It’s a LOVE weekend at two L.A.book stores next Friday, July 9 and Saturday, July 10 in honor of the debut of John Einarson’s book “Forever Changes,” which features Arthur Lee’s autobiographical notes released for the first time!

Friday July 9 at 7 p.m., STORIES Books * Cafe * Goods (1716 Sunset Boulevard, Echo Park) will feature a LOVE DJ night featuring mid-’60s L.A. scene discs spun by people who are huge fans of LOVE, including Lee Joseph, Tita Ortega, Ian Marshall, Kara Wright, Steve Stanley & Cheryl, Domenic Priore, Becky Ebenkamp, Renee Hendrie, Erik Bluhm, Kari French and surprise drop-ins. Every few songs, you’ll hear one by LOVE.

Saturday’s event at BOOK SOUP (5 p.m., 8818 Sunset Strip) promises to be a legendary moment in the history of the band as LOVE guitarist Johny Echols and drummer Michael Stuart-Ware will be joined by ’60s Elektra Records president Jac Holzman and other close associates of Arthur Lee in an interview-question and answer session featuring “Forever Changes” author John Einarson, moderated by Domenic Priore (author of “Riot on Sunset Strip: Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Last Stand in Hollywood,” foreword by Arthur Lee). Live acoustic music will be provided by members of Baby Lemonade, who spent the last bunch of years touring with Arthur around the globe.

Friday, July 9: Stories, 1716 Sunset Boulevard, 7 p.m. (213) 413-3733
Saturday, July 10: Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Strip, 5 p.m. (310) 659-3110

Both events are FREE

Damian Fulton “Surfploytation“
Robert Palacios “The Game of Life“

July 2 – Aug 1, 2010
Reception for the artists, Friday July 2, 2010, 8pm – 11pm
La Luz de Jesus – Gallery I (Gallery II will be having a six-artist show- and there will be a free Independence Day BBQ in the back!)

4633 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90027
323-666-7667
info@laluzdejesus.com
www.laluzdejesus.com

Preview the entire shows here:

Damain Fulton

Robert Palacios

“Drop In”

Damian Fulton is fascinated by the dichotomy and duality of Los Angeles seaside culture. The proximity of one of the world’s most diverse and congested cities to the Pacific coast provides fertile material for Fulton’s dark take on the California dream. Perhaps it’s in the water.

Surfploytation continues Fulton’s twisted ride down Pacific Coast Highway where Surf City is way more gritty than groovy. Car chases, girls with guns, noir nostalgia, a visual narrative that reads like conceptual art for a fictional surfploytation movie. For this show, experimentation with new materials native to his environment, balsa wood and fiberglass, skate decks, and surfboard fins, have this new work amped up to 11.

Fulton’s imaginative blend of storytelling, scrambled pop imagery, and painterly technique belie a respect for traditions of the past. Inject in his love of the ocean and urban experience and you have a distinctly original vision.

Fulton grew up land-locked in Orange County, California and painted his way through college at Cal State Fullerton doing custom art for vans, spontaneous wall murals at parties in the OC and self publishing Thrust, the Magazine of Narrative Sequential Art.

Out of college, Ocean Pacific hired him to paint surf posters and in 1982 commissioned him to create the official poster for the Op Pro Surf Contest.  His counterculture comic strips like “The Shred Brothers” running in Surfer Publications’ Snowboarder and the original extreme sports classic “Radical Rick” which rode for 15 years in BMX Plus! Magazine. Fulton has had careers working for Oglivy and Mather Advertising, Marvel Comics and has directed television spots for Pepsi, Mattel and Universal Interactive.

In 2005 on the 50th birthday of Disneyland, Fulton was commission to paint several prints commemorating the event. Fulton currently resides in Los Angeles, CA. www.damianfulton.com

“Game of Chance“

Drawing inspiration for his paintings from his childhood impressions and memories, life experiences and an American/ Latino heritage, Robert Palacios’ work is whimsical, playful and childlike with thoughtfully crafted characters. “Before beginning a painting, I sketch out my ideas. When the story is fully realized, I take those sketches and put them on canvas. At that point it’s a cerebral process; I’m thinking, concept-color-composition. When that part of my brain is satisfied, that’s when the mood comes into play and settles over me. Each painting is a vivid story of a world that I’m bringing to life. The viewer is introduced to a cast of characters and subplots often put into humorous situations that characterize as visual narratives of daily life, with a comical twist; the object being, to invite an interaction with the paintings” states Palacios

