One of my coworkers has been bragging all week about how he is going to get everyone at the office sick, because he is sick.  By Thursday night I was starting to feel his prediction come true.  My throat was starting to feel funny – and by midnight I would have a beginner’s grade sore throat.

This, however, cannot be the entire cause of the August art walk being a downer.  As we’ve known for some time, the actual quality of the art on the art walk is poorer than other art walks like the Culver City Art Walk.  This is due in part to the crowd that the event generates, but in larger part to the types of galleries open for perusal.  The downtown area is a hodgepodge of little shops and galleries, hardly any of which have the focused “real art” dedication of galleries like ThinkSpace in Culver City (to name one of many).  That isn’t to say none exist, there are a few.  Ironically some of these are CLOSED on art walk nights (I’m sure to avoid rowdy kids).

As such, when we walked around I didn’t really find any “art” to report back to you about.   The crowd seems different and smaller than previous events.  The police were out in a much larger force (motorcycle cops, at least six cops on horses, etc.) than every before due to the death that occurred last month at the event.  The food trucks were also almost all moved out of the area.  Not only were the food trucks moved out, but the little art fairs that were huddled around the trucks were destroyed.  According the Art Walk officials this was due to a “usage” policy not being followed before that actually didn’t allow these parking lots to be used for other means.  So, this time there was one arts and crafts fair in the building causeway on the north side of the 600 block of Spring, and an alleyway food truck parking lot at 710 Spring.  Street performers were also told to scram apparently as the drum circles were moved to the periphery and the hare krishnas were nowhere to be seen.

In response to last month’s great BlueCanvas show, something called “LA Canvas” snapped up the same space and put on a pathetic graffiti influenced show.  The night club upstairs was roped off and reserved for an “art walk after party” – whatever that is.

We stopped in to the regular spots like the upstairs gallery, but, as usual, there wasn’t much art worth writing about.

The Temple of Visions had some interesting pieces, but I think they were there the last month.  We actually didn’t walk all the way through because the Temple had transformed its floor space into a clothing/accessories show for hippy stuff.

Branch of life had a corner table (the closest to the sidewalk) at the only arts and crafts space available.  I have a feeling that because the space was in a building causeway and not a parking lot the Art Walk was able to skirt the laws that forced them to keep all the parking lots filled with cars and not vendors.  Apparently the Art Walk also set up new rules that vendors can’t even begin to set up until 6:30, so when we arrived first the table for Branch was not set up completely.  We had to come back later (after visiting the Hive and eating) to see all the plants, that’s why some of the shots below are at night and some are not.

Below is a photo of my piece from the Hive for this month.  The show has an erotica theme.  Anybody that knows me well knows that I’m rather tight lipped about “taboo” subjects like this – so I certainly wasn’t going to put up anything openly pornographic (as many other artists had no trouble doing).  My piece is in the photo in the middle above the black chair.  I actually painted it for a portrait orientation – but I didn’t specify this and when hanging it the proprietor assumed the subject must have been laying down.  I suppose that is appropriate for an “erotic” show, so I didn’t bother to correct it.  As you’ll see in the full size image I also didn’t “polish” this up as much as I usually do.  This was partially on purpose and partially not.  I somewhat like it in this rougher stage, it actually feels more like “the moment” it is meant to capture.  Humans don’t see well at night, and for most of our history our copulation was performed in the dark – so choppy colors and rough edges make sense here I believe.

I also just plain ran out of time to finish as I normally would have because of all the home repairs I had to do in July.

(I think the photo below – from the gallery site – was taken without removing the panel from the glass frame – as you can see the flash glare)

So, unfortunately, I’d have to say that this art walk  was a dud.  Kind of sad considering the summer Walks are usually the best.  Maybe it’ll be back and better next month, but we’ll never know as Sam and I will be in Thailand at that time.