The completed “Healing and Hope” mural unveiled. | Photo courtesy of the Pasadena Buddhist Temple
The Pasadena Buddhist Temple celebrated the completion of the “Healing and Hope” mural at 3 pm on Sunday, March 22. The brainchild of Kyoko Gibbs, wife of the temple’s spiritual leader Rev. Gregory Gibbs, who collaborated with Miki Yokoyama, an artist and Eaton Fire survivor – it was a way of restoring the community after their life-shattering experience.
It was a festive occasion with about 70 people in attendance. A video about the progress of the mural was shown, after which attendees were invited to gather outside for the unveiling of the completed mural.
About 70 people attended the celebration at the Pasadena Buddhist Temple. | Photo courtesy of the Pasadena Buddhist Temple
Gibbs’s younger son Ren and his friends Winston and Felix – fittingly attired for the occasion in happi (a tube-sleeved Japanese coat) – walked rapidly as they uncovered the mural. Their fast-walking provided a light-heartened moment for the mothers present who found it entertaining. Keiro and Little Tokyo Service Center were recognized for their compassionate support. Yokoyama shared her story in creating the mural with the community and invited everyone to sign their names on the painted primer area, the ground part.
“Judicanti Responsura,” the music duo formed in 1984 by tubaist William Roper and percussionist Joseph Mitchell – who were fire survivors as well – set the stage beautifully to welcome people in the Hondo, the main building. The Altadena Cookie Company provided custom cookies for the event.
Miki Yokoyama, at right. | Photo courtesy of the Pasadena Buddhist Temple
The “Healing and Hope” mural took a few months to paint, with Eaton Fire survivors participating in the project. In mid-March, the mural was almost done.
Yokoyama recounts, “I completed the final touches on the mural last Sunday, the 15th. This week, I have been applying a top coat over the finished painting, painting the ground directly below the wall white, and preparing a space where everyone who participated in the mural can add their signatures.”
People’s signatures on the mural. | Photo courtesy of the Pasadena Buddhist Temple
For Yokoyama, the completion of the project is as joyful as it is bittersweet. “This experience has been incredibly meaningful to me,” states Yokoyama. “Working together with everyone on a single mural was something that truly helped and supported me. I had been struggling mentally over the past year since the fire, so I am very grateful to Kyoko for proposing this project. The time spent painting with everyone allowed me to focus on both the creative process and connecting with others. Each day, I felt that these moments were healing my heart. Seeing everyone working so hard on their parts of the mural gave me strength and courage.”
“My feelings right now are quite complex,” Yokoyama discloses. “I am very happy that we were able to complete the mural. At the same time, I feel a deep sense of sadness knowing that this time of creating together has come to an end. Since Kyoko and I first began discussing the location of the mural, I have been coming to the site five days a week for about two months, so it has been a very special part of my life.”
Custom cookies from the Altadena Cookie Company
Those sentiments are echoed by Gibbs, “I already miss the sense of togetherness from working together. It brought me happiness and strength. The bond we formed through the mural project, and of course during last year’s gatherings and activities, will stay in my heart and help me move forward! I will cherish all the encounters.”
“Feeling the results of the community’s teamwork is truly empowering,” adds Gibbs. “We are stronger together, and I am deeply thankful to be part of this caring and supportive community! This mural gives me a deep sense of hope, seeing how something beautiful and empowering has emerged from such a devastating event.”
Indeed the Eaton Fire, as tragic as it has been, provided the impetus for Altadenans to unite – whether to fight for accountability from county officials or to work on an artistic endeavor that commemorates their shared experience. And that is a wonderful outcome to celebrate.
Alexei Jawlensky. Mystical Head, 1917. | Photo courtesy of the Norton Simon Museum, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection
An intimate exhibition at the Norton Simon Museum, called “Dear Little Friend: Impressions of Galka Scheyer,” focuses on the art dealer and promoter’s close relationship with the artists she represented. On view from Feb. 20 through July 20, it features works of art gifted to her by Alexei Jawlensky, Maynard Dixon, Peter Krasnow, and Beatrice Wood, among others; the show is curated by Gloria Williams Sander.
Culled from Scheyer’s archive, the exhibition offers a close look at the significant role the German-born collector played in bringing European modernism to the United States and promoting the so-called Blue Four – Lyonel Feininger, Alexei Jawlensky, Paul Klee, and Vassily Kandinsky.
The title “Dear Little Friend” comes from the affectionate salutation Feininger adopted in his letters to Scheyer and captures the personal connection and collaborative spirit that defined her activities in Europe and California. Alongside the artwork are correspondence and ephemera that testify to her dedication to art and to her artists, as well as the excitement she generated in pursuing her mission.
Vassily Kandinsky. Small Worlds II, 1922. | Photo courtesy of the Norton Simon Museum, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection
In her lifetime Scheyer accumulated more than 450 works of art, according to Sander. All of the Blue Four’s work belonged to her and some were on consignment from the artists; what remained unsold at her death were returned to the artists or their estate. Composed of paintings and works on paper of various sizes and media – including illustrated letters – they could not be displayed simultaneously and would have been stored for rotation in exhibits and salons.
Scheyer bequeathed her collection to UCLA with the proviso that the university meet the same conditions of a 1944 gift of her friend Walter Arensberg’s modern art collection. Arensberg’s donation required UCLA to provide a building for his collection within five years; additionally, Scheyer stipulated that the university must publish a modest catalogue of her collection. When UCLA failed to meet the conditions, the fate of the Scheyer collection was left to a committee.
In 1953, the committee entrusted Scheyer’s collection of 450 works by the Blue Four and other modern artists (plus a cache of 800 documents) to the Pasadena Art Institute, which evolved into the Pasadena Art Museum and moved to a new building on Colorado Boulevard. The late Norton Simon took over the facility in 1974 and fulfilled the Scheyer trust’s provisions by publishing a catalogue of the collection.
Lucretia Van Horn. Portrait of Galka Scheyer, 1927-30. | Photo courtesy of the Norton Simon Museum, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection
Born Emilie Esther in Braunschweig, Germany, in 1889 to a middle class Jewish family, Scheyer studied art and music. She had dreamed of becoming an artist but in 1915, after seeing the paintings of Alexei Jawlensky at an art exhibition in Switzerland, decided to be an art promoter instead. Thus, her career as an art dealer was born. She organized shows for him in Munich, Berlin, and various cities around Germany to drive interest in his work. Jawlensky gave her the moniker “Galka,” the Russian word for jackdaw – a gregarious, intelligent crow.
“It was Jawlensky who introduced her to Paul Klee, Vassily Kandinsky, and Lyonel Feininger, all of whom were on the faculty of the Bauhaus in Germany – a forward-looking university of art design and architecture,” explains Sander during a walkthrough of the exhibition. “They all became friends. This was in the 1920s when times were tough in Germany politically and economically. Artists were having trouble showing and selling their work so Galka decided to go to the United States to promote them.”
“They banded together and took on the name ‘The Blue Four,’” Sander says further. “They all had different artistic styles, but they wanted to give her a sort of rubric to help her organize exhibitions. ‘Blue’ has a long-standing importance for modernism in Europe and the United States; it’s considered to be a spiritual color.”
Peter Krasnow. Recalling Happy Memories, c. 1927. | Photo courtesy of the Norton Simon Museum, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection
However, when Scheyer arrived in the U.S. she realized getting a foothold in the modern art world was a challenge. It was through a combination of fate and opportunities that she came to California and held her first show called “The Blue Four” at Stanford University in October of 1925. It was such a phenomenal success that the San Francisco Examiner proclaimed her the “Prophetess of the Blue Four.”
“The reaction – not only to the works that she was showing, but also to her charismatic delivery and lecturing – was immense,” states Sander. “In March of the following year, Roi Partridge, who was the chairman of the art department at Mills College, wrote to let her know how much he enjoyed her show and lecture and invited her to come to Mills. And Scheyer was able to augment her income through speaker fees.”
Scheyer promoted herself and the Blue Four using marketing brochures printed with the Blue Four logo of four blue stripes and contained endorsements and her skills as a lecturer and art dealer.
“Galka was one of the most amazing art impresarios in the United States in the early 20th century,” Sander pronounces. “She was a single woman in a profession as an art dealer inhabited by men, which was an unusual task she set for herself. The Galka Scheyer archive is a testament of her activism in the United States on behalf of four European artists whom she represented from the 1920s to the 1940s in trying to seed a taste for European Modernism and Abstraction. It was new art that was not conventional in California at that time, when it was very conservative and the prevailing art style was still in the Impressionism and post-Impressionism. Artists came here to paint the beautiful landscape.”
Beatrice Wood. Portrait of Galka Scheyer, 1934. | Photo courtesy of the Norton Simon Museum, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection
“It was a real blessing for modern artists when Galka came to California,” continues Sander. “One of the first artists she met when she arrived in 1925 was Maynard Dixon. Most people would think of him as the artist who painted landscapes of the western United States and its native peoples. He had a modernist outlook in his flat spaces and cool colors. He loved Galka’s lectures and her style and introduced her to his wife, Dorothea Lange, who did those memorable photographs of people in desolate lands and plains during the Depression. It was Dorothea who took the photograph that Galka used for her brochure. Dorothea was a good friend of modernist photographer Imogen Cunningham, who was married to Roi Partridge who was also a printmaker.”
In a matter of months Scheyer found herself in an intellectual, creative community in the Bay area. It provided the foothold she needed in promoting the art of the Blue Four. Dixon and Scheyer maintained a friendship after she moved to Los Angeles. One of the paintings in the show is Maynard’s stylized drawing of Galka on which he inscribed, “To Mme Moderne Kunst” which means “To Mrs. Modern Art.”
