Erica, Liz, and Casper do Contemporary Art in Los Angeles

Erica and Casper thought that Liz said she wanted to do Modern Art during her visit. So we planned a day of modern art. Liz just said art. Oh well.

We started the day with a coffee and pastry stop at Buzz Coffee on Beverly near Fairfax. We shared an excellent cappuccino muffin while people watching at the window.

From Buzz, we did some boutique shopping on Beverly. The first stop was Heath Ceramics. They had some excellent dinnerware, table lining and cutting boards. They also carry a line a canning jars by Werk. Liz thought that these would be great for gifting homemade jams and such. Our second stop was Rolling Greens Nursery. They sell plants but focus more on flower pots, terrariums, and old world decorations.

LA Weekly recommended an art exhibit by Camille Rose Garcia at Kohn Gallery on Beverly. The show was entitled Snow White and the Black Lagoon. Garcia takes the tradition, darker story and puts it into bold paintings. She emphasizes the heart cut out by the huntsman. As a medium, Garcia uses plywood and different layers of paint. Some of the paint highlights the grains the wood and incorporates it into the image.

The next few stops were in downtown Los Angeles. However, light Saturday afternoon traffic in downtown was made very challenging by a demonstration. Local labor union members were marching in support of the working in Wisconsin. The traffic forces us to park where we could and start walking, even though it was supposed to be a light walking day.

Casper wanted to surprise Erica and Liz with a stop by an art supply store. Both are into scrapbooking as a hobby, but many scrapbooking specialty stores have closed. Maybe they could find some supply at a traditional art supply store. We walked over to Raw Materials LA on Main Street. The store had some interesting stuff, but nothing that Erica or Liz needed. However, we were very impressed by the Old Bank District where the art store was located. We want to go back to explore the small bookstore and several restaurants we saw.

The main focus of the trip was the Museum of Contemporary Art on Grand Avenue. They had an exhibit by William Leavitt that Casper was intrigued by. Leavitt views ordinary objects and scene and how they could fit together such as on a movie or theater set. Erica really licked Leavit drawing where he showed motion by drawing overlapping outlines of the people. For example, one figure was a one first sitting back in a chair, then crossing her legs, then leaning forward. Liz was impressed by the permanent collection at MOCA. This was the first time she had send works by Roy Litchtenstein in person. Liz and Casper were both impressed by Litchtenstein's "Desk Calendar" work.

On the way back to the car, we stopped at the LA Central Library. Erica enjoyed showing our new favorite place to Liz, pointing out the hugeness of the building and the book collection.

Our next stop was the Century City Mall . Liz wanted to go to The Container Store. While Liz and Erica explored the multitudes of storage options, Casper went next door to Pink Taco to enjoy a Cuervo Silver while catching up on the NCAA Tournament on the ESPN.

The final stop of the evening was Clay Oven Indian Restaurant. Erica and Liz have had limited exposure to Indian Cuisine so we when for the Combination Dinner. We enjoyed paneer naan, samosa, tandoori chicken, chicken masala, raita, and mango lassi.


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