Would you like to ride your bike more but feel intimidated by the dangers of riding through city streets? Try joining an outing sponsored by a bicycling organization. It’s safer to be in a group and you will learn how to ride safer on your own.

It had been a long time since I’d ridden my bike. But when I received an email inviting me to join an Urban Expedition exploring Highland Park by bike, I thought why not? It was only 7 miles and promised to visit some interesting sights, so what better way to ease back into cycling, have some fun and learn something?

From their website, www.cicle.org: Cyclists Inciting Change thru Live Exchange (C.I.C.L.E.) is a nonprofit organization based in Los Angeles working to promote the bicycle as a viable, healthy, and sustainable transportation choice.

The Urban Expedition happens about once a month. There were at least 30 riders on this trip, several of whom were volunteers with bright yellow vests who helped guide and keep everyone safe. We met near the Arroyo Seco Stables and rode up the bike path in the LA River to the Audubon Center in Debs Park. Did you know that Debs Park is the 4th largest park in the city of Los Angeles? It has over 150 acres of largely wild hillsides with mostly native plants to hike and explore. The Audubon Center was opened in Debs Park in 2003, and was instrumental in making the park safer and more accessible to families and individuals.

Did you know that the Audubon Center is the first LEED-certified building in the country? (LEED = Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). The director of the Audubon Center, Jeff Chapman, told us about the site and then led us on a hike on the butterfly nature trail.

DEBS Park Audobon Center

Jeff is a regular participant on these urban bicycle adventures and he rides his bike to work from his home in Eagle Rock. The Audubon Center is a very kid-friendly place, offering lots of fun ways for kids to learn about and play in nature. For adults, there is a Solar System Hands-on Training for Maintenance & Design class that meets the 3rd Saturday of each month. For $20 per class, you can learn how to better understand solar systems for your own use or even to work in the field. For all ages, they offer a free Friday film night preceded by a bird walk. Check out all the possibilities at http://ca.audubon.org/debs_park.php.

We rode on to the Milagro Allegro Community Garden (www.hpgarden.org), a project comprising 32 garden plots, monthly educational classes and workshops on gardening and other topics, and an after-school nutrition, cooking and gardening program (“LA Sprouts”) for elementary school students aimed at promoting healthy eating habits. Check out their website to read about the history of how the garden was acquired, named and constructed, all good stories.

Millagro Allegro Community Garden

What I love about this garden is that it is yet another example of the population of individuals in Highland Park who think for themselves to find ways to make their community better for everyone. In this case, they saw a way to make a community garden out of a city-owned vacant lot that was slated for public parking in a neighborhood where there was already plenty of parking.

We cycled on to Cafe de la Leche, a coffee house in Highland Park that features the first bike corral installed by the City of Los Angeles. The owners of this popular spot are living the urban localism dream, in my opinion. Matt and Anya Schodorf live and ride their bikes in Highland Park, saw a need for a good local coffee spot and have very successfully opened one. But they went further: they recently opened Schodorf’s Luncheonette in the same block where they offer yummy sandwiches and salads from 11 till 3 everyday. Matt and Anya exemplify the diverse creative look and spirit of Highland Park. Check them out atwww.cafedeleche.net, stop in at the 2 venues, live some of their dream. Maybe you’ll have one of your own!

Besides meeting some interesting people, learning about some cool places, and having a nice bike ride, I learned some better bike routes through Highland Park. We started off along the LA River bike path to Debs Park, then took a circuitous route over to the community garden. To reach Cafe de Leche, we rode up Avenue 56 from Figueroa towards York (a more level route than I would have done on my own), then parallel to the busy York Blvd on the much quieter Buchanan Street. Circling back to the start of our trip we rode in the bike lane that extends along much of York Blvd.

I really enjoyed this outing and plan to do more. Slowly, Los Angeles is becoming more bike-friendly through the efforts of groups like CICLE and more. Even the mayor is more sensitive to the needs of bicyclists (especially since he was in a bicycle accident) and has pledged to add more bike lanes at a greater rate than has been done in the past. The City of Los Angeles will never become a city like Davis where the bicycles outnumber the people, but who would have thought even 10 years ago that we would have the support of City government like this?

Kudos to the bike activists! Here is a list of some of the resources, groups and events you can explore:

LA Bike:
www.la-bike.org

Sunday Funday rides and the annual LA River Ride:
http://www.labikepaths.com/

Mayor Villaraigosa’s Bicycle Plan:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/07/la-mayor-pushes-bicycle-plan.html

