Peter Lodato - Capturing Venice's Light

I'd seen Peter Lodato around town for years, taking strolls along the streets of Venice in his signature hat. Only recently have I gotten to know more about the man and his fine art. Thankfully.

My friend David Phillips, whose art I've written about before, introduced me to Mr. Lodato, and we three spent a fine afternoon, sipping wine and discussing what we love about art, and our collective home of Venice.  Phillips and Lodato became friends - as many of us have - over drinks at Hal's ("Hal's really does it for me. I always have a neighborhood bar, and Hal's is it." - P. Lodato). Phillips had long been an admirer of Lodato's work, and revered him as one of the masters of the Califonia Light and Space movement, that has informed and inspired Phillips' own work. Lodato's paintings and sculptures have been shown and collected all over the world, from the Whitney and the Met in New York to museums and galleries all over Europe and Japan, and of course, ALL over California, where Lodato was born, raised and continues to live, right here in Venice.

Lodato was born in 1946 to film industry parents, and his Mother always encouraged him to draw. He says his earliest memories are being in a crib and looking at the dark spaces. Today he finds himself doing the same thing on foggy days at the beach, looking at the emptiness. This has always been provocative to him, even though he says there is "no such thing as emptiness ... one experiences perception." Deep.

He always drew and practiced his art, and attended Cal State Northridge to study psychology and art. Art won because he was better at it in college. Lodato had his first solo show in 1972, and art has been his life ever since. Prominent art writer, Fidel Danieli, wrote back then that Lodato "is one of the major southern California artists to emerge in the 1970s." He has since had 40-50 one man shows, all over this globe.

As we chatted, Lodato's two songbirds, Willie and Wayne, chirped away happily as if to add their two cents to our conversation. Lodato then led Phillips and I outside to his studio, where I saw first hand and up close what Phillips had been raving about when explaining to me that Lodato was a "Master of color and technique." Lodato himself says, "Color is huge to me," and gave me a bit of education when showing me his technique of "under painting" -  a "technique that cannot be replicated," according to Phillips, who added that Lodato is one of the "Grandfathers of Minimalism," in painting and sculpture.

"This one's named Indigo, because it IS indigo," explained Lodato in his baritone voice, entertaining both Phillips and myself. Staring into the void of the painting, it felt like a portal to somewhere cool (and it wasn't just because of the wine).  It's hard to see the super detail from just photos, but when you're right up next to the paintings, you find yourself mesmerized.

It's clear that Phillips is perhaps Lodato's biggest fan, saying, "I know a good painting when I get jealous." There was much to be jealous of in Lodato's studio, for sure, even though as they both lamented, today's art world seems much more rooted in marketing than technique. Both of these gentlemen - one from the old school, one from the new school, both from the Cool School, in my opinion - are deeply rooted in technique and in the lifestyle of being an artist, which you don't see much anymore. Both of them work every day, both of them love color and light, and both of them love their Venice.

"This community has a Beatnik karma to it. It's not as observable now, but you can still feel it," said Lodato about Venice. "I've been connected to Venice since I was a kid and came here from the Valley. I tried to have a studio here for so long, and now I do." You could see Lodato's happiness plainly as he shared that, and he's been working away in this studio since 2002.  His work is helped by Venice too, as he said, "The diffused light here is perfect for painting. Light is a non-issue. And just sitting here, feeling the moisture in the air, is awesome."

It sure was. It sure IS. We are a blessed people, with so much talent and so much light swirling around us at all times. As my new friend Mr. Lodato summed it all up, "You can't beat it here. It's all about being alive - and knowing it."

Peter Lodato is represented by the William Turner Gallery in Santa Monica, and will open his studio by appointment. Inquiries may be directed to info@wino-strut.com

The Wino-Strut of Artist David Phillips

I first learned about the art of David Phillips in probably the best way possible. I was walking down the beach last year when I came upon this crazy piece of art (that I now know is called "Birth") just sitting there in the sand.


It had the curious name "Wino-Strut" across the front of it, compelling enough for me to write a little story about it at the time. Then I got an email from the artist - David Phillips - who somehow had seen the Blogtown article, and contacted me to invite me to his studio. THEN I got a random email from a reader - Matt - that they had come upon some more Wino Strutting on the beach and thought I might find it interesting. I did.


