By THEA CHARD Special to the Santa Monica Daily Press
Pico Artists at Work hopes to build bridges with local community PICO BOULEVARD Santa Monica is a base for the avant-garde, a hub for modern art, free thinking and wave riding — a home away from home for a growing population of creative minds that ignore artistic boundaries, refuse carbon-copied mediocrity and break out of any box that threatens to contain them. For these people, this city by the sea is a beautiful inspiration, yet the heart of the city’s appeal is hidden under the dusty mats and overlooked shops of Pico Boulevard.
“A lot of people think of Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica as the other side of the tracks, but in fact, there’s a very vibrant, creative vibe going on here,” said Randy Bell the owner of Artistic Picture Frames & Blue 7 Gallery, an art workshop and one of the organizers of the second annual Pico Artists at Work Art Walk.
The walk will be comprised of 44 galleries, studios and workshops that will open their doors to the artistically inclined on Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. The event is put on by the Pico Improvement Organization, a group of local merchants dedicated to promoting community unity between local merchants and the surrounding neighborhood.
“I like to think of Pico Boulevard as the workshop of Santa Monica,” Bell said. “If you look at Santa Monica as a house, then the front yard would be the beach and the living room would be maybe Montana or San Vicente, and the kitchen would be maybe Santa Monica, but the workshop I think is Pico.”
This workshop is the birth of some of the city’s most original, and most overlooked art. It is the workshop many people forget to use.
“There are a lot of artists who live in this area. Some people like to be in the kitchen or the living room,” Bell said. “I like to be in the workshop; I like creating things and making things.”
In that spirit, Artist’s At Work invites the public into stores, galleries, restaurants from Santa Monica High School to 34th Street. Each venue will have a unique display of artistry on hand, from live music and performances to the creation of painting, sculpture and drawing from start to finish by local artisans.
“We really wanted to invite the community to catch a glimpse of the creative process,” said Delia Cabral, the owner of DCA Fine Art, a new addition to the Pico art community.
DCA Fine Art will be hosting two resident artists on Sunday, both having been previously exhibited at the gallery. The artists featured — Kevin Rolly and Leila Levi — both see the event as an opportunity to showcase their work as well as provide visitors with an inside peak into how art is really created. “ P e o p l e are intimidated by art,” Cabral said. “They think there’s a right and a wrong. People walk in like they walk into a record store in college, embarrassed that they like s o m e t h i n g that’s not cool enough. That’s not true in art. Everything is valid and it’s what speaks to you — that’s what art is about.”
Cabral invited Rolly and Levi to showcase their work because they each utilize very unique styles.
“On Sunday, I’m going to be doing smoke paintings and drawing into them. I’m actually going to be demonstrating the process,” Levi said.
Levi has been experimenting with smoke as a tool since she and her friends were in art school. After school she continued to wield the flame, creating an original style that she has come to master.
“I’ve been doing it for years and years and years so I can literally control the flame to paint with it and then I come back in and
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 12, 2007. Read the original PDF.