Lots of great how-to info plus calendar of events:
www.cicle.org

Bicycling in Highland Park

A couple of weeks ago, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power delivered notices to the businesses and residences on Colorado Blvd between Eagle Rock Blvd and Townsend that construction would begin that day on replacing water mains along the street and that the occupants along the way could expect limited parking, access and water for the next few months.
The business owners and residents were understandably upset by the cavalier treatment they were given. They called the City Councilmember Jose Huizar’s office and within a short time, the work schedule was suspended and a public meeting was called to discuss the issues involved.
I was at the meeting and I saw that the behavior of some of the DWP staff was a bit unsettling (as in, if we don’t replace these pipes now, they could burst and then we’d have a real problem) and let’s just say inconsiderate of many issues like parking, cleanliness, the Farmer’s Market, restaurants, the Music Festival, Ren-Arts school, repaving the street, effects on holiday business, etc. Luckily, the DWP staff included a very astute gentleman who could see the potential for disaster and encouraged everyone to state their concerns without criticism, all would be heard and we would meet again after some thought and research had taken place.
Tonight was the night for the followup meeting and I believe the DWP and the 14th District City Council office staff had done some good work on the issues as well as possibly some training on how to promote good public relations within the community. The general tone was collegial and positive. And Plan B was well received by all. It was a 180 degree change from the previous meeting.
Since Plan B is slated to begin in March, 2011, the Music Festival in October and the holiday season will not be affected.
The permits that LADWP currently have allow construction only between the hours of 9 am and 3 pm. DWP asked if they could begin setting up cones, etc. at 8 am so they could begin actual work by 9 would help move the project forward more quickly. There was general agreement in favor of that and perhaps even broader hours.
Some of the ideas that were not incorporated into the plan were explained:
• Placing the utilities underground while the street is open for the water mains is not feasible because another cut is required for utilities and the cost is prohibitive, especially considering the city budget crisis.
• Resurfacing the Blvd instead of just patching the cut is not financially feasible at this time.
Here is Plan B:
On August 9, work will begin at Loleta Avenue and head east to Genevieve where the onramp to the 134 freeway begins. This work is expected to be finished by December 3. If it is completed earlier, the section between Vincent and Loleta will be done. During this time, the community can see how well the parking, traffic, dust and debris, etc. issues are handled. Suggestions, concerns and problems will be addressed both through the 1-800-DIAL DWP number and through a special hotline that will go to a DWP supervisor. Both these lines will be answered by a live person 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Another community meeting will be held sometime in November or December to assess how things are going.
Beginning sometime probably in March, the Eagle Rock Blvd. to Vincent or Loleta stretch will commence. The longest any one business will be without water will be 4 to 8 hours in one day and then 1 to 2 hours when the water is switched from the old main to the new main. These shutoffs will have somewhere between 48 hours and 7 days notice. The longest a business will have construction in front of their location will be about 3 days.
What would have happened if no one had spoken up about this work? We would have construction on Colorado Blvd right now with no real planning done for the parking issues, the water shutoffs, the safety of the Renaissance Art school students to name a few concerns. DWP would have done their job without much consideration of the impact on the struggling businesses in this fragile economy. After all, they were responding to requests from the Council office to replace these pipes before they burst like the ones on Townsend did. Hm. Everyone involved was doing their part to solve a problem, but without a community meeting, each department was unaware of the whole picture.
Moral of the story: If you live in a community, you need to pay attention to what is going on around you and speak up when you see something wrong. We have a responsibility to do our part and attend meetings like this. The government and the large corporations and the developers need to see that the citizens are watching. Over the 27 years that I have lived in Eagle Rock, I have seen and heard of several issues that the community spoke up about and because they did, changes were made. Did you know that someone tried to put a pornographic movie theater into the old Eagle Rock Theater on the corner of Yosemite and Eagle Rock Blvd? Quite a lot of people turned out to protest that. Another issue was when the Mobil station on the corner of Eagle Rock Blvd and Colorado petitioned to sell alcohol at their convenience store. The citizens didn’t believe that selling alcohol at a place that sold gasoline was the right thing to do. And let me tell you, the big guy from Mobil Corporation thought his company’s need for a profit justified the encouragement of drinking and driving. That was stopped. There are many more, including TERA’s fight to stop a MacDonald’s from going in to the old Security Pacific Bank Building (now the BlockBusters).
We don’t all agree on all the issues, but that is why we need to speak up. There might be a solution that will be more palatable to a greater number if only ideas were exchanged in an open forum. I am proud to live in Eagle Rock, where people take a stand when they disagree with what is going on. Our community is better for it.

It’s always hard to get back into work mode after a 3 day weekend, so if you’re wishing it was the weekend again, jot this down on your calendar for Saturday, July 10. It’s NELA’s Second Saturday Artwalk, of course!

From Amy Inouye:
Future Studio Gallery
5558 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles 90042
323 254-4565

Second Saturday and Opening Reception for An Exhibition of Quilts by Ruby Nishio

Ruby Nishio grew up in Los Angeles and was interned at Heart Mountain relocation camp during WWII. After returning to Los Angeles she began working at Cahill in Beverly Hills, sewing and designing wedding gowns. She was very talented and adept at doing patterns and creating wonderful gowns and custom clothing. For the past 18 years she has used her talents in creating beautiful quilts. Ruby Nishio is an amazing quilt artist and has won many awards for her work. This is her first one- person show.
Nishio has been sewing for over 70 years. She has done all types of handwork, from custom dressmaking, knitting, tatting, crocheting, and embroidery. In 1992, she transitioned into making quilts. The imagery she uses is taken from her personal interests. She loves gardening and many of the patterns she uses are of flowers and nature. She stitches fabric pieces together to form repetitive patterns that are then hand quilted. One quilt in the exhibition, Trip Around the World (1998), includes 2193(!) two-inch squares of flowered fabric where the stitched edges of each piece loses its sharpness and blends with the piece next to it, forming an impressionist patterned garden. In New York, New York (2005), echoes of the Statue of Liberty are depicted in the patterns, while the colors and fabrics are reminiscent of Broadway by way of the Ginza. Expressing her love of gardening and traveling, Nishio has created wonderful pieces that are truly works of art.
The exhibition will run till July 31 (on view by appointment).

