City of Saints

Artist J. Michael Walker has a series of works profiling saints with Los Angeles streets named after them. The NYTimes finds Walkers obsessive in his "quest to locate, research and artistically interpret the 103 streets in Los Angeles named after saints." San Julian is one of those streets.:

His connection with the city’s “spiritual geography” began with 18 streets, and was nurtured by a city grant to paint posters for bus shelters along those streets downtown. Early on, he was struck by the almost providential convergence of street and legend. San Julian Street in the heart of Skid Row, for instance, was named for the patron saint of wanderers who, after tragically killing his parents, sought penance by offering shelter to itinerant pilgrims. On San Julian, Mr. Walker painted portraits of residents of the Lamp Community, a shelter for mentally ill homeless people where his art, on a recent day, stood watch over a stop-addiction meeting.

The saints of Walker are currently on display  at the Autry National Center until September 7.

http://www.autrynationalcenter.org/allthesaints/

All the Saints of the City of Angels [NYT]

Comments

[chimatli]

He's a good artist AND a good person!

[chimatli]

He's a good artist AND a good person!