Bill Zacha (born 1920 in Garland, Texas, died March 18, 1998 at Fort Bragg, California) was an artist and entrepreneur who founded th
Mendocino Art Center
in Mendocino, California and by doing so started the artistic revival of Mendocino.... Zacha studied architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, spent four years in the United States Navy entertaining troops as a writer and actor during World War II, and later made unsuccessful forays into the priesthood and drama. Returning to Berkeley to continue his architecture studies, he supported himself as a

cable car Cable car most commonly refers to the following cable transportation systems: * Aerial lift, such as aerial tramways and gondola lifts, in which the vehicle is suspended in the air from a cable ** Aerial tramway ** Chairlift ** Gondola lift *** Bi ...

conductor, but dropped out after injuring his right hand in a fall. He moved to Washington, DC, where he studied art at the Corcoran Gallery and learned to paint left-handed. While in Texas in 1953 for a Houston exhibit of paintings he had made in Italy, he met his future wife Jennie Malone, a fashion designer. He then moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area and worked as a mail carrier while he earned a teaching credential at San Francisco State University.The Zachas
, Kelley House Museum, retrieved 2010-06-20. The Zachas moved to Mendocino, then nearly a ghost town, in 1957, and Zacha took a job as a high school teacher. Hearing about plans to build a trailer park on the former Preston estate (one of the settings for the 1955 film '' East of Eden'', but badly damaged in a subsequent fire), he borrowed $50 for a down payment,. bought the estate for $5500, and in 1959 founded the Mendocino Art Center on the site.A bit of art center history
Mendocino Art Center, retrieved 2010-06-20. Zacha also ran a combination laundry/art gallery and restored many other buildings in Mendocino. In 1964, Zacha traveled to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, where he met Japanese artist

Tōshi Yoshida was a Japanese printmaking artist associated with the '' sōsaku-hanga'' movement, and son of '' shin-hanga'' artist Hiroshi Yoshida. Childhood One of Yoshida's legs was paralysed during his early childhood. Not being able to attend school, ...

. Yoshida taught at the Mendocino Art Center in 1971, and after returning to Japan founded an art center in

Miasa, Nagano former Miasa Town Hall was a village located in Kitaazumi District, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. As of 2003, the village had an estimated population of 1,255 and a density of 18.95 persons per km². The total area was 66.21 km². On January 1 ...

based on his experiences in Mendocino. Zacha's friendship with Yoshida became the basis for a sister city relationship between Mendocino and Miasa, formalized in 1980.MSCA history
, Mendocino Sister Cities Association, retrieved 2010-06-20.. Zacha's series of 55

serigraph Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mesh ...

s depicting the

Tōkaidō road Tōkaidō may refer to: * Taiheiyō Belt (also Tōkaidō corridor), the megalopolis in Japan extending from Ibaraki Prefecture to Fukuoka Prefecture * Tokaido (company), a Japanese company that manufactures karate uniforms, belts, and related produ ...

in Japan is collected in his book ''Tokaido Journey'' (1985).

References

Further reading