J Michael Walker, detail of San Ysidro Drive
All the Saints of the City of the angels
Seeking the Soul of L.A. on Its Streets: Paintings and Stories by J. Michael Walker
"In spring 2000 I was thumbing through the index of the Thomas Guide, a book of Los Angeles street maps, when it struck me how many streets there are named for saints - in this city named for a saint (Our Lady of the Angels). I decided to track the histories of all these streets, and the stories of all these saints, to see how they might connect - and what their moments of convergence might say about our cultural heritage. The result, in over one hundred paintings and dozens of stories, poems, and songs, is my meditation on, and tribute to, Los Angeles."

Full-color 9 x12 softcover, 230 pp., published by Heyday, March 2008


In its second printing.
The Shows

"All the Saints" is currently on view in the side chapels of Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral, Downtown LA, through 12 April 2009.

Previously, it was on view at the Autry Museum in L.A.,
through October 5, 2008

Read an excerpt from the book

A gallery of paintings from All the Saints




Images and text copyright 2012 by J Michael Walker.