Gallery 5043

A couple of the drawings I put up at Gallery 5043 in North Hollywood in 2020.

It all started with some daydreaming, in early 2020, I think.  One day I looked up industrial properties for sale, here in The San Fernando Valley.  The dream was that I'd be able to get a legit business going, start making som edecent money, and then buy a industrial or old retail property, when the prices dropped in the recession.  Yeah, big dream for my situation, but it led to me finding this old, legendary music studio that was for sale.  I found that The Alley music studio building was for sale.  Here's a news report about it from a couple years ago.  

It was, and still is, a very plain looking place in North Hollywood.  But it's a place where Michael Jackson had recorded four albums, Prince recorded two, and dozens of other legendary music groups had practiced, written music, and recorded albums over 43 years.  Still daydreaming, I went to check out the property.  I wound up meeting a neighbor who had rented rooms to many of the musicians, while they were practicing there, and it was a really cool day.  Obviously I didn't get a business together, the recession got put on hold by tons of stimulus money, and a cabinet making business later bought the property.

At the time,  I was selling some of my drawings on Hollywood Boulevard, and thinking about putting a few up somewhere outdoors, just for people to check out.  Call it low intensity street art.  I walked across Lankershim to a bus stop that day, and there was an abandoned building there, three or four small units in one building.  The door closest to the bus stop had the address 5043 on it.  You BMXers know that 43 is the lucky number of BMX.  The little light went on, "I should put some drawings up there."  It was an old nail salon, and the glass door was recessed, giving it a little cover from any weather.  A couple weeks later, I made some copies of my drawings, and put several up on the glass door.  "Gallery 5043" was born.  

The first time I put a few drawings up, I took an orange traffic cone that was sitting on the sidewalk, and made a carboard sign that said, "Art Show," to get people's attention.  It was just an experiment to see if anyone actually stopped to check the drawings out.  I sat at the bus stop nearby, and watched people walk by.  Most didn't even notice the drawings, but a handful stopped and checked them out.  That's all I was hoping for.  Get a few people to look away from their phones for a moment and go, "Hey, what's that?"

That was my first pop-up art show at Gallery 5043.  Total cost, Maybe $4 for copies at FedEx Office and a little shipping tape to tape them to the door. 

As time went on, as people began to emerge after the initial Covid shutdown, I put more art up at Gallery 5043, from time to time.  I even taped up original drawings 3 or 4 times, just to see how long it would take for someone to snag them and take them home.  Sometimes I would put a post on Facebook, "New art show at Gallery 5043, show runs until all art is stolen."  I did this now and then there, and at a couple other locations, so people could just randomly check out my Sharpie Scribble Style drawings, through 2020, and much of 2021.

This is a black & white test print, full size, 18" X 24", of the Notorious RBG, aka Ruth Bader Ginsberg, drawing I did  shortly after her death.  While I've drawn a few BMX and skaters, and dozens of rock star drawings, this one was, by far, the most popular drawing I've done.  The original ended up in Wisconsin, I think, and there's a full size print up in a lawyer's office in Colorado, and a handful more spread other places.  Someone scored this print after a couple of weeks.  This was the only large black & white print made.  #sharpiescribblestyle

Then came 2022, and I caught Covid myself in January, and moved farther west in The Valley.  Being homeless, as I healed up, I just stayed in the same area, where I camped out while sick.  It was just a good spot with the basic necessities I needed to get by, day to day.  There were a couple other people who crashed out at the same place at the time, who were pretty cool to get along with.  I would eat breakfast in the area, then take a bus quite a ways to a library, and write, blog, draw pictures, and do my social media stuff, during the day, then come back to sleep.  

Recently, I decided to take a break from drawing the Sharpie pictures for a while, I just need to find work that pays better.  After 10 years unable to find any job in North Carolina, I have no official work history.  I've been doing creative work the whole time, but didn't have a "real" job.  So a traditional job is out of the question at this point, for that and a few other reasons.  So I've been working on trying a couple of new ideas to begin earning day to day money soon, hopefully, and then work from there.  

