Hooray for Wally Hood

Today’s storefront art post is another iffy subject, in that the art doesn’t depict anything the store sells and was also created with the intention of the finished piece being considered “art,” or at least an “artistic mural.” Normally those two things are disqualifiers in my world of storefront art.

Nevertheless, I’d like to turn my spotlight on the Sunset Plaza Trader Joe’s elevator murals because they do fulfill the most important requirement I have for storefront art: unintended profundity.

Now, I’m not really sure what the portraits of nearly unrecognizable film and music celebrities actually say, but they sure say something.

Take this one.

paulnewman
Is it saying, “Is Paul Newman merely a chin dimple?” Or “Do you remember if Paul Newman even has a chin dimple?” Or “Is Paul Newman with a chin dimple Kirk Douglas?”? I’m not sure.

Similarly, “Is Prince Prince even if he doesn’t look like Prince, if he simply has Prince-like facial hair and is framed in a large pink guitar pick?”

prince
And then we come to Marilyn Monroe.

marilyn

I did not photograph this at an angle, by the way. Please note that half of the face is rendered from one perspective, and half is rendered from a very different angle. Either the artist had a stroke mid-way through this one, or the artist is a flounder with eyes on either side of his head.

Step along folks. We have more to see. We have Morrissey.

morrissey

Morrissey. I am fascinated that I know this is Morrissey and not Elvis or Ricky Nelson or Fabian or Frankie Avalon. What is the essential Morrissey-ness in this portrait that makes it definitively him?

And finally, I come to this one.

mysterystar

Who is she? She is rendered like a celebrity, so she must be a celebrity. Lauren Bacall. Judy Garland. Patricia Neal?

I have absolutely no idea, but if I were a maitre d’ at a restaurant and she came in, I would give this woman a good table. Because she looks important, she is important. There’s something deep about that, isn’t there? Phew. I gotta sit down for a minute.

Now, where’s that Two Buck Chuck?

Poodle-oo

Ever since preschool I’ve pretty much been a bangs-and-long hair sort of girl, with few exceptions.

Here’s what happened the last time someone convinced me to get a short haircut with a “body wave” perm (as in, “It’s just going to add a little volume and body! No curl! You won’t look like a poodle! I promise you won’t look like a poodle! I promise!”):

freshman
So there you have it.

The only problem is that I’m not very good with long hair, so the default coiffure I’ve been sporting for some time has been the Bettie Page At A Desert Commune In Serious Need Of A Hot Oil Treatment look. Lately, I’ve been wondering if I should change things up a little.

I’ve been going by this hair place in Eagle Rock that seems it might have stylists with some interesting ideas:

coif

What do you think? I’m wondering if they do complete makeovers.

Aerodynamics

aerodynamics

Published in: on October 2, 2009 at 2:43 pm Leave a Comment
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Happy Labor Day

Normally I would consider using this moving company based solely on the beauty of its logo:

pianomover
and knowing that they have experience transporting monkey and gladiator leg tables

monkeytable

would seal the deal for me. However, today I’m needing help with some furniture with rather unusual dimensions

furniture
so I think I’m going to go with these people instead:

supermovers1
supermovers2
especially if this guy

supermovers3

is working today.

All photos taken on York Blvd. in Highland Park. Thanks for the tip, Wag!

Some renaissance men of New Orleans

It’s a little too Inferno-like for me to be poking around Los Angeles right now looking for new works of store front art around here, so I’m going to have to take a little mental vacation and enjoy some pieces found in New Orleans by flickr user anthonyturducken. Anthony has been focusing on the works of painter Lester Carey and documenting it in words and pictures, and as a master’s candidate in architecture preservation studies at Tulane, I think Anthony knows what he’s talking about. He’s even encouraged other people to join in with the documentation.

Lester has a huge portfolio, but I think the pieces of his work that I like best are the text-heavy ones. Take a look:

hamseasoning

Thanks to both of you for all your work. It’s beautiful.

