We Hit the Streets!

Pasadena Museum of California Art... Never heard of it until this week. The Chicklet and I made our way to my former backyard, so to speak. (Pasadena was a 20 minute drive from home, back in the day).

We went to see one of the graffiti art exhibits going on around town right now.The experience began outside the building. The whole facade was painted by hand.This was hung across the street on a parking structure. Street art... Get it?The museum has their own parking. Yea to that! Graffiti was found everywhere! Getting bombed with an attitude...Hey, Wilma! Can I ride with you? LA traffic is a bear....The museum has three exhibitions going on. Alphabetical prints by graphic artists, the Clayton Brothers and the graffiti art.

We started with the prints. At first, they seemed like stylized letters. Some were. Some were beautiful, some were fun, some looked very innocent. The Chicklet's jaw dropped upon closer inspection of the "N." It was a teachable moment with my 12 year old.

We entered the next gallery to view work by the Clayton Brothers. The blurb said they were inspired by skateboard culture, comics to name but a few things I can still remember. There was an abundance of paintings and two installations/buildings. Each piece had layer upon layer of imagery and bright colors. The worked looked familiar. I'm sure I've seen in in magazines.

While I could appreciate the work, I couldn't get into it. At first I thought it was an age thing but it was visual overload for both the Chicklet and I.

Perhaps we were anxious to get to the graffiti work. So off we went. Photography wasn't allowed or I'd be sharing some visual tidbits with you. Hands down our favorite was a piece painted on a substrate of license plates. It included neon work as well. I didn't think to write down the name of the artist, oops.

Each artist was represented with a painting or in some cases, a sculpture, with a photo of some of their street art for comparison. I should have asked. Did the street art lead to working on canvas or did the exhibition inspire it? Hmmmm, big questions.

Our next big question was to walk or move on. The weather sure beats the the Phoenix heat but LA has been humid, yuck! We opted for fruit smoothies and shopping on Colorado Blvd. and in South Pasadena on Mission Street.

Day 2 coming up!
Marissa