My Voyage to Whittier! Where's that??

On my way out to Whittier about a month ago, I thought to myself was "This is sad, I was born and raised in Los Angeles and I have never been to Whittier". We're practically neighbors. This first expedition to that far off land began as a "friend add" on Facebook, A while back, I was suggested to add "Casita Del Pueblo" by a friend, seeing as my current style of art, (Dia De Los Muertos) would do well there. I sent the owner, Yoli a message about meeting with her to show her some of my pieces.

 she agreed and I was off. The store is a well sized gallery and shop in one, 100% of what is sold there are original handmade things by local artists! i took a few original paintings of mine to show her and she liked them so much that she offered me a booth space in the "Uptown Whittier's 2011 Dia De Los Muertos street festival". I was honored! This would be the first festival i had displayed at! Yoli put me in touch with a guy out there that would make prints for me on good quality paper, so i ordered a big box of them and was ready for the festival. I arrived Sunday morning around 10 am and set up, my mom came with me as my assistant.

 The morning was beautiful! Crisp and slightly windy. I had two tables on which i spread out my prints. I then hung my original paintings on "A frames" that i made from white wire shelves and zip ties that i purchased from Home Depot. I also brought my face paints, figuring i might make a little extra cash painting kids faces.

At the start of the festival, a procession of Shamen walked through the entirety of the area with incense performing an ancient ritual of cleansing and renewing energy.

 Any one that knows me, knows that i am not religious nor a believer in the supernatural but this ritual  had a placebo effect on me. I actually felt positive energy after they had passed my booth.

As people started walking past my booth, it soon became apparent to me that i would be definitely be doing face painting by the crowd of kids that were asking me how much it was to paint theirs.

i put my mom to work selling my prints while i settled in to what would be a long day of face painting.

 i had decided against renting a canopy, which saved me some money but by noon, when the sun high overhead and I was sweating buckets, i realized that i had made a huge mistake so i walked over to the dollar store and bought a hat which helped just a little. meanwhile the crowd was growing...

After a while of painting faces, i had a little girl ask me if i could paint her face to resemble one of my paintings! I felt so honored, she chose my painting of Tina!

 

 a little while later i got to paint the face of a little one by the name of Mason. I work with kids for a living so I am familiar with how to approach them in various situations. Normally when face painting little ones tend to squirm and flinch a bit,

 

this little dude was a pleasure to paint!

 

He was all into it and calm throughout the whole process!

He and his brother Prestin were by far two of my favorite kids to paint that day.

It was so surreal to see people walking around with my designs on their faces.

 

all the time i had been selling prints here and there, i had the chance to meet a few of those people..

At the end of the day i had made a bit more than i had put into this event so i was very pleased. I hope to build a lasting relationship with Casita Del Pueblo, in fact I have confirmed with Yoli that i will be  debuting my newest series "Paper Cranes" sometime early 2012! and with that Whittier is now another familiar place in Los Angeles,

Thank you so much Yoli and Casita Del Pueblo!

Now where is Downey?

Beluga whales hanging from trees WTF?!

Several weeks ago I was part of CHLA's booth at the Beverly Hills Affair in the Garden art show, In my previous blog, i talked about the amazing job that HARK does on behalf of the art and music department at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. After my enlightening conversation with the folks at Lincoln, who had a booth and a car displayed as art there, I started walking around and take in the art which took a while because believe me, art is not lacking at this event, there are 4 full blocks dedicated to this event and each block filled to the brim with art.

Gabe Leonard and I

 The first artist that i went to see was an old favorite of mine, Gabe Leonard. The first painting i ever saw of his was a portrait of the LA River seen from the bottom looking up at the expanse of one of the bridges that crosses over it. Growing up in Silverlake, I had spent lots of afternoons in the Atwater potion of the river looking at all the graffiti on the bridges, the dense forest of trees and bamboo that grows out of the river at only 2 parts, this area and up by the Sepulveda dam Where they filmed a sequence for "Drive". Gabe has an amazing way of portraying expression with color and brush stroke, his subjects jump off the canvas weather it be a portrait of a star of the silver screen or a 1930's mobster or a classic rock legend. Two of his newest series of paintings that I really loved are the Wild West and Pirates! I had a pirate weekend at the 2011 Buccaneer days on Catalina Island about a month ago and ever since pirates have been on my radar (I may even be one for Halloween)

Gabe Leonard - "Live by the Sword"

 His pirate paintings spoke to me, as  lover of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland, it was like an extension of that world, his figures frozen in the most dynamic of poses, each painting telling it's own rich, multi-layed epic story. His Wild West series came in a close second, ranging from portraits of infamous outlaws and legendary lawmen to scenes of bar fights and shootouts, the closest depiction i can imagine of what that time may had been like.

