Sure, it’s cool… but can you fit it in your garage?

Freeloader that I am, over the weekend I got a brief admission-free peek at the La Jolla Classic Car Show, which takes place every spring at La Jolla Cove.  Tickets for this event usually cost $40 or so, which seems kind of silly considering that the show is setup in the center of a small park, surrounded by a public walkway that loops around the exhibition area “protected” by a low white picket fence.  This means that anyone can stroll by and gaze across the grass at all the vehicles on display, completely free of charge.  Of course, you can’t sit in the luxurious interiors or inspect the meticulously spotless engines, but to that I say… feh!

I strategically timed a walk to the beach to coincide with closing time, at which point I, and all the other not-so-classic-car riffraff, was able to cruise through the main entrance without a ticket and enjoy what was left of the show as the tents were coming down cars were carefully wheeled away.

So what did I see?

An honest-to-god blue metallic and chrome Tucker!  You remember the 1988 film starring Jeff Bridges, yes?  With a production run of only 51 cars, the innovative Tucker was way ahead of its time, but doomed to fail in the face of strong opposition from the rest of the automotive industry.  It was pretty cool to see one in person!  And here it is!

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Pretty cool, yes?

Also on display during my free time in the exhibition was a Delage, which is kind of a French Rolls Royce, though I’m sure by simply typing that I have offended both Brits and French alike.  To my eyes, it looked like the kind of car the villain in a James Bond movie would drive.

How about those fancy pipes coming out of the engine canopy?

One thing is for sure about these classic cars… they are monsters!  Sure, it would be fun to own something like this for slow cruises up and down the block, but good luck squeezing all that metal into your garage!

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Mother

“Mother” by Ana Bagayan

Just above is a brand new painting I’ve added to my collection, Mother by the super talented Ana Bagayan, which is currently on display for all to see at Billy Shire Fine Arts in Culver City. Over the weekend I made the trek up to LA for the show’s opening reception, which also features the incredible work of Yoko Tanaka and Judith Schaechter. This is a very strong show, with the proverbial “something for everyone” (which isn’t exactly true… there’s only so much “something” that three people can produce, so satisfying “everyone” might be an art-blog exaggeration).

In any case, I liked what I saw, and decided to plunk down a little bit of cash on another painting by Ana Bagayan.

This painting, in it’s cool black oval frame, was the centerpiece of one gallery wall, flanked on either side by six small diamond shaped “baby animal portraits” — the offspring of “Mother” — which was a really cool way to tie together her central theme of mother nature.

Pretty much all of Ana’s paintings were sold, or mostly sold, or close to sold, or almost promised… anyway, all but a couple of paintings sported Red Dots of Purchase, so get on the phone and call the gallery if you want to nab that last painting (if it’s still available, that is).

Next… figuring out where I’ll hang this beautiful piece once I get it home in another month or so!

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“I’m thinking of a number between 1 and 9…”

Taking a quick break from all the hype, er, focus around my exhibit at the Pannikin, I’ve added a new painting to my collection… my very first Shag! Pictured above is “The Mentalist,” one of the new pieces that will be on display at Shag’s upcoming show at Billy Shire Fine Arts. The exhibit —  “Conspicuous Consumption” — opens this coming Saturday with a reception from 7 to 10 PM, and includes over 100 small 6” by 6” paintings of many of the motifs and characters Shag has developed throughout the year. Monkeys, tikis, shriners, willowy babes…they’re all there to be gleefully consumed.

“The Mentalist” is one of six large paintings that will anchor the show (this one is 17” by 30”), and I absolutely love the imagery of a suave 1960’s illusionist performing bar tricks in a swanky cocktail lounge. A fine addition to my home… and now appearing for everyone’s viewing pleasure in the collection section of my site.

And now… back to the focus, er, hype, er, shameless self-promotion.

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A caffeine fueled opening for Vinyl Mysteries

Vinyl Mysteries of the Caffeine Alphabet opened at the Pannikin in La Jolla this past Saturday night on one of the absolute hottest nights of the summer. In spite of the sweltering heat, I had a great time chatting with the folks who came by to see my first solo show, and I spent most of the night psychoanalyzing my own work (which is oddly therapeutic). Thank you to everyone who dropped by — especially my friends Dawn and Mike who travelled all the way from Los Angeles to provide support. Dawn was extra prepared by bringing a video camera. Early in the afternoon, before the evening reception, I took them on a rambling, stumbling tour of the exhibit, which is captured for posterity on video tape. If I get some good footage I’ll see about posting it here so that more people can laugh at my bad socks.