“This is one of the most iconic images from the collection that shows Galka,” Sander explains as she points to another artwork. “It’s by an artist named Peter Krasnow, who’s Ukrainian-born but came to the United States in 1907. He attended the University of Chicago but he really wanted to come to the West Coast. His painting shows Galka at what many people would recognize at that time if they knew her. She has a pointer in her hand and teaching a rapt audience. The scene is a combination of realism and fantasy, and he named it ‘Recalling Happy Memories.’”
Edward Hagedorn. Galka Scheyer Viewing Modern Portraits of Galka Scheyer, c. 1926-28 | Photo courtesy of the Norton Simon Museum, Anonymous Gift, Courtesy of Denenberg Fine Arts
Another artwork in the exhibition is from Edward Hagedorn. “He was a self-taught artist from Berkeley,” explains Sander about the next painting. “Hagedorn was practicing a style that wasn’t getting much traction for him despite shows he held in artist associations and print clubs. But when he saw the Blue Four material at the Oakland Gallery show that Galka held in 1926, he was amazed. He saw an avenue for himself to move forward. They became friends and he did this beautiful drawing of Galka sitting on a wood chest and behind her is a pedestal. She’s thrilled to be looking at an artwork – on which there’s a number 4 – that a gentle giant is showing her. You can see the affection that is communicated in their glances.”
The film industry was taking off in Los Angeles in the 1920s when Scheyer met Josef von Sternberg, a renowned Hollywood director. He asked her to show him some of the pieces she was selling and he bought $600 worth of artwork. That confirmed that L.A. was the place for her and she made plans to move. The sale, which was massive at that time, enabled her to purchase a parcel of land and she asked the modernist architect Richard Neutra to build her home in the Hollywood Hills.
“In 1927 Galka met Beatrice Wood, a renowned ceramicist in Los Angeles, who was a friend of Walter and Louise Arensberg, who had a home in L.A. and lived in New York,” Sander relates. “They were the first collectors of modern art in the United States and had salons that Beatrice and Galka would frequent. Wood created a piece that showed Galka holding court.”
Wolo Trutzschler. Caricature of Galka Scheyer, 1935. | Photo courtesy of the Norton Simon Museum, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection
One artwork in the exhibition is from Trutzschler. “Swiss caricaturist Wolo Trutzschler came to the United States, and went to Chicago for a bit,” informs Sander. “He made money doing caricatures of people at cabaret and selling the art to newspapers. He decided to come to L.A. in the late 1920s and lived on Olvera Street and was part of the German émigré community. He met Galka and created a piece depicting her in her milieu – she’s holding a number 4 and a trowel in her other hand because she loved to garden. Next to her is her poodle, whom she called Blue-Blue.”
That Scheyer made numerous connections is evident in the exhibition’s displays. “Galka met Angelo Ravagli who married Frieda Lawrence, the former wife of D. H. Lawrence,” says Sander. “The Ravaglis lived in New Mexico but they started coming more frequently to Los Angeles in the 1930s. Through Galka, they made the acquaintance of a rare book dealer in L.A. who became the exclusive publisher of the manuscripts of D.H. Lawrence in the United States. As a thank you gift to Galka, Ravagli made a drawing showing her lying on a rug on a hill where her house would have been, with her poodle by her side.”
Scheyer mounted more than 60 exhibitions from 1925 to 1944, including one-man shows (i.e. Feininger, or Klee). They include traveling exhibits around California and the U.S. held at museums, galleries, and university art galleries. Additionally, she hosted salons at her home that had art displays and lent artwork to the salons and parties of other clients. The artworks she loaned to Marlene Dietrich in March 1929 (a list of which is included in the exhibition case), is an example of one such informal installation.
Angelo Ravagli. Galka Scheyer, 1936. | Photo courtesy of the Norton Simon Museum, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection
The last part of the exhibition shows Scheyer’s house. “I wanted to bring people’s attention to her house because it’s inseparable from her work – and her spirit in many ways,” explains Sander. “Galka worked with Neutra to build a house that’s open to nature but with plenty of wall space. She had moveable screens on which to hang works of art for special shows and every room in her home displayed the art of the Blue Four. She had salons where people discussed art. She was the first resident at the top of the hill and was able to get permission from the city to name the street Blue Heights Drive. And the number she took for the house was 1818 because eight is divisible by four.”
“Galka lived there until her death in 1945,” Sander states. “It was sold in 2024 to a German art collector and business man and it will be the home of the newly established Blue Heights Art & Culture whose mission focuses on fostering contemporary artistic creation and hosting curated exhibitions within this historically significant, modernist space.”
Sander hopes viewers of the exhibition take away that “Galka Scheyer served as a powerful catalyst for the West Coast art scene, bridging the gap between bold new trends and a growing audience. Her work was driven by kinship, not just commerce. The portraits, artworks, and letters on display are more than artifacts; they are tokens of gratitude from a community that responded to her vision with enduring friendship.”
Over eight decades after Scheyer’s death, she will continue to be a source of inspiration for artists who will take part in the Blue Heights Art & Culture’s residencies. Through exhibitions like “Dear Little Friend: Impressions of Galka Scheyer” and “Maven of Modernism: Galka Scheyer in California” before it, the Norton Simon Museum is ensuring that her legacy as an ardent lover of art lives on.
The Healing and Hope Mural painting in progress. | Photo courtesy of Miki Yokoyama / Pasadena Buddhist Temple
The Eaton Fire killed 19 people, destroyed over 9,000 structures, and brought untold grief to the community. More than a year later, displaced Altadena and Pasadena residents are still reeling from the trauma. There are constant reminders of what they lost and memories of that fateful day are still fresh in their mind.
As much anguish as the Eaton Fire wrought, there have also been many instances of a community coming together in their shared experience. The most recent of such moments is a group painting initiated by Miki Yokoyama who created a mural at the Pasadena Buddhist Temple. The brainchild of Kyoko Gibbs, wife of the temple’s spiritual leader Reverend Gregory Gibbs, the mural symbolizes what she thinks everyone needs – healing and hope.
The temple almost became a casualty of the fire had it not been for the bravery of neighbors who put out the flames. Gibbs recalls, “Greg and I, along with our younger son, live in the temple residence, so we followed the evacuation order in the very early morning of Jan. 7 and drove to a hotel. Watching the news at the hotel, we recognized the temple’s neighbors getting burned down despite the efforts of firefighters. Feeling urged to return to the temple, we drove back there to find our ‘heroes’ and some other temple members trying to extinguish the flames that had landed between the tea garden and the edge of the main building, Hondo.”
The Pasadena Buddhist Temple at night. | Photo courtesy of the Pasadena Buddhist Temple
“As we heard and learned about the temple members, associated friends, and neighbors’ loss and damage due to the fire, we were deeply hurt – not just physically but also emotionally,” continues Gibbs. “No words were spoken; we cried while holding and hugging them.”
Immediately, the temple community collaborated on events and efforts to help fire survivors. “Since two days after the fire, the restaurants in Little Tokyo (Azay and Far Bar) and San Gabriel (Yama Sushi), Little Tokyo Service Center, Keiro, Pasadena Japanese Cultural Institute, and the churches and temple in the affected Altadena and Pasadena areas, along with many others such as Buddhist Churches of America, Tanaka Farms, King’s Bakery, Go For Broke, and many more, have stepped up to the plate. Each individual person and organization gave them a hand in a selfless and compassionate way. As we continue to move forward, I am truly grateful for everyone’s kindness.”
The Gibbses themselves have been the recipient of people’s generosity. “During the remediation process for all the temple facilities, we needed to relocate to the temple’s friends’ house for about two months,” Gibbs says. “We were so fortunate to receive their kind offer. The temple is now fully restored and I am very thankful for those two temple board members who tirelessly worked with the insurance and intensive cleaning companies.”
The temple is now fully restored. | Photo courtesy of the Pasadena Buddhist Temple
For its part, the temple raised and distributed close to $90,000 to fire victims and actively continues to raise funds for them. “On the first anniversary of the fire, we presented them with a card and a small monetary gift. We wanted them to know that we are thinking of them. Additionally, we will be holding a White Elephant Sale, which opens to them first for free before the general public. We will also have a Girls’ Day Celebration with the tea ceremony, which they will be invited to join. More financial support will be distributed soon from the social welfare committee of Buddhist Churches of America (Pasadena Buddhist Temple is a part of BCA).”
Another activity that took place one year after the Eaton Fire was the creation of a mural. Recalls Gibbs, “As the first anniversary of the fire approached, I was thinking about what we – as the whole affected community – could do to help heal and inspire hope. Then, SOGs (Sons of Gardeners), who volunteer twice a week to maintain the temple grounds, were discussing painting a concrete section of the ramp outside. And it hit me with the idea of creating a mural instead of just painting. I brought up this concept with them and shared it with the temple board, and they all rallied behind it right away!”
“Fortunately, Keiro, which has been a financial supporter of activities and events for fire survivors, also agreed to continue its support,” Gibbs says further. “I knew who I needed to ask to lead the mural designs – Miki. She isn’t a member of the temple but I met her through the meal program for fire survivors.”
In mid-November, Gibbs reached out to Yokoyama and proposed crafting a mural and inviting the participation of those who had lost their homes in the fire as a way to help restore the town. They discussed what kind of wall painting they wanted to create and developed the concept together. To signify what it represents, they called it Healing and Hope Mural.
Miki Yokoyama. | Photo by May S. Ruiz / Hey SoCal
The Eaton Fire decimated Yokoyama’s home and all her artwork, and wreaked havoc on her mental health. She discloses, “The emotional shock was immense; I struggled with symptoms of PTSD for a long time. During the first year after the disaster, I believe that painting truly saved me. Now, through this project, I find healing in creating together with the temple community and others who were also affected by the disaster. Realizing that I am not alone and receiving strength from everyone involved fills me with deep gratitude.”