So time flies and things pile up and I didn't get to the studio, but then I got an invitation from Phillips to the Hotel Erwin for his opening during the Art Crawl last Summer.


I went, it was great, and I had a new friend in Mr. Phillips. But I still didn't know the whole story. So a bunch more time passed, exchanging messages and trying to find a time to sit down and tell the tale, until it's a new year and you gotta make things happen, so we finally sorted it out and here we go.

Phillips is from Tulsa, Oklahoma (Sooners!). His Grandmother was a painter, so from a very early age, Phillips knew that he too wanted to be a painter - in fact, he started with oils. He grew up and wanted a larger audience for his art than perhaps Oklahoma offered, so "Art brought me here" - Here being Venice, California. He had come out and stayed on a friend's couch in Venice, and knew that was the only place that made sense for him to settle. Which he did, right on Abbot Kinney. He got a job as a PA, which let him afford to get a studio (which he says is in Venice, but really it's Marina Del Rey...Ha, David!) and he was off to the races.

Phillips would load up his truck with paintings and just hound gallery owners to see his stuff. Soon enough, after not taking no for an answer ever ("I was gonna be a painter whether they liked it or not!"), he got a gallery rep. This led to a spot on CBS News about his art, and he's been able to work on his painting full-time ever since. He IS a painter.


{At this point, we decided to leave the beach-adjacent studio and conduct our interview on the sand. I thought this appropriate as it's where I first discovered his work, and I feel great guilt and oppression over being inside when I know a remarkable sunset is shaping up outside. See below.}


He's been hired by Urban Outfitters to do works, he gets a bunch of private commissions, but with all the edge and fun and good times and free wheelin' vibe of the beach, he started thinking about doing art that was more accessible to an even larger audience ...


Willem De Kooning is "the end all, be all for me", says Phillips, and he recalled a story about De Kooning selling a painting (One of his "Woman" paintings, which later sold for $20 million) to a guy for a case of wine. De Kooning had to walk the outsized painting all the way uptown to claim his payment, and Phillips thought that would be called a "Wino Strut". This would become his name for his otherwise anonymous pieces that he leaves behind. He figured why let the graffiti artists have all the fun, and maybe the next step beyond graffiti as public art would be a contemporary artist leaving behind works that people could actually take home!


This began the Wino-Strut practice and Brand of "Giving someone a HAPPENING ... The experience IS the art!" So the installation like "Birth", that first led me to this interesting fellow, and his studio. Then he painted 500 bottles, inserting painted scrolls of abstract faces inside, and placed them all along the coast, from Venice (Marina Del Rey) to Malibu, for people to discover along their morning walks and keep. This little caper did earn him a call from the LAPD, who thought that he might be planting pipe bombs all over vs. just making someone's day. Sigh.


Phillips had just done an installation the very afternoon that we spoke, lining a bunch of bottles along the entrance to Groundworks on Main Street. Rather than think of the art as fleeting, Phillips sees it more as "Disrupting someone's monotony. This art HAPPENED. And now they have an illustration of a memory." How great is that?

We wound up our interview back in the studio, where there are multiple works in progress, as well as lots more bottles being prepared for a 3,000 bottle onslaught, perhaps somewhere near you. I was gifted with one, and it makes me smile just to glance at it and think of the lift one like it is going to give someone else, totally unexpectedly. Another day brightener in Venice.


Phillips is a big fan of the Ferus/"Cool School" of art, and loves to mingle with those guys (Bell, Lodato, etc...) around town at Larry's Venice, The Erwin, the Art Crawl, VENICE ... and keep that inspired torch burning.

I'm so happy to know the story behind it all now, and look so forward to hearing about - or just again stumbling upon - what new hijinks Phillips has in store for the unassuming audience. He has followed his dream, and both had and brought fun to many in doing it. And that's about the highest form of living one can do. May he long continue his wino strutting!


PS - 1.18.12

THEN today, after posting this story yesterday ... Wino-Strut strikes again! Perhaps in celebration ... it looks like one!


Right outside Casa Linda, brightening everyone's day!




David Phillips
www.Wino-Strut.com