Antonio Pelayo and I

    The next artist that i headed over to see, i had been wanting to meet for a while now, i had friended Antonio Pelayo a few months back on Facebook and admired his work, then recently i got to see his work up close. At the top of Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale CA there is an art gallery and museum shop, the current show is entitled "Adelante! Mexican American artists: 1960's and beyond" and Antonio is one of the artists in this show.

Antonio Pelayo - "Historia sin tiempo"

I was very impressed with his level of detail and craftsmanship so when i saw his name on the program of the Art fair that morning, i knew i'd have to go meet him. Antonio's work has a classic beauty to it but it's when you look at them up close that you see the exquisite pencil work, his portraits of Frida Khalo, and El Santo among others are awe inspiring, the range of light and dark that he gets with pencil is amazing. I had the privilege to show along side him a few weeks later at the Hollywood Forever, Dia De Los Muertos festival (blog coming up).

YaYa Chou - "Beluga's Journey"

   On my way through the art fair, I stopped in my tracks, there were Beluga whales hanging from a tree, I was intrigued at once,  i asked around who the artist was, and i was directed to a petite asian lady sitting in a lawn chair.

YaYa and I

 YaYa Chou is a graduate from CalArts and a breath of fresh air. Her beluga whale installation is called Beluga's journey. This whimsical sight had many admirers, she also makes sculptures with gummi bears! how awesome is that!!

Harold Pickern and I

  After YaYa, I met Harold Pickern. What struck me about his work was the mix of ultra realism mixed with subtle abstraction, his subjects center around beautifully rendered dilapidated autos against the back drop of the American heartland. The painting of his that we took a photo in front of was his newest, it was an R.V. with Occupy LA phrases spray painted all over it, pretty cool...

Anja and I

   I next saw the work of Anja Van Herle, her  paintings of close up faces of women reminded me of my series "Painted Rituals" they are beautifully stylized against a white backdrop and very reminiscent of  the 80's and her prints are unique as she adds some actual paint into them by way of brush strokes into the hair of each.

Artist Cindy Jackson next to her piece "Big Yo Yo Man"

    A sculpture of a man curled up and split in half and in the middle, a rope making him look like a giant human Yoyo, caught my eye next. This is the art of Cindy Jackson, an amazing sculpture artist,  her sculptures are strongly rooted in classical human figures it's like a classical painting come to life!

Kristal and Brooke and a little one

I settled in to listen to my awesome firends Brooke (Music Therapist) and Crystal (music Therapy Intern)who are from CHLA, play tunes with some kids,  behind them was the second HARK booth where Lori was busy painting with some little visitors.

Lori getting down with the paint!

It was a great day I was so glad to meet all of these artists that weekend and have been inspired since then. I'm looking forward to seeing more of their art! Now,  going out to buy some gummi bears...

Why is a car company "displaying" at an art show?

Last weekend, I was out at the Beverly Hills "Affair in the Gardens" Art show, I am there with the Group HARK, representing Children's Hospital Los Angeles, where I work as an Artist in Residence.

 HARK (Healing Arts Reaching Kids), is a guild made up of some amazing women who volunteer at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and have seen first hand the difference that Art and Music makes in he lives of children in the hospital. They work diligently to raise money for much needed art materials and music equiptment for the Mark Taper and Johnny Mercer Artists Program, a program that is only partially funded, the rest coming from privated funds and donations.

Year after year, HARK has been a part of the Beverly Hills affair in the garden art show, helping to make a difference in the lives of sick children and their families selling one of a kind artwork done by children at the hospital. They also sell place mats, cards and puppy bandanas with childrens art on them.

 They even sell painted ceramics and original canvas paintings created by the children it is because of these ladies that the art and music program has been able to thrive at the hospital and I am proud to be a part the the program and to be able to help them as a "face" for the program

I arrived at 8 am to help set up the booths and hang art work, as i passed one of the houses on the way from my car to the display area, i was reminded of a joke a comedian had said years ago " you know why all the houses in Beverly hills have two driveway entrances?

Because when you drive in and find out how much they cost, you can drive fight back out again. Once I got to the booth area the food trucks were already lining up and more would be on the way, Beverly hills finest were sporting their eco-friendly, side and of course, coffee was brewing 

  

while setting up, i noticed across the street one of the booths was a big display for the car company Lincoln. My first thought was, why is a car company displaying a car at an art show? i went over a few hours later to find out,  I met with Shari from Grow Marketing

The first question that i asked her was "so where's all the Lincoln art? this being an art show and all" she laughed and began to tell me about Grow was involved with Lincoln booth, they essentially created the concept for and built the display which was impressive to say the least, i consisted of a mock drivers seat where one could learn about Lincoln's new voice response system in their new MKZ hybrid, there was also an opportunity to test drive them and while waiting for the test drive one could lounge in comfortable designer seats  have some ice cold water  in Lincoln brand bottles. so how exactly does a car display fit into an art show? Is the car itself a piece of art? Because the slippery slope principle tells us that eventually banks, washing machine companies and life insurance companies will be setting up shop at art festivals. I spoke with one of the representatives of Lincoln who gave a lot of facts and figures on the hybrid, what i took from it was In the case of Lincoln, it was more an unveiling of their new hybrid, a re-introduction and tie-in to the art community, One art related thing that Lincoln was doing that weekend, was picking one artist from all the exhibitors to award based on use of materials, creativeness etc. which makes sense. 

