You'll never see your garden the same way again after seeing the Maria Sibylla Merian & Daughters exhibit at The Getty in Los Angeles.  This exhibit runs through August 31st, so make an appointment with yourself this summer to check it out. 

My first official gallery show was held at Peach Tree Gallery in March 2006, and ever since then I have had a wonderful, special relationship with the owner of Peach Tree - Linda Mechanic.  She is a superhero in every sense of the word, and I'll be interviewing her for Sparkletopia next month.

In the meantime, if you live in Los Angeles, or will be here for a visit and are interested in taking pottery classes from an extraordinary teacher, Peach Tree is your place.  Visit the Peach Tree Pottery website for details on classes and her gallery.

P.S.  I'll be hosting a gallery show and book signing event at Peach Tree this September! 

[Nurturing Tomorrow :: APAK] 

...and speaking of Giant Robot, you just missed their latest NYC gallery show featuring works by the husband and wife creative team APAK, but you can purchase their work on Etsy.

And don't despair!  Jack Long's show at Giant Robot Los Angeles is opening this weekend, Saturday, June 21st:

[Opened :: Jack Long] 

Looking for something up north?  Yellena James' show also opens this Saturday at Giant Robot San Francisco:

[Someday :: Yellena James] 

Calling all Westside LA holistic entrepreneurs!  Get involved with the newly formed Westside Holistic Chamber of Commerce:

"We are organized for the benefit of
1) any and all business professionals who consider themselfves green, holistic or alternative, and
2) who wish to work profitably with customers, clients and vendors to transform the world.
Membership is not limited to holistic practitioners. Business people of all professions are encouraged to join."

-WHCC website 

Artist Jonathan Blum will be at Jenny Bec's in Santa Monica tomorrow - Saturday, June 7 from 11am - -6pm, with monoprint demonstrations at 11am and 3:30pm.  I saw his creations when I was there earlier this week and they are fabulous!  This would be a great event for kids too.

Michael Mew has a new show up at Deborah Page Gallery in Santa Monica, and you can meet him tonight at their opening reception from 6-9pm.  I saw some of his new creations this week and as always, I love them. 

The UCLA Hannah Carter Japanese Garden looks like an oasis in the middle of crazy Los Angeles.  Even a visit to their website makes you want to put on a pot of green tea, light a candle and just listen to the wind.

"Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven."  Rabindranath Tagore 

Get ready to gorge on popcorn and let the film geek in you run wild - the LA Film Fest is almost here:

"The Los Angeles Film Festival, held annually for ten days in June, showcases the best of American and international independent cinema. With an expected attendance of over 100,000, the festival screens over 175 narrative features, documentaries, shorts, and music videos. Now in its fourteenth year, the festival has grown into a world-class event, uniting new filmmakers with critics, scholars, film masters, and the movie-loving public."  -LAFF website 

The Architecture & Design Museum of Los Angeles has a number of cool exhibits going on right now.  This is definitely on my list of upcoming field trips!  "After The Flood- A Movement Performance Piece Based On The Writings Of Tennessee Williams And Andrei Codescu" on June 22 looks especially intriguing. 

From the ISM website:

"ISM: gallery presents a playful take on the journey from student to professional artist. A group of student artists from a Community College, a State School and a Private University will exhibit their work in an environment that provides anonymity from the school they attend, showing amongst their contemporaries in a true celebration of the creative impulse.
 
During the opening reception, visitors to the ISM: gallery will get the opportunity to vote for the artist they feel is "Best In Show". The winner will be revealed on our website where they will be celebrated for their talent as an artist and as a student, not of any one school but of art itself."

Saturday May 31st // 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.

Visit the ISM Community website for more details and to see what other fun projects ISM is up to! 

I am so excited to see Between Heaven and Earth:  The Architecture of John Lautner this summer at the UCLA Hammer Museum.  The exhibit will run from July 13 through October 12, 2008.

“Lautner’s dwellings took on dramatically new and varied shapes, as he moved toward the central theme of his career -- how to use architecture to sublimate the domestic, and to domesticate the sublime.  As we follow him from his early work with Frank Lloyd Wright to the emergence of his own practice in the 1940s in rapidly expanding, automobile-based Los Angeles, we see how he responded to a changing society and the natural environment by developing an extraordinarily sensuous, thoughtful and innovative architecture, poised between feeling and reason, stillness and motion, vista and shelter.”  -Nicholas Olsberg, curator

Spa parties?  Eco Home Services?  An Eco Living Blog?  GreenBless EcoSpa is where it's at!! 

