Frolic Room, The Living Ghost


Living Ghost - Frolic Room
2010 Mixed Media
in 31 x 24 x 5
with electroluminescent wire





Nightime view


Detail


Frolic Room is a small bar attached to the Pantages Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. Customer reviews peg it as the classic "dive bar." It has survived pretty much intact from the 1930's. It did have it's moment of glory and glamour in the 1950's when the Academy Awards Ceremony was held at the Pantages.

When I was doing my visual research it was late afternoon and it was very dark inside the bar. I could make out the shadows of a couple people in the bar and I could sense they were looking at me looking in. I didn't go in.

Musso and Frank's - Another Hollywood Ghost


Musso and Franks
2010 Mixed Media
in 26 x 38 x 5



Details




As part of my research for this project I took my family to eat at the real Musso and Frank's on Hollywood Boulevard. Before our visit I was looking at websites with references to Musso's and there was one about dining with Charlie Chaplin's ghost. My seven year old daughter is a big Charlie Chaplin fan (she's seen most of his movies) and also got very interested in the ghosts of Hollywood. When we got to Hollywood she became concerned, "Are there really ghosts here?" "No, " I told her, but as soon as we got on the boulevard we were greeted by a big placard reading, "Haunted Hollywood Tours."

Musso's is an enchanting place, a real trip back in time. After dinner I went to use the restroom and on my way there I thought I had celebrity sighting- an old actor with a familiar face whose name I couldn't recall, probably never even knew. I told my wife and daughter about it, but with my vague description they understtod nothing. As we walked back to our table we must have all stared at the poor guy with our jaws slightly slack.

When I got home I tried to figure who the actor was. I thought he was perhaps on the 1960's variety show, "Rowan and Martin's Laugh In." So I googled that and sure enough I found the actor I thought I saw- Henry Gibson.

He had died in September 2009, a year earlier.

Back by the restrooms at Musso's there was a grainy old photograph of Musso's as it appeared in about the 1920's or 30's (judging form the cars parked in front). I took a photo of the old photo and that was my source for this painting. I wanted to do colors different from "John's Cafe" but the variations I chose never looked right and I decided to stick with t"John's" colors which just looked right.

Hollywood Ghost - John's Cafe'



John's Cafe'




John's Cafe'
2010 Mixed Media
in 24 x 41 x 4


I've started a new series of works depicting buildings in Hollywood that either no longer exist or that have been extensively remodeled. The following, "John's Cafe" is the first and represents the first restaurant in Hollywood. According to Gregory Paul Williams, author of "The Story of Hollywood," John Carvellas started with a peanut and popcorn stand at Hollywood Blvd. and Cahuenga. That was a Red Car stop for folks going to work over the hill at the Universal Pictures Studios. Business was brisk enough that he decided to open a restaurant. It became one of the first celebrity hangouts, a favorite of Charlie Chaplin.

I used a photo from Gregory Paul Williams book that was dated 1917. I had to invent the colors and the objects in the windows.


Exhibition at Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica





Fire Escape




Fire Escape
2010 Mixed Media
in 30 x 40 x 5

Detail


My most recent work completed is almost always my favorite. This view is also on the backside of Broadway. There are at least six stories of fire escapes on this particular building, each has been embellished by grafitti artists. The whole, to me, is visually rich.


Walled



Walled (Backside of Broadway) *
2010  Mixed Media
in 20 x 20 x 3