I mentioned yesterday that I love to walk, and it’s a good thing I do — because thanks to parallel parking too close to an unforgiving curb in Silver Lake, I got a wicked flat tire on Saturday and ended up neighborhood-bound for the rest of the weekend! My only regret was missing the Logic Alphabet of Shea Zellweger opening at the Museum of Jurassic Technology on the west side… but I’ll definitely get over there to see it this month. Instead, Andrew and I ended up walking to an opening our friend Abby invited us to at the Garage Gallery here in Los Feliz on Saturday night, which was amazing. So that worked out perfectly, anyway.

Ali Grossman hosts and curates one-night-only art events in her gorgeously redone garage once a month or so, offering wine, music and art in a relaxed atmosphere: part backyard party and part gallery extraordinaire. This month she showed the prints and illustrations of Jon Setzen, a Brooklyn artist, designer and art director who pairs fanciful elements like rainbows and aerial trams with photo-realistic imagery of people and cities to enchanting effect. I really loved his work at first glance, and then found out that he’s a former Oregonian… and in fact, my favorite piece of his was a gorgeous juxtaposition called “Some Days All I Can Think About is Oregon.” I also liked his detailed line drawings, but I really lost my heart to the colorful prints… here are some preview pieces from the show, and you can see Jon’s photos here too.

work by Jon Setzen (l) and Alika Cooper (r), who’s showing in May

And as a bonus, on the walk there, we saw Glenn Danzig’s house (looking extra-spooky with the full moon in the background and the menacing chain and padlock wrapped around the front gate), and on the way back, we passed the site of the very first Disney studio in Los Angeles: now Extra Copy, at 4647 Kingswell Avenue. Sometimes you just have to love walking in LA.

If you go:

The Garage Gallery
4341 Kingswell Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027

Mark your calendars for their next event: Alika Cooper, Saturday, May 5, 2007, from 8pm – midnight.