Yokoyama describes how she transferred the painting – measuring approximately 70 feet long by 56 inches tall – on the wall. “I first created a rough sketch on paper and then projected it onto the wall. However, many of the finer details will be added freehand while looking at the actual wall. From here, I plan to add more delicate lines and dots to develop the piece further.”
Yokohama’s drawings of the mural. | Photo courtesy of Miki Yokoyama
“This project is open to everyone, regardless of artistic experience,” explains Yokoyama. “Before we began painting together, I prepared the mural by drawing the outlines in black ink. Although I predetermined the colors, my hope is simply that everyone enjoys the process. I tell participants that it is perfectly fine if they paint outside the lines or even cover the black outlines. I will make any necessary corrections afterward, so everyone is free to add color as they wish.”
“At present, the mural is about halfway complete,” Yokoyama adds. “Much of the white space has been filled, and the next steps are to apply a second layer to the lighter areas of ink, retrace the black outlines, and then add finer lines and dots. By layering these delicate details, I hope to bring greater depth and subtlety to the work. Even if it takes time, I am committed to leaving behind the best possible piece.”
“As we continue working together with the community – shaping it according to our shared intentions – I am also excited to see how the mural will ultimately come together,” Yokoyama says further. “I am very much looking forward to its completion.”
One of the Eaton Fire survivors who went to the temple to paint heard about it through her mom who is a member of the temple. She asks that her name not be mentioned but graciously agrees to talk about her participation.
“Miki was there and she showed me where to paint, provided paint and brush, and instructions,” she begins. “I painted the windows on the house light blue as she instructed. She explained that it was okay to paint over lines as these will be repainted after the color is applied; the community painters are adding color and the artists are adding detail. While I was there one of the artists was refining with details. She used a Q-tip to add white spots to a red butterfly. The mural is a representation of the local community and the hope that exists in the Eaton Fire area to rebuild the physical and emotional aspects of the community.”
Photo by May S. Ruiz / Hey SoCal
Painting the mural offered a brief respite from her daily stresses in the aftermath of the fire. She says, “The consequences of the fire a year later are still part of a continuing domino effect in various ways that will remain for many years. Growth and hope are also results of this effect. Projects and institutions such as the Pasadena Buddhist Temple bring the community together for positive focus and forward momentum.”
It is exactly what compelled Gibbs to come up with a community endeavor. She declares, “Through this experience – coloring in the mural while chatting with others or working quietly – I would like all to feel connected and empowered. You are not alone. We are stronger together.”
The Dorano Jewelry store on Huntington Drive in Arcadia. | Photo by May S. Ruiz/Hey SoCal
Gold is regarded as a risk-averse asset and safe haven during times of uncertainty. And recent geopolitical instability sent the price of gold soaring to an unprecedented high of over $5,000 per ounce then plunged below that mark.
But long before the huge demand for it and the wild price swings grabbed financial news headlines, the enduring value of gold inspired songs from Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold” to Harry Styles’ “Golden.” The metal — universally enjoyed as a piece of jewelry — symbolizes beauty, longevity, power, status and wealth.
In certain Asian cultures, gold figures prominently in people’s customs and traditions. Newborn children in China are commonly gifted with a piece of gold jewelry; gold is also a part of the Lunar New Year celebrations. In Korea, a gold ring is usually given for a child’s first birthday. In India, gold is purchased during the annual Diwali festival to bring wealth and good luck.
For Garen Avetisyan, proprietor of the Dorano Jewelry store on Huntington Drive in Arcadia, jewelry and the craftsmanship behind it are his life’s work. Creating memorable pieces are a source of pride and joy for this immigrant from Armenia who now calls Glendale home.
A 14-karat yellow gold necklace and ring with fancy sapphires. | Photo by May S. Ruiz/HeySoCal.com
Avetisyan’s story is that of very immigrant’s journey from their homeland to a new place to build a new life. Born and raised in Yerevan, Armenia, he started working in the jewelry business when he was 18. In 2012, at the age of 37, he and his family migrated to California and the following year he opened Dorano Jewelry.
Making jewelry is an art and skill that Avetisyan honed back in Armenia. He relates, “I had family members in the jewelry business and I always enjoyed watching them work, so I decided to follow in their footsteps. I took private jewelry courses in Armenia and also spent years observing, reading and educating myself on the profession and training. I still continue to expand my knowledge to this day.”
Uprooting oneself and beginning anew in a foreign country is a huge challenge and Avetisyan knows it only too well.
“I began looking for a storefront for my jewelry business soon after my family and I came to California,” Avetisyan recalls. “Since I had only been in America for such a short period of time, I had no credit history. Therefore, a lot of people turned me down despite the fact that I was willing to pay for a few months in advance. It was very difficult to gain people’s trust. I stumbled across one location in Arcadia and spoke to the owner directly. Thankfully, after our conversation, he decided to give me a chance and that’s how my shop opened in Arcadia in early 2013.”
A display case at Dorano Jewelry. | Photo by May S. Ruiz/HeySoCal.com
The moniker he gave to his shop — Dorano Jewelry — is a portmanteau of sorts and has a special meaning. Reveals Avetisyan, “I always admired the Italian language and used it as an inspiration for my store name. ‘Oro’ is Italian for gold and ‘d’oro’ refers to something made of gold. I incorporated these words and created the unique name of ‘Dorano.’ I believe it reflects the elegance and timelessness associated with gold jewelry.”
While finding the location for his shop was a fortuitous initial step, making a success of the business seemed an insurmountable undertaking early on in his business venture. He struggled to make ends meet yet he persevered.
Avetisyan says, “The first few years were very difficult for me because I was starting over in a new country and speaking a language not native to me. I had no connections, no reputation and didn’t know a lot of people. But I chose to continue this journey because I felt a huge responsibility to continue my life’s work that I had begun in Armenia. I didn’t view this passion of mine only as a job but also a skill that had so much history and hard work behind it. I had confidence in myself and my ability and I knew that if people gave me a chance, they would also recognize value in my work.”
“I realized that I was making progress when customers would visit the shop and share that they were recommended by my other clients,” continues Avetisyan. “I was excited that word of mouth was growing because it meant I was building trust with the community. As more people became happy with the work and product I was providing them with, I knew that all the struggle was worth it and continued to work just as hard.”
Garen Avetisyan, jeweler/gemologist and proprietor of Dorano Jewelry. | Photo by May S. Ruiz/HeySoCal.com
There is no shortage of jewelry stores in the vicinity — every mall has at least one — where shoppers can buy a necklace, ring or a pair of earrings. But what could be more exceptional than owning a bespoke piece that reflects one’s individuality? Custom work is Dorano Jewelry’s niche and Avertisyan has set out to make his shop stand apart.
He declares, “Dorano Jewelry is unique due to our deep expertise and detailed attention to each client. The staff is skilled across all aspects of the business, including custom designs, appraisals, repairs, sales and more. Thus, customers receive all services in one place quickly yet efficiently. This helps us ensure consistency and quality, and build close relationships with all our guests.”
“Dorano Jewelry holds itself to a high standard and has maintained this benchmark of care since day one,” Avetisyan emphasizes. “The business first advertised on television and social media to try and spread the word. After our first year, we relied primarily on word of mouth, focusing on growing the business through trust and reputation. Over time, satisfied customers became the best promotion.”
Being able to offer a variety of services has served Avetisyan well. “Dorano Jewelry operates as a ‘one stop shop’ as the business is evenly divided among custom work, repair services and jewelry sales from our display,” he says. “Each of these areas makes up approximately one-third of our business, allowing us to serve a wide variety of customer needs.”
14-karat white gold ring with green tsavorites and diamonds. | Photo by May S. Ruiz/HeySoCal.com
Many people think bespoke jewelry is prohibitively expensive — a misconception that Avetisyan hastens to clarify.
“Custom jewelry is definitely affordable at Dorano Jewelry,” Avetisyan asserts. “The most requested items are engagement rings and wedding bands and we offer a large variety of options and customizable details to best fit our clients’ budget. Whether they are simple elegant designs to more intricate pieces, we work very closely with all clients to ensure they receive the best quality within their budget.”
But it isn’t just the product and service that make Dorano Jewelry different. Avetisyan clarifies, “Dorano Jewelry is more than just a jewelry store, it’s a community and welcoming space. We focus on building a relationship based on trust and connection, allowing clients to come to us for guidance and support. Through this genuine relationship, we celebrate the most meaningful life moments together — from engagements to weddings to family milestones. The community feeling is what makes this store so special.”
Repeat business and customer loyalty are vital for every business’s success. And Dorano Jewelry has been fortunate to have both.
“Sixty percent of our business is generated from existing clients while 40% comes from new customers,” says Averisyan. “The majority of our clients are locals — I would say about 80% are from Arcadia, Pasadena and nearby cities. The remaining 20% is from Santa Barbara, San Diego and even clients who now reside in Las Vegas and visit us sometimes.”
14-karat rose gold ring with pink quartz, diamonds, pink sapphires and rubies. | Photo by May S. Ruiz/Hey SoCal
Asked if there’s one particular piece he has created over the years that is memorable, Avetisyan quickly replies, “A client wished to design a custom ring based on a lost heirloom left behind by the client’s ancestors. We worked closely together to maintain the sentimental value of the ring based on the client’s memory and description of the heirloom. Our goal was to preserve its history while also customizing the ring to best fit the client’s style and needs. We used an amethyst for the center stone and incorporated Indian symbols reflected through shape and detailing, referring to custom 3D designs to guide us. We achieved a refined and timeless finish.”
