PATTERNS AND TONES

From the first time he hit the stage back in the 90's as the lead singer for the Bay Area's roots n' blues flavored band  The Loved Ones  who were on  HighTone Records ,  to his melodic vocals intertwining with the hybrid electronica/funk music of  Honeycut  who were on DJ Shadow ' s hip-hop collective Quannum Projects , to the soft-pop stylings he is  crafting today  as a solo artist,  Bart Davenport  has traversed a varied musical landscape over the years, cultivating his own distinctive vocal style along the way. " I’m like a thrift store vintage artist in the sense that I like taking things from the past and put them in the context of a new song. I don’t want to be a retro purist, I just like to borrow when it seems like they would be fun to use. I’m a purist in art but I’m not a purist in period music. It’s just that it’s a fine line. I will literally write a chord progression that sounds like Bert Bacharach and ...

"Cotton Clowndy No. 1" from The Mask Series Nothing floats my boat more than clowns and amusement parks. I find it odd that people are afraid of clowns. I suppose I was brought up by a Mother who enjoyed getting scared by the supernatural and made me feel safe in the realm of the bizarre and unusual. There is nothing terrifying to me about a clown. Their colorful and flamboyant cloths coupled with face paint in exaggerated facial forms draws me in and gives me a thrill. Cotton Clowndy is the 6th set of images from The Mask Series combining the absurdity and playfulness of a clown captured at an  amusement park,   Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier to be specific. What was most interesting about this shoot was the person behind the mask. A terribly shy person, Clowndy surprised me with her enthusiasm and extroverted yet awkward gestures during the shoot.  Her selection of the clown mask at first confused me since I thought she wouldn't be able to pul...

Back in March, I approached and photographed Bob Baker at his Theater in Echo Park for my blog entry  "Bob Baker and His Magical Marionettes"  which focused on the history and evolution of this Los Angeles legend. My fascination was piqued when his assistant and fellow puppeteer Alex Evans had mentioned their workshop where the Marionettes where made and stored. I jumped at the chance to dig a bit deeper into the making of these amazing objects of Art. Every inch of these Marionettes are made by hand and the labor of love that goes into making them shines through. Bob once again graciously gave his time to conduct the following interview which allows us a peek inside his workshop and look into his amazing life. For the love of all things made by hand, Julie Pavlowski Green September 13, 2014 Subscribe to our mailing list   Julie Pavlowski Green: Were all your Marionette’s made here in your Los Angeles workshop? Bob Baker: Yes but som...

My fascination with Adobe structures has lead me to seek out and photograph as many of them as I can. I have located over 44 Adobes just in the Los Angeles basin that I hope to capture in natural light over the next few years. This summer, I was fortunate enough to actually stay inside two amazing Adobes in Twentynine Palms:   The Hayes Adobe and Irene's Adobe at the 29 Palms Inn located on the west end of the 9,000 year old Oasis of Mara . I have always been intrigued with the history behind Irene's Adobe since the first time my husband and I stayed in the Bottle Room which is a part of the 29 Palms Inn . The Adobe was built in 1933 by The Stubb Brothers for Gerald Charlton, a landscape architect from British Columbia. Mr. Charlton originally dubbed the Adobe "La Querencia", which is Spanish for a place where one feels safe and at home, a place where you can truly be yourself. Mr. Charlton's second wife  Irene Zimmers Charlton  inherited the prope...