One of Palacios’ abiding inspirations is been a board game called that he played often as a child called “La Loteria” (the Mexican lottery game) which is played similarly to bingo but with a deck of cards. “The cards have numbers on them as well as wonderful, mystical, magical symbols and drawings. I still bring out that deck and peruse them for inspiration” states the artist who was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. www.robertpalacios.com

drawing by Jane Cantillon

the
DICK AND JANE
Family Orchestra

with bassist extraordinaire LEE JOSEPH
and multi-talented percussionist MIKE PEFFER

THURSDAY, JULY 1 @ 10:30 PM
appearing with:
FORT KING
LEAH LYNNE
and
HELENE RENAUT

doors open at 9:00
music starts at 9:30

NO COVER

THE HYPERION TAVERN
1941 Hyperion Avenue, Silver Lake
(across from Casita del Campo —
look for the barber pole)

CUSF Grand Central Art Center
125 N. Broadway
Santa Ana, CA 92701
General Info: 714-567-7233
www.grandcentralartcenter.com

Media Contact:
Ashley Eckenweiler
949-285-9239
ashley@oshkinagency.com

Click for a preview of the show

(Santa Ana, Calif.) – Grand Central Arts Forum, the support group for Grand Central Art Center (GCAC) is revitalizing the hit exhibition, 100 Artists See Satan, a survey of contemporary artists and their interpretation of the supreme demon. Unlike the original exhibition, this iteration of the collection will be presented as a fundraiser, with works available for sale to the public. All proceeds will benefit future GCAC programs and exhibitions. An exclusive preview will be held Saturday, June 26 from 7-10pm with a public opening reception on July 3 from 7-10pm. The exhibition will remain on display through August 15, 2010.

100 Artists See Satan was originally organized by GCAC in response to another exhibition, 100 Artists See God, curated by John Baldessari and Meg Cranston for Independent Curators Inc. New York. The two shows exhibited simultaneously in 2004, Satan at GCAC and God at Laguna Art Museum, and gained notable attention from the public and media.

To further raise funds, Grammy Award winning graphic and packaging designer, Hugh Brown has been commissioned to create a 100 Artists See Satan credit card, limited edition of 666. This collector’s item is available only at the GCAC bookstore for $50. Cardholder’s benefits include a discount on select merchandise at the GCAC store and an invitation to the VIP preview event on June 26.

CAMILLE ROSE GARCIA  Subterranean Death Clash hand glittered limited edition gicleé on paper  |  edition of 80  |  24” x 35”  |  $1,400

This Saturday, June 19  – The Bullet featuring The Dolly Rocker Movement, an Australian psychedelic garage band now based in LA with a new lineup consisting of members of Hot Hot Heat! Also DJs Soulshaker, Lee Joseph, Jason Pandora, Jackie Hoodoo, DJ Ladybug and Dr Ray laying down top Mod, Soul and Garage vinyl sounds! FREE b4 10pm! – Hollywood Studio Bar and Grill – 6122 W Sunset – Los Angeles, CA – plenty of free parking!

Saturday, June 12, 2010 at 9:00pm
Join us for SOULSIDE at Fais Do-Do in Los Angeles at 5257 West Adams Blvd.
Featuring Virginia Ann, Lee Joseph of Dionysus Records, Marv Mack and DJ Scott from Records LA. Visuals by Mystery Machine.
$5.00 before 10pm, $10 after.

Soulside MySpace page

June 4 – 27, 2010
Reception for the artists, June 4th  8 – 11 PM

La Luz de Jesus Gallery
4633 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90027
323-666-7667
info@laluzdejesus.com
www.laluzdejesus.com

Rick Araluce makes miniature constructions. That means he makes everything himself by hand, including the boxes that contain the collections. He’s spent years inventing methods to fashion (from scratch) a turned table leg, door hardware,  a light bulb, a clock case, elaborate trim moulding, and whatever else is required to complete the illusions. Rick has created flutes less than an eighth of an inch in length, functioning miniature clocks measuring less than a quarter inch in diameter, and light switches that illuminate rooms seventeen miniature floors beneath them. No detail is sacrificed by the diminutive scale -even if those flourishes go largely unnoticed by the casual observer; however is nothing casual about the art of Rick Araluce, who makes his return to La Luz de Jesus after more than a decade abroad.

