Color by Compound

A co-worker's abstract creations on litmus paper.

5th St.

Across the street from Bert Green Fine Art.

Murals by Chase in Venice Beach. Same building. Different wall.

Yellow Mona Lisa

The other day I was walking around the Arts district and saw this dude painting an image of the Mona Lisa on a wall that I have never noticed before:





I asked him if I could take his picture. He looked up and said "yes". I didn't catch his name. Beyond that I didn't want to disrupt his momentum.

Ricky the Pirate. At The Reagent Gallery about a month ago. I didn't catch the artist's name.

This mural is on a parking lot wall somewhere around Broadway and 2nd.

Timothy Williams.

Now showing at the Continental Gallery.

More info here.

Two Guys @ The Sweeney

I was walking down University Ave in Riverside the other day and I passed by UCR's Sweeney Art Gallery and noticed some guys painting something by the window.

"After"... Ha!

LACMA is doing an exhibit titled "Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement" this Spring.




I don't think the "Chicano Movement" ever ended, I think it just evolved. But thats another post.

Clive Barker at Bert Green Fine Art

Did ya get a chance to see Clive Barker's work at Bert Green Fine Art? The exhibition ended a few weeks ago. If you didn't you missed out. But you can still see some of the paintings on Bert's website.

Here are some pictures of the closing reception/exhibition catalog book signing. I numbered each and every 500 of the catalogs by hand, inside the front cover on the bottom left hand corner.

It was a pretty long, slow moving line since Clive was so friendly and conversational to everybody.






Here is a proud new owner of a Clive Barker original. She came from Whittier to pick it up. We were standing next to each other in line and started chatting.




Here is Clive Barker signing my catalog:




And here he is standing next to my favorite painting in the show:

Strange and Fig

I was walking up Figueroa (somewhere between 9th and 6th...forgot where exactly) the other day and came across this strange sculpture. Anybody know what the story is behind this is?

Sticker at UC Riverside

Ed's Digital Mural!!!

Yesterday I got a sneak peak of Ed Fuentes' digital mural (I am a co-sponsor) that will be going up above the Regent Theater.

Its beautiful.

It will be going up soon. Possibly by this month's art walk. We'll see.

This is exciting.

Butchlalis at it again

Shepard Fairey's Next Show

[UPDATE]

I recently came across an essay titled "Obey Plagerist Shepard Fairey- A Critique by Artist Mark Vallen"

I have attended a few public lectures by Fairey, and have read his recent book that is a retrospective of his art work where he has discussed the sources from which some of his works derive from. -But just some of them that Vallen's article discusses.

Does anybody know if Fairey has written about where he got his sources from all of his "borrowed works"?

Riverside's Raincross Symbol

I was walking around downtown Riverside and I saw some guy sitting down with a tattoo of the symbol of Riverside on his arm. I asked if I can take a photo and he said yes.

I have never seen anybody with a tattoo of that bell symbol before. I've been looking around for a necklace of that symbol, so that I can wear it out of an expression of my hate-love relationship with Riverside.

Having spent my teenage years in Riverside (and my mid 20's/present), that symbol has a special place in my heart. And it apparantly does as well in Jeff Soto's.


Here is a painting he did back in 2006 that showed at Jonathan Levine's gallery in NY.


I found some information on the history of that symbol on Riverside's official website:

"The unique City Raincross Symbol is derived from combining a replica of the mass bell used by Father Junipero Serra, missionary priest and founder of the California Missions, and the cross to which the Navajo and Central American Indians prayed for rain. Called the "Raincross" symbol, it was designed for the Mission Inn and given to the city by Frank Miller. The Raincross symbol has been identified with Riverside since 1907. Variations of the symbol are used extensively throughout Riverside in architecture, street signs and lighting standards, and is used on the City flag."

Quite fitting for my awkard Chican@ context. That can be some useful imagery if anybody from Riverside wants to write a "Yo Soy Joaquin"/Corky Gonzalez style poem.

The People's Gallery

This month I had a showing of my recent stuff at The People's Gallery on University Ave in downtown Riverside. Here are pictures of some of the stuff:

712 S. Santa Fe
Price: SOLD

I used to live in the industrial district of downtown Los Angeles in this building that used to be a Heinz ketchup test kitchen, and Robert Rauschenberg’s studio back in the 1960’s.





Hollywood is over rated, but its still kinda pretty
Price: negotiable






On the rooftop of the Chateau de Fleurs
Price: negotiable

I lived in Hollywood for a few years. This painting depicts the city view from the rooftop where I spent several hours painting, relaxing, and looking into people’s open windows.







Pedestrian Hollywood
Price: negotiable

These are some of the buildings on Vine St, close to Hollywood Blvd. I used to walk down this street regularly on my way to work via the subway station at that intersection. When I think of “Hollywood”, I think of the geography and diverse social demographics, not the entertainment industry or the concept of Hollywood (i.e. its association with wealth and fame). And when I think of the geographical location, I think of its demographically diverse inhabitants, urban decay, historic buildings, teenage runaways and disappointed tourists.






Ms. T’s Ties
Price: negotiable

Not long ago, there were these ties tied to poles all over the Arts District of downtown Los Angeles. I found out that they were put up by Tatiana Schulenburg, a local artist protesting yuppie scum* like myself from moving into the neighborhood and raising rents.




Most of my other stuff did not photograph well, so they are not included in this post. You'll just have to see them in person. -But they were mostly paintings depicting the chemistry and pollution that would be found in urban environments.