Let Them Roar: The Los Anegles Zoo’s Roaring Nights

Posted on by Diversions LA

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Lions, tigers, bears, oh my – and music too. That’s the Los Angeles Zoo’s Roaring Nights summer music series.

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At the second of four evening events for ages 18 and up, it was country music that had a friendly, lively crowd dancing. Performers covered the best in country hits, and line dancing lessons were also on tap. Bands included Highway Starr, Grant Langston and the Supermodels, Rocky Neck Bluegrass Band, and South Bay Country.

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Even the elephants were having a good time. The Rocky Neck Bluegrass Band (above) was within range of those elephant ears, and we saw one elephant swaying pleasureably.

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The reptile exhibits at the zoo were open and fascinating, from frogs to snakes to lizards, it was great to see some of these jewel-colored creatures up close and personal without the daytime crowds.

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Fish and sea turtles were on display too.

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Some of these creatures are descended from dinosaurs…which leads us to the wonderfully realistic, life-size, Dinosaurs: Unextinct at the L.A. Zoo. With evening lighting adding to the dramatic appeal, these animatronic wonders made an exciting evening stroll.

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And it wasn’t all just fun and games, we learned some dinosaur facts, too – for example, some were feathered (above).

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Hatchlings above, what could be Survivor Dinosaur Island, below.

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Above, the gentle Edmontonia.

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Above, guests were treated to a surprising water spray greeting by the Dilophosaurus.

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Citipati above, looks a bit like an ostrich.

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Not your ordinary T-Rex standing stationary, here, the carnivores were slashing at the plant-eaters, viewers were treated to a startling spray of water from the mouths of some of these amazing creatures, baby dinos were hatching, and a fossil “dig” allowed participants to comb the sand and discover fossils just like the scientists do (below).

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What a pleasure to tour that exhibit and wander the entire zoo at dusk and once the sun was fully down – with our LA heatwave, the zoo’s cool temps were just as inviting as the cool program itself.

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But wait, there was more, a painting station that provided the materials needed to create images of participants’ favorite animals…

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a game area with board games, pop-up zookeeper talks, and plenty of well-placed food trucks and full service bars.  Grilled Cheese Truck? Rice Balls of Fire?

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The exotic pleasure of hearing animals stirring, calling, and yes, roaring; the magical dinosaur exhibition, the live music located throughout the zoo, the drinks and dining, the beautifully lit landscaping – Roaring Nights is hands down (and paws down, too) more fun than any dance club in town.

A live indie sound replaces Texas twang on Friday August 26th, when the zoo serves up another Roaring Night of fun with music from Black Crystal Wolf Kids, Well Hung Heart, FifthLaw and DJ Steve Prior. Go wild!

  • Genie Davis, photos: Jack Burke

Satan’s Disco Knows How to Dance

Posted on by Diversions LA

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David Bowie got it right:

(Let’s Dance) For fear your grace should fall
(Let’s Dance) For fear tonight is all
(Let’s Sway) You could look into my eyes
(Let’s Sway) Under the moonlight, this serious moonlight

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Get ready to dance like there’s no tomorrow at Satan’s Disco. Running through 8/14 at Art Share LA,  eleven artists swing you out onto an existential dance floor where fears and fantasies take on some serious moonlight indeed.

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Exhibiting artists include:

Bibi Davidson
Merrilyn Duzy
Daniel Evans
Leonard Greco
Patrick McPheron
Monsu Plin
Patrick Quinn
Kate Savage
Dereck Seltzer
Diane Williams
Monica Wyatt

 

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Above, artist Leonard Greco.

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Greco says his work always starts as ‘doodles that translate into prints. I love doing them. It’s always about Id. They’re so much fun, and I try never to second guess.” His love of narrative depictions takes on universal themes, which the artist describes as being about “Life and death, mortality, morality, and most importantly, inner knowledge, gnosis.”

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Directly above and below, the work of artist Bibi Davidson.

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Davidson says “For years I’d been doodling a character on every piece of paper I had. Suddenly I realized that this character was the subject of my art, and this became the ‘Stories of my Life’ series. My girl’s stories are my diaries, my dreams, my fears, my memories from the past and the future. Although a lot of my stories come from a painful place, I try to look at the heartaches and pains with a sense of humor.”

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Above and below, Monica Wyatt’sacrylic hands were found at a swamp meet and used to create “For Testing Purposes Only,” which the artist describes as an inquiry into fertility issues. “Something that seems so natural for many becomes a scientific experiment for some.”

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Above the works of Monica Wyatt. Here the artist stands next to a work created from ten thousand capacitors. The magical chia-pet like work is titled “Scrappy.”  The artist notes “I love materials, and finding new uses for them. This just started with me playing with capacitors and creating an organic, moss-like feeling. It grew from there out of a piece of reclaimed wood.”

Below, Wyatt’s “Lie.”

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“I’ve always worked in found art ever since I was a child,” Wyatt says. An English major, Wyatt loves to create titles around each finished piece. “‘Lie’ could represent the discomfort of lying on these nails or the sharpness of telling a lie.”

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Artist Diane Williams, with a work from her “Monsters and Aliens” series which takes on “my experiences as an immigrant from the Philippines. This is about y identity, its how in our political atmosphere today there’s an alienation of people who look like me.”

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It’s time to get down at the disco of art.

  • Genie Davis; Photos: Jack Burke

 

Waste Not, Want Not: The Loft at Liz’s Delivers Diverted Destruction

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An annual assemblage show runs through August 22 at the Loft at Liz’s on La Brea. The 9th annual such show, this year’s collection, Diverted Destruction, features five artists participating in the Recology San Francisco Artist in Residence (AIR) Program. For the past 26 years, the Recology AIR program offers artists access to studio space at San Francisco’s transfer station, and access to materials in the public dump. Along with supporting artists, the program encourages children and adults to think about their consumption practices and recycling and reuse. Recology plans to offer a Los Angeles Artist in Residence Program in the future.