“I specifically remember the extensive research involved with this piece,” Avetisyan expounds. “To fully understand what the client wanted and realize the client’s vision, I studied symbolism and cultural meaning to best design the historical elements with accuracy and respect. I had the chance to explore this cultural background, making the piece challenging to make but with a rewarding outcome. It was one of the coolest projects I completed, learning a lot in the process.”
Having a piece of jewelry created by Dorano Jewelry means acquiring something that evokes significance for the person wearing it. Whether it’s to celebrate Valentine’s Day, a birthday, a wedding or anniversary, jewelry makes any special occasion sparkle. But it can also be just a practical, wearable investment — and jewelry makes even the everyday shine.
Firefighters spray water from a hose during the Eaton Fire. | U.S. Forest Service photo taken by Capt. Jason Benton / Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
The Eaton Fire of January 7, 2025 will be endlessly seared in the collective memories of the Pasadenans and Altadenans who experienced the largest blaze in the history of the San Gabriel Valley. Overnight 19 people died and 9,000 structures were reduced to ashes, among them 80 homes at Upper Hastings Ranch in Pasadena and over 4,500 in Altadena.
Large corporations and private citizens across the country responded immediately to the disaster – sending cash, food, personal items, and other basic necessities to the various collection sites that opened during the days following the fire.
All through the year, several non-profit organizations emerged in Altadena to continue to support those who were affected even as the rest of the country moved on to other important matters. Community leaders have worked ceaselessly to keep the momentum going and thought of ways to ensure we didn’t forget that thousands of Altadenans are still grappling with the aftermath.
Two individuals – Victoria Knapp and Ethan Marquez – are collaborating on an event to benefit those who were affected by the Eaton Fire. They are co-chairing the Altadena Forever Run which will be held at 8:00 am on Sunday, January 4, 2026 at the Mariposa Junction in Altadena.
Thousands of runners and community members will gather for a10K, 5K and 1K family run raising critical funds for residents still recovering from the Eaton Fire – including individuals and families who remain displaced, are living in vehicles, or are running out of short-term rental assistance.
Victoria Knapp is a longstanding Altadena community leader and organizer whose civic work has focused on connection, recovery, and purposeful engagement. A former Pasadenan, she made Altadena her home in 2011, where she spent the next 15 years deeply involved in community life. She played a central role in crisis communication and community coordination after the fire, helping residents navigate loss while fostering collaboration among neighbors, small businesses, and local organizations throughout the recovery period. She is a firm advocate for community-based initiatives that bring people together with purpose and meaning, including the Altadena Forever Run, which reflects her belief that shared action – like running together – can be a powerful force in healing and resilience.
Ethan Marquez is a 26-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department with a career spanning custody, patrol, training, and command assignments. He was on the scene during the Eaton Fire, playing a critical role in emergency response and community coordination. In August 2025, he was promoted to Captain of Altadena Station, where he continues to emphasize operational excellence, public safety, and community partnership. A dedicated endurance runner and philanthropist, he runs marathons while pushing his son in a wheelchair to raise awareness and funding for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy research, using running as both advocacy and a deeply personal expression of service.
“The Altadena Forever Run is about honoring what we’ve lost, supporting those still recovering, and reaffirming our commitment to one another,” state Knapp and Marquez. “After the Eaton Fire, our community showed that resilience isn’t just about rebuilding homes, it’s about standing together, staying connected, and moving forward with purpose. This run reflects the heart of Altadena: strong, compassionate, and forever connected.”
The course passes through neighborhoods and foothill corridors impacted by the fire, featuring on-course storyboards that highlight survivor experiences and ongoing recovery efforts. Organizers say one of the most meaningful aspects of the event is the regional turnout, with runners traveling from across Southern California and beyond to stand in solidarity with Altadena residents.
Community leaders and first responders are expected to attend – including Robert Luna and Kathryn Barger. The Los Angeles Laker Girls will also be on site to cheer on runners and support the event atmosphere. The Altadena Forever Run is supported by corporate and community partners, including SoCalGas, GoFundMe, East West Bank, First City Credit Union, and Toyota of Pasadena.
Proceeds from the event directly support Altadena residents who continue to face housing instability and are seeking viable pathways to rebuild and return home. Although the emergency response has ended, many residents continue to recover in the long term with limited resources.
But through the tireless efforts of dedicated individuals and the support of the community, Altadenenas will get through this unfathomable tragedy and get back on their feet stronger than ever before.
“Radical Histories: Chicano Prints from the Smithsonian American Art Museum,” makes its West Coast debut at The Huntington’s Marylou and George Boone Gallery from Nov. 16 to March 2. Curated by E. Carmen Ramos, forming acting chief curator and curator of Latinx art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the exhibition features 60 dynamic works by nearly 40 artists and collectives that trace more than six decades of Chicano printing as a form of resistance, community building and cultural reclamation.
Commencing with the late 1960s Delano Grape Strike, the precursor to the United Farm Workers (UFW) labor union, the prints in “Radical Histories” depict momentous events in the history of community activism and the formation of collective identity. Chicano artists used silkscreens, posters, and offset prints to mobilize communities – often with barbed wit, lively colors, and evident urgency.
The exhibition is arranged in five thematic sections: “Together We Fight,” “¡Guerra No!” (No War!), “Violent Divisions,” “Rethinking América,” and “Changemakers.” Each section highlights how Chicano artists have used the accessible and reproducible medium of printmaking to confront injustice, affirm cultural identity, and engage in transformative storytelling.
Installation photo courtesy of The Huntington
Section 1: Together We Fight
The opening section explores how the UFW, cofounded by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta, collaborated with visual and performance artists to support the fight for farmworkers’ rights. Key labor actions inspired a wave of Chicano art that functioned as both political expression and tangible solidarity. Artists adopted the UFW’s iconic black eagle, embedding it in posters, prints, and murals that raised awareness and helped fund the movement. The union’s visual language extended beyond its own campaigns, appearing in advocacy materials for the Texas Farm Workers Union and the Cannery Workers Committee in Sacramento.
Section 2: ¡Guerra No! (No War!)
Since the 1960s, Chicano graphic art has played a vital role in advancing antiwar resistance. These works serve as rallying cries, counternarratives to mainstream media, and spaces of reflection. Chicano artists have used print and poster art to critically examine U.S. military interventions in Vietnam, El Salvador, Chile, Iraq, and elsewhere.
Section 3: Violent Divisions
The U.S.-Mexico border has been a central theme in Chicano art. Printmaking has enabled Chicano artists to raise awareness about the experiences of immigrant communities because it is affordable and prints are easily distributed. Recurring iconography – such as the monarch butterfly, a symbol of natural migration – challenges the notion of geopolitical boundaries. Figures like the Virgin of Guadalupe and ancient Mesoamerican goddesses appear as powerful cultural symbols.
Section 4: Rethinking América
This section presents works that broaden historical narratives by including perspectives rooted in resistance and cultural reclamation. The artists drew inspiration from revolutionary figures and movements to create narratives that center Mexican American and Indigenous perspectives. Using mapmaking and record forms like the ancient Mesoamerican codex, Chicano artists also created speculative past and present narratives to reimagine social landscapes.
Linda Zamora Lucero, América, 1986, screenprint on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Gilberto Cardenas and Dolores Garcia. | Photo courtesy of The Huntington
Section 5: Changemakers
Portraiture is a cornerstone of Chicano art, used to educate audiences and celebrate both cultural icons and overlooked figures. Artists often base their portraits on documentary photographs, transforming black-and-white images into vivid prints that honor the subject’s life and legacy. Featured changemakers include political prisoners, activist leaders, attorneys, actors, and artists—individuals who challenged the status quo and shaped history.
By email, Dennis Carr, Virginia Steele Scott Chief Curator of American art, and Angélica Becerra, Bradford and Christine Mishler Associate Curator of American Art – also the venue curators – discuss the exhibition’s origins, its relevance, and viewer takeaways.
“Radical Histories was organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum to highlight the central role Chicano artists have played in shaping American visual culture,” begins Carr. “The exhibition began touring nationally in 2022 following its debut at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and The Huntington is presenting its first West Coast exhibition.”
“While the core exhibition is drawn from SAAM’s collection, our presentation places particular emphasis on Los Angeles as a vital center of Chicano printmaking,” Carr clarifies. “To honor that history, The Huntington commissioned a new mural by Los Angeles–based artist Melissa Govea, created in collaboration with Self Help Graphics & Art, a community print studio that has supported Chicanx and Latinx artists since 1973.”
Melissa Govea’s mural. | Photo courtesy of The Huntington
“Through this partnership, we commissioned Melissa Govea, a Los Angeles–based artist who is Chicana and Purépecha,” explains Carr. “Govea began her career as a muralist and is known for work that honors community, ancestry, and cultural memory. Rather than giving her a specific direction, we invited her to respond to the themes of the exhibition. The result is a dedicated gallery featuring a new mural, a sculptural installation, and print-based works that together reflect multiple dimensions of her practice. This marks the first time her work has been presented in a museum context.
“Her mural, titled ‘Sangre Indígena’ (Indigenous Blood), draws on portraits of friends, collaborators, and cultural leaders who have shaped her life. The work recognizes the generations of artists, organizers, and knowledge-keepers who came before her, while affirming the presence, agency, and creativity of those shaping Los Angeles today.”
Installation Photo courtesy of The Huntington
It would be an oversimplification to say how many works in the exhibition are from L.A. artists, as Becerra explains.
“Many artists in ‘Radical Histories’ have deep ties to Los Angeles, whether they lived, studied, printed, organized, or collaborated here. The most meaningful connection is through Self Help Graphics & Art, which offered open studio access, mentorship, and a collaborative printmaking environment to generations of Chicano and Latinx artists.
“Artists such as Barbara Carrasco and Ernesto Yerena Montejano continue to live and work in L.A., and their practices remain rooted in local community networks. So rather than thinking in terms of birthplace alone, it’s more accurate to say that Los Angeles is one of the central homes of Chicano printmaking, and the exhibition reflects that history.”