Join us for a special Artist’s Tea: Sunday, July 25 from noon – 4 p.m.

Also, don’t forget to pick up July’s trading cards (Chicken Boy trading card #9 and a Ruby card)–they’ll be waiting for you in a bin inside the front door.

PS: Chicken Boy Shop will be open Second Saturday. We’ve gotten a few new items in to check out… like Tyvek pop art wallets and some magnetic jewelry…

* * * * *
On deck at Future Studio Gallery:
August: Manuel Gonzalez
September: Liz Mamorsky returns!
October: Fig Knit-On* (a Yarn-Bombing exhibit curated by Heather Hoggan)

November: Arroyo Arts Collective Discovery Tour
December: an exhibit of artists’ stuffed toys* curated by Edith Abeyta

*if you’d like to participate or get more info, sign up at the gallery Second Saturday

* * * * *
BOOK BOOTH HIGHLAND PARK is located next to the entrance of La Arca de Noe restaurant, 5570 N. Figueroa Street, LA 90042.

BOOK BOOTH is a free community art/literature project. The books and magazines found at BOOK BOOTH are all donated by your neighbors and are looking for new homes, so if you see something that interests you, please take it. If you have family-friendly books and magazines that you would like to pass along—just leave them at BOOK BOOTH. Please help keep BOOK BOOTH neat and trash-free.

*Some of the books at BOOK BOOTH are registered with bookcrossing.com, a free online book tracking service. If you find a label inside a book, there will be a an ID number that you can enter at the site and make a journal entry about the book and its ongoing journey.

A big gushy thank you to everyone who has been supporting BOOK BOOTH HIGHLAND PARK!

It empties out almost as soon as it fills up (we can’t figure out exactly what’s going on but we aren’t seeing the streets littered with pages, so we’re hoping it’s all good). We’ve pulled out The Tipping Point, Stephen Colbert’s I Am America (and So Can You), and Susan Sontag’s The Volcano Lover. (They’ll all go back to the booth as soon as we’re done reading them.) So, please keep bringing books and magazines (even CDs and DVDs) and taking stuff too. If it’s all filled up, drop them off at the gallery (ring the semi-hidden bell). You can drop them off Second Saturday also.

We plan on identifying other vacated phone booths so others can make their own Book Booth. Watch this space for the latest.

* * * * *
futurestudio.com
nelaart.com

chickenboy.com
http://www.chickenboysouvenirstand.com
FutureStew Vintage at etsy

lavatransforms.com

* * * * *

FYI: My Taco (6300 York Blvd.) has late night tacos (starting at 11 pm) on Saturday nights for your after art-ing snacking pleasure.

Happy Fourth of July!
Come celebrate with the community at the first of this summer’s
CONCERTS IN THE PARK
Location:
1100 Eagle Vista Drive
Eagle Rock, CA 90041

Entertainment – 4:00PM: Surfin Safari—a tribute to the Beach Boys
Food, Moon Bouncers, Car Show, Service Organization Booths – 6:00PM
Fire Works: 8:30 pm.
Sponsor: Sir Michael’s Party Rental & LA City Council member Jose Huizar

Auntie Em’s Market Dinner
Periodically, Auntie Em’s Kitchen (4616 Eagle Rock Blvd. 90041) offers a Farmer’s Market Dinner and the sold-out crowd thoroughly enjoyed the one last night. Here’s the menu:
Starter
Oro Blanco Grapefruit, Blood Orange, Cara Cara Orange and
Three Beet Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette
Main Course
Falafel, Muhammara, Cilantro and Jalapeño Hummus, Tatziki, Tabouleh and Pita,
all handmade in-house
OR
Spring Leg of Lamb Stuffed with Oil Cured Olives, Leeks, Roasted Garlic, Spinach and Fresh Herbs
served with a sauté of Asparagus, Fava Beans, Fresh English Peas, Snap Peas, Fennel, Pea Tendrils and Chervil

Cheese Course
Hudson Valley Camembert Square (sheep/cow, NY)
Jasper Hill Farm’s Bayley Hazen Blue (cow, VT)
Capriole’s Old Kentucky Tomme (goat, IN)
Cesar’s Cheese’s Oaxacan-Style String Cheese (cow, WI)
served with Peppadew (sweet/spicy Red Pickled Peppers), Pine Cone Bud Syrup and Strawberries

Dessert
Trio of Cream Puffs filled with Meyer Lemon Mousse, Orange Mousse and Seascape Strawberry Mousse
with a pot of Dipping Chocolate

$45 PER PERSON
We picked up our wine from the Colorado Wine Company, where Jennifer gave us 3 great pairings (there were several of us!). We started off with a light, grassy Caliberico Verdelho which went perfectly with the citrus and beet flavors of the salad course. For the lamb/falafel main course we first had the Falasco Valpolicella and then finished through the cheese course with the Rothschild valde l’ours. That cheese course was fascinating. Have you ever heard of pine cone bud syrup? Suffice it to say, some cheeses and flavors were distinctive and new to me.
The dessert of 3 little cream puffs each with a different fruit mousse filling with a pot of chocolate to dip them in was the perfectly tasty end to a rich and interesting meal.
To find out more about Auntie Em’s, check out the website at www.AuntieEmsKitchen.com. Besides the restaurant, Auntie does catering and also offers organic produce delivery with recipes! Read about it on the website. Terri Wahl, the owner, is passionate about this way of supporting locally grown food and small businesses while enabling busy families to eat fresh healthy meals.

