La Valencia Birdwoman
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Dimensions: 34" x 26.25" deluxe on canvas, 24" x 18.5" on paper
Medium: Mixed-Media Pigment Print
Edition Size: 195 deluxe edition, 850 standard edition
Availability: available
Year of Release: 2026
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Wherever she is going, she has every intention of making an entrance.
La Valencia Birdwoman
She moves with the practiced confidence of someone accustomed to a full social calendar. Her long beak reaches forward. Her jewelry swings behind her. Her carefully arranged feathers, fitted ensemble, and decidedly impractical shoes suggest that this is no ordinary afternoon stroll. Even her hands seem to tell a story. One appears to hold the world politely at a distance while the other trails behind with theatrical ease. And Ted has captured all of her elegance and nuance in this inspired drawing.
Around her, the loose architecture of La Jolla rises and recedes. Rooftops gather along the hillside while a stairway climbs toward a neighboring building, one that resembles the architecture of the famed La Valencia Hotel.
Perched above the Pacific Ocean along Prospect Street, La Valencia Hotel has been part of La Jolla’s social landscape for nearly a century. Opened in 1926 and officially named La Valencia in 1928, its Spanish architecture, tiled roofs, courtyards, and signature pink exterior earned it the nickname “The Pink Lady.”
Although Ted didn’t socialize in public regularly, he would frequent the famed La Valencia, taking meetings there, gathering with friends, and spending time in the hotel’s celebrated Whaling Bar.
La Valencia also gave Ted something every artist needs: people to observe. Artists, entertainers, travelers, and La Jolla socialites passed through its doors as morning meetings became lunches and lunches became cocktails. It is easy to imagine the La Valencia Birdwoman among them, stepping out for one engagement while already anticipating the next.