Auckland International Airport. The second drawing while in Auckland International Airport transit lounge. We were held in a closed section of the terminal, blocked off with high, white plastic walls. We were all from ‘red’ flights. All we had were a couple of vending machines & a water fountain I dare not drink from. Totally fine for me but tough for a mum with a young baby & a guy who had been there over 24 hours #covidtravel Finally had a chance to finish the drawing this morning.
📍Location: Auckland International Airport.
Here in L.A. I have to draw from my photographs for a few more days... I’m doing the 10 day quarantine. Although, I’m not sure I wanna go back to drawing plein air here. I used to love drawing on the street & would welcome folks to lean over my shoulder & watch, or chat to me while drawing... #covid is changing the way I work.
📍Location: Silver Lake
Flying from Sydney to LAX was pretty strange. I spent 7 hrs in a weird transit lounge in New Zealand, with 4 other folks on their way to USA. Auckland International Airport was incredibly quiet... kinda spooky.
📍Location: Auckland International Airport.
I’m sitting here - waiting for the OK to move into the other apartment. There’s some of my PPE by the door #covidtimes
📍Location: Dudley Ave, Venice
Venice. It ‘s raining in California !
I needed to get to the bank. Both my account & credit card were maxed out & I needed to deposit some cash. I didn’t want to UBER. So, I borrowed an umbrella from the neighbors, (yes, I don’t own one) & walked the 2.9 miles to the bank. The umbrella was too small. Then I walked the 2.9 miles back. Now I know why Missing Persons wrote that song ‘Nobody walks in L.A.’
📍Location: Cnr Lincoln & Washington
Today was the first day I really felt like I’m in California I left the house, again, & it was super busy out! Trying to get two walks in a day. The rain has stopped, the sun is warm, & few tourists are out on LIME / BIRD bikes (without masks). Walking down the Speedway was more relaxed today – or maybe I’m more relaxed!?
📍Location: Speedway, Venice
I got up earlier this morning, to get a drawing done before I met friends for a distanced, masked, walk down the Boardwalk. I’ve a couple of friends who live here. Their Venice is the Venice of the 60s, 70s & 80s. Their Venice is folks like Earl Newman, Rip Cronk… Venice Café West. I wonder if there were as many homeless / temporary homes on the beach back then?
📍Location: End of Rose Ave, Venice Beach
💰 I’ve wondered about this ATM How is it still here & who would put their card in it? Last week I used an ATM outside the bank in Marina del Rey. I had gloves in my back pocket but didn’t wear them. I sanitized my fingers after. Coming from a state (NSW) that has had zero community transmission in the past few weeks, it’s different here in L.A. I hear stats like 1 in 3 people here in L.A. County have had COVID at some point in the past year. That 1 in 5 have it now. It’s tricky to keep up with the stats. I just know that I need to leave the house in a double mask, with my mini hand sanitizer.
📍Location: Venice Beach Boardwalk
They installed a heart this week – over Venice. Valentines is coming up. I appreciate the sentiment but not the commercialism.
📍Location: Venice
I hadn’t checked the daily COIVD death count in LA County for a while – maybe 10 days? But we looked last night. My friend is up in Alameda County – we compared the numbers. It’s horrific here in L.A. I usually find a beach walk uplifting.
Some days it feels like a risk getting a coffee – waiting outside with other folks, some not wearing masks. The cafe (@greatwhitevenice ) is a 15 minute walk away. I only do it to motivate myself to get some exercise & stay healthy, a couple of times a week. (Yes, I’m wearing a glove).
📍Location: Pacific & Winward, Venice
It’s pretty dark in there.
📍Location: Cnr 17th & Pacific Ave, Venice
On Friday I had an outdoor catch up with local artist, printmaker, activist & all-round legend Kay Brown. She is the current artist in residence @sparcinla
📍Location: Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), 685 Venice Blvd, Venice
Some days I feel like a fragile tostada.
📍Location: Venice Way, Venice
If I remember, or notice the light change, I try and get down to the ocean to watch the incredible sunsets. I don’t do this every day – I know I probably should! I’m spending my days locked in the apartment.
📍Location: Venice Beach
No trespassing.
📍Location: Venice Beach
So many deliveries, so many takeout containers, so much trash. The air seems cleaner in L.A. right now but I wonder about the impact on the environment in other ways?
