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Artists, Get Your SHiT Together!

Side Street Projects has a series of no nonsense  GYST workshops coming up designed to give artists some practical survival skills. I’ve heard good things about this workshop and the cost is quite reasonable at $140 Topics include:

Laying the Groundwork: Life after art school, artist statements, resumes, proposal, developing budgets, the elevator speech, and your obituary

Your Work in the Public Sphere: Exhibition and performance checklists, documentation, expectations of venues, "do-it-yourself" tactics, non-traditional spaces, public projects, press releases, self-promotion, and reviews

Thinkspace wants you...

... sorta. Did you know L. Croskey  (L.C.) Looks at portfolios Thurdays at Thinkspace. This is a wonderful opportunity for artists to have their work assessed by someone in the business and L.C told me he finds many of his artists who show at his Cannibal Flower events here. Some of them have even moved on to show at Thinkspace and many other galleries. If you feel that all you need is a "break" or just want some advice look no further:

From the thinkspace website: "Please know we regularly review portfolios in person on Thursdays at our gallery (except for the 2nd Thursday of each month) as well, but this is strictly on a walk-in basis. When time permits, we may get back in touch with you, but please know we do not possess the time nor the resources to provide feedback to all those that submit work to us. Please know and keep in mind that when you receive a "rejection" letter from this or any gallery, you should not view it as a reflection of your work in any way. There are several factors in play that dictate what makes it into our exhibition schedule, so please keep that in mind and don’t take it personally. We are currently booked through 2008, so please understand that our calendar is full for the time being, but it never hurts to make contact. "

SLGA in Art Crawl X October 12-14

Circle your Calendars the 2007 Art Crawl is coming and SLGA is happy to be participating! This is the 10th year of the festival that was founded by La Luz De Jesus's Billy Shire who made it the premier event of it's kind on the east side. This year he's turned the reigns over to Johnny Coleman of Found Gallery who is doing a great job bringing a  a new energy as festval closes out it's first decade.  There are some changes in store in addition to everything that you already love about the A.C. and with all the new galleries in the neighborhood this year promises to be even bigger than last years which was itself quite successful.

History of Los Angeles Graffiti Art

I noticed some gawkers standing in front of the cracked out abandoned lot half a block from the Sunset Junction( Sunset and Sanborn) so I went down to see what all the hoopla was about. Turns out there was about about a dozen "writers" creating some much appreciated art on the wall of the glass store that faces the lot.

I talked to Relax long time writer and graffiti project organizer who is also the driving force behind The History of Los Angeles Graffiti Art a comprehensive encyclopedia of L.A.graffiti culture who informed me that with the permission of the store he put together a crew that included Relax, Sleeze, Lock, Vyal, Rebel, Mosh, Spurn among others.

Thanks guys! The work looks amazing and anyone who has walked by that lot knows it's sorely needed. Now if we could just do something about that "garden."

Parking Permits in Los Feliz

[image via flickr user javazetti]

Apparently there are parking pernits needed for a parts of Los feliz not sure which areas are infected affected but as curbedla reports a some business are peeved. If anyone has a map of the area in question please let us know.

A reader from curbedla chimes in on their blog with a few details:
"the parking permit restriction is only on one block in los feliz right now (as far as i can tell). it's on russell from rodney to hillhurst. and it's from 10 pm to 6 am. so that doesn't really help locals who are coming home from work to find a spot and at the same time doesn't really hurt local businesses AS much (i realize bars and the movie theaters are open later). it's also something of a "test" phase. if less than 50% of the residents on that block don't purchase permits, it won't be brought back next time around (april 08 i think)."

Shizu Saldamando onart.blogging.la

Oooh I'm very ecited to be contributing to L.A's best art blog art.blogging.la Check out my first review of Shizu Saldamando at Tropical De Nopal and look for more to posts soon!

Flore Vegan and Itelligentsia

Flore Vegan and Itelligentsia the much anticipated restaurant and coffee shop respectively opened last week just in time for the street fair. I've had a chance to try them and am happy to say I liked them both very much. Flore in particular was great. The food is so good on it's own terms you wont hear people saying it tastes just like a real (fill in the blank). I had a vegi burger, fruit salad, cup cake and potato salad (what can I say I was hungry) all really delicious and I'm not even a vegetarian. They also stay til 11 p.m. which is desperately needed along that stretch. Flore Vegan Cuisine 3818 W. Sunset Blvd

Inetelligensia also opened Friday and that night they had a big kickoff party with a DJ and tons of  people attending. It was quite a wild scene especially considering it was the opening for a coffee shop. ( hope to post pic soon) I tried the Angeleno  i think its called which was amazing but pricey at $4.50.  I've already heard a few coffee Nazi’s squabbling over whether or not this is finally the place in SL for a  great cup of coffee. I liked it but I'm not a coffee connoisseur so I'll have to sit this one out.

Intelligentsia 3922 West Sunset Boulevard

Sunset junction Street Fair This Weekend

Ahh the Sunset Junction Street Fair is here again. (in case you haven't heard) Each year it seems to get bigger with all the attending drama of nieghborhood politics and anticipation. This year for some reason the atmosphere seems particularly charged. Major headliner Ben Harper, a new untested route and new stores racing to open to take advantage of the crowd( including intelligencia the fancy llooking new coffee shop) are giving this years fair a different energy. Oh and did I mention several SLGA galleries will be participating.

Thinkspace Gallery will have special discounts on many original works of art, great discounts on prints and a special blow out sale on our complete t-shirt inventory. Not to mention refreshments and an array of snacks,

And they are sponsoring Ekundayo and Johnny “KMNDZ” Rodriguez who will be painting live each day from around 11AM to 7PM about a block up the road from us as part of the Street Festival on a wall that will be constructed for them to collaborate and create upon throughout the weekend.

Black Maria Gallery will have a booth with fun and unique gift items from their new store under the table.

Junc Gallery will have also discounts on many original works of art and prints as well as the final two days to check out Camilla Engman's amazing solo show.All three locations will have special SLGA gallery related materials.

All in all it's usually a wild scene with people from every (and we do mean every) concievable walk of life congregating, gawking and having a good time. I will be taking many pictures and will post a post fair rap up once we recover. Good times, hope to see everyone there!

Sunset Junction Wrist Bands

In case you didn't know the Sunset Junction Street Fair will be giving out free wristbands to neighbors of the fair this Wednsday and Thursday 3-9 p.m. at Tsunami Coffee House. Flyers where passed out to addresses in the immediate area last week.  If you somehow missed the flyer you can contact Tsunami for more info.

The Tsunami Coffee House is located at 4019 Sunset Boulevard in the heart of Silver Lake.
(323) 661-7771 To send us a fax, dial (323) 661-5512

Silver Lake Neighborhood Council Needs You!...

... But time to participate is running out.

"The Silver Lake Neighborhood Council is one of the most important community organizations in SilverLake ! 

Our annual elections take place on September 29th and we're looking for candidates! SilverLake stakeholders can run for an At-Large seat (we currently have four open seats) or as a seat for the region in which they live or work or belong to an organization. For a map of Silver Lake, log onto the SLNC page at www.silverlakenc.org

The SLNC is looking for great candidates and WE WANT YOU TO RUN! You have until August 17th to submit a candidate declaration form and be included on the ballot.

So please consider running for a seat. For more information and a candidate declaration form, log onto www.silverlakenc.org "