It felt right - Myron Stephens and then Andrew Glass

I had decided to leave my camera in my pocket, even though we were sightseeing, sort of.  We were at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica.

Bergamot Station is the historical name for the site on which the gallery complex is located, dating back to 1875 when it was a stop for the Red Line trolley running from Los Angeles to the Santa Monica Pier. Bergamot is a flower of the mint family that once flourished in the area.

The trolly was shut down in 1953 (who needs public transportation anyway?) and eventually the city of Santa Monica converted this into  a big art complex - lots of galleries and the Santa Monica Art Museum. 

But I wasn't going to blog this trip.  Except when we got into the artla gallery this picture caught my eye.  Tim pointed out that this was NOT a blackboard, and the pictures were not taped on it.  It was all painted by Myron Stephens. 








I looked closer.  The tape even has an air bubble.  But there is no tape, just paint. 


Tim pointed out that the chalk was painted with 5 hair brushes.  Part of me doesn't need to know that the artist worked long




and painstakingly to make the painting.  The final outcome is what is important.  And as frivolous as this seems at first, there's something about it.  It talks to me about interpersonal relationships and however old we get, we can get go back into childlike innocence when we make a new connection with a special person.



But there were other works too.


And I really liked these pieces by Andrew Glass.

Can you find the details on top in the whole picture below? Click to enlarge

The paintings had tiny numbers next to them and I didn't keep track of them.  They linked to a price sheet.  The pieces ranged from $1500 to $3000.  Art prices are pretty arbitrary - it depends how close an artist is to people with money and someone who knows how to convince the buyers it's worth the cost.  We are in a getting rid of period, rather than a collecting period of our lives.  But when we've bought stuff it was because we liked it, not with an eye to investment. 

I hope if the artist sees this post, he'll forgive what my camera's done to the colors.  They're sort of close, but not quite.  Here's an excerpt of his artist statement on his website: 

"It is the interplay of materials such as acrylic gels, transparent pigments, alkyd resins and inks that informs this process for me. I am fascinated by the stories they can tell. I want to explore a tactile sensibility, in other words to touch what is on the surface, however still searching for what is lying underneath. With painting, I want to tell a story, uncover and understand what has come before, or is still hidden. This is not only an aesthetic process, but also one that allows me to invent history."

The paintings themselves are available at artla.  

That's Tim in the corner

These two above are details of the painting on the left below.

The door to artla is to the right of the white car at Bergamot Center. 

You can read a September 2012 interview with Andrew Glass here.

[UPDATE:  People who saw this early, might notice I made some changes.  I was confused.  Although I was surprised by the starkly different styles of the chalkboard and then the work below, I clearly hadn't listened carefully to Tim.  Actually, these are two different artists, which makes much more sense. Sorry for any confusion.]