What a lot of work! Why would anyone want to open their house to people they don’t know and not even get paid for it! Believe me, I asked myself that question many times (and my husband asked it even more) over the months between saying “Sure, why not?” to the TERA (The Eagle Rock Association) President, Bob Gotham, and “Welcome, come on in” to our guests.

We were one of the hosts for the “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” fundraiser which was held last night. We were flattered into doing it by our friend and TERA President, Bob Gotham, who made it sound like just a fun dinner we would host on one day in spring, which at that time was many months away.

We decided it would be a good excuse to do some freshening up around the place. We had visions of having all the landscaping done, all the trim and decks re-stained, all the clutter nicely removed from every room including our office. Oh, the dreams and visions we had. As the months went by, we even talked about it, that we would have the office done at last. Such dreams we had!

But as the time drew nearer, life intervened as it always does. We questioned why we ever agreed to do this. Would we be ready? Would anyone sign up for our dinner? Was there any point to all our preparations?

My husband valiantly worked on the landscaping and outside decks. He re-stained some of them and discovered termite damage and dry rot. Our simple plan was becoming complicated. We couldn’t replace all the wood at this point, there was no time. Oh, well. It would still look better with some new stain around the front entry.

We had had a test dinner a couple of months previously to see if our very simple menu would be considered worthwhile. That worked. It was a very good step in the preparations, by the way. When I was asking myself every 5 minutes over the last few days if anyone was going to like it, I could look back and say, well, those guests loved it. It gave me the courage to go on.

As the big day drew near and life became busier, a few projects were shelved. We remembered we have a door to the office and we could throw everything in there and shut the door. Whew! A life-saving idea. All the extra books jammed in the book shelves were packed into boxes to be sorted later.

We made lists. We checked them off. Some people became a little cranky as the day loomed closer (I’m not going to say who). We had the windows washed, the whole house cleaned, new bed linens on the beds, a new dining room table and chairs (it was a sit-down dinner, so we couldn’t have our guests stuck on the chairs I had hated for years).

My menu included food that was as locally grown and purchased as possible. TERA negotiated discounts for us at Figueroa Produce and the Colorado Wine Company, which was great since I had planned to shop at those places anyway! Did you know that Figueroa Produce has a great meat market? The steaks were fabulous, and incredibly well-priced. And John at CoWineCo helped me pick just the right wines to go with the salad, the steaks, even the berries and ice cream! I also shopped at our local Friday Farmer’s Market and no one can have a dinner party without going to Trader Joe’s for something. One of the guests was so thoughtful and sent over a floral arrangement from our local botanical design shop, Pollen. 

Finally, the big day was here. Yesterday. I focused on my list, checked off each item to be done, and finished with a few minutes time to spare to go to the reception at a home nearby. I was curious, who was coming to all these dinners?

I’m so glad I went. The Nogueira’s house was beautifully decked out, there were wine and appetizers, and I heard that about 140 tickets (at $75 each) were sold for the event. What a nice donation for TERA! Everyone who was anyone in Eagle Rock was at the reception. What was really fun was meeting up with a number of other dinner hosts and comparing notes on the things we’d “gotten” out of the event; one person remodeled his bedroom, another a bathroom, another had all the ceilings in the house cleared of “cottage cheese.”  I bought all new bed linens and a dining room set. I’m looking forward to the thank you party that TERA is hosting for the dinner hosts so I can find out more of what people did to prepare.

The dinner went off fine. Everyone showed up and was good company. It was nice to meet people that were new to the community as well as long-time residents and that made for some great conversation. We were helped by a couple of Key Club members from Eagle Rock High School who volunteered as part of their participation in this branch of the Kiwanis service organization. They helped serve and clean up and were really interesting people as well. Eagle Rock has a number of community service organizations and they serve such an important function in our town. It’s especially important that they have a system in place to bring young people into the community in a positive way.

So if you are ever asked to donate your home for a charity event and you wonder, what’s in it for me? Here’s what I have found so far:

• You are providing a valuable service for your community. Your community will appreciate it and it will make you feel good.
• You will meet new people.
• You will have a good reason to do whatever you’ve been thinking of doing to your house.
• You will have a firm deadline to get that stuff done.
• You will learn to prioritize what’s really important to you about your house.
• Your house will be cleaner than it’s been in years.
• You will have fun!
• You can take a tax deduction for the food and drink you serve as a charitable donation. I don’t think they’ll let me write off the dining room set, though.
• You will have the most wonderful peaceful feeling the next morning when you wake up and remember that it’s done!

