Eagle Rock Artist Who Paints Burning Banks

When he unfolded his easel and began painting a branch of the Chase Bank in Van Nuys about a month ago, Alex Schaefer was practicing a time-honored tradition of en plein air.

But it was the flames shooting from the roof that he added to the 22-inch by 28-inch canvas that drew a complaint from someone—and the attention of the Los Angeles Police Department, which instantly came to interrogate him about his motives.

Schaefer thought it was over—he told the uniformed cops he is not a terrorist but an artist—but then last week two plainclothes detectives visited his home in Eagle Rock. (This time, in response to their questions, Schaefer denied he hates banks—he does his own banking in a small community bank.)

But the Eagle Rock resident, who had never had a run-in with the police before, seems more bemused than incensed about the LAPD’s interest in his work. And he certainly appreciates the attendant publicity that the story has generated in the media, including the Los Angeles Times, and how this has exponentially increased traffic to his website (alexschaefer.com), not to mention his blog, (alexanderschaefer.blogspot.com).

A California Tradition

 “I never set out to be a political artist,” Schaefer says. “I love en plein air, landscapes and cityscapes.” In California, explains Schaefer, there is an “artistic precedent to artists painting things on fire—Ed Ruscha did it with the ‘Los Angeles County Museum on Fire’ in the ’60s.”

Schaefer has always painted on streets and is used to interacting with the public. “Everyone who got off of the bus where I was painting [in Van Nuys] got what it was about,” he recalls, adding: “I think when the cops talked to me, they realized I wasn’t a crackpot—at least I hope they did!”

Banking and Art Have Much in Common

Schaefer draws parallels between the havoc that he believes banks have caused in the economy and similarities to the art world.

“I’ve been interested in art longer than I’ve been interested in the economy,” he says. “As an artist who has been doing it for years, I’ve learned about the realities of the ‘Art World’—it’s a game, too, a system, for the big people who play it [from] the big banks in New York.”

Rule by force is the primary agenda. “It’s like the stock market, where they get to control and manipulate everything,” Schaefer says. “That happens in the art world all the time—the magazines are working with the art schools or collectors: Get the right article in the right magazine, and the prices go up.”

Los Angeles-born, San Diego-raised and a graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Schaefer has painted local landmarks such as the Colorado Street Bridge and Tommy’s Burgers on Colorado Boulevard in Eagle Rock (see photos).

“I don’t know if the light is any different in Eagle Rock—maybe it’s a little clearer,” he says. “But I love the neighborhood because it’s perfect to get to and from everywhere else.”

Laughing All the Way to eBay?

Meanwhile, the bank controversy burns on—helped no doubt by the Los Angeles Times article, somewhat sensationally titled, "An Artist's Incendiary Painting is his Bank Statement."

“It’s awesome!” he says, adding: “I’m on to something.” And how: The artist has offered the Chase Bank painting on eBay, with a starting price of $920—the current price of an ounce of gold. As of 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 3, there were 40 bids on the painting, titled “Chase Burning,” and the most recent bid had upped the ante to $5,200. It is online for auction bids until September 7.

Schaefer is working a similar project right now that depicts a Bank of America branch in flames. And he has plans to paint branches of other leading banks—all of them brilliantly aflame on canvas.

Schaefer hosts an online radio show, “The Alex Schaefer Hour,” from the Hive Gallery every Wednesday at 1 p.m. at coagula.com. His fire paintings will be displayed in a show titled “Disaster Capitalism,” scheduled for February 2012 at the Beacon Arts Building in Inglewood.

But before that, in November, Schaefer plans to participate in a group show at in Eagle Rock. Watch Eagle Rock Patch for updates.