Installation photo courtesy of The Huntington
Asked if the exhibition has taken greater meaning now with ICE raids targeting Hispanic communities and looking Hispanic or Latino is enough to get one handcuffed and thrown into a detention camp, Becerra replies, “The themes in ‘Radical Histories’ are both longstanding and timely. Chicano printmakers have historically used posters and prints to address labor injustice, state violence, displacement, and the struggle for belonging – issues that continue to resonate today.”
Becerra says further, “What museums like The Huntington can offer is space: a place to look closely, process, reflect, and connect personal experience to shared history. These works remind us that art has always been a tool of community care and resistance.”
As for the viewer takeway, Carr states, “We hope visitors come away with a deeper understanding of how Chicano artists have used printmaking to organize, to tell stories, to build community, and to assert cultural identity. And we hope they see that art is not separate from daily life – it is a tool for resilience and collective meaning-making.”
“In addition to the exhibition itself, The Huntington will host public programs, bilingual gallery talks, and hands-on workshops in collaboration with local artists and partners,” adds Carr. “A major highlight will be Historias Radicales: Latinx Identity and History in Southern California, a two-day conference on December 5–6, connecting the exhibition to The Huntington’s co
Jan Brueghel the Younger. Flowers in a Gilt Tazza, c. 1620. | Photo courtesy of The Norton Simon Foundation
October 24, 2025 marks the 50th anniversary when the Pasadena Art Museum was renamed Norton Simon Museum. It is only fitting then that 50 years to the day, the museum will debut the exhibition called “Gold: Enduring Power, Sacred Craft.” On view in the lower level exhibition wing through February 16, 2026, it explores the artistic and cultural function of gold in 57 objects drawn from the museum’s American and European and South and Southeast Asian collections.
The objects in this exhibition were crafted from metal excavated from mines across three continents and transported over vast regions, often in the form of currency. In the hands of trained craftspeople, this processed gold was transformed into jewelry that adorned Roman patrician women or spun into thread that was then woven into textiles for elite patrons in Europe and Asia.
Co-curated by Maggie Bell, Norton Simon Museum’s associate curator, and Lakshika Senarath Gamage, assistant curator, “Gold: Enduring Power, Sacred Craft” being the exhibition during the 50th anniversary celebration came about serendipitously. They had been contemplating to collaborate on an exhibition that would bring the Asian collection and the American and European collection together. When they began this project two years ago, they realized there was a common element in the artwork they were looking at.
Rembrandt van Rijn, The Goldweigher, 1639. | Photo courtesy of The Norton Simon Foundation
“As we were looking at the objects in our collections, a theme emerged and we realized we talk about gold across mediums – tapestries, sculptures, painting, works on paper – as an opportunity to get to know and celebrate the collection,” Bell begins. “We systematically went through all the objects that had gold as a medium. At the same time we started thinking about the way gold as a metal interacted with other medium and also what gold means symbolically, even to representations of gold in thread or in paint. There are so many ways to approach this subject. There are things in the exhibition which don’t actually have gold in them but evoke ideas and associations with gold.”
Later in the process they realized the exhibition they had been planning was going to be completed around the same time as the museum’s 50th anniversary celebration. And it was a happy coincidence because the milestone is traditionally symbolized by gold.
“With the story we wanted to tell together, we started with about 200 possible objects,” continues Bell. “We got to know these objects and started doing research. And one of the best things that happened in the process is that I learned so much from Lakshika about her collection and the stories and themes that we can tell together. In conversation with each other and through research we narrowed them down. There were only a certain number of objects that would tell that story clearly and we consolidated them to the 57 that visitors will see in the exhibition.”
“We want to explore gold as a medium but also as an idea,” Bell states. “We want to show the ways in which gold as a material physically does endure for millennia, hence the title. Also, it has a grasp on our imagination globally; visitors will see in the geographical range of these objects that gold really has so much power as a medium.”
Gerard David, The Coronation of the Virgin, Maria in Sole, c. 1515. | Photo courtesy of The Norton Simon Foundation
The exhibition is divided into three themes: power, devotion, and adornment. The 57 objects represent about 17 countries across four continents, spanning from 1000 BCE to the 20th century.
“Through these works we explore how gold traveled across land and sea, how it was crafted, and how it has been imbued with special meaning, particularly with devotion,” explains Gamage. “This is possibly the first time South and Southeast Asian art are displayed together with American and European collection in the special exhibitions galleries. I do want to emphasize that this is not a comprehensive picture of gold because we are drawing solely from the Norton Simon Museum collection and these objects were mostly sourced by Norton Simon himself.”
Museumgoers will find a clean, front-facing plan and objects displayed on tables in the center instead of against the wall. The first gallery focuses on power, the second on devotion, and the third contains jewelry and the smallest objects. Interior walls and display stands are painted red, inspired by a lot of the images in the space. The lighting will be different in each gallery.
Asia: China, Tibet, Headdress, 20th century. Gold Metal with semiprecious stones. | Photo courtesy of The Norton Simon Foundation
Gamage elaborates, “Visitors won’t see any artwork on the peripheral walls and it’s a deliberate design choice to give prominence to the objects. Maggie and I worked very closely with the designers to create an exhibition that felt meaningful to visitors. The layout allows them to create their own pathways and gives them the freedom as they walk around to see these connections with their own eyes. And rather than separating them into just Asian and European, we wanted the objects to have interesting sightlines so visitors can see Asian objects visually interacting with American and European objects. That highlights function and meaning, whereas a division by geography and time loses those meaningful trajectories.”
A map at the entrance indicates where the objects originated and where the gold came from. In the first gallery, the very first object visitors will see is a bovine sculpture from 18th century China.
Asia: China, Tibet; Asia, Nepal, Bovine, 18th-19th century. Gilt-copper alloy. | Photo courtesy of The Norton Simon Foundation
“We chose this because it is associated with strength, power, and resilience, and possibly tied to ancient Chinese feng shui tradition,” explains Gamage. “The function is not exactly known because not much research has been done about this object. The practice itself remains unclear but the charging bull has long been viewed as an auspicious symbol of prosperity and abundance.”
One of the foremost European objects in the first gallery that addresses the power of gold – both as an economic material as well as a symbolic medium – is a portrait of Sir Bryan Tuke, who was appointed treasurer and secretary of Henry VIII’s royal household in 1528.
“This is a copy after a painting by Hans Holbein the Younger, a German artist primarily for the court of Henry VIII,” Bell describes. “Holbein was both a painter and a jeweler and was renowned for designing jewelry for Henry VIII and his wives, and incorporating those designs into the portraits he did of the people in Henry VIII’s court. Because Holbein was a 16th century artist and this was done in the 17th century, it’s possible that Tuke’s descendants commissioned the new portrait to hang in their home as a reminder of their own connections to the Court of Henry VIII in the previous century.”
Hans Holbein the Younger, Portrait of Sir Bryan Tuke, c. 1527. | Photo courtesy of The Norton Simon Foundation
“It’s very true to the original Holbein portrait especially in the way that the cross jewelry is hanging around Bryan Tuke’s shoulders,” explains Bell. “It’s very conceivable that Tuke designed this hefty gold cross himself. I really like this image because a treasurer gets the economic power of gold; it also has an interesting symbolism around the use of gold in this portrait. When this was painted Tuke had just recovered from a really serious illness. It has additional meaning because gold was associated with longevity and good health since it never tarnished.”
In the second gallery, objects on devotion and the sacred role of gold in making art are displayed.
“It was a really fascinating theme to think through with Lakshika because gold has different meanings in Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism that is very complex,” Bell declares. “For example, in the Christian tradition, gold is incorporated into images of religious figures as a way to honor them. But it also becomes a bit tricky because poverty is such an ideal in Christianity, so integrating gold undermines the value of poverty as a Christian virtue.
“But in Buddhism, there is the tradition of genuine sacrifice that comes from giving gold as a gift. It was really interesting to think through those ideas with Lakshika in terms of using gold to craft religious images and the different symbolic and devotional implications that they have.”
Workshop of Cornelis Engebrechtsz, The Adoration of the Magi, c. 1520. | Photo courtesy of The Norton Simon Foundation
One of the first European displays in the second gallery is a painting called “The Adoration of the Magi.” It is a scene showing the three kings who traveled from the four known corners of the world – Asia, Europe, and Africa – to honor the Son of God with extravagant gifts of frankincense, myrrh, and gold..
“What I found interesting that I didn’t realize, is that in a lot of these images from the 16th and 17th century, Christ is shown interacting with this pot of gold,” says Bell. “I find that thought-provoking because, at the same time. the Holy Family was also honored for their poverty. Christ was born in a manger, surrounded by farm animals but he was being honored with gold and he’s reaching out for the gold, and in some paintings even holding the gold coin.”
A South Asian object in the second gallery is the sculpture of Indra – the Hindu god of storms, thunder, and lightning, and was historically the king of gods.
Asia: Nepal, Indra, 13th century. Gilt bronze. | Photo courtesy of The Norton Simon Foundation
Gamage states, “Indra is in this particular posture called the ‘Royal Ease.’ He wears a very distinctive Nepalese crown and he also has a horizontal third eye that clearly tells us that this is the god Indra. There are various ceremonies that are very specific to the veneration of Indra, particularly in the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal.”
In the third gallery, called adornment, objects are mostly jewelry. The one object from the Asian collection is a bracelet made of pure gold dated 1000 BCE – the oldest object in the exhibition. It is from the Uragu Kingdom, which is modern Turkey, Armenia, and part of Iraq.
