Beachcombing

Christine LeBlanc-Payne is an artist, designer, and illustrator based in Connecticut.

For her Zócalo Sketchbook, LeBlanc-Payne draws inspiration from natural artifacts found on the beaches of Connecticut; Cape Cod, Massachusetts; Costa Brava, Spain; and the Côte d’Azur, France. Using traditional ink illustration, she composes her beachcombing into elegant arrangements that she finishes off with vibrant geometries of color that she adds digitally.

“I refer to the sketches as ‘exercise at the beach’ to flex my drawing muscles,” LeBlanc-Payne tells Zócalo. “My day-to-day is immersed in digital. It’s satisfying to switch off and switch over to …

Writer and Curator Helen Molesworth

I Would Cook Stevie Wonder Couscous

Helen Molesworth is a writer and curator based in Los Angeles. She is also a podcast host and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Clark Art Writing Prize. …

LAXART Director Hamza Walker

Old Bay Is Only for Crabs

Hamza Walker became LAXART’s second director after 22 years as curator and director of education at the Renaissance Society in Chicago. Before joining the Zócalo event “What Is the Value …

Artist and Activist Andrea Bowers

I Resist Everything!

Andrea Bowers is a Los Angeles-based multimedia artist foregrounding struggles for gender, racial, environmental, labor, and immigration justice in her work. Before sitting down as a panelist for the Zócalo …

Dew Glow

Aimée van Drimmelen is a multidisciplinary artist, musician, and arts programmer based in Victoria, B.C. Canada. Working in diverse media—from painting and drawing to film, sound, and animation—her work explores …

Art Opens a Portal to Curiosity

We Should Measure Its Value Not in Dollar Signs But in Question Marks

“L.A. is one of the largest creative economies in the world but artists here are low-wage workers. So do we even value art at all?”

Artist Joel Garcia asked the pointed …