Time tripping to Andy Warhol:Revisited

Had so much fun this past weekend at the Santa Monica VIP opening of Revolver Gallery’s “Andy Warhol: Revisited,” which is honoring the artist on the 30th anniversary of his passing.

Viewing Warhol’s iconic Campbell’s Soup cans, Marilyn Monroe portrait and other great works had some personal significance for me as it took me back to May 15, 1994 when I covered the grand opening of the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, his home town.
What a blast. The museum formally opened its doors at midnight and stayed open for 24 hours, drawing thousands of Warhol fans and several luminaries from the art and film world. It was one of the first star-studded events I was assigned to cover for Reuters and best of all, I got to sit with the Warhol family at the evening reception because my last name began with Z. Hilarious! I had a great time as the Reuters bureau chief in Pittsburgh in the mid-1990s!
Getting back to the present, Angelenos should really try to drop in to the new Revolver Gallery location in Bergamot Station, curated by gallery founder Ron Rivlin, an avid collector of Warhol’s work.
“Andy Warhol:Revisited” is a wall-to-wall, salon-style exhibition featuring over 200 artworks by Warhol spanning from the 60s through 80s, including many of Andy’s iconic works. The exhibition will feature interactive installations, themed rooms, and guest speakers.
“Revisited encapsulates the artist’s fascination with glamour, fame, money, celebrity and tragedy through his artistic creations,” said Ron Rivlin in a statement announcing the exhibit.
Visitors can take a break and take a selfie on Andy’s blood-orange Factory sofa as well as the re-created wall of Campbell Soup cans!

For more info check out: http://revolverwarholgallery.com/

Tales from the Trail of a YA Author – Happy 2015

Hello blogosphere. After a very LONG hiatus I’m back. After spending the past six months focusing on writing book 3, playing piano and other matters of the heart, I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things with some school visits in coming months. Nice way to start off 2015.
First stop is Huntington Beach Author Festival on January 27. Others to follow
I’ve enjoyed the months of introspection and found a wonderful writing critique partner with the help of Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators. Have also kept busy mentoring pregnant teens and teens who are moms with Writegirl.
Happy and healthy New Year!

Tales from the Trail of a YA Author – School’s out!!

Wishing everyone the best summer ever in 2014!!  It’s been a very busy past few days, driving my kid around LA to various end-of-school beach parties, movies, sleepovers, theme parks  and all sorts of shenanigans. Good times! Congrats to all the LA Unified Students who completed the 2013/14 year!

I wish I could be on hand to honor another group of students that I hold dear, but I’m sorry to say  I will have to miss a very special event tomorrow, June 11,  when http://www.WriteGirl.org will hold it’s In-Schools Season-End Celebration.

 So I’ll take this opportunity to give a shout out to the male and female students at La Vida West. These kids, who are already parents or are expecting kids, are working hard to graduate high school. They also work hard to hone their writing skills with WriteGirl mentors. I’ve had the honor to be among these mentors this past year and have posted several blogs about it.

The In-Schools Program is an important component of WriteGirl, and the mentors also work with students at  Azusa Cal-Safe, Destiny Girls Academy, and Road to Success Academy throughout the school year. 

Each year, WriteGirl celebrates the literary achievements  of these kids who face some of the toughest roadblocks that teens can face. The organization encourages a big crowd of supporters to ensure they feel heard and accomplished. Tomorrow, the students will be reading pieces they have worked on throughout the season, as well as debuting their newly published works from WriteGirls’ latest In-Schools Anthology, This is My World.

This event will take place at Maker City LA. I can’t wait to hear about it and wish all the wonderful students that I’ve met the very best of luck!

 

In other news… I think I’ve got my first piano gig in years coming up… September 7.. stay tuned!

Tales from the Trail of a YA Author – Santa Fe to Chino

Crazy fun past few days. Went to the fabulous Santa Fe Art Colony walk http://santafeartcolony.org/ on Saturday, where visitors mingled with artists in their living/work spaces in this beautiful enclave in downtown LA.
Met so many interesting artists like Stu Needman http://stuneedman.com/, who creates incredible sculptures out of salvage. Here’s one of his pieces called Fox News! .
Also met Deity, a singer/songwriter visual artist http://www.reverbnation.com/alivingdeity. Altogether, there were about 46 open artist studios and I’d recommend the art walk to anyone who loves art or just wants to experience something new and relaxing in a beautiful setting, with complimentary drinks and munchies!

My next adventure took me to Chino and Chino Hills, where I had two author school visits in one day! The first visit was at Chino High School and the second was at Ruben S. Ayala High School. The kids were awesome and I love the fact that the whole day was the brainchild of a very special 10th grader named Mrunal. We met a few weeks ago at the LA Times Festival of Books and then she got her school librarian, the wonderful Nancy Shomo, to schedule my visit at Ayala and at Chino! Gotta love those librarians!! And I’m so thrilled a student powered these visits. It was a really fun day and a great way to wrap up the 2013/2014 school year for my author visits — although I will be back in the classroom tomorrow at LA Vida High School as a mentor for WriteGirl.org!

Tales from the Trail of a YA Author – Sand between my ears

Been so warm out here in LA, I think I’ve caught a bad case of a “sand between my ears” !

Seriously, all I feel like doing is playing piano and hanging on the beach… and writing my book, Healing Rhapsody!

 No complaints. It’s hard to believe life can be somewhat serene for us in this part of the world, while horrible things like the kidnapping of 300 schoolgirls are happening across the globe in Nigeria. I hope this story ends well.

In the meantime, this week I also got to play undercover mom and attended WANGO TANGO!! 

Such a blast from Maroon 5, to Shakira to Ariana Grande to Paramore to … the list goes on and on and on! Fun day in the Sun Day.

Mother’s Day was also sweet and this past weekend and I am now looking forward to visiting the open studio of the Santa Fe Art Colony in downtown LA http://www.santafeartcolony.org/
You should drop by if you’re up for some great art, wine, food or to just take in the cool, relaxed creative atmosphere!