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I'm going to spend the week of 7/26-8/4 in the Los Angeles area visiting galleries. (By myself, without kids, without husband, free to do what I want....oh, I'm rambling on aren't I? )

Anyone have suggestions of galleries not to miss?

Anyone in the area want to meet for lunch or dinner?

Cindy next door

Cindy next door wrote:I'm going to spend the week of 7/26-8/4 in the Los Angeles area visiting galleries. (By myself, without kids, without husband, free to do what I want....oh, I'm rambling on aren't I? )

Anyone have suggestions of galleries not to miss?

Anyone in the area want to meet for lunch or dinner?

Cindy next door

Cindy

I saw on tne news yesterday that you had 114º temp. I don't care how dry it is, you're smart to get the hell out. Have some fun in CA.

Cindy

I saw on tne news yesterday that you had 114º temp. I don't care how dry it is, you're smart to get the hell out. Have some fun in CA.

Well Bert, today it's going to be even worse - 117!!!!

Dry isn't necessarily a good thing either - We thought we'd try to escape for a few days, but no sooner did we get back from the mountains, and they're on fire again. Panic sets in - it's becoming an annual event . . . keep your fingers crossed for us.

Cindy -

I don't know about S.CA., but it's hot up here in N.CA. I think it's hit 105F around here in the last week and it's still hot...It's so hot that SF isn't going to have any fog tonight.

Have a good trip to S.CA.

Geri

I grew up in the LA area and it used to rarely reach 100, but my brother said it was 110 the other day! Fortunately, they still cool down in the evening. We're at that round the clock 100+ now - ugh!

Linda reminded me that the pagaent of the masters is out there, I've missed it so many times, can't believe I'm really going to make it.

cindy, i am an Angeleno. if you tell me what part of the city you are staying in, i will give it some thought.

the Getty Museum is in LA, a couple of miles above the Santa Monica/San Diego freeway interchange. that would probably be a splendid way to spend some time ... richard meier architecture, amazing galleries, the collection that money CAN buy. you need to make a reservation -- this has to do with your car, not pedestrian visitors.

the Contemporary in downtown LA is good, and the Temporary Contemporary also.

in Pasadena, the Norton Simon has a nice bunch of Kandinskys. you might phone them and ask if they are on view. also quite a few Degas ballerinas, with their tatty fabric tutus. love those.

Del Amo Gallery carries glass. i will look for address for U.

LA County Art Museum is on Wilshire Blvd., midtown. next door to the museum are the La Brea Tar Pits, excellent museum of fossilized bones taken out of the pits. the pits still bubble. super bronze sculptures of sabertooth cats and mastodons dot the landscape.

i can tell you about the clubs and music scene, if you want that info.

tonite i will email a couple of artist friends and get the low-down on where there is cool stuff to look at or listen to. i've been in hawaii 13 years, but go to LA a few times a year. i'm not as sharp as i once was, but i can give you some more tips in a day or two.

I really want to visit the type of galleries we would put our work in. I am not familliar with the smaller galleries.

I have two to visit in Santa Monica and one for sure in Los Gatos (wherever that is). I haven't been out to the design center there, which my brother keeps saying I need to see. He thought the galleries on Melrose would be a good place to scope out.

I might just make it out to Norton Simon though, it was my favorite when I lived out there.

I remember there used to be some galleries near the La Brea Tar Pits.

I am searching the internet to try and weed them out.

los gatos is about 400 miles away, i believe. bay area.

santa monica is a possibility since the population around there buys art.

melrose is and always has been trend-setting.

mid-Wilshire, where the tar pits are, is not the right area for the kind of gallery you may be looking for.

do not overlook the commercial district of Beverly Hills.

cindy, i dont know how you are positioned with your work, so i'm not sure what to suggest in the way of galleries and areas of town. are you looking for a major gallery, with a more formal approach to representing an artist, or are you looking for a gallery that carries the work of lots of artists and retails a variety of fine art and fine craft? del amo is the latter, not the former.

