Paparazzi Gridlock

• Size: 14″ x 14″ x 1.5″
• Substrate: Canvas
• Medium: Oil pen on Acrylic

I love Los Angeles.

It is a city full of ups, downs, and sideways.

It is a city full of sunshine and smog.

It is a city full of opportunity and broken dreams.

It is a city with a massive beating heart, and yet with clogged arteries full of traffic.

Los Angeles is a city that will never give you 50%. It will give you 100% or nothing at all.

I love this town. I’ll be honest. At first I didn’t. I crash landed into this town like an albatross on fire. I was certain that I had been defeated by the hustle and bustle of its diameter.. but I survived. Not only did I survive, but I came out on top and my career as an artist blossomed here. Los Angeles provided the pathways for success, and I grabbed a hold onto the reigns of my life, and rode it to where I am today.

I would be nothing without this city, and I thank my lucky stars for moving here.

This piece is called “Paparazzi Gridlock”, and resides as the 3nd piece of the Metropolitan Series, and 55th of the collection. Inside Mickey’s face are the many highways (110, 210, 10, 60, 5, 101, 170, 405, 118, 134, 2, and 1) that infiltrate and surround the area. The clouds inside the face represent the smog, while outside they become white fluffy clean clouds of the Pacific. The top of his face is Mt. Hollywood/ Griffith Park with the iconic Hollywood sign. The top also represents the criss crossing spotlights of Hollywood, and they fade around the circumference to sunshine rays around the blue sky. The pink stars are to represent the stars on the boulevard. In the left ear are cameras to represent the tourists and the paparazzi, and in the right ear are television sets to represent the industry.