Live, Laugh, Los Angeles
Recounting my exciting 9 day stay in Los Angeles
Hello Sketchbugs,
Apologies for the sporadic newsletter updates. I have been scrambling all spring and am only now starting to see some normalcy in my schedule. As my last post stated, I travelled to Los Angeles for a gallery show opening I was part of, Sitting Outside III, curated by the fantastic Kellan Jett (insane artist who worked on Spiderverse 2 and one of the main visual development artists on the TMNT Mutant Mayhem movies) and hosted by the iconic Giant Robot Gallery.
I was elated to be invited to participate in this show full of star studded artists and equally excited to visit the city famed for its gluten free, vegan options and Hollywood crowd. Plus, I got to see highschool friends, fellow RISD classmates, internet friends I’d talked to for years, and friends I made on a residency in 2019 all in one city. Big shoutout to Sander Goldman (incredible storyboard artist on Rick and Morty and amazing friend) and his roomate Kevin Lee (awesome vis dev artist at Sony and master baker) for letting me occupy their couch for the whole 9 days of this trip.
First off, the Sitting Outside Opening was a blast. The gallery is located in this wonderful section of the Sawtelle neighborhood, and hosted a big crowd all throughout the day. We got there around 4pm to participate in the pleinair session going on before the opening. My friend and incredible illustrator Franco Zacha was in the show as well so we talked a bunch throughout the experience. I got to meet some of the artists I had been friendly with on Twitter (before it became X) and instagram, from the legendary Laura Bifano, the iconic Michael Relth to the fantastic Lia Tin. I also got to meet some new people in the show like Grace Poole, Chalky Wong, and Jennifer Wang and many more.
Also shoutout to all my RISD friends who came to the opening to support me and Franco. The celebration dinner afterward felt just like eating at the Met after class (our college cafeteria, not the museum). They are all phenomenal artists and designers in their own rights and I will have links to all of their work at the bottom of the post.
The show isn’t up anymore but you can still support the gallery and all of us by buying a painting at the Giant Robot website HERE! Thank you to everyone who bought a painting or came to see the show in person! It means so much!
The rest of the trip was spent adventuring around the city, from roaming around Burbank, exploring the Getty Museum and Huntington Gardens, to eating fantastic Taiwanese food in Silver Lake. Many delicious foods were eaten, many miles were walked, and many friends were seen.
Sander made sure to take me to as many places as we could feasibly go to with the allotted schedule so we ended up walking over 30 miles during the trip. My poor old sneakers were bawling at the end. But with all that walking came a lot of hunger and I was specifically enamored with all the delicious food in the city. Please enjoy this graphic of all the food I remembered fondly!
I had so many preconceived notions about this city; that it was too car reliant, that the people were beautiful but “fake nice”, and that the weather was too hot. While some of those aspects of LA are true, I can say with certainty that I really liked the city and was blessed with wonderful cloudy weather for most of my stay. It also helps that my friends helped me avoid the less savory parts of the city. The LA skyline was covered in this gorgeous purple smog at dusk that made everything so vibrant. The restaurants had some of the best food I’d ever had, and the amount of things to do, despite all the driving, made the experience varied and rich.
Most importantly, I got to collect pictures of the odd things I saw; from two Tweedle Dumb heads in a random house’s window, to a palm tree holding a starbucks cup. The amount of glee I got from finding these treasures cannot be understated, so I present to you the gremlins of LA:
UPCOMING NEWS
After a big month of travelling, I get to do it again but this time in Roanoke, VA! I will be co-teaching a summer course on Children’s Books with Elizabeth Dulemba at Hollins University. I will be there from mid June to end of July so I will get to experience the summer heat and the Appalachian beauty in full throttle. More posts on that to come. If you have any recommendations on what to do in that area, please let me know!
And on a more sad note, some of you might have heard this already but the University of the Arts abruptly closed this week, after little to no notification from the administration. Many of us, faculty and students alike, found out through this Inquirer Article first. They have been covering the closing extensively and I even got to contribute to one of the articles HERE
We don’t know what’s going to happen to the school as of now. Some bigger schools are offering to buy UArts out, while some are offering students accessible ways to transfer. I am doing ok (I was a mere adjunct who had only taught 2 classes thus far) but if you know anyone who was full time faculty or a student, I think they’d appreciate a check in.
EXTRA RESOURCES
If you’re interested in art and cool people, check out my LA friends and their work!
Sabrina Futch - Incredible comics creator and art director who works at DC comics!
Maggie Tseng - Amazing painter and illustrator constantly making lush, surreal paintings
German Diaz - Powerhouse of drawing, focusing on all things horror with charm
Ellen He - Talented illustrator and teacher who makes tender paintings
Yuchen Horng - Remarkable illustrator whose work encompasses Asian folk art mixed with contemporary media
Indy Dang - Film, music and animation extraordinaire with an amazing Letterbox
Olivia Pecini - Background artist working on Big City Greens and top tier instagram penpal. Used to run the Muse Milk tumblr art blog!
Kat Lyons - Background artist and burgeoning tattoo artist. Their tattoo work can be found HERE
Amy Mai - Storyboard Artist on Frog and Toad and other cool projects and inspiring surfer/ free diver
Mike Sobieski - Storyboard artist previously on Amphibia and fantastic comic artist
Ros Fiol - Jubilant animator and illustrator with one of the best memories around
What a great trip. Sorry to hear that you are one of the people who were "collateral damage" from the closure of UArts. I'm a long ago alumnus, back when it was Philadelphia College of Art. It really sucks that they gave no notice, just "oops we're out of money, see ya bye!" I hope it all comes out okay.
Wow wow it sounds like it was such an incredible and restorative trip! I love the food guide and gremlins of LA omg