Yes it’s time for the Weekend Update. Are you ready for a busy art weekend????

Check out today’s Santa Monica Daily Press for my article about all the wonderful art openings at Bergamot Station. It’s gonna be a wild night! Also be sure to stop into TAG Gallery, to see Carol Kleinman’s exhibition, (now on view with an opening next Saturday). You can read about it in my article in this week’s Santa Monica Mirror…out in print today (not online yet).

There are sooooo many great art parties out there. So how are you gonna plan to see them all? Well remember you can print a list from LA Art Party….

Start out at Bergamot Station….pretty early, or head to Culver City or to the Miracle Mile area, downtown….and finally end up in Larchmont. This one’s gonna be fun.

Now back to the Pick of the Week….The great thing about this opening is it starts later than most, so you can hit many more art parties first, then head to Larchmont…for the big Grand Opening taking place of a new arts center. The inaugural exhbition will feature the work of artist Charles Swenson. The center, “The Loft @ Larchmont Village – It is a place of “Healing Activism,” will also be the new office of renowned, clinical psychologist, Dr. Michelle Golland, who you may recognize from CNN, Dr Drew and many more television appearances.



Artist Charles Swenson has enjoyed a successful career as an animator working in film and TV. Known for his work on the very popular series “Rugrats,” he has also worked on “Santo Bugito” and “Aahhh!! Real Monsters” as creative director, winning various awards including an Emmy for Best Children’s Program, a Humanitas Award and a Cable Ace Award.

Through his busy career, Charles Swenson has continued to create art and animation. Like most artists, inspiration comes to him from everyday objects from his life.

He has recently found an interest in his wife’s shoes. He explains, “My wife’s shoes, any woman’s shoes, high heeled, finely made are design wonders, I think. I love the subtle curve of the instep against the reverse curve on the inside of the heel, both complicated by the need to turn the right instep toward the left and vice-versa.”

Add to that, the female body and, the subject of his latest show was born. Swenson explains, “The female form is endlessly intriguing to me. Beautiful, practical, sumptuous, banal, bountiful…it has been depicted since the beginning of time and will I’m sure continue to be so.”

The focus of his upcoming show is the relationship of Nudes and Shoes. The classic studio nudes were originally painted in 2007, but are now radically changed with the intentional placement of a seductive high-heeled shoe or boot purposefully placed over the face or body. This dramatic obscuring of the figure asks the question of how fashion truly affects today’s woman.

Charles Swenson’s new exhibition is set to open September 8th in conjunction with a grand opening of a new arts, community center, “The Loft @ Larchmont Village – It is a place of “Healing Activism.” The center is located at 5700 Melrose Avenue Loft #201 Los Angeles, CA 90038.

Dr. Michelle Golland (see pix) has been working out of the Larchmont area for some time. Known as one of the go-to psychology authorities regularly appearing on CNN, Dr. Michelle Golland has been working as a clinical psychologist for the last sixteen years and is also an avid art lover.

Golland has watched first hand how art can lead to healing. She explains, “While I was the director of Day Treatment Center for Chronically Mentally Ill Older Adults, we had an art therapy program with art therapists interns, and I became interested in art as a form of healing and understanding of self and identity.”

Get ready for a great art party….featuring artist, Charles Swenson on Saturday, September 8th from 8:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Enjoy Drinks, Delights and Brutha Gimel spinning the discs.

The opening reception and grand opening will be held at “The Loft @ Larchmont Village – It is a place of “Healing Activism” (see image, left), located at 5700 Melrose Avenue Loft #201 Los Angeles, CA 90038. Please call Jaclyn Lafer to RSVP, at 323 314-0780 as space is limited.



For more information about artist Charles Swenson, Dr. Michelle Golland or The Loft @ Larchmont Village, see http://www.charlesgswenson.com/  and www.YourShrinkIsIn.com; http://larchmontloft.com/