meeting the artist

this past friday we took the baby out on a walk and ended up hanging out at Angel City Brewery for a bit. we had a beer, and walked around to look at some new art pieces that were in the gallery space. i saw a guy on top of a scissor lift painting this cool script that looked like a cross between sanskrit and thai. (well, at least to me)

i struck up a conversation with him and found out his name is Bill and he's part of something called the Cryptik Movement. i looked around and next to him was this picture of Ghandi and in the background, the same script he was currently painting!

so i'm like, holy crap! are you the guy that does the Ghandis and the Buddhas i keep seeing around town??? and he says, yeah that's me, you've seen them? and i say of course, i love them! we had a nice little chit chat and he gave us some cool stickers with his logo, his usual iconography and also the one with the Buddha hand. it was a real treat to meet him, i love being able to put a name and face to the art i see on the street.
here the art is again for your viewing pleasure.

here's one that i found out is also done by Cryptik, i saw it on the website.
check out his stuff on the website: http://www.cryptik.com/about/
he also has a cool philosophy on there.

i was walking with my friend Kristy around the neighborhood with our babies and i saw a guy up on a ladder with cans of spray paint in front of that big JR piece. i freaked out and thought he was about to ruin the work, like that one jerk who has been drawing penises on people's faces and other dumb stuff in Bloom Square. i walked up and said, "what are you DOING???? nooo, that's a JR!"

little did i know that the guy up on the ladder is the artist David Flores from L.A. and he was doing a collaboration with JR. he showed me pictures of the pieces he worked on over on Melrose Avenue and a few others. i breathed a huge sigh of relief, and came back the next day to check out the finished piece. i like his use of color and how his additions look like a cross between a Mexican Luchador mask and clown makeup.
i've had this picture since last friday, sorry it took so long to upload it here but i have been on mommy duty.

here's a link to David's website: http://www.davidfloresart.com/


nearby, this has cropped up. (isn't this guy dead or what????)

a few more familiar faces...

this artist that did the Ghandi has some pieces in the Angel City Brewery that just opened up.
if you haven't been there yet i suggest you check it out. it's a great space with good beers on tap, food trucks and an art gallery.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/18/entertainment/la-et-night-angel18-20110318-1


wow, TWO plugs in one entry! i'm the Arts District pimp!

animals

seems that some artists are really into animals for making a statement!

it's not just Phil who likes the bears. these psychedelic bears are on the wall of a building on the corner of 3rd and Alameda. i suggest you visit them, you can spend hours looking at all the tiny pictures inside one bear.

a new California flag.
panda boy and panda girl

don't forget cats!

hello, owl.

someone doesn't think too highly of LAPD...

don't call this alien an illegal!

aw, the bunny thinks he's Lou Reed...

BANKSY??????

back from a hiatus, laptop was at the Apple hospital getting better and baby has been going through growth spurts, teething blah blah blah... i won't bore you with the details, on to the pictures!

i'm curious to know who this artist is that does these following bills! i really dig on the contemporary imagery with a political message/social commentary.

wiki-wiki-wiki-wiki!

Hamid Karzai, my old friend...

now here's some images by someone who just LOVES Mick Jagger. apparently, someone disagrees cos earlier today i found a penis drawn going into Mick's mouth and little Fu Manchu mustaches. i won't show the defaced images to uphold the integrity of the original artist.

my iPhone camera is wacky and recorded this image upside down.

here it is again, with another image.

Jagger as T-Rex!

Phil Lumbang

the Arts District has also had the pleasure of being witness to some whimsical art by Phil Lumbang. you may not know who he is, but his bears, pandas, raccoons, bunnies and elephants are unmistakable. he is mainly known for his bears, some of which grace the loft of my neighbors down the hall. i think it's pretty neat how Phil's artwork reflects some regional pride and California love with the use of his bears, since a bear appears on the flag of California.
here are a few of his animals that i have caught around the neighborhood.
(these were photographed sometime in 2010)





this little guy above is the most recent work seen in the neighborhood. he appears as an inset of another work seen below.
not sure if the Warhol homage is also done by Phil, but it's cool nonetheless.
check out Phil's work at his website: http://www.philiplumbang.com/
he's a nice guy we had the pleasure of meeting at a little artsy crafty get together at a neighbor's loft.

welcome

on Traction Avenue, just off 1st and Alameda in Downtown LA, there is a burgeoning art community that has been going strong for decades. just recently it became a major hotspot, in part to the Downtown revitalization program that took place a few years ago. more and more businesses are opening up around this tiny community by the outskirts of downtown, and with it drawing more crowds from all over the city. it's cool to hang in downtown now! as little as 8 years ago, you couldn't drive south on Alameda past 1st street unless you had a death wish or were dealing drugs. now you see all sorts of people from all walks of life mingling and hanging out, calling this place home.


i have lived in L.A. all my life. i am one of those unique creatures you meet on the street who was born and raised in Los Angeles and is in no way related to the movies/entertainment industry. i'm an everyday person with a mundane job just trying to make a living. well, i DID have a job until i got laid off in 2009. now i'm just a stay at home mom to a wonderful baby girl. i grew up on the east side and have lived all over the city. i recently started living in downtown when my husband and i bought a loft in 2009. i take my baby out for walks in the surrounding area and i like to take photographs on my iPhone of all the cool street art and bills i see posted around the neighborhood.


i love how this tiny stretch of the city has an ever changing art gallery on the walls of public places. it changes form week to week so you have to keep up otherwise you might miss something with a powerful impact. the art ranges from political, current, nostalgic and even whimsical.

recently, we have had an international artist grace some of our public spaces with his dynamic portraits. i was lucky enough to have spotted his crew pasting up an installation on what is now the Angel City Brewery. they had a crane up on the street and were taking video of the piece they had just completed.


it was very cool to have been witness to an art installation. i was even videotaped when asked for my reaction to the piece so i might even be in an art film! the French artist JR has done an installation around the city of Los Angeles, mainly on Melrose Avenue, according to his crew. they found it very ironic to be in LA and it was raining! still, their paper art hung on tight and can still be seen.




here is another piece that can be found near the 4th street bridge near Molino Avenue.

i hope you get to witness this art for yourself before the wind and rain take it away.





DISCLAIMER:
this was just an introductory post for this blog, i don't plan on being this verbose in the future. i plan on just letting the pictures speak for themselves. (posting pictures and adding text is lots of formatting work i don't have time for anyway! i'm not a magazine publisher, just talking here.) i will try to upload the pictures as i see them, but that may not always happen due to having a child that keep me away from the computer a lot! i hope you all enjoy the pictures and come visit the Arts District.







in the meantime visit JR's website: http://www.jr-art.net/

and check out a talk he gave at TED earlier this month: http://www.ted.com/talks/jr_s_ted_prize_wish_use_art_to_turn_the_world_inside_out.html