My good friend David Kipen, founder of Libros Schmibros, the quirky used bookstore and lending library in Boyle Heights, was invited to recreate the shop at the Hammer Museum. In turn David invited me to create some sort of map to tie Westwood and Boyle Heights together.
What I came up with is this hand-drawn-and-lettered 23-foot long map of literary Los Angeles - a new way, perhaps, of considering the city,
in the words of writers associated with L.A. (And a few one might not expect, Borges and Joyce among them).
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"City in Mind" - installation view
Color pencil and acrylic wash on polypropylene, 60" h x 257"w, 2011
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Earth Mother detail
Quote by Jorge Luis Borges
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"Chavez Ravinetepec/Dodger Stadium"
Vin Scully speaks of Fernando Valenzuela and Sandy Koufax as Chavez Ravine falls
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"Homeboy and Antojitos Carmen"
Father Greg Boyle complements Raymond Chandler
and Joanthan Gold reviews Antojitos Carmen
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"Octavio Paz and TuPac"
Paz speaks of the Mexicanidad floating
over L.A. and TuPac kicks back
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"Joan Didion at the Edge"
Joan Didion finds the edge of the continent
in a David Hockney painting
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"Bukowski and Mosley on Skid Row"
Charles Bukowski and Charles Mosley quotes among
the homeless, beneath John Fante on Bunker Hill
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"Luis J Rodriguez"
Eastside poet, writer and activist and the author's dream
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All images and text copyright 2011 by J Michael Walker
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