All photos by anthonyturducken. Used by permission; all rights reserved

Published in: on August 31, 2009 at 8:54 pm Leave a Comment
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Wood shop

On the same block as the recently departed very polite bears on Glendale Boulevard (you will be missed, polite bears) is a craftsman’s shop. Now, my Spanish is abominable, so because the sign said “Carpinteria,” at first I thought these guys installed carpet. You know, Carpeteria. Also, the guy on the side of the building looked like he was carrying a big roll of carpet:

carpinteria1

But no. That is a log, my friends. The dedicated craftsmen at Carpinteria Aguilar will take a log of your choosing, bandsaw the crap out of it, and provide you with the finished masterpiece – a …

carpinteria2

Trophy. Spice rack. Ring holder. Wooden beer coozie.

carpinteriadog

Someone is clearly not impressed.

Mold King Cole

You want proof that the music industry is dead? Go no further than the mural outside of Hollywood’s Capitol Records building depicting their top artists:

natandfriends

Nothing says success like depicting your talent roster as reanimated corpses. There’s zombie Nat “King” Cole, accompanied by (I think) zombie Sarah Vaughan and an Italian-looking zombie I can’t identify. Zombie Al Martino, perhaps? It’s an awfully prominent placement in the mural for it to be Al Martino. It’s not zombie Tony Bennett; he was on Columbia. Zombie Dean Martin? It sure doesn’t look like Dean Martin. I’m looking at the zombie roll call, and it’s not helping.

zombierollcall

If that Italian-looking zombie is the Misty Miss Christie, the ravages of the crypt are worse than I thought. When I go, just throw me to the coyotes, thank you. What’s that you say? You want more zombies? Of course you do. Everybody loves zombies. Okay, then. Here’s zombie Gerry Mulligan, maybe:

zombiesax

Then again, Gerry Mulligan was mostly a Verve artist. Let’s try this again. Zombie Miles Davis:

miles

Yes, that’s better. That’s Miles Davis, all right.  Perhaps Miles was a zombie for longer than any of us knew.

Haircuts now

Benny and Smoothie and I are safely back from our trip to San Francisco, I’m happy to say. We didn’t encounter any assailants other than the pirates who briefly kidnapped the bride at the wedding we attended, and we had a very nice time overall. I was quite enamored of the storefront art, of course. While San Francisco doesn’t seem to have the volume of pieces that makes Los Angeles great, there were still some lovely examples. I especially liked some coif-themed pieces (if you like the song in the link there, be advised that there is a much better version contained in this playlist).

Here is the magic mirror:

haircut1

You look beautiful, bald peanut-headed person! Seriously. Under no circumstances is your haircutter putting a spell on you.

Also, we have a depiction of what “unisex haircutter” really means:

unisex

Very ’80s. Am I the only one reminded of Brooke Shields?

Welcome to the Louvre

I’ve hesitated about making a post about a certain rich repository of storefront art at the corner of Vermont Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard, because like the Mona Lisa’s nicked elbow at the hands of a Bolivian rock thrower, this place’s masterpiece has been desecrated.

But I’ve rethought my position. The whole place isn’t ruined by this one flaw, and to ignore the entire place is to ignore the other amazing works on display. So let me rectify this and share my favorites with you.

“Oh dear, oh dear,” moaned the harmonica

tricycle


Still Life with Umbrella, Hot Dog, and Belt

umbrellahotdogbelt


Et Quid Amabo Nisi Quod Aenigma Est?

wheelandbone


Cinderella’s Christmas

feliznavidad


Eternal Eye Mittens and the Horror of Pubescence

pajamas

Oh geez, I can’t keep you here all day. I have so many more favorites. Anyway, this tour has made me think about what art really is, and whether my “it’s been desecrated” judgment about the altered masterpiece depicting the soldier in combat has been made too hastily.

unknownsoldier

Nope. That’s still bullshit.

On a roof, you get eggroll

Today I’m going to put forth the notion that my designation of storefront art should not just apply to spectacular works of visual art on places of business, but of sophisticated wordplay as well. Comedic literature is one of the arts, after all. As our first example of this, allow me to share with you the clever pun presented by a poultry store in Chinatown:

dressedpoultry

For those of you not aware of the term, “dressed poultry” means a chicken sold with head, feet, and entrails intact, not a chicken wearing a straw hat or carrying a parasol. Man, those chickens are dumb.