Young people with city dreams say that if you can make it in New York then you can make it anywhere. Those people obviously don't know the high cost of California utopian dreaming like I do. At least I've tried, and will die trying to design my life the way I envision. And you know you are in the right path when a friend offers you a gig scouting furniture at San Francisco antique shops for Los Angeles' design firm of the moment Commune. Founded by four friends, the firm can't get any closer to the California Dream as it combines West Coast movie star sophistication with an air of boho cool. I wish this had been a full-time gig, at least for a longer while, as it is as close as I got to a dream job before starting my own freelance design initiative. I can't help continuing to daydream...
Michael C. McMillen is a mixed-media artist based in Santa Monica, California, whose installations and sculptures made out of recyclable materials, or as he calls them "the cast-offs of our material society," play around the themes of time, change, and illusion as a means to create what he refers to as "visual spiritual poetry." It's very interesting work with a magic of its own. The two friends I've brought with me to view his work have referred to his pieces as post-apocalyptic. I see it more as a beautiful display of decay. They had a similar eerie effect on me as when I visited a ghost town of the Gold Rush era, here in California, for the first time. Like a glimpse at the ancient ruins of the future. To fully appreciate his installations you really must experience them. You can view his work in person at an upcoming exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California from April 16, 2011 to August 14, 2011, entitled Train of Thought .