Miracle Mile Art Walk

You may have noticed that last week's project went up early.  There was an excellent reason for that:  I had company, in the form of my mother and little sister, in town for the weekend.

We had a lot of fun, but the highlight of the weekend (aside from the excellent company) was probably the Miracle Mile Art Walk.  I was lucky enough to stumble onto the website for the Art Walk about a week before it happened, so I was tremendously excited to be able to get out and visit a number of galleries.  There were over fifty galleries participating, and although we made a valiant effort (made even more impressive by my nine year old sisters epic endurance), we didn't manage to hit anywhere near all of them.  We did manage to hit quite a few though!

First, we visited Edward Cella Art + Architecture, which was an excellent first stop.  Mom's favorite piece was Lynn Aldrich's piece Hydra Hydrant.  It was pretty fascinating, especially since it was constructed from, amongst other things, gutter spouts.  My favorite pieces were Tim Hawkin's Bog series.  I was really impressed with his concept and the construction of his pieces, and thought they were very clever.  Aimee (my little sister) was pretty obsessed with the front desk, which was definitely worth a little obsessing over- it was constructed from layer upon layer of cardboard, creating an undulating surface that brought to mind topographical maps and geological strata.

We then stopped in at the Craft And Folk Art Museum.  I adore this place, because it regularly gets me out of the house to attend Etsy Craft Nights there.  (First Thursday of every month, highly recommended.  This month I went out even though I was dying of the plague and redecorated a pair of shoes so awesomely that I won a brand new pair from bcfootwear.)  I like it so much that I'm a member.  They have some interesting exhibits going on right now.  I particularly liked Máximo González: Playful.  It was a lot of fun to view, and I liked his use of materials.  He worked a lot with devalued currency, and my favorite piece (the name of which has escaped me) was one that used the currency in a less pictorial manner to create this graphic structure that was built off the wall.  

We watched Kent Twitchell paint on the Berlin Wall Monument as well.  I'd actually passed by the wall a number of times before, but seeing the artist work on it was pretty awesome.

Next we cut up to La Brea Avenue to check out the Loft At Liz's, which I think was my favorite gallery of the night.  It's above the owner's antique hardware store (which is equally amazing- I just wanted to spend all my money on all the glorious fixtures) in this gorgeous loft space.  It's got hardwood floors and interesting nooks and crannies, and the most amazing staircases.  (My little sister was terrified of them, because the steps are a little higher and more narrow than modern stairs.  They reminded me of my grandmother's cellar steps and all the wonderful adventures I had rummaging around in her junk down there.)  The artwork was excellent- they've got an exhibition called Craft Meets Art & Design up, and craft is really where my heart is.  Plus, they had this excellent piece, a ceramic bedpan with the statement "The Artist Is A Fountain" on it, which gave me a chance to give my Marcel Duchamp lecture.  (If my college writing class gave me anything, it's the ability to talk about Marcel Duchamp and my love/hate relationship with him.  Also, to explain the concept of a Readymade.)  I'm not sure I could pick a piece from the gallery that I liked best, because I wanted to take them all home with me, but I did have a minor freak out over Pamela Weir-Quiton's work.  I mean, just click that and look at the photos.  Those are file cabinets.  And also elephants with moveable ears.  They are impossible for me to look at and not grin like I've lost my mind.  Plus there was a little catch-all, which was a sheep.

We were lucky we went out the back door of the gallery, instead of out the way we came (through the hardware store) or a) I'd be significantly more broke, and b) we would have missed out on seeing the Alphonse Mucha Mural by MEAR ONE.  It was on the art walk map, but there was a note that said it was in an alley, and I can't just go wandering up and down alley's looking for awesome murals.   (We were also lucky that it was still light out when we left the gallery!)

Our next stop was Lab Art Gallery, which was a completely different experience from all the other galleries we visited.  It was much more modern, with a pop art and graffiti sensibility that pushed some boundaries.  (If you've got small children with you, be warned, plenty of the art has swear words.  A chance, perhaps, to explain the difference between using them in daily conversation and art?)  There are no photos of my favorite piece on the website, but it's an enormous totem pole-esqe sculpture with a very tongue in check take on Scrabble tiles.  (You'll know it if you visit the gallery!)  My little sister loved the cow that was painted like the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, and a giant glossy tube of pink lipstick that appeared as if it had been ground into its pedestal, entitled "All The Good Ones Are Gay."  Mom liked a piece I suspect was by the same artist, an enormous Blow-Pop that had melted across the floor, as well as an large mixed media piece depicting an American flag made out of credit and membership cards all in the same name.

We followed that up with the Merry Karnowsky Gallery which had a number of works by Tara McPherson, Deedee Cheriel, and Lindsey Way on view.  Tara McPherson's work came out the favorite in our group, with Mom declaring McPherson's piece Fall her favorite, while I picked Panther Wayob, for it's glossy darkness.  I found Lindsey Way's Hush series to be intriguing as well, with tiny installations depicting the journey through the common cold.

Our last stop for the evening before we called it a night and went off to eat was Couturier Gallery, which had up an exhibition of DeLoss McGraw's work called Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.  While the work brought up some interesting discussions about the difference between childlike style and poor execution, we deemed it our least favorite show of the evening, unfortunately.

It was an epic adventure all around, even though we only managed to visit eight (is that all?) of the fifty-some stops on the list.  I'm definitely looking forward to the next Art Walk, and I'm planning on visiting more of the galleries (and revisiting some we already saw, as well) before then.