How do Middle Eastern women wish to be seen? While newspapers and televisions often exhibit photographs plucked from incidents of violence and chaos, artists are using images to express personal stories of empowerment and vitality. Continue reading
![[Ampersand LA] LACMA’s “Islamic Art Now” highlights female vitality](https://dainabeth.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/lailaessaydi-cropped.jpeg?w=290&h=290&crop=1 "[Ampersand LA] LACMA’s “Islamic Art Now” highlights female vitality")
Category Archives: VISUAL ART
![[LA Weekly] Ramiro Gomez: Making Menial Meaningful](https://dainabeth.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/law_people_ramiro_gomez-2250.jpg?w=290&h=290&crop=1 "[LA Weekly] Ramiro Gomez: Making Menial Meaningful")
[LA Weekly] Ramiro Gomez: Making Menial Meaningful
“I know how to draw faces!” Ramiro Gomez insists with a grin, dabbing brown paint onto a glossy white magazine page with a slender brush. Shoulders and arms appear in a coppery sheen, then a head topped with thick black hair. But no face, at least not this time. Continue reading
![[Blog] Back at Ted Gibson’s framing shop, this time in for a surprise](https://dainabeth.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/129.jpg?w=290&h=290&crop=1 "[Blog] Back at Ted Gibson’s framing shop, this time in for a surprise")
[Blog] Back at Ted Gibson’s framing shop, this time in for a surprise
Ted Gibson’s framing shop has stubbornly stayed in business. It has kept its charm, too. Continue reading
![[Intersections] Artist Ramiro Gomez: Painting LA’s ‘invisible’ workers (+ Video)](https://dainabeth.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/portrait_of_an_affluent_family.jpg?w=290&h=290&crop=1 "[Intersections] Artist Ramiro Gomez: Painting LA’s ‘invisible’ workers (+ Video)")
*VIDEO / ARTS / Chicano Art / COUNTRIES & CULTURES / Immigration Issues / Intersections South LA / Urban Issues / VISUAL ART
[Intersections] Artist Ramiro Gomez: Painting LA’s ‘invisible’ workers (+ Video)
Artist Ramiro Gomez creates paintings of L.A.’s gardeners and janitors, nannies and housekeepers — the fleet of workers who keep some of the city’s most upscale households running smoothly. Continue reading
![[Blog] Jean-Michel Basquiat Dumpster: Art is Everywhere!](https://dainabeth.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/dumpster-cropped.jpg?w=290&h=290&crop=1 "[Blog] Jean-Michel Basquiat Dumpster: Art is Everywhere!")
[Blog] Jean-Michel Basquiat Dumpster: Art is Everywhere!
He’s at it again. The artist known as Wild Life is bringing our attention to the mundane, and calling it “art.” He the claims the art has been created by some of our most esteemed contemporary artists. And he’s giving it the seal of approval of the City of Los Angeles and the Museum of Contemporary Art. It’s all a hoax, of course… Continue reading
![[Blog] Revisiting Ted Gibson’s Framing Shop: 1946 to Today](https://dainabeth.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/144.jpg?w=290&h=290&crop=1 "[Blog] Revisiting Ted Gibson’s Framing Shop: 1946 to Today")
[Blog] Revisiting Ted Gibson’s Framing Shop: 1946 to Today
Two years ago, the fate of Ted Gibson’s seemed uncertain. The esteemed framing shop needed to downsize and move from its original 1946 location near once-posh MacArthur Park to a storefront in Koreatown. Business had been tough, and owner Richard Gibson, Ted’s son, worried about keeping existing patrons and attracting new ones. Then there was the … Continue reading
![[Blog] “Eat Up” at Tamara’s Tamales](https://dainabeth.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/020.jpg?w=290&h=290&crop=1 "[Blog] “Eat Up” at Tamara’s Tamales")
[Blog] “Eat Up” at Tamara’s Tamales
Art about food deserves a blog post all its own. (Or a gallery. Which is just what Royal/T is doing with its current “The Art of Cooking” exhibition.) But for now, check out “Eat Up!,” spotted at Tamara’s Tamales in Mar Vista. I love the face peeping out of the watermelon, as if one with … Continue reading
![[Blog] “La Tamalada”](https://dainabeth.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/latamalada.jpg?w=290&h=290&crop=1 "[Blog] “La Tamalada”")
*BLOG / Chicano Art / FOOD / VISUAL ART
[Blog] “La Tamalada”
I’m researching tamales for the LA Weekly, thinking about this painting, and remembering my very first Spanish class in 9th grade with Sr. Murillo at Wildwood School. He showed this piece and others by Carmen Lomas Garza so we could learn words like “silla,” “mesa,” and of course, “tamal.” Isn’t it a fantastic painting? No … Continue reading
Beyond the Drab Storefront…
Who said L.A. is ugly? At every turn we find flashes of art and beauty tucked in among the blight. Take, for example, the LA><ART gallery’s billboard project. Every month a new artist takes over the billboard above the Culver City gallery space. In March, I caught an untitled work by Matt Lipps. (Read about it … Continue reading
“Art in the Streets” at MOCA
Click, click. Snap. Cha-cha-ching. Everywhere around me cameras clattered away. “Honey, I’m telling you, there’s a whole lot more to see,” a father told a young girl who faced a car painted bright colors and decked out with knick-nacks by artist Kenny Scharf. He waited as she slowly, deliberately, hit the shutter. “I don’t know … Continue reading
Lotus land 