Asia: Urartu, Bracelet with Animal Head Terminals, c. 1000 BC. Gold. | Photo courtesy of The Norton Simon Foundation
“We have an eclectic group of ancient European objects,” enthuses Bell. “There are two Egyptian cats that we’re really excited about. These were on trend for collectors in the 1960s. We have figurines of various goddesses decorated in gold in someone’s home as talismans. We have this fantastic pair of earrings which are hollow inside but made of pure gold. They’re beautiful! It’s a testament to the power of gold – it doesn’t tarnish even after millennia. We were desperately trying to find photos of Jennifer Jones, Norton Simon’s second wife, wearing these to some events. But we have not been able to verify this.”
Europe: Roman, Pair of Earrings, 3rd century CE. Gold. | Photo courtesy of The Norton Simon Foundation
The Gold exhibition will feature four technical stations, created by the museum’s conservator, behind the two large tapestries. Bell expounds on the reason for this.
“We’re thinking about gold as a material and we had no idea about the many ways gold can be manipulated to become ink, paint, thread, leaf, or something you can melt. There are so many things you can do with gold. It’s alchemical in a real sense. We kind of condensed them into these four major techniques that you see throughout the show: gold leaf on painted wood panel, gold threads, gold paint, and gilded cast metal – which is the majority of the work that Lakshika is displaying from the South and Southeast Asian collection. So we’re very grateful to our conservator and we hope they will enhance the exhibition experience for our visitors.”
Giovanni di Paolo, Branchini Madonna, 1427. Tempera and gold leaf on panel. | Photo courtesy of The Norton Simon Foundation
Asked if they learned something when they worked on the exhibition they didn’t know before, Bell replies, “Training our eyes to recognize the different techniques was a skill I didn’t have before. That was something we acquired through looking at objects to get a sense of ways that gold paint or gold leaf could be applied. And also, just understanding the complexity of gold as the material resource in the world. What’s it meant to get from a mine or a river into the hands of the artist is extraordinarily difficult to understand, and I was very humbled by that research.”
Gamage echoes Bell’s sentiment “One of the most interesting things I learned is a very deep appreciation for those artists who used gold in magical ways we would never even have imagined. For example, to see how gold was coiled and wrapped around another thread and how it was used in a tapestry, cut silk embroidery; or in painting as gold leaf. Today, we have this state-of-the-art technology and are capable of so many modern and technological marvels. But to know that humans were capable of such intricate and extraordinary artistry was deeply humbling, to mimic Maggie’s words. That level of technical expertise and finesse they had – and that they did by hand – is something that still amazes me.”
Rendering of the Norton Simon Museum’s main entrance and pedestrian walkway. | Image courtesy of ARG and SWA
The Norton Simon Museum’s 50th anniversary celebration will include a community weekend, which is free to the public, to be held on November 7, 8, and 9. There will be exhibitions, various activities, live music, and the unveiling of the improvement project.
A book called “Recollections: Stories from the Norton Simon Museum” is also available for purchase. A fascinating read, it contains essays penned by former and current staff about some of the paintings, sculptures, and artworks in the museum’s holdings.
In the book’s introduction, Emily Talbot, Vice President of Collections and Chief Curator, recalls the museum’s history. Maggie Bell traces Tiepolo’s “Allegory of Virtue and Nobility’s” acquisition and journey to Pasadena. Talbot lets us in on the little-known friendship between Norton Simon and abstract expressionist artist Helen Frankenthaler. Dana Reeb’s essay informs us Simon amassed one of the largest and most important Goya print collections in the world. Likewise, Lakshika Senarath Gamage reveals how Simon assembled the largest body of Chola period bronzes that allowed him to wield the most influence in this area of the art market.
Recollections. | Photo by May S. Ruiz / Hey SoCal
Rachel Daphne Weiss explores the collaborative purchase of Poussin’s “The Holy Family with the Infant St. John the Baptist and St. Elizabeth” between Simon and the Getty. Leslie Denk writes about Cary Grant’s gift to the museum of Diego Rivera’s painting “The Flower Vendor.” Gloria Williams Sander gives us an insider look at how the right frames present paintings to their best effect. Bell’s second essay sheds light on how the West Coast exhibition “Radical P.A.S.T.: Contemporary Art and Music in Pasadena, 1960-1974” explored Pasadena’s role as a generative hotbed of contemporary art. John Griswold, Head of Conservation and Installation, discusses the museum’s collaborative approach to conservation.
Gloria Williams Sander reflects on the moment Photography became accepted in the art world as a medium worthy of collecting and exhibiting. Alexandra Kaczenski uncovers the legacy of Printmaking in Los Angeles. Gamage’s second essay examines Architect Frank Gehry and Los Angeles County Museum of Art Curator Pratapaditya Pal’s vision for the Asian galleries and the arrangement of the objects displayed within. The last essay by Griswold and Talbot talks about the Norton Simon Museum’s loan exchange program, which gives museumgoers the opportunity to view significant artworks from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Musée d’Orsay.
Norton Simon’s extraordinary art collection has been a Pasadena treasure since its founding. It has magnificently lived up to the purpose Simon envisioned when he assembled one of the finest European and South and Southeast Asian masterpieces in the world. In the capable hands of the museum’s stewards and curators, Simon’s legacy will continue to enrich our lives and flourish well into the next 50 years.
A work in The Huntington’s new exhibition is by Janet Harvey Kelman, “Stories from Chaucer Told to the Children” with pictures by W. Heath Robinson, London: T.C. and E.C. Jack, 1906, gift from Donald Green. | Image courtesy of The Huntington
The Huntington Library is renowned for several iconic pieces — the Gutenberg Bible, the Ellesmere Chaucer manuscript, and Shakespeare’s Folio, to name just a few. Visitors expect to see them individually at their usual spot.
Soon these exceptional items will be displayed at The Huntington Mansion alongside other important objects that reveal surprising connections and untold stories in a series called “Stories from the Library.” The inaugural show, on view from June 21 through Dec. 1, will feature Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” and later iterations of the work, and the visionary figures who shaped Los Angeles.
“The Tales Through Time” commences with The Huntington’s Ellesmere Chaucer manuscript, an elaborately decorated work created between 1400 and 1405. The most complete and authoritative version, it is presented together with later iterations of the work to illustrate how creators like writers, artists and printers — collectively and individually — changed the tales textually and visually over five centuries of retellings.
“Los Angeles, Revisited” explores ways in which architects, planners, business owners, and activists have contended with a constantly evolving city like Los Angeles. The show is anchored by the 1902 design plans for L.A.’s first skyscraper Braly Block, conceived by architect John Parkinson.
Sandra Brooke Gordon, the director of the library, states, “Drawn from across the library’s vast holdings, each rotation in this series centers on a single item making a star turn — a destination object — placed in conversation with other selections. These exhibitions highlight the interrelatedness, beauty, and power of the library’s collection of approximately 12 million items, while encouraging visitors to make new and inspired connections.”
Vanessa Wilkie, senior curator of medieval manuscripts and British history and head of library curatorial, and Steve Tabor, curator of rare books, co-curated “The Tales through Time.” By email, Wilkie talks about how the series originated, how they prepared the exhibition, and what she hopes visitors take away from it.
“While the mansion was built first, Henry Huntington had the Library constructed beginning around 1919, relatively early in his collecting,” Wilkie says. “So in a sense, he always envisioned that his library collections would be displayed independently of his other collections. I’ve always appreciated this idea — that books, archival documents, photographs, prints, and manuscripts deserved their own celebrated space.”
Just as necessity is the mother of invention, complications engender improvisations, as Wilkie discloses. “When the institution decided it was time to end the long run of the library’s Main Hall exhibition, ‘Remarkable Works-Remarkable Times,’ we were all committed to keeping library collections on view with the understanding that we logistically couldn’t take down an exhibit and have an exhibit in the same space. We saw this logistical challenge as an opportunity!
“The Art Museum generously offered to open two gallery spaces to the library. It was an obvious choice to put library collections in the historic ‘Large Library’ but our collections contain over millions of flat works — like photographs, architectural drawings, maps, and drawings. The Large Library doesn’t allow for anything to be hung on the wall, so the Focus Gallery was offered as a second location to showcase more of our collections … to tell more stories from the library.
“The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer,” Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1896, from the Sanford and Helen Berger Collection. | Image courtesy of The Huntington
“Curators immediately saw this as an opportunity for unexpected pairings of exhibits, which made us all the more eager to think in unexpected ways,” continues Wilkie. “We are mindful that visitors always love to see some favorite pieces, like the Gutenberg Bible and the writings of Octavia Butler, and we envisioned this exhibition series as an occasion to bring in some of those beloved hits while also giving visitors a chance to get to know other parts of our magnificent collections. Our hope is that people come to see what they already love but leave thinking about a favorite piece in a new way or, better yet, having seen something they never expected!”
Asked what motivated their decision to center the exhibit around Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, Wilkie replies, “The Ellesmere Chaucer is one of The Huntington’s most famous manuscripts; it is gorgeous, but it is also perhaps the most influential work in the English-speaking world. ‘Stories From the Library’ is a rotating exhibition series that does something new for our collections, so we liked the idea of starting with a book people already know quite well and framing it in a completely different way than how visitors have seen it over the past twelve years. We actively chose not to think about ‘The Canterbury Tales’ in a singular historical context but rather wanted to think about how the Ellesmere Chaucer brought individual tales together and then what the visual and textual trajectories for those tales were.”
While the sheer number of items in the library’s collection could have posed a challenge when deciding which piece to showcase in the inaugural exhibition, the curators knew exactly what to launch with.
“Beginning with ‘The Canterbury Tales’ gave us a fairly focused starting point, and then we just followed the pilgrims through our collections!” declares Wilkie. “We have some 15th century manuscripts with copies of individual tales, so we plotted those through time and then narrowed back down when we realized our collections could easily fill multiple galleries.”