I've also started to think about all these weird photos of homeless life I've been taking since 2018.  I have 200 or 300, or more, photos. Some of them are of weird stuff I've seen, some are just artsy pics of sunsets, buildings, or other things.  So I printed out a few of the photos on paper, and decided to put them up in an outdoor location or two, so random people could check them out.  It's pretty non-destructive street art, just photos on plain paper, taped to walls.  I put the first group of photos up in Hollywood, in a little, out of the way nook.  For the second group, I trekked back over to my original spot, Gallery 5043.  

Cannabis dispensary Budega, now in the site of my former Gallery 5043.

I hadn't been there in a few months, and a lot has changed.  The building was leased or purchased by a cannabis dispensary, a weed shop, and the door where I hung my art in 2020 and 2021, is now the main door of their store, Budega.  Like "bodega" but for buds.  Clever.  

So now my personal art show spot, Gallery 5043, is now just an idea in my head.  So wherever I put art up outside, it's "Gallery 5043" to me.  They even changed the number on the door, to 5041, which is the main address number of the whole building.  So if you need some weed in the NoHo Arts District area, check out Budega, at 5041 Lankershim.  And if you want to see my photos or Sharpie art in an outdoor location, check my twitter feed (@steveemig43), I put the locations up there... sometimes.  

So that's the story of my personal art gallery, Gallery 5043.  It started with a daydream of owning a cool building, led to the discovery of a legendary and little known music studio, then became my little "outdoor art gallery" for a while.  If I ever do get a building and open my own art gallery, it will probably be named Gallery 5043.  
 

The L.A. Project- happening in October

 I don't usually share or promote things that come up on Facebook ads, but this one looks pretty cool.  The L.A. Project is an event on the evening of October 23, 2022.  They're going to project a bunch of photos of downtown Los Angeles, shot by 34 different photographers, on to the side of a building.  The tickets are free, and there will be "food trucks, fun, and theater style seating."  Sounds like a cool night in my book.  Click the link to check it out.  

I picked a few names at random, and looked up their stuff.  Seriously, they take some great pics.  Now I want to go.  Maybe I'll see you there.  

Wednesday Aja

Julia Dean

Mike Lynch

Donna Stelini

Public Art show in Hollywood!

Show #1 of my Urinating in Public Summer Tour is now up and running, somewhere in Hollywood.  Good luck finding it.  Presented by Gallery 5043.  Art shows where bums pee.  It's free, open to the public, and will still probably manage piss someone off.  People get irate about the dumbest things these days.  Photos are from my #SEstreetlife series, many of which appear on this blog.  Show runs until all photos are stolen.  Enjoy!  #SEstreetlife, #steveemigphotos

 

#SEstreetlife- More beauty seen on the streets- 8/10/2022

Flowers in the afternoon sun, on a hot summer day.  Tarzana, CA, 2022.  #SEstreetlife, #steveemigphotos

Flowering bush in Tarzana, 2022.

Flowering tree, Tarzana, 2022.

Flowering bush again, different angle.  Tarzana, 2022.  

This whole little session of shooting photos started when I walked up to a bus stop, and saw a hummingbird really close up.  Of course, by the time I set my bags down and got my phone powered up to take a photo, the hummingbird was gone.  But there were several bees working these flowers.  There's one in this photo, if you look close.  Do you see it?  Tarzana, 2022.  #SEstreetlife, #steveemigphotos

While this looked like a carpenter bee in size, I'm used to seeing them with gold and black coloration.  So I looked them up real quick.  This appears to be a Californica carpenter bee, which is generally all black.  The lighting's not great, but when I can get a photo of a moving bee from 3-4 inches away, I'll take it.  #SEstreetlife, #steveemigphotos

 

#SEstreetlife photos- Artsy bus stop photos- 7/28/2022

I shot these photos last year at the Universal City bus/Red Line train station, when the light was pretty cool.  Backlit awning at the bus stop.  Studio City, CA, 2021.  #SEstreetlife, #steveemigsstreetlife  Check out my PInterest page.

