November 03, 2005
Where It's At
One of my oldest friends - practically known him since I moved to Los Angeles twenty-something years ago, Jonathan Schmock is showing some of his artwork at the Rose Cafe in Venice. You know the one - just a couple blocks from the beach, 220 Rose Avenue. Thru November 27th in a group show called "Family".
Jon and I traded pieces years ago - I have no idea what I gave him, I hope it wasn't something crappy. I have displayed his triptych of baseball diamond/umpire with "wings"/cardinal (the religous kind) in my home ever since I snagged it after showing it in Saks Fifth Avenue's windows.
Of late, he's been working from vintage family photos, making them completely dreamlike. Truly lovely. Always wishing we could get out of this rat-race together and work in a giant comcrete loft somewhere that's not here.
Speaking of which - I just remembered something that Jonathan and I talked about some seventeen years ago at The Improv. We thought both of us should have been born in a different era and we were pondering when and where it was we'd like to have been. We broke it down. We decided it would be just right to have been in:
Paris in the twenties
Berlin in the thirties
Hollywood in the forties
New York in the fifties
San Francisco in the sixties
London in the seventies
& back to Hollywood in the 80's
Well, we were there after all. I'm sure we would have added "Seattle in the 90's" had we had the same conversation seven years later. Haven't a clue as to where it's at in these aughts.
Nevertheless - Jonathan is makin art and that's where it's at enough for me.
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