“The Chaucer display is paired with ‘Los Angeles, Revisited,’ an exhibition about the shifting real and imagined landscapes in L.A.,” Wilkie explains. “No other place in the world could offer that pairing with these stellar pieces; it is the past and present colliding in spectacular ways! When curators are thinking about exhibitions in this series, we’re also thinking about how they’ll be paired and recognize that their sum is greater than their individual parts — although their individual parts are also pretty special.”
The Ellesmere Chaucer manuscript. | Image courtesy of The Huntington
Visitors to The Huntington can expect to see “Stories from the Library” for a while.
“We anticipate the series running for three or four years and have paired-exhibitions planned that can take us far beyond that,” discloses Wilkie. “Each exhibition will run for six months, but we’ll turn pages or swap out entire pieces at the three-month mark. Library materials are extremely sensitive to light, so while we want to keep exhibits up to give visitors a chance to see them, we also need to be mindful of the physical needs and constraints of fragile collections.”
“Most people are introduced to ‘The Canterbury Tales’ as a singular canonical text, but this exhibition is a chance for people to break it down and see how it has changed, or not changed, over the centuries,” Wilkie says. “That also demonstrates how unstable the concept of a canonical work really is. Throughout the series, we hope people will be invigorated by seeing beloved favorites alongside never-before-exhibited items, in spaces they don’t typically see library collections. Change isn’t easy, but it can also give us a fresh perspective.”
“Los Angeles, Revisited” is curated by Erin Chase, the library’s associate curator of architecture and photography. She discusses the anchor piece of the exhibition, what other materials will accompany it, how she planned the show, and the visitor takeaway.
John Parkinson, architect, Building for Southern California Savings Bank (Braly Block), elevation to Spring Street, 1902, ink on tracing cloth. | Image courtesy of The Huntington
“The 1902 design plans for L.A.’s first skyscraper is part of a larger recent acquisition made by the Huntington which is the archive of the architecture firm of John and Donald Parkinson,” Chase begins. “It has never been shown in a museum or library before so it’s very exciting to be able to show it to the public.
“Also included in the exhibition is a variety of materials from across the Huntington’s library collections,” adds Chase. “Everything from an 1888 early birds-eye-view map of East Los Angeles to architectural drawings of iconic L.A. buildings like the Braly Block and Googies coffee shop, to historical and contemporary photographs and manuscripts by literary figures such as Eve Babitz and Christopher Isherwood.”
Explains Chase, “This is a small jewel-box exhibition with a hefty theme so striking the right balance was important. Los Angeles lacks the centrality and layout of most traditional American cities and it’s what makes us unique. I wanted to celebrate the city and the visionaries who believed in its promise, but it was also important to address some darker parts of our past including redevelopment and the displacement of families as a result. Additionally, L.A. has always served as an unwitting muse for artists. So it was important to include people like Ed Ruscha and Gusmano Cesaretti who have helped us make sense of our urban landscape from a visual perspective.
“I hope visitors get a deeper understanding of some of the issues architects, planners, business owners, residents, and activists contended with in the 20th century,” Chase says. “L.A. grew rapidly between 1900 and 1950 and this exhibition just begins to touch on major issues that have impacted the urban landscape such as architecture, transportation, and redevelopment. Most of all, I hope they enjoy seeing some of the extraordinary drawings and photographs from the Huntington’s archives up close. Many of these have never been on view before, so this is a great opportunity to catch them.”
“Stories from the Library” will be an eye-opener for many of us who have not fully appreciated the expanse and significance of The Huntington Library’s holdings. Until now the drawing of the groundbreaking Braly Block has never been displayed in an exhibition. It’s going to be so much fun to discover what surprise each show brings.
Mansheng Wang works on “Without Us.” | Photo courtesy of Mansheng Wang/The Huntington
“Wang Mansheng: Without Us,” an immersive installation that explores the interconnections between humans, flora, and fauna through contemporary art and classical concepts of nature, unveiled at The Huntington on May 17. On view through Aug. 4, 2025 in the Studio for Lodging the Mind 寓意齋 – a gallery within The Huntington’s renowned Chinese Garden – the exhibition features 22 hand-painted delicate silk panels that invite visitors to enter a luminous, meditative landscape.
Created by Mansheng Wang, the 2025 Cheng Family Foundation Visiting Artist in the Chinese Garden, the paintings in traditional and black walnut ink depict intricate scenes of trees, rocks, water, and other natural elements – some inspired by The Huntington’s Chinese Garden, Liu Fang Yuan 流芳園, the Garden of Flowing Fragrance.
The panels – arranged in singles, diptychs, triptychs, and a quadtych – are Wang’s vision of the natural world. Suspended from the gallery’s ceiling, they invite visitors to animate the installation as they walk around and become part of the landscape.
Installation view of “Wang Mansheng: Without Us.” | Photo by Linnea Stephan / The Huntington
Wang isn’t a stranger to the Chinese Garden at The Huntington; he has participated in several calligraphy shows, but this is his first solo exhibition at the gallery. During a walkthrough of the installation, he recounts his initial conversation with Phillip E. Bloom – curator of the exhibition, the June and Simon K.C. Li Curator of the Chinese Garden, and the director of the Center for East Asian Garden Studies – his vision for the installation, and his work process.
“In 2020, Phillip invited me to be The Huntington’s Visiting Artist at the Chinese Garden and I was thrilled!” began Wang. “I like to put my hands in the soil and I’ve been gardening almost 30 years. Coming to The Huntington for the first time about 10 years ago felt like being in heaven; I was so jealous of all the gardeners who work in this beautiful place.”
“Phillip was already familiar with my work, which is primarily about nature,” continues Wang. “Doing a larger-scale project was something we had discussed for some time, but everything was delayed by the pandemic. That extra time actually allowed me space to think and prepare. In early 2024, Phillip confirmed that an exhibition would be possible, so I wrote a proposal for an installation with silk panels. He liked the idea, and we introduced it to the Huntington exhibition team.”
The exhibition’s title comes from a unique perspective. Wang explains, “’Without Us’ imagines a world without humans. Of course, gardens are man-made. I’d visited the Huntington several times over the years to study its rich variety of trees and plants. ‘Without Us’ includes inspiration from these wonderful collections but the work’s scope is broader in that it incorporates my experiences in traveling and hiking in many different places.”
Installation view of “Wang Mansheng: Without Us.” | Photo by Linnea Stephan / The Huntington
“Right before working on this exhibition, I did a show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art,” relates Wang. “Because of the pandemic I couldn’t bring the paintings back to China to mount them so the works were displayed on unmounted silk. And that sparked the idea to use transparent silk and hang the paintings in the middle of the gallery to make it more interesting.”
“To prepare for this installation, I created a small model of the works,” Wang says further. “I chose very thin silk so visitors can view the paintings from both sides – it created an extra angle to view nature. I used narrow, tall panels for mountain peaks and broader sets for a lotus pond or an expanse of woods and hills. You walk in and view an almost three-dimensional landscape and see details – tress, plants, animals, insects, birds. Some are from a distance, like the lake and a far-away mountain. Because of the light there’s slight movement, making the installation magical and dreamlike. ”
He transformed his Hudson Valley studio to prepare and work on the paintings. Describes Wang, “I built a large wall with moving wood panels so I could change the size of the board. Then I installed metal sheets on the wood and covered them with silk canvas. I used magnet to keep the silk in place because its thin and slippery. I hadn’t used much silk in my work until recently so I took notes and wrote my experience – like how the brush felt on it. Most of the time I worked on the wall, but I used too much ink and it would drip and stain the wall. So I would sometimes move the canvas on a large table.”
“The work also required me to step back at least ten feet away after a few brushstrokes – even after adding just two leaves to it. I used three ladders with various height to reach different areas; I had to keep going up and down the ladder and stepping back to view the whole picture. I put in a lot of steps, it was like working out in the gym,” Wang says with a chuckle.
Mansheng Wang working on “Without Us.” | Image courtesy of the artist / The Huntington
Originally, Wang planned to paint 28 panels, but he had to scale it down to 22 to fit the gallery space and allow visitors sufficient distance to view the artworks. He started thinking about what he wanted to paint and began practice work in 2020. But the actual painting only commenced in 2024 and ended early this year.
The first two panels in the exhibition are his tribute to the silkworm. Enlightens Wang, “This is the first painting I worked on in 2022. It’s called ‘The Silkworm and the Mulberry Tree’ and is my homage to the silkworm. The silk industry is a major component of China’s economy. Chinese people have been writing on silk for 6,000 years and this material is very valuable to them – it’s their source of livelihood.”
Visitors to the gallery will walk around the silk panels as they would on a trail leading up to the peak of the mountain. Wang says, “After you hike through the landscape and walk up this mountain, you think you’ve reached the summit. But there are more peaks beyond and you see a cascading waterfall, creating a large body of water and running through all the 22 panels in different forms – a smaller waterfall, stream, creek, lake, and even the mist on the mountain.”
‘Without Us’ is Wang’s exhortation for us to consider the consequences of our actions – the harm they inflict on our planet. “When I was little we were taught that we are superior beings because we can make tools,” expounds Wang. “As I got older, I realized how the growth of technology gives humans greater power to cause damage to nature. While we used shovels and saws before, we can now utilize machines to cut down a 200-year-old tree in minutes. Even more worrying is that we’re able to create nuclear weapons which could ultimately destroy ourselves and this earth.”
Installation view of “Wang Mansheng: Without Us.” | Photo by Linnea Stephan / The Huntington
Through his exhibition Wang also wants to remind us of the importance of water and conserving this precious resource. He declares, “These plants and animals are what makes earth special – and it’s all because of water. It’s what nourishes us and keeps all these beautiful things in nature alive. But people are the ones using it the most – we drink it, we cook our food, we take showers, we flush our toilets, we wash our cars, and so on. And we all know that California has constant water shortage and is prone to drought. On top of that, we pollute the water.”
