iT'S STreeT arT THurSDay in WilSHire CeNTer! - Thursday, January 7, 2015

Dear Street Art Lovers,

Artist Ann Bridges, Four Wilshire Street Scenes,
paint on utility box.

Today's offering is not officially in East Hollywood, but I consider K-Town part of my neighborhood since I spend a lot of time there. So there you have it. Not all street art is loud, raucous, sensual, revolutionary, agitprop, vulgar, and in-you-face. Sometimes it looks like stuff "your dear Aunt Sally who works in oils" does--tasteful, serene, placid, something to hang up in your living room.

I'm sure this artist would take great offense at my characterization. And it's true. This here ain't no Sunday painter. Ann Bridges is apparently moving enough acrylic covered canvas to be able to an office and studio on Wilshire Boulevard--rent is NOT CHEAP there no how. She's got a website so check her out.

Doesn't this here look something like you'd find in a gallery that L.A. tourists would be happy to take away with them?

The four pictures today are from the four sides of a utility box in the Wilshire Center area, near Normandie Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard.

I found this box as I was making my way to try a hamburger at the recently re-launched classic L.A. eatery Cassell's Hamburgers. Cassell's was a place I used to take girls I was dating back when I was young man, or at least girls who could appreciate a place where they would cook a burger rare for you and enjoyed a signature, horseradish-heavy potato salad.

The current incarnation is not bad, but I don't know if I was convinced enough to return. We'll see. The old Cassell's was a place where regular people would grab a burger on their lunch hours. New Cassell's is really more a hipster hangout and
I felt like I was the oldest guy in there and needed about three more earrings in my right ear. The food was good, but I've become even pickier about my
"destination hamburgers" in my old age. A friend is trying to get me to Flemings. It's hard to impress me anymore...

Bridges is obviously in the school of plein air California Impressionism, one of my favorite genres to enjoy looking at, by the way.

Her deserted, narrow streets conjure an entirely different, ideal Koreatown than you will experience if you actually knockabout here yourself. They almost have a tropical vacation look because of all the tall swaying palm trees. Granted a lot of people DO come to SoCal as a kind of "subtropical" vacation paradise.

These are all quite lovely and I sure wish I could paint like this. She went to the same art school as me, Long Beach State; so I feel some kinship there.

I do think it's a little strange to have these impressionistic renderings right in the neighborhood which they describe, but nobody invited me to paint a signal box.

There are several quaint buildings around town that have the high-pitched Mansard-style roofs as seen in two of these pictures. Those types of roofs were developed in Northern Europe when they went thru their mini-ice age not too long ago and it snowed there a lot. They are pitched that way to shed snow off the building so that it is not overly stressed by the weight of accumulated precipitation.

It's quite an affectation to have such a roof in a place like Los Angeles.

Every couple of years, the California Art Club has a show at my employer's onsite museum. It's an organization of artists who all paint exactly like this. A person associated with the exhibit pretty much said adjusting for levels of skill, they're pretty much interchangeable so it's hard to break out of the pack unless you've got some kind of visual gimmick to differentiate yourself. BUT, this kind of stuff IS what people buy to put in homes, hotels, and offices, so it serves good social purpose no?



AND NOW BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED SEASCAPE

We had El Nino 2016 Storm #3 pass through last night which left us with wet road and skies that look like this. Looks like a rope of clouds there doesn't it?

Well, a guess a lot of people will be cutting grass next week ... gotta run.

Love,
Pops

Oh heck, it was pretty out. Just another variation of the above.

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The 31-Day Paleo Journal
1/6
Weight: 233
Evening blood pressure: 125/79
B-ham and eggs
Snack1-nuts
L-boiled eggs, canned salmon, red pepper
Snack2-lean turkey
D-beef slices in broth
Drink-green tea

Rising: Easy at 4:30 am
General alertness: clear in the AM, foggy in the afternoon
Fatigue: PM run-down feeling
Sinus congestion: moderate
Descending stairs: wary, still counting and watching step
General joint pain: up from yesterday, taking note
Body temp: ran hot and cold but probably thermostat issues

Notes:
Noted sluggishness in the afternoon, but pattern for eating strayed from the regular. Apparently this diet needs to have some regular throughput.

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