Occupation and Position
Painter.

What neighborhood/city do you closely identify with? What makes your community so unique?
I’ve only been living in Los Angeles for about a year and a half, but I instantly fell in love with the city. I’ve been residing in Echo Park, and I adore it. I think the East side of the city has a great energy. Plus, I like being close to downtown where my studio is. I love the diversity of Echo Park, and also the quaintness of it. Parts of it feel very much like a small country town tucked away in the hills.

What are some of the galleries that you have graced around the world?
Honor Fraser Gallery here in Los Angeles, Galerie Nathalie Obadia in Paris, Canada Gallery and Deitch Projects in New York.

What was the most interesting place that you’ve traveled to?
San Juan, Puerto Rico was a really great place I visited a few years ago. It was colonized in the early 1500s by Spanish Conquistadors, making both the city and the architecture so historical and beautiful.
The culture there is quite amazing as well.

What’s the greatest item that you dug up at your local garage/estate sale?
So hard to choose! I am constantly going to garage sales around the neighborhood looking for a good find. A couple weeks ago I found a couple of brilliant black velvet paintings of bare chested busty
ladies.

If you could interview one unsung hero, who would it be? Why?
I think that anyone with a mind for numbers is an unsung hero. I simply have no ability to do any sort of math or finances. It might be a mental block. Accountants? They might be unsung heroes. My dad is
my accountant, and needless to say, he’s amazing. I try to sing his praises as often as possible.

What’s your favorite youtube video?
Currently, it’s a clip of Buck Owens and Don Rich performing “Foolin’ Around”, from the “Buck Owens Show” in the 1960s. It’s so great because it shows a young Buck and the gang in their glittery Nudie suit best playing in front of a cheap sound stage backdrop. Their energy and enthusiasm for the music is captivating.

Where are your favorite local spots to eat?
Gingergrass in Silverlake is delicious and the Edendale Grill is heaven….

What songs are at the top of your playlist at this very moment?
I just made this playlist of songs all from the early 1900s that I am obsessed with… Woody Guthrie singing “Bury Me Beneath the Willow”, the Carter Family’s “Can the Circle Be Unbroken” and Leadbelly’s
“Midnight Special”.

What is your current bedside read?
“Oil!” by Upton Sinclair and “The Theory of the Leisure Class” by Thorstein Veblen.

What new projects you are building on right now?
I am currently working on paintings for an upcoming show at White Cube Gallery in London, which will be in January 2009.

via EM Staff, 8 August 2008 2:55am | |