Amanda and Renee, the owners of the Pannikin were really great, giving me free reign of the gallery space to sort of transform their coffee shop into a retro-inspired vinyl wonderland of LP covers, tin robots and wooden blocks. You can see pictures of the framed pieces and the installation here. But just in case you don’t want to bother with a link, how about a couple of quick snapshots?

Lorraine leaps upon the red carpet to get her first delicious taste of paparazzi fame at the 1959 Grammies

Okay, this gives you a nice, general idea of how the show was setup. Oh! But first, allow me to thank my fine assistants — Lin, Jo Anna, Vince and Gunnar — all of whom helped me get everything hung on Friday night (when the temperature threatened to melt the tin from around the sturdy bodies of my robot brigade). Kudos, gold stars and much appreciated thanks for their role in making my show look really great!

On to a little “Gallery Setup Analysis,” so I can point out a few things about how the show was hung. First, in the upper right corner of the above photo you get a peek at the installation that rimmed the main room of the Pannikin (and throughout). The inside of Pannikin is an old, converted bungalow, and the main room is the original living room of the house, featuring a book rail that hangs a foot or so from the low ceiling. Normally, the rail is packed with old books, games, and assorted coffee pots and antique collectables. All the books and games were taken down so that I could line the shelves with vintage, cheesecake-ish, record albums from the 50’s and 60’s, though I chose to leave the coffee pots on one side of the gallery because I thought they complemented the installation quite well. In front of the records I set up robots and wooden blocks, which were used to spell various phrases.

Above: P-H-O-T-O  A-T-O-M-I-C  S-H-A-K-E-D-O-W-N. All told, I think there are around 300 or so blocks in the exhibit.

First up… how about those frames? As always, every piece in the show was matched with a custom frame chosen to fit the mood and style of the photo. In this case, it’s a gleaming gold frame with an inward cast to emphasize the glitz of a Hollywood awards show. Framing costs for the show set me into bankruptcy, but what price art, ya know?  Above the frame you see a pair of wooden blocks “13” which match up to the titles and prices on the art works sheet for the exhibit. We went through a lot of putty Friday night… which I hope holds up under the hot month of September! Over the weekend I stopped into the gallery a couple of times and none of the blocks had fallen off the wall and into someone’s latte, but I still took the opportunity to press them all firmly into place.

To the right of each piece we mounted the show title cards, which were custom made for the exhibit. The tags are mounted onto recordable CDs that mimic retro vinyl records — grooves and everything! (Thanks to Kristy D. for the tip on finding these specialized boutique recordable CDs.)

I prepared a set of “coffee robots” for the exhibit that were placed in various places standing guard over the artful proceedings.  Here’s a close up of the coffee robot in the above picture, along with a tower of blocks.

I liked the image of tin robots emerging from a cup of coffee beans, an element featured in the title piece for the show, and repeated with these simple miniature sculptures.

I provided pretty simple “opening reception dining fare” for all my guests — wine, water, juice and chocolate — served from atop and within vintage record players.

Yum! There were also stickers on hand with images of the featured piece — The magnificent minds of medicine gather round to examine Nastasscia from the inside out — which (in a spectacular stacked frame) was definitely the hit of the evening!

Hmmm… actually, on second thought, the most popular hit of the evening were my business cards. So good that no one could take just one. With nine different designs and each a mini work of art, most people opted for a generous collection, and I was very happy to oblige.

I hope you have a chance to visit the Pannikin to take in the show in person, sit down, have a bite to eat and enjoy their fabulous coffee. The exhibit will be up through the month of September. Have fun!!

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A Mona Lisa for my collection

Mona and the metal men Mark Bryan, 2006 44” x 24”

Happy New Year everyone!

I’ve taken the past couple of weeks off from updating my site, but there’s never any rest for my various creative efforts.  Why, that would simply be dull! During my time away from the web I’ve continued to explore various writing, photo and art endeavors, which I’ll be bringing to my site in due time. The first bit of news to share is the acquisition of a fantastic new painting, as seen above, Mona and the metal man, by Mark Bryan, which will be on display at Carlotta’s Passion in Eagle Rock between February 24 and April 1, 2007. Mark’s work is featured in the latest issue of Juxtapoz, which includes an insightful interview and images of several Mark Bryan paintings — including Mona covering a full page. Though I’d seen bits and pieces of Mark’s work at various group shows, I had no idea of the depth or scope of his efforts until reading the article and visiting his web site. A visit to the site is highly recommended!