"Artist Joe Goode lost 40 yeasr worth of valuable artwork when a fire detroyed his studio.  So what did he do?  He made art about the devastation."  -LA Times

Read the entire article here...so inspiring! 

The Moth StorySLAM:  Weddings is tonight in Los Angeles!  

"Hot on the heels of last month's supersized West Coast GrandSLAM, the Moth returns to its more intimate monthly rhythm with the almost too cute theme of weddings, honoring the kickoff of the springtime matrimonial season. Between obligatory emotional and financial meltdowns, overzealous relatives and domineering planners, wardrobe malfunctions, obsessive exes, seating-chart gaffes, drunken mishaps on the dance floor, inappropriate toasts, honeymoon horrors, cold feet, and hot buffets, weddings are a tailor-made subject for an amateur storytelling contest, judged by an audience plied with cocktail specials."  – Shana Nys Dambrot

My friend Outi Harma has some lovely creations available on Etsy and at Ten Women Gallery in Venice; she also recently started a blog so you can stay updated on the latest & greatest.

"Outi Harma has been a successful artist in Los Angeles for over ten years.  She has been a designer for Prosperity Tree International, creating lines of ceramics that sell all over the world.

A longtime member of Ten Women an artist co-op store in Venice, Outi’s imagery has reached far beyond the canvas to grace such materials as ceramics, fabrics, furniture, and greeting cards.

In the last few years, Outi has brought her focus back to paintings, creating exciting new realms that merge the visible and invisible worlds. Also reflected in her work are her years of exploration in dance and performance art, bringing to her paintings an exceptional fluidity and emotion.

Originally from Lapland, Finland, Outi’s move to the warm,  multicultural city of L.A. was what originally catapulted her into a freedom of expression that has been the basis for her art ever since."  -Outi Art website

Yes, you read that right - it is a Grilled Cheese Invitational!  This Saturday, April 19 in Los Angeles, details here.  I think I know what I'm having for lunch today... 

P.S.  Have you seen The Official Grilled Cheese Blog? 

I have been on a bit of an inspiration binge lately, attending the Elizabeth Gilbert/Anne Lamott lecture a couple of weeks ago and then the Azar Nafasi/Marjane Satrapi lecture last night.  I read Reading Lolita in Tehran a while back and saw Satrapi's Persepolis last year, and both of them impacted and inspired me for very different reasons.  The questions posed to both of these extraordinary writers last night were not so much about their books as they were about writing, popular culture and the media and I left feeling like I had just taken a bath in glitter and light.  These are two passionate, feisty women who had a lot to say about the state of the world today and I feel honored to have heard them speak.

I tried to find information on other speaking engagements for Nafasi and Satrapi but google did not help me, so the best I can do for now is to encourage you to keep an eye out for them in your area.  If you have the opportunity to see them, you won't be disappointed.  In the meantime, here are some goodies to inspire you right now...

Azar Nafasi :: Reading Lolita in Tehran

Interviews with Nafasi are here, here and here.

"You need imagination in order to imagine a future that doesn't exist.” - Azar Nafasi

Marjane Satrapi :: Persepolis 

Interviews with Satrapi are here, here and here. 

"And when you draw a situation - someone is scared or angry or happy - it means the same thing in all cultures." -Marjane Satrapi 

I am heading over to the Pacific Design Center this evening for this event, which is across the street from one of my favorite paper stores in the world - Soolip.  If you live in Los Angeles and haven't been here yet, plan a field trip and get lost in their bungalow filled with handmade papers, beautiful journals, pens and other treasures. 

Excuse the small photo, it was all I was able to grab from the website of Sundaram Tagore Gallery, but go to their site and you'll see a lovelly gallery of images.

"Established in 2000, Sundaram Tagore Gallery is devoted to examining the exchange of ideas between Western and non-Western cultures. We focus on developing exhibitions and hosting not-for-profit events that engage in spiritual, social and aesthetic dialogues. In a world where communication is instant and cultures are colliding and melding as never before, our goal is to provide venues for art that transcend boundaries of all sorts. With alliances across the globe, our interest in cross-cultural exchange extends beyond the visual arts into many other disciplines, including poetry, literature, performance art, film and music."  -Sundaram Tagore website

They have galleries in NYC, Hong Kong and now Beverly Hills.  I see a field trip in my future.

I loved this LA Times article about Fette and Matthew Green, whose home doubles as a gallery space and exemplifies minimalist cool at its best.  Be sure to take a look at the photo gallery.