On November 5th, 2006, the A Shenere Velt Gallery of West Los Angeles will present its latest exhibition – Utopia: Dreams of Paradise & Possibility. Reading from the gallery’s press release regarding the exhibit: “Our call for submissions went out this year asking artists to think about the theme of Utopia. ‘In a world climate of pessimism and fear, dreams…
On March 24, 2005, a public forum titled Whither Arts Journalism in LA? was held on Olvera street in downtown Los Angeles on the topic of arts journalism in LA. Moderated by Adolfo Guzman Lopez, the panelists included art critics Christopher Knight (LA Times), Peter Frank (LA Weekly), Malik Gaines (artUS magazine), and Caryn Colemen (art.blogging.la). The event attracted an…
In 2005 I rediscovered a number of my old sketchbooks that had been packed away for decades. These sketchbooks contain hundreds of pencil and pen drawings created by me during my high school years. Most of the artworks were created in 1970 when I was only sixteen years old. The drawings were largely of my classmates and friends, and some…
August 6th, 2005, marks the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Japan. August 9th, marks the bombing of Nagasaki. Those who survived the blasts became known as hibakusha (Atom Bomb Survivors), and in 1974 the hibakusha began contributing artworks to an unusual project that would preserve for the world their memories of atomic fire. The Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK…
In January of 2002, then Attorney General of the United States, John Ashcroft, censored a pair of classic Art Deco statues located in the Great Hall of the Justice Department. I wrote about this ridiculous act of Taliban-like extremism at the time it happened. Ashcroft, a Christian fundamentalist, was made terribly uncomfortable by the statues. In order to protect western…
On March 9, 2024, to celebrate her birthday, my wife and I visited the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. Once owned by the British Cunard White Star Line, the luxury liner passenger ship sailed the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967. In ‘67 Long Beach purchased the Queen Mary from Cunard and she was permanently docked in…
