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Lia Halloran is an LA based painter and photographer. In her ongoing “Dark Skate” series, which she began in 2008, Lia photographs herself while skateboarding in the dark, creating self-portraits that reveal only the presence of movement and light. Through these long exposure photos she examines notions of performance, perception, and time. The scale of time is also an inherent theme in her current paintings, which are inspired by ginat crystal caves in Mexico. Her work is process oriented and questions driven – she begins with something she’s interested in and as she spends time learning about the subject matter, she explores the possibilities for what medium seems most fitting. Lia is also an Assistant Professor of Art at Chapman University.

To read the full post and see images from her studio click here.

Photo courtesy of Klea McKenna

LA based Bob Branaman is a Beat Generation poet, film producer, printmaker, and painter who, at 78 years old, continues to make innovative art today. Over the years he has collected a great deal of stories and ephemera from that time period and because he has outlived most of his beat contemporaries he is in many ways an archivist and one of the last voices of the Beat Generation.

To read the full post and see images from his studio click here.

Photo courtesy of Klea McKenna

LA based artist Amir Fallah works within a range of mediums from painting and drawing to photography and sculpture to create a fresh and brightly colored aesthetic that considers such objects as childhood nostalgia, personal histories, and the nature of storytelling. He is also the publisher of Beautiful/Decay, an internationally distributed  contemporary arts magazine and has recently launched Something In The Universe, a creative think tank/design agency.

To read the full post and see images from his studio click here.

Photo courtesy of Klea McKenna

LA based artist Alika Cooper draws inspiration from the tradition of American quilting and from the work of photographers like Helmut Newton and George Brassai to create collages using a variety of fabrics. Alika appropriates the photographic form (often sexualized female figures) to create layered compositions that question notions of sexuality, beauty, power, propriety, and morality.

To read the full post and see images from her studio click here.