AC Lounge is a Vacation

Located at the AC Hotel Los Angeles South Bay in El Segundo, AC Lounge makes a terrific get- away whether you’re staying at the hotel or not.

It’s a beautiful space with a sleek modern bar, cushy indoor seating – and a fireplace – and intimate outdoor seating with fire and water features. While the look is elegant and modern, it is also comfortable, which is in no small part due to the accommodating, friendly staff.

On a chilly winter (for Los Angeles) evening, we started with two wonderful locovore cocktails. Happy Hour, which runs from 3:30 to 6:30 weekdays make these well-made drinks an even bigger treat.

We had the Immune Boost and 72 Degrees. Immune Boost is a lighter spin on a gingery drink that is often made with whiskey. Here it is Tito’s Vodka, ginger beer, grapefruit bitters, turmeric, and a seasonal citrus, making it crisper and more citrusy, while not negating the lovely combination of tastes. 72 Degrees is also vodka based, with honey, passionfruit, basil, and lime, it is slightly sweeter, but again light and refreshing.

We started our dining with a surprisingly generous portion of warm olives marinated in-house in a fragrant citrus blend. Warning: it is almost impossible to stop eating them.

The roasted mushrooms with torn herbs were delicious; the flavors rich but not heavy.

Grilled salmon with spiced lentil stew was a perfect main course: the salmon was beautifully prepared and a surprisingly large portion for a very reasonable price. The lentil base was terrific, with a bite of spice and a texture that nicely contrasted with the silky fish.

We also enjoyed an avocado, tomato, and fresh crumbled cheese bruschetta on chiobatta bread – a meal in itself.

Along with an extensive small bites menu, lunch is served in the AC Lounge space as well. Both locals and hotel guests frequent, adding to the vibe of the welcoming servers and bartender. The hotel’s design team created the space, nicely melding the clean lines of minimalism with relaxing seating and sparkling fire walls and small waterfall outside. The variety of seating options means that guests can enjoy a serene space or a lively one.

All in all, it’s a vacation from the everyday in a modern new hotel you may just be vacationing in to begin with – or it makes a perfect spot for after-work drinks and noshing, or a relaxing date night.

AC Hotel and the AC Lounge is located at 2130 Maple Ave. in El Segundo

  • Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis

The Brewery Art Walk – Spring 2017 Edition

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Above, the work of Sean Sobczak Sandman Creations.

As always, DTLA’s awesome and eclectic artists lofts, studios, and galleries – the Brewery – offered up a tremendous wealth of art to peruse at the April edition of their twice yearly art walk.  Take a look at some of the artists and art – and if you missed it this spring, be sure to mark the walk on your calendar for October. So much to see, intimate conversations with artists, brilliant art work at reasonable prices. Hard to top that, but this being LA, we threw in a bright, sunny day, some gourmet food trucks, and beer. The Artwalk IPA was perfect.

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Above and below, artist Samuelle Richardson with her wonderfully haunting “Ghost Dogs” sculptural installation. Richardson created these beautiful pieces especially for Art Walk.

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A magical energy in these sculptures, which use fabric and wood to shape powerful and poignant beasts.

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Chenhung Chen’s fluid, alive wire sculptures dance with kinetic energy, below.

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The artist’s wall art, many utilizing staples, is a fresh take on abstract imagery, works that shine literally and figuratively.

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Below, Glen Waggner creates intense and diminutive drawings that tell succinct, perfectly realized impressionistic stories. The prolific artist creates both figures and landscapes.

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Kristine Augustyn, below, offers both lush abstracts and figurative pieces that edge into the surreal. Both Augustyn and Waggner showed works at the Brewery’s Jesus Wall Gallery.

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Below, a work inspired by a trip to Disneyland.

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Randi Hockett’s studio-grown crystals dazzle, below. These raw and glittering works offer a wonderful contrast of sharp crystal textures and the softness of the wax surfaces. This is work that is hard to look away from, which evoke the feminine and the fairy tale.

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Kristine Schomaker, below, has reconstructed and reimagined her own work in an exhibition titled “An Ode to a Lost Love.” Tackling complex issues from body image to gender identity, her sculptural installation below explores both the personal and the universal – and still evoke a fantastical candy store.

