First Wave Gallery
My business partner, Alexandra Quijano and I own this 15′ classic mid-century trailer. The trailer’s name is Jewel, given by the manufacturer, Trailer Industries, in El Monte CA in 1954. Alexandra and I have transformed the inside of Jewel into a unique gallery space to display works of art. As of January 2023, we are ready to roll!
The adventure with the trailer began in Aug. 15, 2017, during an art show that Alexander Q., Janet G. and I were in. The title of the event was “Changing the Atmosphere”. As we helped each other pack up, Janet and Alex started telling how they were seeing the 3 of us working together as artists, eventually sharing an amazing event with our art work in a large New York gallery. We began meeting regularly after that, getting to know each other better, encouraging and praying for one another and our art work, and moving forward in making our craft.
At some point Alex told Janet & I of a long held dream she had of owning a vintage trailer and turning it into a traveling art gallery. She was getting ready to make that dream a reality & asked if it was something we might also be interested in. With no hesitation we said, “Yes”!
In April, 2018, Alex and I went to look at a vintage 1954 trailer at Mel’s Trailers, Inc. in Orange, Ca. We could see that the trailer looked weathered, faded and forgotten. There was some water damage, a few holes in the exterior and plenty of dents. The plus side was that the trailer had a great design, was on a solid trailer and we could afford her. We bought her a couple of weeks later and immediately started taking 5 coats of paint off the exterior, then gutting the inside. I started researching the steps it would take to restore the water damaged framing and floor, add a new fan, solar, new electrical, insulation etc., etc. and ha, we had been a little naïve, right?! We realized we didn’t have the skills, space or time to accomplish our goal for her. So the research began to find a professional restoration company.
Toward the end of 2020 we decided on a business in Granada Hills, Ca. called Retro-Odyssey. When they finished other projects and were able to take us, we gingerly moved our sweet trailer 1 ½ hrs. up the freeway to their yard. And 8 months later brought her back home to my house. We then tried to register her and get insurance. And with a temporary registration, in July 2022, we entered our trailer at an art event as a “preview debut” of our First Wave Gallery. We really had fun and felt it was a great beginning!
