Val Patterson is a Photographer born, raised & currently residing in Los Angeles. She is best known for her charity photo book “The Pink Project,” which benefits the fight against breast cancer & sexual assault. Val is currently working on her next two books, “The Mona Lisa Project” & “Sleepwalking in Palos Verdes,” which are scheduled for release in the Fall of 2010.

The Long Beach Museum of Art is preparing a new exhibition titled Sweet Subversives, which will open October 16, 2009 on the first floor of the Museum’s gallery pavilion. Sweet Subversives is a unique gathering of 31 drawings by Southern California artists who explore their personal vision of what a drawing means to them and how they achieve this vision.

Rob Schrab fidgets across from me in a large, sunken green chair in his living room, adjusting positions at least three times before he settles comfortably into the seat. He has, after all, quite a lot to be excited about: his recent Emmy win for “Outstanding Music and Lyrics,” which he co-wrote for the opening number at this year’s Academy Awards, a recurring directing and writing role on Comedy Central’s The Sarah Silverman Program, and the consummation of the long-anticipated comeback of Scud The Disposable Assassin: The Whole Shebang.

It is the middle of a beautiful Saturday, a couple of weeks before the hustle and bustle of open studios. I decide to take a tour with one of Santa Monica Art Studios’ two directors, Yossi Govrin. Stupidly, I almost miss my turn because I’m too distracted watching a plane land at the Santa Monica Airport. It’s an interesting place to find 22,000 square feet dedicated to the fine arts.

Whenever I find myself in a conversational lull–say, in an elevator, at a distant cousin’s wedding, or perhaps even admist the strum und drang of my chosen work environment–I bring up Lou Reed. He never fails me. People start finger popping, mumbling about walking on wild sides, or alternatively searching for a vein in their arm to puncture. The astute ones will make Laurie Anderson references, and others will try to pick apart Reed’s greater cultural impact. Sure, they’ll say, the Velvet Underground has attained deification, and rightfully so. But what about Reed’s solo work? Is “Sex With Your Parents (Motherfucker) Part II” really Guggenheim material?