Like disposable masks. I guess it’s better to make or buy fabric ones. A disposable one only lasts 4 hours. If we all wear a disposable mask twice a week – everyone in LA county – that’s 10 million people… that’s a whole lotta of masks.
📍Location: Marine Ct, Santa Monica
Venice. 🌊 For those of you who haven’t been - the beach here is wide, really wide - especially at low tide. There’s a spot, when you’re walking up the beach, where the sound of the ocean is muffled & you can’t hear the boardwalk chaos….kinda like being in a sand pillow. 💕Happy Mardi Gras 🎉
📍Location: Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), 685 Venice Blvd, Venice
Folks have suggested I avoid supermarkets. They’ve warned that’s where they have picked up COVID. So, I haven’t been to a supermarket since I got here. One thing I love about the US is the choices. Do you know how many different milk options you have here? Lots. It’s overwhelming. This driftwood seen on Venice Blvd, at Canal.
Found the final piece of the puzzle on Speedway this morning.
📍Location: Speedway, Venice
My last night in Venice. There really is nothing like a California sunset!
📍Location: Dudley Ave, Venice
It’s not all palm trees & sunsets here. I was thinking this morning about bananas. How I couldn’t race out the door & eat my banana on the way to the markets. I miss eating & drinking on the run. Now I’m too scared to take my masks off in public. 📍Location: Venice Beach
It’s tricky to tell how big the meals are with the online ordering… plus they look so much better in the pictures. More nutritious. Are they still called TV dinners?
📍Location: Dudley Ave, Venice
It’s great to be back in Silver Lake - where the masks are pink, not blue.
Are we still in lockdown? It feels like folks are relaxing - less masks, more folks out & about. Maybe all these people have always been here - I just haven’t been out ‘n about to see them?
📍Location: Bellevue Recreation Centre, 826 Lucile Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Sunset Boulevard., Silver Lake.
📍Location: Sunset & Maltman
This is where Cliffs Edge operated for 16 years - in the heart of Silver Lake. The Sunset Boulevard restaurant had been closed since the start of coronavirus lockdowns, then permanently closed in October 2020. The site is still for lease.
📍Location: Cliffs Edge, Sunset Blvd
Wahooo! A trip to Eagle Rock! I have a regular catch up with friends Kris & Dave (weekly) - they’re in my bubble. This week we went to THE OiNKSTER, @theoinkster Eagle Rock for dinner. I don’t usually drink soda but opted for a ginger beer…. I loved the packaging. We got takeout & ate in the car, in the Oinkster carpark. #COVIDtimes
📍Location: The Oinkster (car park), 2005 Colorado Blvd, Eagle Rock
Silver Lake. There seems to be more blue sky in Silver Lake. Maybe it’s because the buildings aren’t as tall as in Venice? Or the hills here....or perhaps because there’s no ocean horizon to distract me.
📰 Senate approves US$1.9 trillion in aid for ailing nation. 🗞 What a headline! Seen in the neighbor’s driveway at sunrise Monday morning. Hold on .... 1.9 trillion !?! 😳
📍Location: Maltman Ave, Silver Lake
On the weekend we took a walk around the Rose Bowl – not the whole way – just a section. Past the car park & golf course. I guess all sorts of events used to happen there (pre-COVID).... the circus hasn’t been into town for awhile... but carnival food stands were set up & serving odd fried treats in the car park. Fried candy bars, like snickers and twinkies. Giant brightly coloured tents, evenly spaced around a giant car park. It was a pretty strange situation. Cars would drive around neon blue, lit cones, in lines, kinda like Disneyland ... folks could pick up their takeout fried food without leaving their car ... & then take it to the edge of the field & eat it in or on their car. Something to do on a Saturday night in L.A., when everything else was closed.
📍Location: Rose Bowl, Pasadena
💉 Some folks have been vaccinated….masks off! Some folks haven’t been vaccinated…but it’s still “Masks off!”
📍Location: Sundet Blvd
You know how they say “Stop and smell the roses!” Kinda tricky when you’re double masked.
📍Location: Tularosa Dr, Silver Lake
📍Location: Eaton Canyon enterence, Nth Altadena Drive
When the chips are down...
📍Location: Marathon St, Silver Lake
IF FACE MASKS WORK, WHY DO SMALL BUSINESSES NEED TO BE CLOSED? IF THEY DON’T WORK, WHY ARE WE BEING FORCED TO WEAR THEM?
