Tazza Mia in the Route 66 town of Fontana, Calif., is a combination coffeehouse, art gallery and pottery studio. It opened during Cruise Night and Market Night in downtown Fontana last week, reports the Fontana Herald News.
Another thing significant about Tazza Mia is it held an exhibition by artist Pete Morris, which included a Route 66 watercolor series.
“I drive by a place that catches my eye, and it sticks in my mind. Most places I painted I develop a relationship to,” Morris said.
One painting is of a barber named Angel Delgadillo from Seligman, Ariz., who is known as a “guardian angel” for helping to preserve Route 66. If persons looked very closely, they could see the angel wings Morris painted on Delgadillo.
At the age of six, Morris took a trip with his family from Oklahoma to Los Angeles along Route 66 in a 1950 Chevy. His memories of the trip are vivid, and after reading a book by Michael Wallis titled “The Mother Road,” his interest in Route 66 was rekindled. He ignited that spark with his passion and ability to sketch, and began taking trips along the California Route 66, where he would see, stop, and paint.
“Whatever is interesting to me is what I paint,” Morris said.
He has always liked highways because they offer the chance to get off and take time to enjoy life. “Route 66 stands for the other highway; a metaphor for life,” he said.
(Hat tip to Helen Baker for the story.)