During the spring real estate buying season, it is often difficult for Realtors to take a day off, but necessary. After 2 weeks of working pretty much every day, taking a day off became mandatory for me. Luckily, one of the many great things about Los Angeles is the huge variety and excellent quality of massage opportunities. You can go to a hole in the wall Thai massage place, a chiropractor’s office, or a franchise massage provider like Massage Envy to a full on beauty spa like Burke Williams. You can have a massage therapist come to your home, or you can go to a “day spa.”
In Los Angeles, we have a large number of Korean Day Spas. Most professional masseuses cover your body with a sheet and only uncover the particular area they are working on. Not so with the Korean spa! You are naked and usually in a part of the spa room that is open to everyone. There is something curiously comforting about this. After all, everyone is naked except for your masseuse, who is generally wearing a black bra and panties. And while the quality of the particular masseuse you have can vary, the procedure is almost identical no matter where you go.
I have only been to a few day spas, but in general, they have hot and cold pools, steam and sauna rooms, and offer body scrub and massage services. A lot of them are connected to gyms and restaurants, like the Century Sports Club on Olympic. One new one called Wi Spa in West Hollywood has a family atmosphere with computer and game rooms so the whole family can go and relax and play. It’s open 24 hours, so some people even sleep there.
This time I decided to try a new (to me) spa that had good reviews in Yelp.com, Daengki Spa. It’s a small spa, open to women only, located in a small strip mall on Third Street in Koreatown. Daengki Spa was described as “the most like a spa you would find in Korea”. I’ve never been to Korea, so I had no idea what that might mean.
Most of the staff speaks limited English. The woman at the front desk was very nice and friendly, and gave me a quick tour of the facility. We worked out that I would have the “Special” treatment for $100 and she gave me a basket with a robe and a couple of towels and the key to my locker. Another woman came up and using very good English introduced herself as another staff person, asked my name, and said they would find me when it was time to have my treatment. She remembered my name when I checked out, too. I found that to be very impressive, but it was probably easy for her since I was the only non-Korean woman there. 
If you’ve never been to a Korean spa, there are a couple of very important rules to know. No clothes or swimsuits are allowed in the spa room and you must shower well when you first go in the room and again before you go into the tubs after being in the steam or sauna rooms. It will add a lot to everyone’s experience if you are quiet and turn off your cell phone while you are there. If you can remember these rules, you’ll do fine. I have found that it helps to go to the spa’s website (and they all seem to have one) and read up on what they offer and what they have to say about their amenities. If you are looking for a quiet, serene experience you don’t want to go to the spa that has the games for kids.
Daengki is the smallest spa I’ve been to. It’s also the friendliest. The staff was nice, but the customers were really nice as well. An unusual feature is the V-Herbal Therapy, which they describe on their website as “A feminine herbal steam treatment using a variety of herbs to rid the body of toxins. This treatment is commonly used for women trying to conceive, or who have menstrual cramps, bladder infections, kidney problems, and more. It is a traditional Korean health remedy.” So if you have any of these issues, this is the place to go. One woman described the treatment in a Yelp review, so you can read up on it: http://www.yelp.com/biz/daengki-spa-los-angeles.
The facility itself is basic but clean. The mud and salt sauna felt very “old-country,” with rustic mud walls and salt crystals. There is also a marble steam room studded with crystals, a sauna, a hot and a cold pool. There is one small bathroom, four showers in the spa room, and no sinks in the dressing area. But for me, the experience was one of the best I’ve ever spent at a day spa because the massage was so fantastic! This woman seemed to know where all the knots and tense areas on my body were and she rubbed them out. It was exactly what I wanted and needed. For most people, the body scrub is the key to the Korean spa. It’s kind of torture because they scrub every bit of dead skin off your body with scratchy little mitts, but it’s a necessary step towards your ultimate well-being. Then the aromatherapy oil massage is firm and deep, but feels great. With The Special, you also get a cucumber mask, your hair shampooed and your head massaged. It’s a complete treat, and I left feeling clean, de-stressed, pampered, and serene.
Daengki Spa, 4245 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90020, (213) 381-3780 http://www.daengkispa.com/Home_Page.html. I parked on the street right next to the spa, but they say they have valet parking in the front.

Coming Attractions From the Arroyo Arts Collective

There is so much to do around here! Luckily, many of these shows run for a few weeks, but if you want to attend the openings, you’ll have to pack most of them into Saturday, March 13!
GERARDO HACER: THE MYTH
PE Lofts Gallery, 610 S. Main St. LA 90017
Reception: Thursday, March 11, 2010 from 12:00 noon to 10:00 PM
Presented by The Avenue 50 Studio, with the support of Los Angeles Trade-Tech College (LATTC) at the Downtown Art Walk in the PE Lofts Gallery (corner of 6th and Main Street).
The work of Los Angeles–based sculptor, Gerardo Hacer, consists of monumental structural, metal, origami animals in bold, flat, solid colors. The centerpiece of the show, Gerardo Hacer: The Myth, is a 2-ton fourteen-foot Pegasus entitled, “Education Gives You Wings To Fly” that will be permanently installed at the gateway of the main entrance to Los Angeles Trade-Tech College’s new $250M campus. A former graduate, Gerardo was selected as the face of their multimedia campaign, “Trade As Art”. His works have received coverage from SoCal News, Huell Howser’s “California Gold”, as well as, featured on public transit DASH buses. Contact: Ashley Lund – 310-405-5285