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Bill Leigh Brewer, below, creates photographic works that are painterly in style, mysterious and magical in perception.

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From the California desert to the snowy hills of Vermont, Brewer fills his landscapes with a subtext of wonder and loss.

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Winnie Brewer, below, has painted bees and other creatures great and small in exquisitely detailed works that glow with light and color.

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Below, Tony Pinto, in residence at Shoebox Projects, created dimensional paintings and photographic portraits in his exhibition “Art Seen.” His ability to capture the innate essence of artists, writers, and gallerists in LA’s art scene is revealing and insightful.

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While her studio was not open for art walk due to deadlines on completing works for other exhibitions, we had a sneak-peak at a piece currently on exhibit at Durden & Ray’s “Going Native” show from installation and sculptural artist Dani Dodge. Here a deeply layered image invites second, third, and many more looks beneath the surface.

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Her work, above, is like accessing an archeological dig: there is so much going on beneath the surface, an intense energy breaking through.

Below, Ryan McIntosh and Kati Milan share studio space and a wealth of evocative art.

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Artist Ted Meyer, below. A little bit Picasso, a little bit Modigliani in great faces, forms and familiars. These are portraits that tell a story worth “reading” often. Stylized, riveting, and exotic, Meyer’s figures also serve as a healing document for those affected by trauma. Brewery ONE

Below the incredibly rich partnered work of Anna Stump and Daphne Hill blossoms with life – lush and sensual florals.

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There is such an overflowing cornucopia of art at The Brewery that we could not do justice to all the artists here – or even those in this article. Find your own overflowing artistic joy at the next art walk come October.

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  • Genie Davis; Photos: Genie Davis

 

Sally Bruno at LAM Gallery

Sally Bruno at LAM Gallery
Photo by Jack Burke

Opening last Saturday at the Lam Gallery, the vibrant large-scale paintings and smaller works by LA-based artist Sally Bruno compel with color and thick, nearly three-dimensional applications of paint. Whimsical and riveting, Bruno’s work may remind viewers of Matisse and Chagall.

Sally Bruno at LAM Gallery
Photo by Jack Burke

From large, imaginative flowers to romantic courtyards and mysteriously energetic, curved, and colorful shapes, Bruno captivates. “I’m really interested in things that color can do for the viewer, and the viewer’s experience of pleasure or joy,” Bruno explains. “Every painting just vibrates with color. That’s when I decide a painting is finished, when I get an internal realization that the paint, the color, is complete. The most interesting and exciting part of the process for me is that I have no idea what my paintings will look like until they are right there. When I paint, I’m really in the moment.”

Bruno describes her creation process as “moving fast and thinking fast. Everything leads to a different idea. There’s a part of me that really simply enjoys the journey of the painting, and learning what it means as it takes shape.”

photo by Jack Burke
photo by Jack Burke

A rainbow of colors, Bruno’s rich and energetic paintings are about the texture, the pigment, the waves and ribbons of color that shape her figures and landscapes. In “Flower Pot,” for example, Bruno’s exquisite layering of paint and color result in flowers so lush that they seem to pull the viewer into a world where such flowers grow.

Oil on canvas, many of the paintings are large and expansive, with her inviting “Courtyard,” featuring an electric-red chair, and a table with flowers, is 84 by 120 inches. But just as riveting are pieces such as “Fruit Bowl,” a 24 x 18 colorful collection of fruit that could’ve come straight from Carmen Miranda’s hat.

Photo by Jack Burke
Photo by Jack Burke

Photo by Jack Burke
Photo by Jack Burke

To experience Bruno’s inventive palette, enter her peacock-hued world at LAM Gallery by August 15th.

Meet the Artist: Kristine Schomaker

Artist Kristine Schomaker not only creates her own art, she supports other artists in the Los Angeles community through her company, Shoebox PR. Schomaker discusses the direction of her art and how she began her work as an artist and as an artist’s advocate.

