Salinas, California: Giant Roadside Art of John Cerney

Found these at a vegetable stand. Fun cut outs and great produce.

Quite a number of cutouts by Salinas artist John Cerney pepper the Salinas area and other parts of California as well as the country such as the Phoenix Zoo.

The Abbott Street Auto Body auto accident scene created in 2000 has been moved as the shop has moved from that area.

A few of the cutouts depict specific people. The cutout of Bob Lyman, a field man for Crown for over 50 years, was honored with this painting on his 80th birthday in 1995. It is currently located off 68 towards Monterey having been moved from 101. Another cutout that depicts a known person, or should I say known animal, is outside the City Of Salinas Animal Services at 144 Hitchcock Rd. It depicts the shelter's mascot of 6 years: Ansel the Maine Coon. The cutout was created in 2007. A hillside style cutout (it lays flat on the hillside and is seen at an angle) from 2003 features Suzy the dog and can be seen at the entrance to the SPCA on Highway 68 between Monterey & Salinas.

Retired runner Lise' Belton of Salinas was the model for the cutout that is displayed at the finish area of the Big Sur Marathon every year.

A small cutout of a milk cow created in 1994 and painted Olia Polovneff can be seen on the way to Prunedale off 101. The cutout shows dairy owner John Schoch painting spots on the cow. In the past the field held the Schoch Dairy's herd, but now only holds three unexplained Longhorns. The dairy herd of 110 is usually found back up the hill.

And further up 101 past the San Bentio county line is a barn decorated to resemble a old ball park outfield with with two outfielders, one freestanding. The "Enjoy the Game" barn has been on going work since 1985 when it was a car theme entitled "Enjoy the Ride" before becoming a baseball theme in 1991 with the most recent update in 2005. The scene is reminiscent of the Dodger outfield during Bobby Thomson's home run.

Iowa Landscape from 1997 was moved from its Iowa home to a frame shop in Salinas in 1999.

There are several of those large lifelike paintings/die cut billboards, around the Salinas CA area. I think the artist is from the same area. They are mostly of families/farmers...there is a car crash scene complete with a police man writing a ticket. Believe me, this has fooled me from the corner of my eye several times. The crash scene is "in town" in front of a body shop, but most of the billboards are on the outskirts of town, in all directions. They look very realistic, like photos, but are paintings. And all are jumbo extra size, so the people look like giants. I remember reading that the artist has been commissioned to do these things all around the country, but I've never seen any others.