The holidays are over, and it’s time to get back to work. Seriously, back to work.

Yesterday, I took a walk through the neighborhood to check out some new shops in an area of funky old buildings in Old Town San Diego that are being redone, and I happened on a color and design bonanza at Cal Soul Apparel and Vintage Aloha Shirts.

I was checking out the spaces for a possible small gallery and studio for myself – still a possibility – but also found owner Mike Moore who gave me a visual tour of his beautiful collection of vintage shirts and dresses.

Color is my animal these days and the shop is filled with it.  But there was more as Mike told me about the various designs and patterns on the shirts – where in the Pacific Islands they might have originated and why they’d mean something to the owner.

I have an old card around here about the “art police” coming because someone is wearing a beautiful shirt.  The owner says, “Take me away.”

Aloha shirts might not be in the same ballpark as a VanGogh, but that’s mostly because of the “collector appeal.”  Believe me, if there were only one of these shirts left in the world, it would be at Sotheby’s today drawing big bucks.

Fortunately for us, we still have more than one.  And for those of us who love color, that’s a very good thing.  I knew there was a mystique about Aloha shirts in southern California (which are suitable dress anytime anyplace), but I didn’t realize there’s also a love of art that goes with them.

Let us not get ourselves into art boxes so tiny we can’t appreciate art on the back of a surfer dude or dudette for what it is.  Fine, that’s what it is. Exceptionally fine.

Wishing everyone a happy and productive new year whether you’re painting like VanGogh or stitching up a beautiful shirt!