ART AND ARCHITECTURE: MERGING THE CONTEMPORARY AND THE HISTORICAL
Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., Los Angeles 90041
323.226.1617, www.centerartseaglerock.org
Panel Discussion: March 13, 2010, 4-6 pm
Panelists: Gwynne Pugh (Pugh + Scarpa), Isotta Poggi (Getty Research Institute), John O’Brien, Cielo Pessione
Bruno Bondanelli will be making a brief presentation on behalf of Italian Living Umbria at the end of the round table conversation and offering Baci Perugina for all.
FOLLOWED by NELAart Second Saturday Gallery Night 7-10 pm
The March 13, 2010 panel discussion about “Art and Architecture: Merging the contemporary and the historical” is particularly relevant at CFAER, a historically listed 1914 Carnegie Library Building, that was itself transformed into a multicultural community center for arts and culture.

ASSEMBLAGE & COLLAGE
Howeeduzzit Gallery, 821 S. Raymond #27, Alhambra 91803
626.458.8811, www.howeeduzzitgallery.com
February 21st – March 13th, 2010
Closing Reception March 13th, 2:00-5:00 PM
Featured artists: Kathy Carvalles, Ruth DeNicola, Charles Dickson, Jack Fenn, Clare Graham, Frank Gutierrez, Cookie Hanson, Cidne Hart, Heather Hoggan, Jeffrey Kibbe, Dave Lovejoy, Mavis Leahy, Jaime Sabatte, Richard Sculley, Suzanne Siegel, Joseph Sims, Richard Turner, Howard Swerdloff, LaMonte Westmoreland

THE VIRGIN MARY CHAINSMOKING AT THE BEACH AND A COUPLE OTHER REALLY AWFUL THINGS I SAW WHEN I DITCHED SCHOOL THAT DAY
Future Studio Gallery, 5558 N. Figueroa St., LA 90042
futurestudiogallery.com
Opening Saturday March 13, 7 to 10 pm, part of NELAart.com Second Saturday Gallery Night
Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta: Drawings, Piñatas, Videos, Prints, Collages, and Photographs
(Don’t forget to pick up your free Tati artist trading card at the gallery during the opening)
March’s Chicken Boy Trading Card #6, also available Second Saturday. (It’s CB, a guy’s guy, repairing his cycle)
CUENTOS DE HADAS
Avenue 50 Studio, 131 North Avenue 50, Highland Park 90042
323.258.1435, www.avenue50studio.com
Mercedes Gertz and Esau Andrade reinterpret fairy tales with photographs by Elizabeth Beristain
Opening Night Reception: Saturday, March 13, 2010 from 7-10 pm
The Avenue 50 Studio is proud to present “Cuentos de Hadas” (Fairy Tales), an exhibition of works by two contemporary Mexican artists. Through a narrative language, Gertz and Andrade portray the female vs. male versions of fairy tales. The exhibit opens with an artists’ reception on Saturday evening, March 13, 2010 from 7 to 10 p.m. and closes on Sunday, April 4, 2010.
Mercedes Gertz. Using humor and sensuality, Gertz’s fairy tale series asks us to consider where women are in the 21st century. Her heroines are unapologetic symbols of female confidence. We sense in them a comfort with the body, with play and decoration. They confidently own the sensual, and relish in being a woman in charge. “These … fairy or folk tales … recur over and over through millennia in the guise of innocent stories telling us time and again that the docile, young body gets the prince, that the girl brave enough to venture into the woods—the space of men–meets her fate at the hands of the big bad wolf. Peter Pan lives forever as a boy, Wendy must grow up–it is her calling, her duty, her essential nature.” — Marlena Doktorczyk-Donohue, Art Critic, Essayist, Poet
Esau Andrade. Following in the footsteps of the Latin American surrealists, Esau Andrade twists reality, creating canvases bursting with color that are pop in nature. He instills a childlike exuberance into his delightful paintings. Andrade comes from a folk art background, as both his mother Guadalupe Valencia and brother Raymundo Andrade are also artists. He is mainly a self-taught painter, although attended La Escuela de Artes Plasticas de la Universidad de Guadalajara. “Unlike the candy colored confections of his more stylized folk art paintings, these other works by Andrade place him firmly in the surrealist tradition shared by many Latin masters. He retains a naiveté and originality with quirky images that are both charming and serious, and also remain indebted to his rich culture for visual symbols that are vivid and intense.” — Kathy Zimmerer, Artscene 11/2004
Elizabeth Beristain. Elizabeth was born in Mexico City. A graduate of the Escuela Activa de Fotografia and staff photographer for “El Reforma,” one of the top national daily newspapers in Mexico, she moved to Los Angeles as a freelance photographer and later became Photography Editor for the cultural publication Latino Weekly Review. A product of her Mexican mother’s artistic sensitivity and her Portuguese father’s decidedly more adventurous side, this subtle mixture of Old and the New World influences are germinal elements of Elizabeth’s artistry. Additionally, in devising the art direction of her own work, a wider range of crucial creative features shine through, from the world of opera, painting, music, and cinema, in a vision where a unique sense of artistry never intrudes with a boundless appreciation of our common humanity. Elizabeth has participated in various collective and solo shows, both in Mexico and Los Angeles, where she lives with her husband, cinematographer Gabriel Beristain ASC, BSC, and their two children Max and Victoria. She is currently at work on her new series, entitled Crowned Nuns.