Schomaker’s first art experience was as a child in grade school. “I used to draw my dad’s race cars and the F-15 planes that he worked on. In the 80’s I used to take the soda bottles that had foam labels, tear the labels off in one swirling shot and put it in the empty bottle. I would call it ‘pop art.’” In high school, Schomaker wanted to be an architect until in college she realized “I hated math, so architecture was out.” A painting class, art history class, and museum visits set Schomaker’s life as an artist. “Iwent to the Sam Francis retrospective at MOCA and the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at LACMA and I was blown away. After seeing the Sam Francis exhibition, I knew abstract expressionism was for me.”

Photo by Jack Burke

Schomaker began painting using a process of “pouring and dripping, mixing colors on the canvas and using my blow dryer as a tool to create the work,” a technique she continues today. When an aunt and uncle described the virtual world of Second Life, and how artists appeared in the world, showing real-world artwork, Schomaker joined up. “I created an Avatar, started a gallery, organized shows and started creating work using second life as another tool. Since then, I continue to paint, but I also use Second Life as another art tool where I focus on identity and body politics.” While the artist has sold many paintings, she finds “new media is more cutting edge for the contemporary art world. I’m learning to combine the two and I’m working on making full room installations using new media, painting and sculpture,” she notes.

The artist is based out of the Brewery Artist lofts on the eastern edge of DTLA. That location contributes to her work. “I grew up in the Antelope Valley in the high desert, so I didn’t have the opportunity to come down to the museums or galleries as much as I would have loved to. When I moved to the Brewery a few years ago, the world opened up. I could jump on the freeway and be virtually anywhere in a matter of minutes. The diverse artists, the amount of creativity and imagination, the inspirational studios and lofts – the community is very stimulating. The artists who live here range from architects to graphic designers, painters and sculptors, photographers and print makers, jewelers and fashion designers. I have an idea to make a full body suit in the likeness of my Avatar and I have already talked to one of my neighbors about working together on it. I ran out of titanium white paint one Easter when all of the art stores were closed. I posted on our Facebook group to see if anyone had some, and an artist had a quart from Nova Color that I bought from her. It was perfect. If I need another eye to look at my work, I can call friends here to come over and check it out.” In short, being a part of this loft community is an important aspect of Schomaker’s work and lifestyle.

But the artist is not one to stay at home. She recently transported sculptures on a “road trip” around Southern California and took photos of that journey. “My new media work has always been about bringing the virtual world to the physical world or blurring the line between the virtual and the physical worlds. In a solo show I had a couple years ago, for opening night I held a dinner party performance in which participants in the physical world sat down to eat with Avatars from Second Life. The Avatars were made up of people from all over the world. The painted mannequins are inspired by my Avatar in Second Life. In that virtual world, I used one of my paintings as a skin on my Avatar and it became a brand for me and my work. It was a natural progression to bring her into the real world. Painting a mannequin was the best way at the time to make it happen.”

Photo by Jack Burke

Schomaker has created five real world Avatars and has taken them on the road with her. “I call this project Avatar Simulacrum. My last trip was to San Diego and I am planning on taking them to San Francisco the end of the month. The Avatars are a stand-in for me. They are virtually my ‘ideal’ self. Since my work is about body image, self-acceptance and society’s perception of beauty, I will eventually have a mannequin made in my likeness to show that every body shape and size is beautiful.” Her art is very personal, particularly in regard to her Avatars. “They represent me and my body image issues. I have an eating disorder which in part originated because of these issues. I use my work to hopefully inspire people to accept themselves and others no matter what shape, size, race, or religion they may be.”

Along with her own art, Schomaker is unique in supporting other artists through her company Shoebox PR. “I’ve always been big on building art communities. I absolutely believe that we have to support each other in order to thrive in the art world. I was the social media manager and then the president of the Brewery Artwalk Association, and I’ve been able to support the artists who live here. It is so fulfilling to see my artists succeed. It is not only their success, but my own, because I know in a small way, I was able to help them get there. Art is all encompassing. Like literature, it tells a story and every artist has their own story. It’s fantastic to share those stories.”

See Schomaker’s work – and that of other artists – at the California 101 Exhibit opening July 31st in Redondo Beach

Photo by Jack Burke
Photo by Jack Burke