Wandering Artist's Journal

Today I had one of those electrifying experiences that happens when you encounter great art. All the better - it was completely unexpected. Dave & I were walking back to our hotel after a day out wandering around downtown when we walked past the Pico House. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pico_House The gallery was open, so we dropped in. I walked straight over to the walls and started looking at the black & white photography, not knowing anything about the who/what/when/where. I was immediately sucked into another time & place and began feeling very emotional. Almost nostalgic, with a crazy kind of longing for people & places I've never been. Sixty photos later, I popped back to the present and read about the photographer, William "Red Dog" Tynan, who shot these images on an epic 2,500 mile hike from Los Angeles to Mexico City with his friend Bill Bates. http://tolucantimes.info/inside-this-issue/why-would-you-walk-from-los-angeles-to-mexico-c...

One of Richard Shelton's paintings, on large pieces of destructed buildings.  At Temporary Space LA. It’s no longer news that San Francisco is becoming more and more inhospitable to artists and other members of the working class. Many of us are leaving. The rest are scrambling, praying, and looking for new ideas. Dave & I started a public exhibition space in our living space. (Not a new idea, but not especially common either.) It’s just a stop-gap, until we find a more compatible community, which for us is probably going to be Los Angeles.  Gallery visitor with iPad for enhanced viewing (point it at the art and it gives you more info on the piece, including preliminary drawings.) Work by Richard Shelton. At Temporary Space LA. On a recent scouting mission to LA, we stumbled across an art opening at Temporary Space LA , which is (temporarily) at 5522 Wilshire Blvd. There was coffee, live music, and a big solo show of work by Richard Shelton . Temporary Space,...

"Fat Cat", acrylic on canvas, 18"x 24", ©2014, Anna L. Conti Last night I finished the painting, "Fat Cat" which, along with the previous painting, "Dinner With Friends," marks a new direction for me. I'm done with realism, documentary, and narrative work. I'm still struggling to define what I *am* working toward, but I'm willing to take the rest of this year to figure it out. "Transitions" is probably as close as I can get for now. "Dinner with Friends" was a ten year project that started out as an abstract meditation on SpaceTime and ended up as a more personal record of a time & place: "Dinner With Friends", acrylic on canvas, 24" x 48", ©2011-2015, Anna L. Conti