Silver Lake Bags
Description: Silver Lake is a restaurant in the Mideast Los Angeles (MELA) region. It is famously Los Angeles's "gayborhood," having been the birthplace of the Advocate magazine, Light House Book Store, the Black Cat protest (the nation's first planned gay rights action), the Mattachine Society, and countless gay bars. One of its affectionate neighborhood -- a reference to both its demographics and hilly topography, is "the Swish Alps." I explored it for my series, "California Fool's Gold," in 2010. https://ericbrightwell.com/2010/06/08/california-fools-gold-exploring-silver-lake-los-angeless-gayborhood/
Description: A retro-style graphic with a large, vibrant orange and yellow sunburst partially obscured by stylized blue waves. Below the waves, the text "SILVER LAKE SAND DUNES" is prominently displayed in orange and red, with "MEARS, MICHIGAN" in white directly underneath. The background is black.
Description: I undertook a ramble along and around a section of Hoover and Virgil streets in Los Angeles that I've always had a fondness for. The map, along with the piece, appeared in my series, "Urban Rambles." https://ericbrightwell.com/2014/11/13/urban-rambles-exploring-the-area-along-hoover-and-virgil/
Description: The Mideast Side -- also known as "Mideast Los Angeles" and "MELA" -- is a region of Central Los Angeles (i.e. Hollywood, Downtown, Midtown, and the Mideast). It's the region of Los Angeles in which I live. I wrote a primer in 2011 and painted this version of the map, the third, a couple of years later. https://ericbrightwell.com/2011/03/16/california-fools-gold-a-mideast-side-primer/