Personally, no artist that i know would be able to comfortably afford a new Lincoln, they're all in debt, living in a single apt and can only afford PBR's when frequenting the local bars and I doubt that this display would be set up at an art festival in the inner city, but i could be wrong. I decided to give Lincoln the benefit of the doubt and test drove the new Hybrid, boy was it smooth! It handled like a dream! i was very comfortable driving it. I am presumably their target market, a younger, hip, artistic Angelino and to that all i can say is, despite the ride itself, there was no ipod plug to be found anywhere in the car! Just sayin... After my test drive I was given a voucher for a free beer at the beer area and a thumb drive in the shape of a Lincoln car key, now even if i can't afford a Lincoln, i can act as if i do! and to that i say Thank you Lincoln.

part two up soon!

Holy Mole! Occupy LA and double standards

Last weekend i was part of the 4th annual Mole festival at Olvera Street. i was invited by Mariluz Gonalez owner of Vesper Public Relations. I had worked with her in the past, when i had a Day of the Dead show at the now defunct "Coffee Table" cafe in Silverlake, she assisted me in putting out the press release for the show "Monsters Skulls and Pin-Ups" and got me spanish television interviews.

Mariluz and I

 I was particularly excited to be a part of this event because for the first time ever, i had prints made of my art. I had a hell of a time getting there because "CicLAvia" was that same day. I had to criss cross downtown LA going south past the 10 fwy. and back up Alameda ave. once i got there i had to look for parking and was once again, out of luck as Occupy LA was occupying the intersections around Olvera Street. Once i found parking and got to the display area, the festival was in full swing, mariachi groups were belting out tunes, my friend Kamla showed up, to help me set up. I met up with Mariluz and Jose Castillo, an artist I had showed with at the Atwater Village art walk earlier this year. I also met Joel Raul Martinez another local LA artist. Jose's art consists of images beautifully rendered in stamps, the  kind with the date and time, he uses it to create the form and layer in the darks, Joel's work is more street inspired, using an array of media on wood panels to create portraits

Joel

Joel and Jose

We three artists were located in the VIP area which meant that any news interviews that day were held in that area, which was a plus for me because my paintings were used as a backdrop! After a little while various people in the media trickled in and the selling began, I sold 2 instantly and gave a few away to some news reporters. I didn't realize just how many connections i would be making that day, and i was thankful for that;

Denise, Vanessa and I

 I met up with Denise whom i met at a charity event i was a part of earlier this year and she introduced me to Vanessa, who works at the Mexican Consulate. a bit later i met some other people involved at the city level to whom i gave some of my prints. It's nice to be able to have prints to sell or to to give out as high quality "buisness cards". I got a Mole dish a bit later, Mole is a type of salsa made from the Cocoa bean giving it a creamy velvety chocolaty flavor, it as delicious on chicken as it is being cleaned off the plate with a tortilla. I finished off the meal with a Jarritos soda, one of the sponsors of the event. I met Krista Simmons there, she is a freelance writer for the LA Weekly,who writes her own blog. She was there covering the event. She talked a bit with Mariluz

Krista and Mariluz

 she even did a little Q & A with Jose..

Jose and Krista

 The day was winding down and my mom showed up, just in time! It was nice to chill with her for a while we went out to dinner a bit later

Mom and I
On the way back to my car I snapped this picture-

Occupy LA

The contrast of this homeless lady walking up to where the protesters were reminded me of something my friend Kengikat said about Occupy LA, he said that all of the protesters at Occupy LA were sanctioned by the city to be able to camp out in front of city hall for as long as they needed to stay there. If it were a group of homeless camping out, they would all most likely be arrested, in fact, i wouldn't be surprised that if a homeless person was found to be camping along with the protesters, the would at the very least be asked to leave. The double standards at work was unbelievable. Not that i have anything against Occupy LA  but its just too Ironic that people fighting for some kind of equality are themselves getting special treatment over others in need, Homelessness seems to be something that is ignored in this country, as children we are taught to share and yet as we get older, we do just the opposite. Just something to think about...