and Jean Ariss accompanied Ricketts and Steinbeck on an excursion to Mexico to collect marine specimens. His account of the trip, including numerous sketches, were published in his 1988 book Inside Cannery Row: Sketches from the Steinbeck Era (Lexikos) which offers a rare insight into the obstinate but charming Steinbeck, who himself wrote of one such journey in the book The Log from the Sea of Cortez. Bruce Ariss was a renaissance man, but primarily an artist, producing hundreds of works of art during his long career. One of his most noted works is titled Lower Alvarado Street, completed in 1936. Ariss' artwork was influenced by Diego Rivera; Ariss claimed that Rivera told him that a woodblock carving of him by Ariss was the best portrait that any artist had ever done of him. Unfortunately, many of Ariss's oil paintings and sketches were destroyed with his house in the 1990 fire. 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. These included John Steinbeck, Ed Ricketts, Adelle Davis, August Gay, Joseph Campbell, Robinson Jeffers, Francis Whitaker, Salvador Dalí, Jean Varda, Ellwood Graham and Barbara Graham (Judy Diem), Hank Ketcham, Henry Miller, Ward Moore and Raylyn Moore, John and Ching Smithback, Eldon Dedini, Bob Bradford, Paul McReyonlds, Arch Garner, Ephraim Doner, Eric Barker, Gus Arriola, Richard Farina, Les Gorn, and Gordon Newell. Ariss painted a number murals, many under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a federal program set up to create public works to relieve unemployment. Some of his murals can still be found throughout Monterey County. Working with August Gay in 1934, they created a giant WPA 150' x 10' mural for the Pacific Grove High School library depicting the Monterey coastline as it looked at the time, from the Point Pinos Lighthouse to the Old Customhouse, with Cannery Row its focal point. Unfortunately, the mural was destroyed by fire in 1946. Ariss also painted a number of storefronts, many for the 1949 centennial, including those for Monterey Hardware, Poppy Coffee Shop and Monterey Studio on Alvadaro Street in Monterey. His mural across from Doc Ricketts' lab on Cannery Row is a current tourist attraction. Ariss painted the murals on each store at the Carmel Valley Village to resemble a Spanish village. Byington Ford developed the Carmel Valley Village