Community Corner
Artists Launch Totem Pole Project for Earth Day
Held at the Eagle Rockdale Community Garden & Art Park, the project marks the launch of a year-long arts initiative.
In celebration of Earth Day on Friday, community gardens across Los Angeles are hosting open houses for their neighborhoods.
At the , located south of Shelby-Lanark Park, off La Loma Road, the gates will open on Saturday, Apr. 23, from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. for the launch of a yearlong project by local artists.
The reception debuts a trio of totem poles mounted in the southern end of the long, winding property, which once served as a trolley line right of way. The totem poles are a work-in-progress organized by Kacy Treadway, a founding member of the garden.
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“Our relationship with nature has always been part of the human experience," said Treadway, who built the mosaic archway at the venue’s front gate. “This installation will change over time as different people add to it, just as our views of nature change across time and cultures.”
Treadway, a film/TV costumer as well as a member of the Arroyo Arts Collective, is a seasoned collaborator and community artist. She recently launched a tile project at Atwater Elementary School at the request of the office of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Treadway was also a key member of the “Make Art Not Trash” project launched by TERA (The Eagle Rock Association), in which she organized the artists and created two of the mosaic trash cans herself.
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The first collaborators for the totem pole project are artists Linda Johnstone Allen, past president of the and the head of the local nonprofit ERCPR, Sandy Huse, Michael Gullberg and Molly Carpenter, who shipped two pieces from New Jersey. Throughout the rest of 2011, other artists will add new pieces, including Erika Monique, whose art will come to Eagle Rock from Australia, and Clare Graham of MorYork Studios.
Saturday’s reception will allow visitors to meet the artists and view their work, tour the spring gardens, participate in a garden book exchange, and shop alfresco. Proceeds will benefit the garden and the L.A. Community Garden Council.
Also on Saturday is the Solano Canyon Community Garden Open House (off the 110 freeway at the Solano/Academy Road exits), from 10 a.m.–4 p.m. On offer will be free seedlings, plant and treasures sale, live music and tours of the hillside urban farm. On Sunday, Venice Community Garden will open at 9 a.m., with a kids’ seed bomb workshop and Easter egg hunt. At noon, join the potluck picnic.
