Griffith Park Fire as Art

While bloggers were out taking photos of the Griffith Park fires May 8, artist Sandy Rodriguez watch her television set and painted what she saw documenting the wildfire as site specific / media influenced work. The series, including the iconic Griffth Observatory near flames, was on exhibition in "Burn, Hollywood, Burn" at Echo Park's Underground Gallery.

Thirty-something Rodriguez was raised inLincoln Heights and a grad of CalArts;  currently on staff as an education specialist at the Getty. She has also done a series of post Chicana landscapes of Lincoln Park that gave her interest in local history a platform and she explores sites (like one of my old favorites) Lincoln Park. I interviewed her for Chicano Arts Magazine, along with curator Armando Torres, spending a Tuesday night at the Brite-Spot talking art, the Mayor, and discovering out she is the third generations of female artists in her family.

She rolls with a tough crowd. Her other hobbies include alligator wrestling classes.

Pictured: Blue Smoke Rising
8" x10"
oil on canvas
2007

Courtesy of Sandy Rodriguez

Add: Closing reception is Friday, July 27 7:30 pm at the small Underground Gallery enclosed in Echo Park/Silver Lake suburbia.

Underground Gallery
1612 Waterloo Street
Echo Park, CA   90026