Night scene

I drove past here last night and it made me smile.

Public Art Everywhere

One aspect of Los Angeles that I love is that it is such a rich canvas for public art.  I recently discovered Folk Art Everywhere, a movement aimed at displaying local art throughout the city at spaces meant to cultivate community.  I recently visited one of Folk Art Everywhere's spaces at Mercado La Paloma, a great public space with eateries and other small businesses (I highly recommend eating at Chichen Itzen).

Close-up of the mural outside of Mercado La Paloma by Elizabeth Eve.  You can see it from the 110 North.

The Cochinita Pibil at Chichen Itzen

LA Commons is also a great non profit aimed at telling the stories of diverse communities through the work of local youth partnering with professional artists.  Their mission is to tell the stories of immigrant communities all throughout LA such as Koreatown, Thai Town, Chinatown, and others through public murals, installations, and other cool projects.

And finally, this is an installation I stumbled on upon a recent trip to Santa Monica:

'Cradle' by Ball Nogues.  Image from www.designboom.com

It's a public installation on the side of a parking lot.  You can read more about it here: 'Cradle'.  It's really cool in person.  I'll have to get a closer look at it the next time I'm in Santa Monica.  I believe it won an award.

The Noguchi garden in Costa Mesa: CA Scenario

I had heard about the Noguchi garden in Costa Mesa for some time and finally had a chance to visit last month.  It's tucked away in a courtyard surrounded by skyscrapers and parking lots near South Coast Plaza and the Segerstrom Arts Center.

Isamu Noguchi was a Japanese American sculptor who experimented with such organic forms as wood, marble, and physical landscapes.  His work is minimal, abstract, and seems to exude peace and mystery at the same time.  I instantly felt calm entering the garden, and marveled at the lines of his work, and the interplay of man-made sculptures, trees, water, and stone.  His garden made me think about my previous post on minimalist sculptures.

I highly recommend a visit if you're in the area (I suggest going on a weekend or after business hours; I parked in a nearby lot by the TGIF restaurant for free):
611 Anton
Costa Mesa, CA 92626

The Beauty in Minimalism

Minimalism, a stripping down to the most fundamental of forms, can be so beautiful in its celebration of shape, structure, and skeleton. 

My trip to St. Louis last week reminded me of the time I found minimalist Richard Serra's sculpture in the middle of downtown on a previous conference I attended there in 2009.  I was walking from my hotel to the conference center when, to my delight, I stumbled upon a sculpture garden in the middle of the city and the Richard Serra installation shown here:

I loved the sharp angles and exact shadows this sculpture created in the middle of a grassy plot of land.  This sculpture must really pop out when the ground is covered in snow!

I had heard of Richard Serra in an art class but became more familiar with his work on a visit to BCAM a few years ago.  I was going through some hard things at the time and wanted to take an afternoon off at the museum.  It was here that I discovered his sculpture "Band":

Richard Serra "Band".  Image via tincaart.com/wordpress

"Band" is interactive.  You can walk around the serpentine maze of its massive form and discover intimate spaces in the center of the sculpture, or take in its seemingly infinite length as you circle around its outer structure.  Something about the towering sculpture and its earthy color - the color of red clay - was so soothing and therapeutic for me that day.  There was just something beautiful about the sculpture's silence juxtaposed with its massive size.