Laura Spalding, 26, ditched her digs in Illinois to paint in the desert. Now, she’s a member of five15 gallery in downtown Phoenix and the preparator at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. For the past two years, Spalding’s life as a painter has been looking up — literally. She focuses…
We drink a lot. And in an attempt to keep from getting fat from all the extra calories, we’ve switched to the low-sugar, low-calorie (and low-tasty) citron and soda. It takes an effort to swallow that swill all night, so we decided to take an opportunity to sample some more…
Paintings by Xiao Shunzhi at Calvin Charles Gallery: After a few hours of viewing art, it sometimes feels as if I’ve rubbed my eyeballs with sandpaper. The visual wear makes everything blurry, and the only thing that brings focus back is seeing something truly excellent. Such was the case when…
It’s tough to admit, but we all share an indecent love of light rock. For years, we’ve been hiding our KEZ listening habits, and we’ve even cried to “Delilah.” We downloaded The Essential Daryl Hall & John Oates just to avoid embarrassment at the record store. Our advice? Embrace it…
Screw the baker’s dozen. It’s all about the number 10, because we Americans base our cultural milestones on the lovely number. When we turned 10 years old, we were pumped to enter an age expressed in double digits. Our first significant high school reunion is the 10th. And, most important,…
There are certain holidays that call for a celebration extension, and Halloween is definitely one of them. We partied it up over the pre-Halloween weekend, but we just didn’t get our fill of costumed dudes and whore-ish ladies. So we decided to check out the Ruby Room on Wednesday, October…
Say the words “top secret” and it’s a green light for spilling the beans. Look at Deep Throat, who leaked scandalous government secrets, or La Toya Jackson, who freed all the Jackson family skeletons. So you really can’t blame L.A.’s acclaimed radio-theater company Theatre Works for presenting Top Secret: The…
Remember the theater kids – er, thespians – in high school? Sure, they seemed cool at first. But after about 10 minutes of listening to them sing their lame Broadway songs in the halls and witnessing their overdone screaming fights during lunch hour, it was clear that these kids were…
Too often, looking at sculpture — spying on a silent figure unaware of our voyeurism — is a static endeavor. But the blown glass and multimedia sculptures in “Figurate Esto,” influenced by Catholicism, American consumerism, and Mexican folk art, are much more engaging. In many ways, the works by brothers…
Halloween celebrated by adults can be a frightening concept. Even though we’re too old to be afraid of ghouls and ghosts, there are plenty of scary things to witness. Poorly conceived costumes make everyone cringe, but the real horror is having to stare at overgrown bellies and saddlebags squeezed into…
I have a vague childhood memory of being in an art museum while on vacation with my family. I don’t know where we were, but I remember approaching an old oil painting and sneakily running my finger over the rough, cracked texture of the dried pigment. I sort of knew…
Paintings by Xiao Shunzhi at Calvin Charles Gallery: After a few hours of viewing art, it sometimes feels as if Ive rubbed my eyeballs with sandpaper. The visual wear makes everything blurry, and the only thing that brings focus back is seeing something truly excellent. Such was the case when…
The constant strain of city life seems to breed an infestation of mental disorders and strange habits. We’re riddled with anxiety, obsessed with cleanliness, or so depressed we can’t even scrape ourselves out of bed. And if there is a disorder that’s the opposite of agoraphobia, the folks who frequent…
We know it sounds weird, but every once in a while, people congregate in a specific area for something other than alcohol. As foreign as that concept may seem, we experienced it firsthand at the super-popular opening of the “Deck” art show at Bragg’s Pies Factory on Saturday, October 20…
Lying is the essential strategy when surviving adolescence. We tell our parents we’re going to see a movie while we’re really planning to drive out to the abandoned dog track (across the highway from the state prison) and smoke a jammer. But now that we’re adults, we’ve dropped the habit…
Walking down Roosevelt Row has become an art form in itself. Avoiding the pitfalls of light-rail construction and handling the transients asking for money — all while trying to catch the eye of that handsome indie fellow who’s on his way to Carly’s — is no easy feat. But we’ve…
If you have a pulse, you probably listen to music. Auditory inspiration is something human beings latch onto – especially when we’re feeling intense moments of emotion. Your chick broke up with you, cue up “Maggie May” by Rod Stewart. You just got a promotion? Pop in “I Feel Good”…
We should give credit to our cowboy spirit, because it’s taught us Zonies how to get down and party. We’ve all been boozing since we were 12, and we’ve gotten really good at it. But unlike those who settled this dirt field with night after night of getting thrashed at…
After taking a week off, we wanted to return to the scene with some class. So instead of slumming it with plastic cups and scummy restrooms, we decided to check out the Phoenix dig that’s known for a hot mess of $30K millionaires, the Merc Bar. On Friday, October 12,…
Paintings by Xiao Shunzhi at Calvin Charles Gallery: After a few hours of viewing art, I sometimes feel as if I’ve rubbed my eyeballs with sandpaper. The visual wear makes everything blurry, and the only thing that brings focus back is seeing something truly excellent. Such was the case when…
Every once in a while, no matter how good life is, you just want to get the hell out. Sadly, many of us resort to booze and drugs for our mental vacations. But if you’re wanting to put the bottle on the shelf, good art can provide an excellent means…
Remember Roger Rabbit and his hot wife, Jessica? No one understood how the hell those two got together until she explained that the little fuzzy weirdo made her laugh. She may have looked like a bimbo, but she had a point — an ugly yet funny man can do no…