And the Annex Presents:
A PRAYER FOR JUAREZ, A CURSE ON THE KILLERS
March 13 through April 4, 2010
Opening Night Reception: Saturday, March 13, 2010 from 7-10 pm
Alfonso Aceves, Ismael de Anda, Antonio Escalante, Judithe Hernandez, Cindy Suriyani, vincentmayakovsky

DECKED OUT – ART ON RECYCLED SKATE DECKS
Cactus Gallery, 4534 Eagle Rock Blvd. Eagle Rock 90041
323-256-6117, http://www.eclecticcactus.com
w/ Featured Artist Michael Pukac plus group show
March 13th – April 7th 2010, Gallery Hours: Weds-Sun 12-6pm
Opening Saturday, March 13, 2010 – 7-10pm
Group Show Artists: Amanda Sage, Motion One, Hans Haveron, L. Croskey, John Park, Spectr, Tommii Lim, Stix and Jones, Yuki Miyazaki, Nick Wildermuth, Ted Von Heiland, Anna Chung, Shahid Brown, Patrick Haemmerlein, Max Neutra, Jacob E. Roanhaus, Jose Carabes, Elle Seven, Liz Brizzi, Jonathan Bueno, Kelly Thompson, Carlos Ramsey, Dicapria, Mikolaj Wyszynski, Walt Hall, Art Martinez, Douglas Alvarez, Julie B., Delphia, Mike Russek, Amy Bernays, Krystle Smith, Alfie Numeric, and more.
Beats by Mr. Numberwonderful
Curated by The Imaginary Light Bulb Factory
10% of proceeds will go to Greenizm: a 501.3c rehabilitating neglected urban landscape into green skate parks in LA County while promoting the arts to skate culture.
More info: ArtSlant Event Page – http://www.artslant.com/la/events/show/92985-decked-out,
Facebook Event Page – http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=301594547342&ref=ts

MICK & FRIENDS: A COLLECTION OF ROCK & ROLL PHOTOGRAPHY
drkrm/gallery, 2121 San Fernando Road Suite 3, Los Angele 90065
323.223.6867, drkrmgallery@gmail.com
March 13th- April 3rd, 2010, Tue-Sat 11-5 Sun 1-4
Opening Reception Saturday March 13th 7-10pm
drkrm/gallery announces it first show of 2010, a group show retrospective of fine art Rock & Roll photographs. Featuring Ethan Russell’s 1968 portrait of John and Yoko, Cecil Beaton’s portraits of Mick Jagger on the set of the film Performance and Travis Shinn’s recent photographs of Morrissey and Marilyn Manson. The Exhibition will run though April 3rd. There will be an opening reception Saturday March 12 from 7-10 pm with several of the artists in attendance.
Also featured are images of Bob Marley from the 1980’s by Neville Garrick, Paul Zone’s photos of KISS playing a small Queens NY club in 1973 and a 1969 Grateful Dead concert in San Francisco photographed by Ryan Herz plus many more.
The Land of Odd Gallery, 4690 Eagle Rock Blvd. Los Angeles 90041
March 13, 2010 – March 27, 2010
Opening Reception: March 13, 2010 from 6pm to 12am
Come to The Land of Odd Gallery’s 5×7″ Group Show, opening on the evening of March 13, 2010 from 6pm to 12am. We will also be continuing our $100 and Under Art Show so if you missed getting to see it, now is your chance to come by and check it out. This event will be held in conjunction with the NELA 2nd Saturday art walk. As always refreshments will be served and the event is FREE!
We are proud to have the following artists participating in the 5×7″ show: Chito Arellano, Christie Bastet, Jeff Bertrand, Julie Bossinger, Deryke Cardenaz, Jennifer Cuellar, Brad Davis, Jolly de Guzman, Diane Harrelson, Chuck Hodi, Edith Ben Horin, Jinx, Bruce Kaplan, Patrick Quinn, Pablo Ramos, Monica Roache, Annalise Sullivan, Jason Sullivan, Melissa Sullivan, and Christopher Umana. Most of these works have been created especially for this event and have never been exhibited before, so come by and show your support.
We will also be continuing our $100 and Under Art Show, featuring the artwork of; Douglas Alvarez, Christie Bastet, Edith Ben-Horin, Charles Bennett, Terri Berman, Jeff Bertrand, Deborah Blanco-Flores, Chris Bonno, Heidi K. Born, Deryke Cardenaz, Bryan Collins, Emma Cooper, Josh Cooper, Creep Creepersin, David Daniel, Brett Gilbert, Jolly de Guzman, Brad Davis, William Reynolds Green, Joe B. Hall, Benjamin Harmon, Santiago Heredia, Nicholas Hernandez, John Hicks, Chuck Hodi, K. Howell, Chris Isner, Jinx, Bruce Kaplan, Amelia Lewis, Cynthia Llanes, Vivian Nguyen, Sean Madden, Demi Pietchell, Patrick Quinn, Pablo Ramos, Monica Roache, Glenda Rolle, Lisa Rosso, Therese Solone, Evil Paul Springer, Melissa Sullivan, Jason Sullivan, and Ckay Walker.
Mention the phrase — “The greatest FREE print on Earth” — and you may choose a FREE 5×7″ linoleum print. You might want to mention it to someone who works at the gallery. Otherwise people will just think you are weird.