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Above, gallery owner and curator Liz Gordon, left, Recology artist in residence director Deborah Munk, right.

Deborah Munk, Director of the Artist in Residence Program at Recology calls her program “the first artist in residence program located at a dump. Artists scavenge materials and use them to create a body of work for exhibition.” She notes that “we work with artists in all different mediums including video, painting, and multi-media.” Student shows are also a part of the program, and Recology maintains a three-acre sculpture garden.

At Loft at Liz’s, curator Liz Gordon offered up a vast selection of free-for-the-taking assemblage materials in front of and behind the gallery on opening night, and will offer this wealth of material again on August 20th along with free recycled-materials workshop.

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Above, the recycled woodwork of Barbara Holmes.

Exhibiting Recology artists are Kristin Cammermeyer, Mark Faigenbaum, Jeff Hantman, Barbara Holmes, and Karrie Hovey.

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Above, Mark Faigenbaum.

Faigenbaum says “I love old movies and old movie magazines, which goes along with a theme of Hollywood and movie stars. I like people to fit things into their own narrative, whether I’m using old detective magazine style or old Chinese-type boxes. I work on a gut level.”

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Above, artist and animal activist Karrie Hovey.

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Hovey says “Recology is all material diverted from the trash, and here I used medical materials, such as bandages. I hold on to a lot of stuff, and it is difficult sometimes to know what I am going to do with it. In this case I could’ve wrapped the whole room in bandages, but went in a different direction.” Hovey works with the environment, focusing on Project Thron, which helps with the conservation of rhinos.  “That focus helped me create this Trophy Room. All the animals represented here are endangered or used for ornamentation or medical purposes, such as ivory. The bandages specifically relate to my work with the rhinos. If they are poached for their horns they are often not killed, but abused horribly to remove the horns, their faces. Bandaging can save them.”

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Above, artist Doug Pearsall.

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Doug Pearsell describes his work as “repositioning material. These are pages from articles in Vogue. Normally, I work with ads, but these pieces are strictly text. I just  use both a figure, stories, a poem, and visually piece it together.  It’s minimalism. What I want to do to synthesize down to its quintessence, an idea that is essentially to converge out of ether.”

Don’t miss the August 20th workshop, or this terrifically artistic and ecological show.

The Loft is located at 453 S. La Brea in mid-city.

  • Genie Davis; all photos: Jack Burke

 

Corey Helford Gallery: Phantasmacabre with Allusions and Allegories

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Running through August 20th, two powerful female artists take center stage at the Corey Helford Gallery. Camille Rose Garcia offers two separate exhibitions: Phantasmacabre and the illustrations of Snow White, while Jasmine Becket-Griffith presents Allusions and Allegories.

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Both are the stuff of fairy tales and dreams, the mystical and the enchanted.

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Los Angeles artist Garcia is a pop art surrealist, and in Phantasmacabre, in CHG’s main gallery, she spins gothic art that practically glows with color, art that sparkles with a kind of witchcraft. The paintings are huge, as is a humor-rich sculpture of the big bad wolf.

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Not only large in scope but in intent, they’re crammed with Jungian references and influenced by the surrealist films of Alejandro Jodowsky.

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Above, Garcia, looking as if she just stepped out from one of her canvasses.

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Born of dreams, fragments of fairy tales, feminine symbols, the tangle of a forest, and the interwoven textures of childhood and myth-making archetypes, the fully formed result in a vibrant series of canvases that create a landscape of wonder. Beauty, fear, the nightmare and the promise: this is the language of Phantasmacabre.

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“I was inspired by the idea of symbolic language, language as symbols for personal life. I made a deck of cards to create a series of associations, of personal symbols for my life and my personal message,” Garcia explains. “My paintings use that.”

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In Gallery 3, Garcia’s Snow White illustrations create a new and surreal spin on the classic fairy tale. “I always try to find other dimensions of color and emotion,” Garcia relates.

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Heading into Gallery Two, a whole new world emerges.

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Above, Becket-Griffith and a wonderful work that morphs traditional and classic art with fanciful anime.

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Becket-Griffith’s works in Gallery 2 have an equally female, mythic cast. Allusions and Allegories represents involved fantasy and fairy tales that offer a riff on anime as well as  classic art.

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The Florida-based artist paints in a traditional style utilizing acrylics to capture a mix of the gothic and lyrical natural settings. She has her own licensing line with Disney, and exhibits at Pop Gallery Orlando at Downtown Disney in the Walt Disney World Resort. You can’t get more fairy tale than that. Like Garcia, she uses symbols and stories to create allegories, in this case, between art master works and magical imagined worlds.

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“There’s a story behind each one of my paintings. I have created cartoons of myself and my sisters, I did anime work, and then I tried to make what I create more realistic and stylized, with references to art history and such artists as Klimt, Bosch, and Van Ellenberg,” she says.

Many of her paintings have antique replica frames uniquely created in resin, while others were carefully curated and purchased. “My husband ran a frame store before I met him,” she says.

She says of her work that “I’m trying to bring a bit of mystery into a mundane world with each piece.”

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Mystery and magic: feminine epic adventures born of night flowers, strange symbols, and provocatively sensual color.

Find all of this in the works of Garcia and Becket-Griffith at Corey Helford. The gallery’s well curated walls are located at 571 S Anderson St. in DTLA.

  • Genie Davis; all photos: Jack Burke