Helms Bakery and the Los Angeles Experience

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For over 35 years, Helms Bakery trucks wove through Los Angeles, delivering bread and joy to doorsteps, a cherished thread in the “Southern California Experience.” Nearby, in Pasadena, NASA planned the Apollo 11 mission, and in 1969, Helms earned the honor of baking the first loaf delivered to the Moon. Yet, that same year, Helms vanished—a beloved icon gone. How could something so integral to our lives just disappear? Today, we face a similar loss with NASA’s Space Shuttle program. These symbols of wonder, which sparked our imaginations with every orbit, have faded into memory, leaving us to question: how do such things vanish?

In Monopoly Syndrome, I explore this paradox of permanence and loss. The painting’s old wooden windmill, its blades turning endlessly, mirrors the repetitive routes of Helms’ trucks and NASA’s spacecraft—familiar, comforting, yet fleeting. Like these icons, my own life followed a repetitive rhythm. For 15 years, I thrived as Bank of America’s Senior Taxable Bond Trader in L.A., enduring a grueling three-hour daily commute. Day after day, year after year, I asked God, “Is this it? Am I trapped in an endless Monopoly game?” Then, in 2005, my career ended abruptly when Bank of America’s acquisition of Fleet Boston moved my job—and 89 others—to Massachusetts. A guppy swallowed a shark, and I was left asking, “God, how could this happen?”

Helms, NASA, my career—all gone, leaving holes in the fabric of life. Now, in Austin, Texas, I’ve traded Monopoly for Chutes and Ladders—a simpler, humbler game. Through this painting, I reflect on how we cling to the illusion of permanence, only to be pushed by God’s will into new chapters. We may protest the change, but it’s often the answer to our prayers.