The Lardner Report

Unleash your creative superpowers!

Art In The Alley

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(Pic #1) Unexpected treasure in a valley alley. Discarded wood and laminate.

They are those almost-accidental spaces between buildings — invisibly supporting the rest of the urban landscape. Backstreet alleys. Not quite streets, but still a means of passage. Often hotspots for crime, and more often than not, packed with heaps of trash and debris.

(Pic #2) Am I the only one who stopped to shoot this?

But if you take the time to look, you just might discover backstreets and alleys provide extraordinary opportunities for found art. I stumbled upon the funky warped wooden “sculpture” as I exited the back door of my favorite deli in Woodland Hills. (Pics #1 + #2, above)

I got lost in the backstreets of London, and snapped a quick shot of this garbage can and its discarded adornments. (Pic #3, below)

  • (Pic #3) Blackfriar Alley, London, UK

And my photographer friend Stephanie Sydney nabbed this exquisite image of a store window in a back alley on La Brea in West Hollywood. (Pic #4, below) It’s one of my favorites, and it now hangs in larger-than-life size in the halls of Fortune 500 companies in New York.

It’s always worth stopping for the shot.

(Pic #4) LaBrea Alley. Photograph by Stephanie Sydney.
(Pic #5) Santa Barbara alleyway off State Street.

Found Art = Value Added

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(Pic #1) A fiberglass panel from an unknown shipwrecked boat. Found in Santa Barbara, Cal.
12″ x 50″ Artist: Crashing waves and mother nature. This piece hangs in our entryway.

The most valuable art — just might be free.

Over the years, I’ve collected a few original pieces from fellow artists — some trades, some purchases — and sometimes small works from “guys on the street.” You may not know their names, but they are meaningful to me. I treasure all of them.

But just as significant — maybe even more so — are the pieces I find, sometimes on the street, or in this case, on the beach. About ten years ago, on a weekend trip to Santa Barbara, while out for a jog, I (literally) stumbled upon a couple of chunks of someone’s ravaged boat sticking up from the sand. They were worn and a little dangerous, as the ocean had roughed up their fiberglass edges.

(Pic #2) Original Cy Twombly drawing, 1967.

But they were beautiful. So I had to ask Josh to help me salvage them to give them the TLC they deserved, along with a rightful place in our home. I might have underestimated their weight, their bulkiness, and their spiky edges. It was a tough haul up to the car. But bless his soul, he made it. The one you see above reminds me of the work by one of my favorite abstract artists, Cy Twombly. (See close-up in Pic #2). Twombly created a compelling black and white “blackboard series” (one of which recently sold for $70-million) in the middle of his career.

It’s always interesting to me how art truly can be found everywhere, we just have to embrace those unexpected stumbles.

Artist, Vandal, Or Both?

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(Pic #1) Top view of rear wheel, painted bike, Chelsea , NYC.

I’m not really sure how this happened, nor why. But the artist left quite a splash on 9th Avenue in NYC. While the bike owner could not have been pleased, the painter’s aggressive splattering — of what appears to be house paint — could easily have been showcased by one of the fine art galleries in Chelsea — New York’s premier contemporary art district. I particularly like the quirky abstractions left for my camera — on the street and from above. (Pics #1 and #2).

You may not agree with the artist’s intention — but as my husband points out — he’s simply expressing his “freedom of spoke.”

(Pic #2) Close-up, splashed paint on sidewalk.

(Pic #3) Wide-shot, painted bike, Chelsea Arts District.