L.A. Galleries (part 1) - Culver City

I had scoped out some galleries prior to heading to L.A. When I make trips and check out galleries, I always do so with low expectations. Partially because my taste has narrowed tremendously over the past couple years and partially because the artist whose work I want to see is not being exhibited at the moment. The majority of galleries I visited had some really great art and I was thrilled to see so much drawing. First on my list is the work of Matthew Chambers at Angstrom Gallery. The walls were lined with his drawings and read in somewhat of a series, each one slightly informing the other, yet each stood on its own as well. I just wanted to touch them all over. The fingerprints, smudges, and erasures appealed to my tactile self, but I think their 'I look like I was drawn by a crazy person' was part of their appeal too. Yes, I know, very insightful considering all the schooling I've had.

more art and food

yesterday was culver city galleries which i will write a special post this weekend about...stay tuned. today though we hit up chinatown and then drove out to santa monica. Acuna-Hansen, Sam-Lee, and Sister were tops on my list, however the shows were less than stellar. we then turned toward the courtyard and had a great lunch outside at Via Cafe. they had a great fresh menu, but i wanted some comfort food so i stuck with pad thai. i don't think we could've made a bad choice with the food. it was nice to sit outside and eat in the sun, in a courtyard, with no phones ringing and no appointments to keep.

33 years

Last night we went to Shojin in Little Toyko and had an amazing dinner. I had an Iced Green Tea Latte, Crunchy Avocado Roll and a Bento Box that consisted of brown rice, vegetable dish, salad, Okara Cake with lemony vegan mayonnaise and Grilled Tempeh with a sweet barbeque sauce. Yum! Afterwards we went back to Patricia's house and a sweet surprise from my Deb awaited me, a lovely cake from Frances Bakery. Patricia had it displayed on an sweet vintage footed-cake plate. When you twisted the plate in a counter-clockwise motion it played a slow, sad rendition of Happy Birthday. Needless to say, this beautiful cake was devoured in no time...and yes, there is a typo in my name...never fails.

fortune

last night we decided to hit up one of the restaurants in the ginormous hotel where we're staying. it was pretty early for dinner, but still being on eastern time, we were starving. there were few people in the mandarin restaurant and those that were there, were alone. the overhead music was a radio station that had waves of static that cut in and out. looking around at the lone diners, bad lighting, and somber atmosphere was quite depressing...but leave it to michele to stick some chopsticks up her nostrils and then fun ensued.

melrose shopping

our first night on LA we walked a few blocks from our hotel and landed at the Daily Grill. lights were low, jazzy music, and my dinner of mahi mahi with fresh grilled vegetables really hit the spot.
the next day we decided to head down to Melrose for some shopping. we had all been up since at least 6 am, so when we arrived on Melrose the shops had yet to open. we caught some breakfast at Blu Jam Cafe, which has been voted best breakfast in LA by several city guides. it was deliciously fresh and our server was great and gave us some leads on good thrift stores to hit up. American Vintage was a fun spot, yet i didn't find quite what i was looking for there. many blocks and many shopping bags later we were happy with our finds (though i could have kept shopping for hours) and headed back downtown.

organic fusion cuisine

I leave for L.A. a week from tomorrow for the CAA conference, yippee! This will be the first time I've spent my birthday bathed in warmth and sunshine. It should also confess that I celebrate my half birthday. I have a hard time getting others to celebrate it with me, but sooner or later they come around. With the help of our friend Patricia who lives in L.A., Deb has picked a restaurant for my birthday dinner that I am mighty excited about. Shojin is a contemporary organic fusion cuisine restaurant. Shojin cuisine is very traditional Japanese cuisine and originally Buddhist vegetarian cooking and they offer organic and natural meals influenced and inspired by macrobiotic and Japanese style. The menu looks amazing and am excited to spend some time in Little Tokyo.

A year ago the cherry blossoms were blooming in our museum at NIU and Ayomi Yoshida and her crew of friends and students were back in Japan after a long installation. My tattoo on my forearm is Ayomi's blossom designs and I can't help but think of the wonderful experiences they brought to our museum and campus. Since then I've been somewhat of a freak about all things Japanese and would love to do an artist residency in Japan.