Ghosts, Mythology, and Painting: A Chat With Carl Baratta
Guest Post by  Kevin Blake As his upcoming show at Sidecar Gallery in Hammond, Indiana approaches, Carl Baratta is poised for a timely event that will delve into the world of ghosts and mythology–subjects in which he is well versed. From his home base, Baratta...
Praise the Sun: The Contextual Language of Dark Souls
Guest Post by Paul King The most recent time I loaded up the game Dark Souls, my character unsheathed a sword from her back and drew her shield. And then I noticed a message, written maybe two steps away: “Grief.†The world of Dark Souls is, as the title would...
Circa 2005: Is 2013 to early to get teary-eyed about 2005?
Guest Post by Britton Bertran I was there in 2005 at the beginning of Bad at Sports (Episode 4!) and I hope I’m not there at the end.  It was the year I opened my gallery, 40000. It was a good idea at the time. I was fed up with not seeing what I wanted to see and...
“All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey…”
Since moving here, I’m beginning to wonder if Los Angeles is just a microcosm – I hate that word, but there you go – of the US generally. In Los Angeles, there is a horrific gap between the rich and the poor; general public disregard for public institutions; shitty public transit; overwhelming belief in outmoded or disappeared dreams. Proposition 13 heralded a nationwide tax revolt and subsequent gutting of social services, leading in part to the evacuated and disjunct nation we have today. And if art can do anything in LA, perhaps it is a signal of what art – or anything, or anyone – might be able to do in the US generally, across all of its destroyed or depressed cities and towns.