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Living with art — Day Seven

Upstairs Lounge

Guest Room

Hallway

Master Bedroom

View First Floor

The next stop on my Living With Art tour is the upstairs lounge, which is actually just a fancy way of referring to a large unused bedroom with great potential. My plan is to turn this room into a place upstairs where I can hang out, read and watch movies. I really don’t want to put a TV in my bedroom, so… rather than go high-tech where I should be sleeping, all the gizmos and whatnots will end up in the upstairs lounge — just s short walk through the sunroom that connects both rooms.

Don’t mind the dust, this room is still very much “under construction.”

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Living with art — Day Five

Living Room

Dining Room

Hallway

Entry 

Library

View Second Floor

Rounding out the downstairs portion of the “Living with Art” tour is the downstairs hallway.  It’s not a very long hall, and you can pretty much miss the couple of pieces of art in a blink, but they are especially nice pieces worth a moment or two to stop and take a wistful gaze of appreciation.

So click the link below and step inside!

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Literary in La Jolla

For those of you who don’t know, I live in the wonderful little seaside village of La Jolla, California — a little bump of a peninsula that peeks out into the Pacific with water on three sides. The village was originally founded as an out-of-the-way artists colony with a comfortable pace and a somewhat bohemian sensibility. Paint a little, write a little, surf a little. Through the years it’s been the home of glamorous actors and actresses, socialites, celebrities and corporate thieves. It’s also been the inspirational scene of some world renown writers.

For example, L. Frank Baum, though never a resident of La Jolla, modeled magical seascapes of his Oz books on the rocky cliffs, beaches and caves in and around La Jolla Cove.

Come, now, on a tour of the homes for some of the great literary talents who have called La Jolla home…

Our first visit is to, perhaps, the best of the bunch…  Dr. Seuss!

Dr. Seuss’s home sits at the very top of Mount Soledad looking down on all of La Jolla, with 270 degree views of the Pacific. Many of his best loved books were written and illustrated in the second floor tower in the center of the above picture. The house is so prominent in the landscape of La Jolla that it can be seen from vantage points throughout the village, including from the sunroom deck outside my master bedroom. Dr. Seuss passed away in 1991, but his widow Audrey Geisel still lives in this house high atop the world.

Leaving Dr. Seuss’s house, we wind down Mount Soledad towards La Jolla Cove and arrive at the home of horror writer Anne Rice.

Anne moved to La Jolla in 2005 and lived in this house for only a year before relocating elsewhere in Southern California. La Jolla, she said in published interviews, was wonderful, but too cold, which is sort of true — my house is freezing during the winter, but then I try to endure the winter without turning on my heat. Anne still owns the house, which is currently on the market for a hefty 8-figure asking price. I would imagine that Anne could have afforded to push the thermostat a little past 68 degrees….

The next stop on our tour is a mile or so down the hill from my house — the ocean front home of mystery writer Raymond Chandler.

As you can see, the current owners are busy turning what once was a cool single story mid-century modern into a two story MacMansion — though they are, supposedly, preserving Chandler’s study and the bathroom where he once shot himself. I peeked inside and the whole place looked pretty ripped to pieces. So much for history.  Nice view though… take a look.

Our final stop on this tour of La Jolla literary destinations is…

My house!

Yes, tucked behind all those trees and shrubs is where I write my stories and work on my photography. The house was built in 1927 and stands as one of the oldest “mansions” in La Jolla, though by today’s standards my house is one of the more modest homes on my street. It shares a lineage, of sorts, with Dr. Seuss, as both homes were designed by the same architect (Thomas Shepherd, though roughly 20 years apart).

My mostly-as-of-yet unpublished work may not share quite the same “oomph” as the other literary luminaries in La Jolla… but look who’s living in the historical landmark, hmm?

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New painting and drawing added to the Collection

Two new wonderful pieces have added to my art collection — Jungle Radio by Ryan Heshka, and Salve Regina by Daniel Martin Diaz. The Heshka painting is currently on display in “Triple Threat,” showing at Roq la Rue in Seattle.  The current photo of Salve Regina doesn’t really do the piece justice (hopefully, I’ll correct that once I get the piece home). In person, the drawing is fairly large and wonderfully detailed, rendered in Derwent Pencil and Mixed Media.  The drawing is part of Daniel Martin Diaz’s “Apocalyptic Resurrection” showing on display at Billy Shire Fine Arts through March 29th. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, this is definitely a show worth seeing in person!

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