Friday 18 January 2013

Sunny LA

After a terrific (but short), overnight visit with Eric and Karine and 3.5-year-old Liam in Montreal, I flew via Toronto to LAX. I checked in to a motel to get a good night's sleep. (I knew for sure I was in LA when, looking for something to read, I found a copy of the Bhagavad Gita in place of Gideon's Bible!).

The next day, my friend, Lev Rukhin, welcomed me to his loft and then left for New York. I am on my own for the weekend. Fine with me: Lever has a great library, wi-fi, and Netflix!

Lev Evgenievich Rukhin & daughter Evgenia Lvovna Rukhina

Lever, a fine cook,  also left directions to Fresh & Easy, his local grocer, which he described as the British version of Trader Joe's. The neighborhood is LA's version of Soho or our warehouse district - lots of converted space for lofts. But still lots of trucks and warehouses. lever's place is a big compound of conversions just for artists. Very cool.

Lever is a photographer:


His signature style is these big murals composed of smaller prints, which he calls "contextual photography." More on his website: check out the Galleries and Portraits menus for more fine pix, including several shot on his motorcycle tour through Russia, after which I met him by accident in 1999. 

We were both dumbfounded when we met at a cafe in Rome and discovered that we had met before in Leningrad! Lever's father, a noted Soviet Russian non-conformist painter, had invited the Yale Russian Chorus to a soiree at his apartment on the riverbank. Zhenia invited me back to meet a few friends the next day. Lever (short for Lev Evgenievich Rukhin) was six months old!

Lever and dad in Leningrad

No comments: