All About the Boy

Chicken BOY, that is.  On Saturday, Larry and I drove up to Highland Park for the NELA Art Walk. Our first stop was Future Studio, the home of Chicken Boy. In addition to the art work displayed, owner, Amy Inouye has a great little gift shop full of chicken-related items. I just love all of those chicken images.

Felted CB Pouch

Amy is quite an artist herself.  She recently completed the Neon Workshop at Lili Lakich's studio and designed a fab little neon sign of the Boy for the door to the studio. 

The new and fantastic Chicken Boy Neon!

There was a show featuring the work of Eddie Solis. Eddie rides the Metro Bus and Subway from Boyle Heights to work in Hollywood daily. He takes photos along the way. This was an exhibit of those photos. It was interesting. Hearing about his journey helped us understand the concept. Larry, being a pro-photographer was less than impressed with the presentation of the photos. They appeared to be printed on plain copy paper, not high quality photo paper. There was a gray quality to them, not enough contrast and detail that better paper provides. The idea is good, just requires more attention to detail.

Frederica and Keith Wyatt

We ran into old friend, Keith Wyatt and his lovely wife, Frederica at Future Studio. I actually met Amy through Keith. Keith is a well-known L.A. musician. He's currently performing with The Blasters. He's also a music educator. Many, many years ago my group of friends used to see Keith performing with James Intveld at this little place in South Pasadena called One West. We followed Intveld and Wyatt around town just to hear them play. 

A year later, the Chicken Boy catalog came across my desk somehow. Inside were photos of Amy Inouye's friends and relatives, modeling items for sale in the catalog.  There was Keith, wearing a shiny Elvis suit, striking a guitar-god pose. He also happened to be wearing the head of Chicken Boy.  What?  Keith was in the CB catalog?  I called up Amy (no internet in those days) to order some items from the catalog and asked her about her model, Keith. Turns out they were friends. Even before the internet, the world was small.

Years later, Keith and my former radio partner, John "Juke" Logan performed together a bit in a duo format. I used to book them, along with other groups, at various clubs around town.

After catching up with Keith and Frederica, we wandered down the block to another art gallery. Outside the gallery, we heard a blues band performing. It was yet another musician that we all knew, Carlos Guitarlos!  Art and music go together.

My favorite painting of the evening!