📍Location: York Blvd, Highland Park
I walked to the accountant yesterday. I don’t own a car and enjoy walking & taking PT in L.A…but due to COVID, it’s walking only! You know that stretch of Sunset between Café Tropical & Rosemont?
It’s an odd section of Sunset. A bus stop, a couple of shops. Strange things on the side of the road & in the tree’s. A capped mural. When I first moved here – I think it was the second day – I got a lottery ticket from Jr's 99 & Up, on Colorado. I won $2. Carniceria is just opposite.
📍Location: Circle H Markets & Liquor
I love a good road trip…but it’s not quite as fun, in a pandemic.
📍Location: Cnr Pasadena Ave & Arroyo Dr, South Pasadena
I (heart) In-N-Out Burger. I’m pretty sure it was the first fast food I had, on my first trip to California, in 1996. Friends picked me up from LAX earlier this year with fresh In-N-Out. Family owned. Californian.
Yesterday, when I saw this In-N-Out cup in the gutter, just outside @losglobos , I thought it would be ace to draw it. So, I did…. but it wasn’t until I got to the smaller details on the cup that I noticed the golden arches.
📍Location: N Reno St, Silver Lake, CA
The clouds have been really fluffy the past few weeks. Here they are reflected in the Dollar Tree window.
📍Location: Dollar Tree, 5817 N Figueroa St, Highland Park, CA 90042
Silver Lake/ Echo Park. 📰 Where there’s people, there’s power - poster on Sunset.
📍Location: Sunset Blvd, Echo Park
Highland Park.🚶♀️ Walking around Highland Park / South Pasadena on Monday evening, I thought this shadow, on the side of the building, was a billboard. So L.A! Awesome. But then when I got to the end of the ally…it turned out to be the shadow of a gas station sign….also, very L.A. 😆
📍Location: South Pasadena
It’s raining & cold here today in Silver Lake. The clouds have been super fluffy the past week... hold on...there’s that song … by The Orb – I frick’n love that song.
📍Location: Robinson St, Silver Lake
It’s hard to know what spaces have been FOR LEASE since before COVID… but there are a few places for lease on the high street here, right now. 📍Location: 5925 Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90042, USA
🚶♀️Walking in the hills of Los Feliz, on my way to see The Ennis House.
📍Location: Los Feliz
🐔 Chicken Boy is a landmark statue on the historic U.S. Route 66 (North Figueroa Street) in the Highland Park, California area of Los Angeles. The colorful 22-foot tall fiberglass statue was recognized by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger with the Governor's Historic Preservation Award in 2010. - Wikipedia
📍Location: Behind Chicken Boy (5558 N Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90042)
I haven’t left L.A much in the past few months. Only twice - last weekend to Ventura & a couple of weeks ago to Bakersfield. Bakersfield is an odd town but it did have a pretty cool paint store, in Old Town Kern.
📍Location: Sequoia Paint Co, 700 Baker St, Bakersfield, CA 93305
The Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA), which regulates firearms at the federal level, requires that citizens and legal residents must be at least 18 years of age to purchase shotguns or rifles and ammunition. All other firearms — handguns & automatic weapons, for example — can only be sold to people 21 and older.
📍Location: Palomares Academy Of Health Sciences, 2211 N Orange Grove Ave, Pomona, CA 91767
We had a button making night on Wednesday. Kris supplied the badge making machine, I supplied the Letraset & vintage postage stamps. 5 of us. Socially distanced & outside. We got the best pizza from Town Pizza – frick’n awesome pizza!
📍Location: Avenue 66, Highland Park, CA
This hand-drawn, neon poster is on the high street - Figueroa Street, Highland Park. Folks are eating inside restaurants, drinking in bars & relaxing without masks. Sanitizer is still floating around, at the entrance of stores & venues. Gloves? I haven’t seen anyone in gloves since the Venice Farmers Market, back in January. 📍Location: Figueroa St, Highland Park
Pretty excited to get my 2nd shot today! I’m leaving on Saturday
📍Location: Phast Pharmacy, 1121 W Columbus St, Bakersfield, CA 93301
California ... in 코리아 타운. I’m leaving California next week. I’ve got a project in Sydney for a couple of months…. just as I’ve started to settle back into California life.
