Rust and Lace

Big Blue Bus, Line 5 – 26th Street

Gallery hopping can be draining. Especially gallery hopping at Bergamot Station.

Once the final stop for the red line trolley (started in 1875 by the Pacific Electric Rail system), which ran from Los Angeles to the Santa Monica Pier, Bergamot Station is now an eight acre art gallery complex.

Although it appears the public transportation link will be reborn with an Expo Line station at or around Olympic and Cloverfield, the most striking feature of Bergamot Station is the parking lot. People walk around the complex, or to their cars, but they don’t walk here (yes, I realize I mentioned this earlier).

One by one, the thirty-odd galleries become a blur of large-scale abstracts and watercolor sketches; black and white photography and ceramic lavaflows.

But at the end of the line, one gallery stands out. The (now formerly known as) Patricia Faure Gallery is currently host to the eye-catching work of artist Cal Lane.

Steel lace. Delicate strength. Refined, rusted car parts are arranged in one room: a filigree car bombing. The crumpled remains appear frozen in time, reworked as fragile veils.

Further into the exhibit hang silent, nudging cartographies etched into oil drums. The etched maps recall the age of discoveries, medieval wars, ancient explorations. And always, the border of the oil drum itself, the spigot poised just over the North Pole.

Lane uses the pieces we throw away, carves them with plasma torches, and delivers them reborn as reminders of the consequences of what we use today.

Finally is the piece that can’t be bought or held. A delicate lace of dirt fills the final room.

The roped-off display feels almost sacred. The one creation more ephemeral than lace.

Go. Visit. Try to ignore the irony radiating from all of the Jaguars in the parking lot.

It is worth the trip.

Arbor Ardor

Big Blue Bus, Line 5 – 26th Street

Some people drive cars. Some people plant trees. Some people make art.

This car, formerly known as a Mercedes, is now decorating the entrance to the Santa Monica Museum of Art at Bergamot Station. It is one of four “Junker Garden” cars created by Farmlab, the thinktank/performance venue/art group which evolved out of the Not a Cornfield project.

The this junker garden was the center of today's Cause for Creativity: Arbor Ardor event.

Inspired by the 2006 eviction of the South Central Farmers from their community garden, the Junker Gardens evolved as a way to bring the garden back to the city. Farmlab realized that constructing mobile or container gardens would cost a fraction of the $16.3 million demanded (and, subsequently, refused) by Ralph Horowitz to repurchase the 14 acres in South Central that once constituted one of the nation’s largest urban gardens.

With a car, some space, some soil, and a few days, Farmlab explained how to build your own self-contained car garden. Although you can’t exactly drive it, it can still be towed, pushed, or dragged from place to place.

Volunteers from TreePeople were on hand, showing kids and parents the essentials of tree planting, but, unfortunately, not planting any actual trees.

Together they created art trees with colored scraps, potted two-by-fours, and staple guns. The colorful garden grew throughout the afternoon with the help of children's hands.

The objective was to expose the groups of children to art, the process of creation, and the idea of growth. The hope was to inspire the kids to look at nature, see what can be created, and plant the seeds of art and arbor ardor (too much alliteration?) in them.

While fun, I still prefer actual trees. It would have been exciting to gut, decorate and plant old toy cars with real plants that the kids could take home.

As a young squirrel, I once visited TreePeople and planted little pine tree seedlings in old milk cartons. That day I learned that even little me could create and be responsible for something living. Something that could very well out-live me.

TreePeople is still doing plantings like this at their Coldwater Canyon nursery. One day I will try to venture up the canyon to join them again (it’s a long walk).

At the end of the day, the City of Santa Monica Environmental Programs Division spread the word about the green living and business workshops they offer, and offered printed copies of the City of Santa Monica Environmental Directory for all attendees.

It was a sunny, colorful day filled with art and laughter and thoughts. Although I was the only one leaving Bergamot Station without a car.