Garden Party

Garden Party is open!

 The exhibition I co-curated with Carolyn Castaño will be up at 

the Fellows of Contemporary Art through November 22.

In Chinatown, Mandarin Plaza 2nd floor

970 N. Broadway

 Garden Party features the work of over twenty artists 

and takes Los Angeles' gardens and green spaces as its focus.

Below are a few installation shots. It is a big show so if you want

to see everything, stop by FOCA Tues-Fri 10-5

Participating Artists: Hillary Bleecker, Ursula Brookbank, Britt Browne, 

Carolyn Castaño, Dee Dee Cheriel, Ismael De Anda, Martin Durazo, Amy Green, 

Bella Foster, Julia Haft-Candell, Elana Hill, Hadley Holliday, Roger Herman, 

Emily Joyce, Cyril Kuhn, Joseph Lee, Barry Markowitz, Stas Orlovski, 

Nikki Pressley, Jay Stuckey, Elizabeth Tremante, Monique Van Genderen.

 

Studio Visit with Gian-Martin Joller

Earlier this summer I visited the East LA studio 

of sculptor Gian-Martin Joller where he is currently 

hand-building bass guitars, as well as working on various

sculptural and collaborative projects with Studio Day friends 

Ermie and Cheryl Cambras. 

The man can pretty much build anything and 

was nice enough to fix my Stratocaster. 

Thanks Giani!

Collaboration with Ermie

Earlier this summer I did a fun collaboration with 

my friend Jennifer Parry Dodge of ERMIE

The project started with a casual hang-out at Jennifer's home where 

she had tons of fabric and dyes for me to play around with. 

Jennifer turned those experiments into a couple of one-of-a-kind 

Ermie dresses. She also photographed the textiles, kaleidoscoped

the image, photoshoped the color around and created digitally 

printed textiles in 2 different colorways.

In the photos below you can see the original painting on the raw silk,

the model rocking one of the Ermie dresses with 

Cheryl Cambras'  rope necklace for Ermie's online shop,

 the sleeveless version in a radically altered colorway, and me 

in one of the dresses at Cacao Mexicatesen for some huevos rancheros.

The heavy cotton jersey Jennifer chose for the dresses is so 

comfy and wears so well. I'll definitely be wearing these a lot this fall.

JPD has built the Ermie blog and online shop

 around the spirit of collaboration, generosity and 

a quest for beauty and joy in daily life.

Studio Visit with Ursula Brookbank

Last week Carolyn and I visited the West LA studio of Ursula Brookbank.

We dropped by to preview an interactive diorama project she is working
on for the Garden Party exhibition. We also got to explore her mysterious collection
of "She World" ephemera that inspires her installation and photo-based practice. 

Garden Party is a curatorial project I am working on with 

painter Carolyn Castaño. 20+ artists have participated 

in a series of events exploring the green spaces of LA.

The project will culminate with an exhibition at

FOCA opening on Saturday, September 21.

 

Garden Party #5

Our 5th and final Garden Party outing was held at 

Ocean View Farms. With over 6 acres and 500 individual gardens

it is the largest Community Garden in LA.

Thanks to the Garden Master for welcoming us to OVF!

I was really impressed by the range of food and flowers

being grown and by their huge composting system.

Garden Party is a curatorial project I am working on with 

painter Carolyn Castaño. 20+ artists have participated 

in a series of events exploring the green spaces of LA.

The project will culminate with an exhibition at

FOCA opening on Saturday, September 21.