cliff Hilts’ recent encaustic paintings and larger-than-life drawings will be featured in the adjacent Porter Faculty Gallery. Concurrently showing in the Sesnon Underground Gallery is for the breath of a poem, an installation by alumna Diane Jacobs (Porter ‘88). This work is an homage to the late teacher and poet, Kathleen Flowers.
