I’m leaving Pasadena! Earlier this month I signed a lease on a new live / work studio space in downtown Los Angeles (only 15 minutes away from Pasadena). The studio is the south facing wing of the former Southern California Edison Electric Power Station #3 building located within The Brewery Art Colony. The building is registered as a Historic Cultural Landmark and was designed by John Parkinson in 1903. The space is 4800 square feet (not counting the back patio) with open ceilings 3 stories tall. It even features a roll-up electric door large enough to accommodate tall trucks. As you can see from the photos below (that I took this morning), everyone is still working furiously to get it ready for a September 1 move date!

#1 – Here’s the front of the building. The studio is located in the left 1/3 of the building. There are six other tenants in the building not including the L.A. Artcore:  Brewery Annex (an art gallery). The light was very warm this morning, so take a look at the next photo below for a better idea as to the actual brick color.

#2 – This is the outside front view of our space. I love the vines although neighbors have said that the leaves will all fall away during the winter months.

#3 – I purchased the front door and street address numbers from the previous tenant. Both are custom made art pieces in their own right.

#4 – Did I mention that I really like our new street number?

#5 – If you step through the front door and turn around, this is what you see.

#6 – Here some additional front door details. Note the custom steel triangular entry steps. Watch those pointy corners!

#7 – This is the view from the front door facing into the live / work studio. Did I mention the space was kind of large?

#8 – This is the view looking to the left of the door. The vertical steel beams are part of the building’s earthquake retrofit.

#9 – The skylight windows (seen at the top) are original to the building and can still open and close using a long pull chain that runs down from the ceiling. The windows on the brick wall are blocked off but the previous tenant built them out as light boxes. I can flip a switch and they all light up with florescent light, bathing the whole space in a soft glow.

#10 – Here’s a closer look at the central red steel mezzanine in the space. Note the Ikea kitchen cabinets in the foreground. Those are supposed to be hung this weekend!

#11 – Here you can see a better view of the kitchen. Did I mention that guys and gals at Ikea are now my best friends?

#12 – Here’s a ladder up to the mezzanine that will serve as our bedroom. As you can see, the incline on this ladder is pretty steep so I’ve also added a rolling steel ladder (similar to those you see in Home Depot) that I’m placing on the other side of the mezzanine. And more importantly, since it’s a rolling ladder, I can move the stairs where I want them when I have a photo session where I need some serious height above my subjects.

#13 – Here are my awesome contractors hard at work. Note the really cool angles of the bathroom walls and roof.

#14 – Here’s the view from the back of our space. To get some idea of scale, take a look at the height of the contractor walking in the middle area of the photograph.

#15 – Here’s a photo of the custom lighting that was also purchased from the previous tenant. He installed two separate winches so the lighting structures (one in the front and one in the back) can be independently raised and lowered based my lighting needs.

#16 – Here’s a photo of one of the walls in what will soon become my studio area. This is all original 1903 construction. I wasn’t in love with the textures at first; what was I thinking!

#17 – This is a photograph of the back door. The huge motorized door is really handy for moving large items in and out of the space. The other day there were two contractor trucks parked inside the studio!

#18 – And here’s another view of the patio area that really shows off the ivy and and flowering shrubs.

#19 – And what photo gallery of The Brewery would be complete without a photo of the famous smokestack. If you’re driving on the I-5 you can easily see it near the Main Street exit. And since this smokestack rises up out of the connected building (not seen in the photos above), I can tell people to “look for the smokestack” when they are driving over to the space.

Alexis and Michael had their wedding and reception at the Santa Anita Race Track in Arcadia, California. It wasn’t a race day at the track, so Alexis and Michael held their ceremony in the stands. Following the ceremony, everyone adjourned to the Chandelier Room for the reception where some really great Louisiana-style cuisine was enjoyed by everyone (Alexis and Michael are both Tulane graduates). If you’d like to see all the photos from the wedding, please click here to view the full wedding photography gallery.

If you’ve been following some of my previous fine art blog posts, you’ll know that I’ve been photographing Janine as she continues her battle with cancer. She recently returned to my studio for some follow-up photos after her double mastectomy surgery. During the mastectomy she elected to begin her reconstructive surgery immediately and that process is reflected in these photos. Janine is doing very well and is responding to her treatment. I’m sure that will continue to be the case and she’ll soon be in remission. As the months pass, I hope to continue documenting her progress. Please note that I didn’t post some of the more controversial photos from this session because of the family-oriented nature of this blog. However, if you’re interested in seeing more photos from this session, just leave a comment here or send me an e-mail and I’ll send along a password to the protected blog entry from this session.

Judith & Pat dropped by my home studio today for a quick session featuring six dolls that they expect to exhibit at the 2008 Doll & Teddy Bear Expo in Washington D.C. (starting this weekend). Can you guess which one was my favorite?

Joy and Scott were married yesterday at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California. They had an evening ceremony followed by a reception at the church. I always enjoy photographing events at All Saints Church because of the church’s beautiful stained glass; it’s my favorite in all of southern California! You’ll also see I included a photo of Joy and Scott in front of the nearby California Pizza Kitchen; that’s where Scott proposed to Joy! If you’d like to see all the photos from the wedding, please click here to view the full wedding photography gallery.