Mapping Out a Route for the Mind’s Eye

Question from Jan. 19:

The L.A. Louver gallery in Venice is hosting an event titled “One Hour / One Painting,” during which participants spend one hour looking at one piece of art. We’d like to offer this event in miniaturized form, using David Hockney’s piece as a Rorschach test. In the photo collage, a road runs through the desert and signs indicate that up ahead is a stop as well as Highway 138 (Pearblossom Highway). Aside from what’s really there, what else do you see?

“I see an AAA tow truck on the horizon.”

--ROWENA RUBI, Riverside

“It is an unbearably difficult decision: Turn onto 138 or take the ‘road less traveled.’ This one act could change everything. Hurry! Twenty-five feet remain. . .”

--TANYA MEURER NORMAN,

Camarillo

“It’s . . . it’s . . . so . . . blue . . . the sky is [bleep]ing BLUE!! Whoa, don’t see much of that around here.”

--EMILY CHEN,

Via Internet

“When you digitize it and play it backward, it says, ‘L.A. art is dead.’ ”

--MARK BREGMAN, Tustin

“I see the Earth is flat, not round. Outer space isn’t up, it’s down. Will John Glenn venture past Highway 138? Oh, I hope not.”

--BEA SHAW, Toluca Lake

“Death. That two-lane highway is one of the worst in California. If you survive, you can get connected to 395, which is just as bad.”

--DON MADDOX, Tarzana

“Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady as Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty flying backward to the rhythm of the lime chocolate miasma of high-voltage desert radiation.”

--CONNIE PHAM, Laguna Niguel

The question for Jan. 26:

On Feb. 18, the U.S. Postal Service will offer a series of stamps depicting the 1940s. If you choose from any era, what images would you like to see on a postage stamp?

Send replies of 25 words or fewer to Smart Aleck, in care of SoCal Living, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053, or e-mail socalliving@latimes.com. Include your name and hometown. Replies will appear next week.