Artist J. Michael Walker painting "San Pascual Avenue", 2000 (L-R, "St. Louis Street" and "San Pedro Street" in background).
Each piece in All the Saints begins life as a 70"h x 48"w painting, with a 2-color silkscreened border. All individual text and imagery is rendered in sumi ink and bamboo brush.
For many works in the series, a giclée print is created on polyvinyl; this print is then painted over, in acrylics, color pencil and gold leaf.
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San Rafael Avenue
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The history of a place resides in its names. Names are clues our forebears leave behind, to tell us something of the world they inhabited and passed onto us; the world we've inherited and must act upon.
The Spanish explorers and Mexican settlers who came to California named villages, mountains and rivers for saints, because the saints were an intimate part of their world. They were superseded by Yankee real estate developers, who carved housing developments out of ranchos and streets out of farmland; and who named them all for saints with scant knowledge of who the saints were or what their stories meant.
By researching and comparing the histories of LA's streets with the legends of LA's saints, artist J. Michael Walker has opened the door to a mystic contemplation on the City's multicultural heritage, and provided a template for interpreting where we've been and where we may go.
Santa Clara Avenue
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