Bruce Ariss

Bruce Wallace Ariss, Jr. (October 10, 1911 – September 11, 1994) was an American painter, muralist, writer, illustrator, editor as well as theater and set designer, amateur playwright and actor, and overall icon on the Monterey Peninsula, California.

[3] With this relatively large amount of money, Bruce, a painter, and his spouse Jean, a writer, decided to take an 18-month "honeymoon" on the Monterey Peninsula to pursue their creative efforts.

To augment their savings, the Arisses took over the editorship of The Monterey Beacon, an experimental local literary magazine, and published John Steinbeck’s "The Snake" in 1934.

[5] Years later Bruce Ariss created artwork and served as editor for a local magazine What’s Doing on the Monterey Peninsula.

This evolved over the next fifty years, mostly with scrap and donated materials, into a three-story 20-plus room dwelling to meet their changing preferences and the growing needs of their five children.

Bruce Ariss was a renaissance man, but primarily an artist, producing hundreds of works of art during his long career.

For over six decades the Arisses were central to the Monterey Peninsula's diverse and ever-changing community of artists and writers who often passed through Ed Ricketts' lab on Cannery Row.

[2] These included John Steinbeck, Ed Ricketts, Adelle Davis, August Gay,[9] Joseph Campbell, Robinson Jeffers, Francis Whitaker, Salvador Dalí, Jean Varda, Ellwood Graham[10] and Barbara Graham (Judy Diem),[11] Hank Ketcham, Henry Miller, Ward Moore and Raylyn Moore,[12] John and Ching Smithback,[13] Eldon Dedini, Bob Bradford,[2] Paul McReyonlds,[14] Arch Garner,[15] Ephraim Doner, Eric Barker,[16] Gus Arriola, Richard Farina, Les Gorn,[17] and Gordon Newell.

Ariss and his good friend Angelo Di Girolamo [23] were instrumental in the founding, design and building in 1950 of the Monterey's Wharf Theater.

In 1958, Ariss designed an economy sedan with innovative features such as a sliding door, front-wheel drive and modular components.