PS - pacific design center is Interior Designer Central. when it was built, it drew hoots, and was disparagingly called The Blue Whale. haven't been inside it in probably 20 years, so i wouldn't know if they have moved from interior furnishings to "galleries."

silly me. Del Mano Gallery, not Del Amo. the latter is a big shopping mall ... dammit anyway. been gone too long, or getting too old to keep things straight. LOL ... can't imagine what you or your friends thought when i said the name of the giant mall. not what i had in mind.
here's the link. i think this is perhaps what you have in mind.

http://www.delmano.com/

http://www.downtownnews.com/extras/listings/art.shtml

the link i have provided will tell you about what's going on in the industrial downtown area of LA. notice that it is very current information. if you read thru that stuff, you will find kilnformed glass mentioned.

i used to live in loft space in downtown LA, at the beginning of the influx of artists taking over that area, starting circa 1980. AHH, those were the days! Ten thousand square feet of space for $100 a month, no jive. the downtown art scene in LA is a big deal. read up on the galleries mentioned in that link, and you'll get an idea of what's what. great bars down there, too. it's considerably more cleaned up than it was 25 years ago (too bad) and very much a happening thang. i wish i could live like that again.

You might also want to check out Pacific Art Glass in Gardena if you're looking for supplies and neat little dichroic shapes. They sell stuff that's water jet cut for inclusion in your projects. I just got a few of the neatest little dichroic dragonflies for my bracelet work. He also has the best prices on CBS anywhere!

If you're into classic art and gardens, Huntington Gardens should *not* be missed. It's in Sierra Madre. The gardens are amazing and the gallry in the manor house houses "Blue Boy" and "Pinky" among many other very good works.

Hi Cindy,

I sent you an email but that was before I read all this info......I wanna go with you when you go exploring!! Even though I work in LA (I live in the valley where it is 10-15 degrees hotter than metro LA)- I don't get out and about all that much so drop me a line and we'll plan something.

glenda

This is going to be way too much fun.

Kitty,

Thanks for all your info. I have been gone so long, I didn't even catch the mall thing.

As for bars.... well those in Portland last year can attest to the fact that it's better I stay away from them.

I wouldn't know what I am looking for in a gallery. I thought it'd be good to try and find some that would fit my work now and as it progresses. Unfortunately, I don't know what specifically to look for. I'll read through the information. You're a lot of help - thank you!

Glenda, time to request the day off! I'd love the company.

As for bars.... well those in Portland last year can attest to the fact that it's better I stay away from them.

I was going to say something . . . but I thought better of it. However, since YOU brought it up . . .

Cindy -

Los Gatos is about 5 minutes from where I live in San Jose. It's not even verging on being close to the LA area (it's 6-7 hours away if you drive up 5...longer if you take 101). I suspect the gallery you want to see there is Studio 42 or 45 or some other number. Fused glass hasn't done well there for anyone I know...The gallery that showed my work in Los Gatos, Elemental Arts, closed about a year ago, I think.

The entire Bay Area is tough for the gallery scene right now. Almost all of the galleries where I was showing work went under after the dot com crash and 9/11.

I heard on the news recently that we've lost 200,000 jobs in this area since 2001...scary. That means that galleries are having a very tough time of it.

Additionally, most galleries here want work on consignment and I wouldn't recommend long distance consignment to anyone. There's too much risk involved for the artist in my opinion.

I've had some less than wonderful experiences with consignment galleries in this area over the past 12 years, as have many other artists I know. Not that the idea of consignment is to be completely discounted if the gallery is nearby where you live. The best gallery I was ever in was a consignment gallery in SF and they did very very well for me for 6 years until 9/11 did them in.

Just my 2 cents....

Geri

Thanks for the info Geri. It was Studio 42 that was interested. Besides not being in the Los Angeles area, I know not to put effort into the area they are in.

odd ... my post on galleries disappeared. i'll try again.
SANTA MONICA: my friend suggested you go to Bergamont Station, at 25th & Olympic. it's an industrial area converted into artists' studios and gallery space. evidently quite worthwhile.
VENICE: L.A. Louvre is an excellent gallery, established and well-known.
WEST HOLLYWOOD: around Pacific Design Center (blue whale) there is Glass Garage Fine Art Gallery, 414 N. Robertson; Chac Mool, 8920 Melrose; and a zillion others on Melrose between 8800 and 9000.
MID-WILSHIRE: in the neighborhood of the L.A. County Museum of Art (LACMA) you thought there were some galleries there, and i pooh-poohed the idea. i was wrong. my friend said ACME is good, and there are about 4 others in the same building as ACME, which is very close to the Tar Pits and LACMA.
Between these areas and the downtown scene, you should be busy for about a month....
Also, my friend said you can call him up if you want anymore info about galleries, locations, etc.

Wow Kitty, Thank you! That is some really helpful information. I am so glad that I am familliar with the area, it'll make getting around so much easier. I'd like your friend's number, he certainly deserves a lunch for his help.

Cindy: Sorry that I will be out of town for your visit. If you are delayed until after the 5th pls call..............steve