Every morning when the sun starts spilling over the city I drive to work. Same route everyday. I like to think of it as The Orient Express. No freeways. Here’s what I saw today. But before I show you that..I have to show you this. More pages from my visual journal. Lately my brain is buried deep inside a red can of spraypaint. Glossy, drippy red. This self-portrait borders on the ridiculous. Promise you won’t make fun of the sappy look on my face. I was channeling the Mona Lisa. No wait. Maybe it was that kid on The Bad Seed. Remember her? She had a fake smile just like this one. Except mine isn’t fake, it’s real. It just looks fake. My next self portrait will be much more gritty & raw. Think Eartha Kitt after a night of drinking.
I have been admiring this stenciled temporary wall in front of the up and coming FULLER Lofts on San Fernando Road in Lincoln Heights. The wall went up less than a week ago. Tell me you wouldn’t scream like a pack of wild hyenas if you saw this. I hope they have an Open House because I seriously need to get inside this building.
Nearly 80 years ago the W.P. Fuller Paint Company building was a paint warehouse.
This old mural has been here for years and years. It’s faded and tagged but the lips are still shockingly red.
Next I swung through Chinatown on my morning trek. These lanterns are dazzling. All the more so when they are lit up in the early morning light.
I don’t dig the retouched photo too often, but I made a few adjustments in IPhoto for some of these. Just enough so that it looks like I had a camera with me on my dream last night.
Friday is the kids’ last day of 2nd grade. On July 5th they’ll begin their little 3rd grade lives and I’ll get a new brood to cluck over. After school I felt like going for a drive. The windows went down and away I went. This Metro angel directed me into the hills of Mt. Washington.
Oh what a lovely neighborhood that is. This is what I love so much about Los Angeles. The sense of the rural in the middle of the sprawling city. I do love these hills.
Oh, How wonderful! I love your self portrait, it is very Andy Warhol-ish. Those lanterns. Thank you for making them look sooo dreamy!! And those children. They melted my little heart! xoxox
:::BREAKING NEWS:::::::
COOL new header!
Thanks for the tour…This was great.
Lofts in Lincoln Heights. Right On. That was my Dad’s ‘hood in the 20s, 30s and part of the 40s…if you walk around L.A. looking down you will see the stamp “Mamola & Sons” in a lot of L.A.s cement work…my Grandpa’s business 🙂 I have heard so many stories of Lincoln Heights over the years…sure would love to get my hot little mitts on those stenciled temp walls!
Very COOL post….par for the course, I am never disappointed visiting here…
peace.
Holy Cow….was that THE Chris Brown asking you to design a header??!!!
I love this post. Mail art is great, but the diversity of your life really Shines here. Keep it up if you have the energy!
LOVE IT.
Lisa H
I really dig your stuff. I would love for you to be a “guest header designer” for my blog. I’m running a contest for people to submit blog headers for urbanprairieREFUELED.blogspot.com – but I’m also thinking of asking a few professional designer friends to design headers as well – to use one a month. I love giving exposure to my peeps. Would you be down for something like this?
Chris
I printed out this great angel to hang up in my studio…what’s the story on it?? LOVE your new self portrait!!! It is so different than anything else you have done before. and the RED just jumps off the pages of your journal. Great LA photos…almost made me feel like I was sitting in that traffic right next to you. Adorable almost 3rd graders photos with them looking up at you. Great angle. I wonder how much they paid the guy to stencil those boards….seems like you could moonlight doing that with all the new lofts being built in LA.
LOL ‘Think Eartha Kitt after a night of drinking’…god do I hafta? She sounds like she’s two cigarettes away from a tracheotomy as it is! I think that’s her appeal though.
I really like your photos of the monkeys. They really capture their innocence and they’re all smiling so big! You must be a great teacher. 🙂
I love your posts! I so agree with what you wrote on the first journal page about the power of NO. I try and try to explain that to younger women and they just don’t get it.
I remember when I started saying no, I felt so liberated. We were going to church then, and I was one of those women who would always be available for the jobs no one else would do, like organizing the reception for first communion, or being on a few commissions.
One day, I got called by three different people to do all of the above, and I told them,”NO”, “NO” and “NO. Each one thought that they had heard me incorrectly, but I stood my ground, and never looked back.
Wait until you get to 50, it is even better!!