Tattoos Are Proof We Exist

Amidst Change and Turmoil, Our Bodies Are the Best Place to Store Memories

Ky-Phong Tran getting a tattoo with his right arm out while a tattoo artist leans in.

Pressed up against the Pacific Ocean and the county line, my hometown of Long Beach is the last city in Los Angeles.

Since its founding in 1897, Long Beach has long been a sanctuary city for dreamers and cast-offs: young Iowans seeking warmth; oilmen drilling for wealth; navy sailors heading out for adventures; blacks escaping Southern racism; gays and lesbians building a safe haven; and refugees fleeing war in Latin America and Southeast Asia.

Unlike other Los Angeles cities that consume their history in an ouroboros-like cycle of drywall redevelopment and …

By Ky-Phong Tran | July 21, 2015

If You Build a Welcoming Art Gallery, They Will Come

Tired of Rejection, One Desert Artist Turned a ‘Glass Outhouse’ Into a Space for Work You Won't Find Anywhere Else

By Marjorie Hernandez | July 8, 2015

When the Glass Outhouse Art Gallery opened in Southern California’s High Desert, one of its first exhibits featured armless, headless mannequins hanging off the walls from hooks in their backs. …

My Love Letter to the Los Angeles River

An Artist Brings Angelenos One Step Closer to Their Beleaguered Concrete Ditch

by Erin Payne | July 1, 2015

How did I end up spending an afternoon throwing “bombs”—baseball-sized bombs of native seeds—into the L.A. River with a dozen other people? It all started when artist Kristi Lippire, who …

The Portrait of the Artist’s Mother as an Old Woman

What James McNeill Whistler’s Iconic Painting, Now on Display at the Norton Simon Museum, Says About Its Subject and Her Son

by Caitlin Silberman | May 13, 2015

Like the Mona Lisa, James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s Arrangement in Gray and Black No. 1 (1871), better known as “Whistler’s Mother,” is an icon of Western art. Both paintings belong …

Why Do Coachella Valley Festivals Rock So Hard?

The Best Arts and Music Festivals Are Devoted to Quality, Diversity—and Their Communities

by Sarah Rothbard | April 15, 2015

There are 15 major arts and music festivals in the Coachella Valley each year, from the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the Palm Springs International Film Festival to …

What I Learned from 52 Cypress Trees in 52 Weeks

I Spent My 60th Year Walking in a Park, Making Art, and Figuring Out What Really Mattered in My Life

by Sue Mitchell | April 2, 2015

In 2008, when unemployment in Riverside, California hit 10.5 percent, owning a staffing business was cause for great concern. To keep my sanity, I started walking. I was fortunate to …

Tattoos Don’t Come Off As Easily As They Go On

More People Than Ever Are Regretting Getting Inked. Good Thing We’ve Got Lasers

While ICE Tries to Deport My Father, My Family Stays Strong

While Rómulo Avelica Waits in Prison, the World Is Responding with Compassion

The Deep Embrace of Rialto, California

I Held My Dying Father in My Arms. Then I Let Myself Fall Into the Arms of My Hometown.

How Surf City USA Became the “Anti-California”

Riding a Wave of Litigation and Conspiracy-Mongering, Huntington Beach Defies the Golden State’s Laws—and Its Diverse Reality

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