MFA Lecture: Charles Long

Last Wednesday, I got to hear Charles Long speak about some of his recent works of art. Overall, it was a really great presentation. I was most interested in hearing about what drove him to produce his work. He spoke about how he would venture down to the LA river to find inspiration. Through his slideshow of photographs that he took there, I could see that it truly is a different world down by the river-it's an interesting mix of urban influences (the cement banks of the river, trash, shopping carts) and nature (there's tons of vegetation growing down there). Mr. Long spoke about how he would take various things from the river and drag them back up to his house. There, he would put them together into unexpected forms and paint them. I've include some samples of his compositions from the river. I'd advise anyone to look up some more of his work!