To and From the City of Angels

Where palm trees lined the streets…

So I just got back from a short work/vacation trip to Los Angeles.  Needless to say, it was a much needed trip and getaway, as it’s been just a tad dreary and gray in Vancouver this summer (although there is blue sky outside right now…but I’m busy updating my blog!).

I went down to LA to visit friends but also to put work into the Chain Letter exhibition.  Let’s just say it was a little bit of madness.  I arrived at the gallery for set up only to have to wait three hours to “install” my work.  By the time I was at the front of the line, we were number 855…or something along those lines.  Here’s an article I found about the exhibition, described as “Artmageddon” on the LA Weekly website.

1 hour into the 3 hour line up

I exhibited a small piece (so many people brought gigantic sculptures!) titled 200 Wishes.  It was essentially a stack of 200 postcards that I had created the image for and printed, stacked neatly on a wooden block.  A bit of a departure from some of my other work, perhaps, but still dealing with ideas of nostalgia and love.  I’ll write a bit more on this piece in a follow up blog post to come later this week, but in a meantime, here’s a picture of the piece:

200 Wishes (Photo credit: Simon M. Benedict)

All in all, it was a fun experience.  The exhibition looked great as a whole…more of an art piece by the curators than by the thousand or so artists, as it was hard to see many peoples’ works as there just wasn’t enough space to walk in the galleries.  I also got to visit the MOCA and LACMA, and it was nice to be able to submerse myself in art and then go to the beach and back and forth for a few days.  Fun!

Now for a little LA photo diary:

Root beer float on a hot day. Yum!
Basking in the sun at the LACMA
Rodin's sculptures didn't look so pained in the LA sunshine next to a busy road…
People swimming by the Santa Monica Pier
Looking off the Santa Monica Pier onto a crowded beach
My friend Nathan Lam Vuong's stylish sock & shoe style…

Check out Lam’s work here.

And my other friend Simon M. Benedict's sockless shoe style…

Check out Simon’s work here.