MOSTLY SCULPTURE SHOW
Sea and Space Explorations, 4744 York Boulevard, Los Angeles 90042
March 13-28, 2010, Gallery Hours Friday/Saturday 1-6 pm, Sunday 1-5 pm
Opening Saturday March 13, 7-10 pm
This is a show of work that centers on material exploration. The six artists’ works are unified by their emphasis on process and innovation. Each artist engages in a pas-de-deux with specific materials in a poetry of making. In the tradition of Schwitters, Tuttle, Franz West, Kippenberger, and Genzkin, this work is strongly formal and has to do with specific methods of making. Encompassing materials from draped fabric to dyed carrara marble to sheetrock to newspaper to fireproof canvas to human stand-ins and fake flowers, the show is made up of work that is sculptural and mostly sculpture.
Artists: Kathryn Andrews, Alice Clements, Heather Cook, Patrick Hill, Alice Konitz, Brett Lund

MIRROR TO A WORLD
José Vera Fine Art & Antiques, 2012 Colorado Blvd., Los Angeles 90041
323.258.5050, www.joseveragallery.com
Gallery Hours: Wed.-Sun. 11am-6pm
Opening Reception on Saturday, March 13th, from 6 – 9
José Vera Fine Art & Antiques invites you to join us for our upcoming exhibit, featuring the work of Irene Carranza in her solo show “Mirror To A World”. We are pleased to showcase her work from March 3 – April 11, 2010, with an Opening Reception on Saturday, March 13th, from 6 – 9 pm, in conjunction with the NELA ArtWalk. Please join us for wine, appetizers and a meet-and-greet with the artist herself.
Artist Statement: On the surface, Carranza’s work is about women; that is the subject matter. At a deeper level, however, the works are about issues that women face, and they pay tribute to the resilient female spirit. Some of the images explore challenges of identity that we confront as women as we attempt to reconcile modern life with traditional Latino culture. Thus the art can be viewed as affirmations of strength and celebrations of a complex yet incredibly diverse presence as female human beings. She also explores themes of beauty, nature, solitude, death and rebirth. Feminism is expressed in many forms-virgins, mothers, mermaids, maidens, field workers, musicians and prostitutes, reflecting on the tender aspects of mankind. Carranza prefers to work with organic and richly layered oil pastels, using mineral spirits to blend, achieving painterly results. She also works with acrylic and oil paints, and occasionally some printmaking, such as aquatints, etchings and collographs. The artist’s recent explorations of color are done with acrylic paintings on black-gessoed surfaces of canvas and wood, and oil pastels and oil bars on black museum board. She considers these pieces as transformations of darkness into light, or darkness and lightvying with one another. This fascination may come from early childhood memories of the Mexican paintings on black velvet she saw everywhere during visits across the border. It may also stem from her immersion in Catholicism growing up in religious schools and a deeply religious home, where the concepts of good vs. evil and light coming out of darkness were pervasive.

HOW OLD DO YOU HAVE TO BE TO BE AN ARTIST?
The Judson Studios Gallery, 200 So. Avenue 66, Los Angeles 90042
Saturday,March 13th , 6:00PM~9:00PM
Students of ROOM 13, an international network of student-operated art studios will show work at The Judson Studios Gallery as part of NELA Art Night. Three ROOM 13 studios, including James Foshay Learning Center in South Los Angeles, Eliot Middle School in Altadena, and Marjorie Street in South Bay, will showcase paintings, drawings, sculptures, mixed media, assemblage, muralart and animation at this collaborative art installation. The Judson Studios, an internationally known stained glass maker run by five generations of family members, was also the first home to the USC School of Fine Arts until 1920.
Room13 originated in Caol, Scotland in1994 and has grown into an international network of student-designed and operated creative studios. It now provides learning and business enterprise skills to students in Scotland, Britain, Nepal, India and South Africa, and is currently expanding to Mexico, Turkey, China and Austria. The director of theTate Galleries has called Room 13 “the most important model for artistic teaching in school that we have in the UK.”
In 2008, Light Bringer Project, a nonprofit arts provider, engaged with the program’s international trustees and decided to take advantage of this opportunity for our own public school children. Partnering with Project Design Studio, the organization launched the first ROOM 13 in America at James Foshay Learning Center in South Los Angeles. They proceeded to found ROOM 13 at Eliot Middle School in Altadena. The third, an dmost recent model, ROOM 13 at Marjorie Street, was formed early this year in the South Bay vicinity. Like its peers, each creative studio operates as a physical space flourishing within a public school or community setting and is solely managed by the students.ROOM 13 is dedicated to provingthe worth of the individual with with the support and mentorship of schoolstaff and community members. Facilitated by an artist-in-residence, also from the community, students work in teams, as partners or alone, determining the scope and content of their own creative projects. ROOM 13 artists also learn self-reliance by designing a business model that will sustain their own studio operation. TBWAChiatDay advertising has also provided support of the ROOM 13 network through the contributed help of its creative professionals.
Proceeds from the sale of artworks will benefit ROOM 13 studios.