by Tracy Cruz
photos by Nikki DeVries

Despite the downpour of rain the previous night and morning of the event, the Echo Park Art Walk went on as scheduled with a few minor adjustments due to weather constraints.

Art enthusiasts, friends, families and pets roamed the streets of Echo Park Avenue – Sunset Boulevard to Champlain Terrace as boutique shops, galleries and neighborhood venues opened their doors to welcome all. My adventure started at Feeding Birds Boutique who had suffered a mild flood from the rain but kept on trucking throughout the day. Equipped with a live guitarist and offering special discounts as well as freshly baked cookies to all patrons it was a great place to begin my day. Vintage glassware, jewelry and casual threads filled the store and drew quite a crowd especially with the Calbi Truck right out front cooking up their delicious street tacos and burritos served up with a splash of asian flair. I couldn’t resist and ordered two scrumptious morsels washed them down with a diet coke and went on my way to my next stop. (With all the LA food truck craze, I decided to embark on my first experience of true street food and there’s no wonder why they draw such crowds…it was deeeelish!) Read the whole story »

by Tracy Cruz
photos by Nancy Accomando

The C.A.V.E is one of my favorite westside hang outs for great art in LA, not to mention that gallery owners Patrick (& Tanya) are some of the nicest people I’ve met in the scene. The place was packed – umbrellas in hand, warms coats and hats and wooden paintings galore. With a drink to warm up both my innards and outs I checked out the exhibit oozing with dj spinning beats and a live painter doing his thing. Read the whole story »

“Everything exists as a reason for us and the talented people we know to make visually driven shorts,” -Danny Jelinek, Co-Creator. Read the whole story »

I was first exposed to the Glass House in a lecture hall in 2001. A few weeks earlier, the twin towers had collapsed, and along with it, the old frontier sense of impermeability. A black and white slide of the Glass House clicked into view, and I felt an overpowering sense of relief, as if everything we had collectively lost was somehow preserved by that structure: the gracefulness of transparency. Read the whole story »

by Tracy Cruz

Attention all art goers!
please note the following:

The Cannibal Flower is a bi-monthly portable venue, a traveling circus of creativity – underground art, music, dance, film, projections, magic and fashion.

On Saturday January 30 sometime around 9pm, I grabbed two of my friends, hopped in the car and made my way to downtown LA for the first Cannibal Flower event of the new year. Mind you, this was my first instance attending the show and with little expectation we arrived at our destination which looked more like an abandoned commercial building than an art gallery. I double checked the address and as we entered the glass doors we followed the crowd into an elevator that shot us up to the 14th floor (because superstition doesn’t really leave room for 13). I greeted Valentine at the door, a delightful gal who also happens to be a fixture at the Thinkspace Gallery, as she ushered us in. Read the whole story »