On the walls of the gallery, visitors will find excerpts copied from Wang’s calligraphy taken from classical Chinese literature, featuring the writings of scholars, poets, and philosophers, including Confucius 孔子 (551–479 BCE), Zhuangzi 莊子 (4th century BCE), and Laozi 老子 (6th century BCE). Many of the passages refer to the ancient Chinese concept of guan 觀 – to observe and appreciate nature by emptying the mind and allowing the natural world to enter.
“As you walk through the space, you get a different angle to look in and view the area,” explains Wang. “I hope people who come to see the paintings also read the texts to enjoy and be inspired by. Moreover, the texts provide viewpoints from which to observe the paintings.”
Lastly, Wang clarifies, “Although the title of this piece is ‘Without Us,’ many people were involved. They encouraged me along the way and helped with the details needed to realize this project, from the curatorial team to the preparators and installation team to the registrars, security staff, and many more. I am grateful for their enthusiasm, support, and guidance.”
Installation view of “Wang Mansheng: Without Us.” | Photo by Linnea Stephan / The Huntington
Mansheng Wang joins a remarkable company of visiting artists in The Huntington’s program, as Bloom reveals when he speaks about the initiative. “In 2012 we received a gift from the Cheng Family Foundation to endow a program to bring in artists to the Chinese Garden every year or two to create a new work in response to the site. We have hosted musicians, playwrights, performance artists, and now painters. The most recent before Mansheng was someone named Zheng Bo, who is a performance artist. He created a series of exercises and led visitors in doing them in the garden.”
Suspending artworks from the ceiling isn’t something totally new, discloses Bloom. “It’s the first time we’re hanging artworks from the ceiling but in our last exhibition called ‘Growing and Knowing in the Gardens of China,’ we had a reproduction of an artwork hang from the ceiling but it served more as a spatial divider. That was the first time we used this hanging system, which was practice for this installation. Our experts knew what to do.”
Asked if an artist is given a mandate on what to create, Bloom replies, “Each time is different. Of course, we have some sense of the artist’s work beforehand. Through a series of conversations, we come up with a project. The one major exception was when we commissioned an artist specifically to make a video that’s permanently on display in the restaurant in the garden, but which we’ve also shown in some exhibitions. In this case, Mansheng and I came up with a project that would fit the gallery.”
Installation view of “Wang Mansheng: Without Us.” | Photo by Linnea Stephan / The Huntington
“Mansheng has a very scholarly approach to painting, which I admire,” pronounces Bloom. “He knows the history of painting so well, and he responds to art history in very thoughtful ways in his works. Visually, I love the sense of dynamism in his paintings of rocks and trees, which he creates in part by using brushes that he himself makes from reeds. But most importantly, perhaps, he and his wife Helena Kolenda are wonderful people. It is very pleasant to work with them, and to talk with them about art, nature, and society.”
“We have been discussing this project for about five years, so I had some sense of what the project would involve,” Bloom states. “He sent me updates regularly on his progress, including photos and videos. I was amazed by the detail of the works as well as by how completely they immerse a viewer. But it was not until we installed them in the gallery that I really could feel how successful and compelling ‘Without Us’ actually is.”
Bloom expresses what he thinks people will find engaging about the silk panels. “I think visitors will be struck by how beautiful the installation is. When you enter the gallery, it almost feels as though you have entered a lantern. The silk is so perfectly illuminated, and the light interacts with the ink and silk in such striking ways.”
“But more importantly, as visitors actually take time to look at the panels, they really will feel as though they are walking through a pristine, natural paradise – a world that humans have not disturbed. However, by walking through the panels, visitors themselves will disturb that world: the panels sway in response to visitors’ movement,” concludes Bloom. “I think it is impossible not to interact with this artwork without reflecting simultaneously on how spectacular nature is and how deeply we humans are intertwined with it.”
“Flashes of Light,” a new musical by Billy Larkin and Ron Boustead, makes its world premiere at the Sierra Madre Playhouse from May 25 through June 9, 2025. Directed by Jon Lawrence Rivera, founding artistic director of Playwright’s Arena, the production is about visionary inventor Nicola Tesla and his muse Electra, the formidable goddess of storm clouds.
Set against the backdrop of the industrial revolution in New York City in the late 1800s, the story follows inventor Nikola Tesla, guided by Electra, who sends him visions of groundbreaking inventions during lightning storms. Their connection amps up when Tesla’s rivalry with Thomas Edison intensifies during the “War of the Currents,” a battle that shaped the world’s electrical future. As Tesla and Electra become obsessed with pushing the envelope of scientific discovery, a star-crossed love story fraught with peril unfolds as the line between science and mythology begins to blur.
Bringing together mythology and science, romance and historical fiction, “Flashes of Light” is a brilliant idea in musical theatre. The music’s heartfelt lyrics, soaring vocals, and haunting melodies blending jazz, pop, and rock, bring this fantastical story both tragic and divine to life.
Co-creators Larkin and Boustead discuss by email the origins of this collaborative work, the choice of venue, and the audience takeaway.
“Billy became fascinated with Nikola Tesla – this mysterious figure – so critical in the development of our modern technology, yet so underappreciated in the mainstream of American history,” begins Boustead. “Tesla was known to experience flashes of light and blinding headaches throughout his life, which were most likely migraines, but we attributed his malady to the overwhelming influence of Electra, Goddess of the storm clouds. Naturally, her power would be a lot for a mortal to endure.”
Thomas Winter as Nikola Tesla. | Photo courtesy of M. Palma Photography
“Also, the obsessive Tesla never married or was known to have a partner, so the idea of including Electra as his muse gave us a romantic storyline to add to the narrative,” Larkin adds.
While integrating myth or folklore with a factual figure and moment in science might seem conflicting, mythology is very much intrinsic to theatre, as Larkin and Boustead explain. “Mythology has been a staple of theater since its beginning, and crafting this tale became a catalyst to do a deep dive into some of the more compelling figures of Greek and Roman myth. Electra answers to a council of gods, more senior than herself.”
“Naturally, Athena – known for her wisdom, power, and morality – leads the council,” Larkin and Boustead clarify. “Prometheus, who had given mortals the gift of fire, is on hand to guide Electra in her mission to assist humans in the development of electricity. And Dionysus is an amusing addition to the council, with his drunkenness, his humor, and the sibling rivalry he shares with his sister, Athena.”
Teasing out the story, Larkin and Boustead relate. “Nikola Tesla leaves his homeland in Serbia with a head full of ideas about how to best distribute electricity for homes and factories at the dawn of the industrial revolution. He lands in New York where he becomes a rival to the great Thomas Edison in the ‘war of the currents,’ a contest between Edison’s direct current method, and Tesla’s alternating current.
“Along the way, Tesla interacts with prominent figures in 19th century finance and industry, like J.P. Morgan and George Westinghouse, and befriends the first American celebrity – the one and only Mark Twain. Through every challenge, Tesla is being assisted in his groundbreaking inventions by Electra, heard and felt only by him, during lightning storms. Like all interactions with the gods, theirs is a star-crossed relationship, with profound and tragic consequences.”
Devyn Rush as Electra and Thomas Winter as Nikola Tesla. | Photo courtesy of M. Palma Photography
Asked why they chose to debut their production in an intimate setting, Larkin and Boustead reply, “In April of 2024, we performed a concert of songs from our show at the El Portal Theatre in Noho, which we filmed. A friend of mine, who attended the concert, happens to be on the board of Sierra Madre Playhouse, and brought our project to the attention of Matt Cook, the artistic director. Matt thought ‘Flashes of Light’ would be an exciting addition to their 2025 calendar and approached us about staging our first run in their 99 seat theater setting. We love the historic and intimate vibe of SMP, and find it a welcoming atmosphere to get our production on its feet.”
Musicals normally require an orchestra – which the Sierra Madre Playhouse couldn’t accommodate – so they had to improvise. “Our score is built around a full jazz-rock band,” describe Boustead, “Because of the size limitations of the stage at SMP, we determined that the best approach for the music was to use the hybrid combination of Billy at the piano, assisted by tracks covering the rest of the orchestration.”
All 26 songs in the show are original and co-written by Larkin and Boustead in the course of eight years. However, many other beloved songs ended up on the cutting room floor, otherwise their show would be three hours long.
Devyn Rush as Electra. | Photo courtesy of M. Palma Photography
The co-creators dream that their show will one day be staged at larger venues but, for right now, they are happy to debut it in the San Gabriel Valley.
Larkin and Boustead emphasize, “Like any other musical theater creators, we imagine a trajectory that takes our project to larger venues next, with the ultimate goal of becoming a smash Broadway hit show, and eventually a touring company. But for now, we are singularly focused on making this version the very best it can be, given the time, budget, and space considerations available.”
“We hope audience members will gain a clearer appreciation for the tremendous contributions that Nikola Tesla made to our modern world,” pronounce Larkin and Boustead. “ We have been faithful to much of the history and science as it really happened, but we believe that the way we’ve told Tesla’s story will move audiences – sometimes to laughter, sometimes tears – but in the end to appreciate the value of one man’s life.”
“Tesla’s story is one that explores themes of science, mythology, genius, madness, immigration, friendship, romance, and ultimately legacy,” Larkin and Boustead declare as a final note. “It’s one that resonates with anyone who strives to leave the world a better place than they found it.”
These topics are as realistic as they are fantastic, as relatable as they are aspirational. “Flashes of Light” promises to be a little show with huge potential to reach great heights. And we in the San Gabriel Valley are so fortunate to be the very first ones to see it launch.
A San Gabriel Valley Inquirer 