A funny thing happened on the way to some errands: it inspired a UFO invasion. Longtime Pacific Palisades resident Sean G. Day happened to pass by the newly opened Flying Saucers Caffeine and Art, a caf’ and gallery on the Westside. ‘I just drove one day and it hit me,’ says the local artist. ‘It’s a double entendre with the saucer cups. So I walk in and I said, ‘Where are the flying saucers?” The caf’s owner, Ryan MacLeod Morris, was open to Day’s idea. ‘I said, ‘Let me put a program together of artwork,’ and I found an article in Starlog magazine called ‘Reel vs. Real.” A few months later, Day completed 27 acrylic paintings based on stills from a range of science fiction B-movies from the 1950s, including ‘Forbidden Planet,’ ‘Earth Versus the Flying Saucers’ and ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still.’ The exhibit, ‘UFOs Reel vs. Real,’ runs through July at Flying Saucers, 306 Pico Blvd. in Santa Monica. For ‘Reel vs. Real,’ Day also plucked images from ‘The Invaders’ TV show and ‘U.F.O.,’ a British cult sci-fi series, and from myriad sci-fi books and magazines in his personal collection. ‘It’s going on a 60-foot wall,’ Day says of his display. ‘It’s a one-off thing for me. I do mostly landscapes and Northwest Indian art and hard-edge painting. ‘I won’t only have the paintings, I’ll have movie posters and information to go along with the paintings,’ he says. The infamous McMinnville saucer and Roswell are also referenced in ‘Reel vs. Real.’ When asked to name his favorite sci-fi flicks, he offers ”War of the Worlds’ and ‘Forbidden Planet”those two are very interesting for that period in the early 1950s.’ In back-door fashion, Day, in interpreting the cosmic scenes, got to keep his hand at his first love. ‘Obviously I’ve included my interest in landscapes,’ he says, even if those ‘landscapes’ may be lunar surfaces. ‘It’s kind of a total effect.’ Originally from East Hanover, New Jersey, Day moved to Los Angeles in 1968 to attend Art Center College of Design. ‘I’ve had a long designing career,’ he says, working for a design firm based in City of Commerce. Jaime Geller, the jewelry store on Antioch, was one of his clients. But recently, he quit the company. ‘I’m finished with that career, I’m a full-time painter now,’ he says. ‘My first love is painting.’ Previously a resident of Culver City, Day has lived in the Alphabet streets since 1982. He made the move to the Palisades after ‘I worked on [the interior design of] a children’s store here in town [the now-defunct Rainbow Patch children’s boutique on 873 Via de la Paz], and I told my wife of 41 years, Jeanne, this is a nice little community. So we looked for a home here.’ The Days raised two children here: daughter Tiffany, who today is a psychologist living in Fontana, and son Brandon, who works for St. John’s Hospital as a lead dispatcher/supervisor and lives in Redondo Beach. Both of their offspring attended PaliHi. Day has exhibited his art before but he says his previous art shows ‘usually aren’t as themed as this one is. I plan to do more theming in the future.’ But for Day, the future and past are currently colliding in ‘UFOs Reel vs. Real.’ Contact: 310-868-UFO1; visit facebook.com/flyingsaucercafe.
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