Downtown Brewery Artwalk

There is culture in Los Angeles, you just might have to look for it. And the good thing is, you don't even have to look that hard. Over the weekend, we went to the Brewery Artwalk, a twice annual free event in downtown Los Angeles. The Brewery is, according to their website, the world's largest art complex, with over 100 participating resident artists. The artists open up their studio over the weekend in the Spring and Fall to whoever is interested in coming by to share what they're working on. I love this idea and have gone to this event for about the last six years. If we're lucky enough to be invited into the homes of these innovative artists, I feel like we should go.

You definitely start feeling like you're about to experience something different as you walk into the complex. You're greeted with these sculptures and dolls:

We always stop by our friends Claudia and Ren's studio. Claudia, of Claudia Endler Designs, designs stunning, modern and architectural jewelry. You must visit her site to see what I mean. They've been renovating their studio for a few years now, turning their loft into an impressive living and working gallery space. They were gracious to give us a tour.

We popped into a few more studios, one of which was the studio of Bruce Gray. Bruce creates sculptures of metal, wood and found objects. The objects in his entire studio, other than his couch and tv, looked like they were created by him. Some of his notable pieces were his life size steel motorcycle, with the wheels coming from a train, and his huge(!) high heeled shoe sculptures. Fabulous.

Bruce also had the most interesting fish tank I've seen in someone's home. In the background of the fish are tons of live anemone:

And then we headed over to James Hill's studio. James creates large, modern sculptures from stainless steel. His work is featured in many public places, such as libraries and hospitals. I think one of his large sculpture would look fantastic in my garden, if we had one large enough to do it justice!

I hope I've given you a taste of what the artwalk is like, but if you're in the Los Angeles area, you should do yourself a favor and experience it for yourself.