The art of craft

The LA River is one of many contradictions in Los Angeles. In a city often accused of having no real center, it's not surprising to find a river with hardly any water; a seemingly dry bed flowing nowhere.

It is perhaps these tensions that make the LA River a point of fascination for the city's artists and designers. And this was very much in evidence at this weekend's riverside artwalk.

In an area known as Frogtown, nestled between the 5 and 2 freeways on the banks of the river, there are numerous studios and workshops, many of which opened their doors on Saturday night, giving visitors the chance to turn the handle on letter presses, see screen-printing in action and watch artists honing their craft.

Apart from the inspiring work on show, the studios themselves offered a first-hand look at the art of the creative process. And in tune with WGSN's panel discussion at NYFW last week, what we saw was a lot of "soulful" design from artists who "know their craft from beginning to end".

Two of the projects that struck a chord with trends we've been tracking at WGSN recently included LaLa Press and Operation Trash Art.

LaLaPress is the very cool letterpress and design company run by Mable Lee. What I loved about her studio was the fact that all her old presses are named after the daughters of the men Lee purchased them from, adding an emotional connection to her equipment and extending the story and provenance of it too.

Meanwhile, at Blake Lofts, photographer Paul Redmond's Trashy project is right on track with our Connectivity trend. Redmond turned the annual LA River cleanup into an exciting art project, asking all the volunteers to save and document the trash they found in the shallow, murky waters. He then photographed and mapped all the discoveries, from rusty wires to hard hats, skateboards and a myriad of other potential stories.