Wandering Artist's Journal

Next door to the Giant Robot show at the Japanese American National Museum , is the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles . Or one of them, anyway. MOCA has multiple locations. It's an interesting tactic - using completely different locations to define different collections or exhibits. This particular location, the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, has the feel of an industrial warehouse, given a coat of white paint. It works well with the Takeshi Murakami show , which needs lots of space, and completely filled this space, including the the entire gift shop. Takeshi Murakami must be the love child of Margaret Keene and Jeff Koons . And kissing cousin to Peter Max . He has an insatiable fondness for bright eyes and other round, shiny things. He's got his favorite kitsch icons and he's sticking with them. He's following the factory studio production plan of Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, and the bravura spectacle of Matthew Barney. There's enough cute, shiny, saturated c...

I had personal reasons for visiting the Japanese American National Museum , but I got a bonus with this trip. It's a fine example of a small, specialized museum with a clear mission. They have permanent historic exhibits, some changing historic exhibits, and a beautiful research library. Plus, they have a big art gallery space which is currently hosting the first Giant Robot Biennale (up through mid-January.) Giant Robot is an Asian American pop culture magazine which publishes a lot of artists. They're celebrating their 50th issue this year with an exhibit of work by 10 artists who've appeared in the magazine. It's was the best show I saw in LA. There was plenty of variety, intensity, and skill. The work included the pastel, subversively cutesy APAK panels (see left); exquisite cut paper and painted constructions by Saelee Oh , the wacky appropriations of Gary Baseman ; Meticulously painted, hovering orbs of memory by Sashie Masakatsu, and the the giant graffiti...

Whoa - did 2 weeks just go by? Jeeze, I feel like I'm living in an episode of the "Twilight Zone." But then, this whole year has been surreal. Anyway, where was I? Getting ready to tell you about my trip to Los Angeles. My main purpose in going down there was to start the process of finding a gallery for my work. A gallery to compliment my San Francisco venues, not replace them. I spent about three days looking around downtown, which is just a tiny fragment of Los Angeles, but I hadn't spent much time there in the past, and wanted to check it out. A friend had referred me to some galleries there. And three days was all I could afford, hotel-wise. My first impressions of downtown (old city) LA: lots of art and artists everywhere; lots of urban renewal - reminds me of SF's SOMA during the dotcom boom; new and refurbished lofts for sale next to shabby SRO hotels next to shiny financial towers; great public transportation; the streets are very clean; not much happeni...

California is a state of extremes (highs, lows, wet, dry, hot, cold, wilderness, urban, Republicans and Code Pink.) Last week we left San Francisco, traveled through hundreds of miles of ranch & farm land, then arrived in Los Angeles. Traveling any significant distance in California usually involves crossing or following the great Central Valley. The coastal roads are too hilly and winding to make much distance in a day. But the valley is flat and the roads are straight. It used to be an ancient seabed and it's just barely above sea level now (which means, I guess, that it will soon be under water again.) The region is almost entirely agricultural and several hours of staring out the windows as we cruise down Interstate 5 reminds me of how geographically isolated the urban areas remain. So different from the East coast, where a drive up Interstate 95 from Virginia to Connecticut can seem like one big urban sprawl. We passed miles of grapes, almonds, pistachios, oranges, lettuc...

Megabus - the bus Originally uploaded by Anna L Conti Well, we're back from a short trip to L.A. We left right after the Cosco Bosun hit the Bay Bridge , when they were still saying it was only 140 gallons (which I never believed - I thought it must have been a typo.) We stopped by Ocean Beach last night to see the damage to our neighborhood, and talk to some of the cleanup crew (volunteers, many from NERT.) I put photos of the cleanup on my Flicker page . I shot over 500 photos on the trip to Los Angeles, and we saw a lot of art. I'll be posting about it over the next week (don't worry - not all the photos, just selects.) For now, I just want to say a little bit about our transportation - Megabus . It's a new service in San Francisco, but they've been operating in the UK since 2003 and in the US since last year. They bill themselves as "no-frills" intercity transport, but actually they seem luxurious (and cheap!) compared to the alternatives. They o...

A lot of help, actually. I can't stop painting, and I don't want to stop blogging. But other stuff is taking a chunk out of my time-available these days, so a change is in order. My solution - start another blog. It's not as crazy as it sounds, and here's why . The new blog will focus on local visual arts and it'll be be written by many people, not just me. This old blog (the one you're reading now) will become more personal - just about me and my studio practice. The target date for our big unveiling of the new blog, "Bay Area ArtQuake!" is December 1st. But since it looks pretty good already, and since hardly anyone is reading this, I'm letting you know about it now - check it out: Bay Area ArtQuake! And let me know if you're interested in becoming a writer for BAArtQuake .

This past Sunday I saw the Rockwell Kent film which showed at the de Young Museum . It was three hours long - a fact that was not revealed to us until right before the movie started. Maybe they were afraid no one would come. Which might be true, since there were only about a dozen people in the Koret Auditorium, for this one and only showing, even before it was announced how long the documentary would be. A mathematician sitting in front of me (or was he a physicist - he was scribbling formulas* on the program) got up at the announcement and headed up the aisle, muttering and shaking his head. But most of the rest of us stuck it out. I was glad I did. I was never bored, but I'm afraid this movie might need further editing before it's ready for prime-time. My main impression after the movie finished was that Rockwell Kent perfectly illustrates the saying of the philosopher Seneca , " Life is long, if you know how to use it ." Regardless of how you feel about his polit...