Casa Israelitica di Riposo

Casa Israelitica di Riposo  * 

Mixed Media

in 29 x 35 x 3

2016

Detail

Detail

Detail

American Institute of Architects

American Institute of Architects  Los Angeles Chapter

October November 2014

Artist Talk - Hollywood Heritage Museum

Hollywood Heritage Museum

Ghosts of Hollywood
December 2013 - May 2014

East Downtown

East Downtown   2013  *

Mixed Media

in 20 x 20 x 3  each panel

Paints 

Oils

Varnishes

Luxury Perfumes

Luxury Perfumes 2012  *

(Backside of Broadway)

Mixed Media

in 20 x 20 x 2

Detail

Hotel Mark Twain

Hotel Mark Twain 2012

Mixed Media

in 19 x 32 x 5

This sign was sighted on a side street just off Hollywood Boulevard.  It is not a "ghost" in the sense that it is still there and in just this condition.  But it is this condition that leads me to fear that it will become a "ghost" very soon.  When I chose it as a subject for my art I started researching and at first all I could find were client reviews.  It is still a working hotel.  But the reviews were so bad it really got me laughing.  Here's an example- "This is absolutely the worst hotel on the planet.  It smelled of fowl (sic) feminine odor and was riddled with bugs and crack heads.  I literally threw up in my mouth when we saw our room."  The only historical reference I could find was in Gregory Paul Williams "The Story Of Hollywood" which, recounting the story of Joe Barbera of Hanna Barbera fame, described the hotel thus, "He checked into the Mark Twain Hotel on Wilcox (in 1937), which he later wrote was modeled after a "not particularly enlightened penitentiary.'"  So it seems like the hotel still lives up to the standards of its glory years.

Davis and Cline Gallery

Macintosh Studio Clothes  I - II - III  *

2012  Mixed Media

in 20 x 20 x 3  each panel

                          

Pantages Hollywood

Pantages Hollywood  2011

Mixed Media

with electroluminescent wire
in 46 x 18 x 8

Detail

Day view

Davis & Cline Gallery, May 2011

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

Dancing Girls

Dancing Girls  *

2010 Mixed Media

in 36 x 14 x 7

This sign on Spring St. in Downtown Los Angeles caught my eye. Most of the old neons Downtown are non functioning. It's kind of sad, but adds that touch of poetry that I look for in my subject matter.

Backside of Broadway

Backside of Broadway

2009 Mixed Media

in 35 x 44 x 4

New Direction

Pantages
2008 Mixed Media
in 36 x 30 x 3

Grafitti Wars
2008 Mixed Media
in 36 x 30 x 3

I recently decided to start a series of works depicting Los Angeles. The idea has crossed my mind many times but I never quite found a way "into" the subject matter, which happens to be my hometown. I took these photos a year ago and finally got around to making the work these past few months. The funny thing was I revisited Downtown L.A. this past weekend to search for more subjects and found that each of the three buildings I depicted have changed. The building in "Grafitti Wars" has been totally restored and the graffiti is long gone. The Pantages building was also without grafitti. The Broadway Arcade Building seems to be in the process of restoration and the written signage I depicted has been removed. This used to always happen to buildings I chose for subject matter in Venice, Italy as well. No sooner than I made a work than the buildings would be restored. I used to joke that I had to make my work before they restored everything. It's funny how my work becomes a kind of historical document- documenting an ephemeral patina, a moment in time when decay and, in some cases graffiti defines a monument and then is gone, while the monument remains.

Broadway Arcade Building

2008 Mixed Media

in 27 x 35 x 3