Rick Araluce website

________

JAW Cooper’s series “Tarnished” explores the allure of imperfection. “I’ve created a world inhabited by the deformed, tainted, injured, and alien, where external imperfections are echos of internal struggle,  and beauty is undeniably in the eye of the beholder. Behind every flaw is a story waiting to be discovered,” states the artist. Cooper was born in England and grew up in Africa, Sweden, Ireland, various other locations throughout Europe, and California. She has always cultivated a deep curiosity for the natural world and is inspired by forms found in nature, curio cabinets, fashion photography, and nipples in general. Cooper currently lives and works as an illustrator and gallery artist in Los Angeles, California. The artist will be in attendance.

JAW Cooper website

________

Jessica Dalva’s new series of sculptures and oil paintings is only her second featured exhibition at La Luz de Jesus, but marks one of the most anxiously awaited series of new work from an emerging artist in recent memory. The centerpiece of “Tie Strings Into Knots” is an eerie, hanging chandelier that instills a sense of wandering for home, while illuminating a lost sense of virtue. Sometimes a lamp is just a lamp. But this is not one of those times. Dalva’s marionettes and mobiles inject their surroundings with instant nostalgia via a modern craft-esthetic rooted deeply in antiquity. The artist will be in attendance.

Jessica Dalva website

“Gone West” was an expression used in the air force during wartime to describe a brother-in-arms who was shot down and killed in combat. When pilots gather, they often open meetings with a toast to those who have “gone west”. They face the west and drink to those who have died. West, in this case, refers to the place the sun sets and extinguishes; the metaphor is clear. This somehow softens the reality of death in a line of work rife with mortality. Bonni Reid has co-opted this expression ion titling her most recent body of paintings. Representing transformation, passage, and change, the title takes on an added, metaphysical tone, not unlike the Death card in a tarot deck. this exhibition features all new, never-before-seen work. Bonni Reid lives in the West End of Vancouver, British Columbia. When not brewing her own visual concoctions, she freelances as a color designer for animation productions including six seasons of Cartoon Network’s “Ed, Edd ‘n Eddy”.

Bonni Reid website

________

Krystopher Sapp  “Exoskeletal Engine”

Krystopher Sapp’s mixed media assemblage is a sculptural study in discarded ephemery. His workshop is a literal hereafter for broken toys, liberated fixtures, and kippered insects. Rich dioramas of recontextualized doodads transform into a steampunk nirvana of Victorian futurism, both resplendant and refined, but with a secret tinge of horror within each dark dimension. La Luz de Jesus is proud to welcome back Krystopher Sapp for his third featured exhibition, for which he’s dialed back volume but escalated detail to produce a collection of ambitious perfection. The artist will be in attendance.

Krystopher Sapp website

Monday, May 31st, 9 pm
The Echo Curio
1519 Sunset Blvd   LA  CA, 90026
www.echocurio.com

$5.00 cover

Joining Azalia for her LA shows will be sax players Emily St Amand Poliakoff and Anastasia Shepherd. and guitar goddess Sylvia Juncosa as part of this COOLING SYSTEM night.

“Azalia Snail has been making her uniquely sweet, viscous, noise-inflected, tempo-bending psychedelia for almost two decades, recording a dozen or so albums between 1990 and 2006 on labels including Funky Mushroom and Dark Beloved Cloud.  She’s back with a disc on Silver Lake’s experimental True Classical Records, a dense haze of swooning vocals and seething synths cut by abrasive swaths of indie guitar mayhem. The music has its share of discordant moments and harsh textures, but somehow these are enveloped in a softening sheen; as Snail sings in the opening track, it is “Heavy mental/ Honeysuckle gentle.”

Neumusic review

“Azalia Snail appeared on the stage.  Right away at the beginning one felt that the audience would be given a special performance, even if only for four songs. While building a pedestal with a silver cover, over which she put her little white synthesizer, this feeling was only further strengthened.  Azalia Snail, who was formerly known as the “Queen of lo-fi,” did not actually need to do very much to place the audience under her spell.  Already the first song, Golden Slumbers, fascinated with the typical mix of Azalia Snail church organ and psychedelic indie sounds.”

Hamburg Press review

Azalia Snail has toured the USA, Europe, Japan, and New Zealand and has jammed with Beck, The Black Heart Procession, The Grifters, Trumans Water, Low, and many other unique musical artists.

www.azaliasnail.com

Cocktail Party #5
Saturday May 22nd 8pm till Late
e3RD Lounge 734 East 3rd St. LA CA 90013
Ode to Jazz – A Classic Old Fashioned Cocktail Party in Downtown LA

Live Music by Drew Lesso
Fine Art by Erik James
MC Emmeric Konrad
Old Vintage Visuals by Terry Ellsworth
Blacklight Art by Jerico

www.cherrymeltdown.com