Yesterday we took a trip to Ventura, now that things are opening up, we left the city for a day trip. Ventura is a pretty cute town – with HEAPS of Op Shops. We call them Op (Opportunity) Shops in New Zealand. Oppies in Australia & Thrift Stores here in USA.
📍Location: C.A.A.N Thrift Store, 340 E Main St, Ventura, CA 93001
The Loft Café is just down the road. It has outdoor dining & Sweet Lady Jane Cakes, plus some old Everwear fire escape stairs up the side of the building…. things are looking up!
📍Location: Back of Loft Cafe
Koreatown. Pollo A La Brasa is on the corner of Western & W 8th. My friend Kay Brown @kay.brown.792 looked at the drawing & said “That place has been around for years!”
I find it so tricky to know what spots serve great food around here. I mean - you’d think I would have eaten a whole bunch of Korean by now…but I’ve been eating quesadillas from a local truck & roast chicken. Anyone got any tips for some good, local takeout here in Koreatown?
📍Location: Pollo A La Brasa, Cnr W 8th St & Western, Koreatown
My food gets dropped at the door, 3 times a day, in a brown paper bag. They knock - then run.
I was super excited this morning when I got (what I thought!) was a coffee with a big ‘W’ (for Wendy) on it!
Turns out I’d forgotten to order my morning coffee …. & this was the WHOLE milk to go with my cereal.
Today is Day 2.
I don’t feel like drawing today.
After a long flight from LAX yesterday, I’m now in a government quarantine hotel in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand.
This country is serious about keeping COVID out & every person who enters the country is escorted to a facility for 14 days in isolation. You don’t know where you are going to be placed, until you land. My hotel is in downtown Auckland. I’m on the 10th floor & have a view of the city, with 2 small windows for fresh air. We can’t leave the hotel room - except for 30mins in an exercise room per day. All food is provided & it has been really great, so far. Tonight is Taco Tuesday!
Today is Day 1.
Saturday afternoon. Had my Day 12 COVID test at 2pm. The NZDF just called & I’m out at 10:30am Monday
Today is Day 12.
Before I got to quarantine, folks had said things to me like:
“It will be amazing to have 14 days on your own - with food delivered to your door!”
“You’ll get so much work done - I’m jealous”
“You will have time to read those books you’ve always wanted to read” “Imagine all the drawing you will do - amazing!”
I thought it would be like that too…I’d make the most of it - treat it like a retreat or some odd, isolated artist residency. But it’s not like that at all. My head isn’t clear and focused on the 100 things I have here on my ’to do’ list…it looks like this jigsaw puzzle I still haven’t finished. #scattered
Today is Day 11.
There was a break in the traffic while I was drawing this morning... it was the first time I’d heard the birds in the park below. Two distinct bird sounds – sounds that I only hear in New Zealand & sounds of my childhood. It’s been so long – I can’t remember what they are! One sounds like a Tui, I’m pretty sure… actually – when I open the windows & tune in - I can hear a bunch of birds. I hadn’t noticed them other mornings.
This morning I drew a feather I’d photographed on our 30 minutes out last night. It was on the concrete – just to the side of where we were walking. Delicate & fresh. I assume it’s a seagull feather? There were some seagulls flying to the side, while we were all walking in a loop. It really was like prison. A couple of army folks watching over us. We’re all in line…walking around the edge of the small terrace….following the arrows...trying to keep up the same pace… 6 ft apart … no breaks, no passing.
Today is Day 3.
I know it shouldn’t be weird - room service dropping off a little brown bag with a week’s supply of jam and butter at my door. But it was 2:24pm on a Friday afternoon. Every day I get my pastries, & they come with jam & butter. Why all of a sudden did I get a whole bunch of mini jams & butters? Did someone request this? Did someone complain? Did they decide to do things differently this coming week? It’s hard to describe what it feels like in here – the little things seem bigger. The normal stuff seems weird. Like how the food & coffee magically appears after a door knock. It’s a magic knock or a magic door.
Today is Day 5.
The nurse calls by every day to take my temperature & ask how I’m feeling – both physically & mentally. I’m feeling good today. I have windows that open....just a little but they open… & luckily, I have a pretty nice view, looking out to the back of Auckland city.
So, from my front window I can see a splash of green in the foreground, some buildings in the middle ground, & Mt Eden (I think!?) in the distance. Here’s my view from the other end of my room.
Today is Day 4.