Los Altos Hotel & Apt’s, Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA

I only managed to take one shot of Los Altos, and that was on my iPhone from the No.73 bus. I loved the typo (Apt’s) and its fragile frame. According to the always-reliable internet: the Spanish-Colonial style apartments, built in 1925, “catered” to stars including Jane Novak, Clara Bow, Bette Davis, June Allyson, Peter Finch, Douglas Fairbanks, Judy Garland, Loretta Young, and Mae West. The painting began in flamboyant colors – inspired by 1980s LA photographer Larry Sultan (I had just seen his retrospective at LACMA), and in homage to Joni Mitchell’s “Hissing of Summer Lawns” lime/grey album art (she had been rushed to hospital the day I began work on the canvas). The problem was, when I finished it, I couldn't stand looking at those colors for more than a minute at a time. So, the green had to go.