Awning poles and backlit pigeon spikes, 2021.  

Bricks, shadows, and napkin in the early evening light at the bus stop, 2021.

Backlit pigeon spikes on awning at the bus stop.  Universal City Red Line/bus station, Studio City, CA, 2021.  #SEstreetlife, #steveemigsstreetlife

 

#SEstreetlife photos- Hollywood, California- 7/15/2022

Bruce Lee's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  2019.  #SEstreelife, #steveemigphotos

The Damn Team, a street performing dance team.  Ending their show at Hollywood and Highland area, with a flip over five crowd members.  #SEstreetlife, #steveemigphotos

Mel's Drive-in on Highland, just south of Hollywood Boulevard, in Hollywood.  2020.  #SEstreetlife, #steveemigphotos

Graffiti in Hollywood, 2020.  #SEstreetlife, #steveemigphotos

Those Turtles, TMNT, graffiti in Hollywood, 2020.  #SEstreetlife, #steveemigphotos

Hollywood Boulevard is a weird scene.  Full service panhandler trying to make a dollar, 2019.  #SEstreetlife, #steveemigphotos

Affordable housing...  #SEstreetlife, #steveemigphotos, #steveemigmemes

 

#SEstreetlife photos- On the bus- 7/14/2022

Above: Homeless woman and dog on a night bus, The Valley, 2022.  Below: Guy with custom headress and staff, The Valley, 2022.  #SEstreetlife, #steveemigphotos

Social distancing?  Not on the morning bus heading west.  This is probably how I caught Covid in January of 2022.  Masked selfie on crowded bus, 2021 The Valley, 2021. 

43 in the Old School BMX world is kind of like 420 in the weed/marijuana/cannabis culture.  It's kind of our lucky number, and there's a weird story that almost no one knows behind it.  Bus #1743.  The Valley, 2022.  

Waiting for a bus where another homeless guy is passed out cold.  Selfie in The Valley, 2021.  #SEstreetlife, #steveemigphotos

 

#SEstreetlife photos- The worst is yet to come... and other street art

Street art in the east end of the San Fernando Valley in 2020 and 2021.  All of these are from that Obey guy, you know who he is.  Above, close-up of the piece below.  "The worst is yet to come."  #OBEY.  #SEstreetlife, #Steveemigphotos 

Andre' the Giant/Misfit icon on and abandoned motel, Studio City, 2020.  

Stay up and Obey.  Someone wrote on it, "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me."  Some people just need to rage (against the machine).  

Obey icon on an electric box.  2020.

Below, detail from the poster above.  "From across the world... Welcome visitors (with a few exceptions)".  #SEstreetlife, #steveemigphotos

 

#SEstreetlife - 5/14/2022

 This is Goldie, the puppy, a couple of months ago.  One of the guys I know from the streets got housing, and once in an apartment, got this cute as hell little puppy.  Now she's about three times this size, and runs his life.  Bitches, man.  Check out my #SEstreetlife Pinterest board for more of my photos from life on the streets.  #steveemigphotos

Open carry.  Guy at the Universal City bus station with a chihuahua in a hip holster.  Armed and loaded.

I managed to dodge Covid-19 from March 2020 until January 2022, but right when Omicron was peaking, it got me.  I got both Pfizer vaccines in the spring of 2021, and I really think they helped me deal with it.  That's me, on the little piece of sidewalk next ot a parking lot, where I spent 5 days sick with Covid.  It knocked me on my ass for the first two days, and then I was pretty sick the next two or three days.  I was back in action after that, though I was still coughing up gunk for a couple of more weeks.  

OBEY nine pack in Studio City.  We got top shelf street art in that area.  You know whose work this is.

Generally speaking, I never really have trouble on the trains.  But I've seen some weird shit at times, usually at night.  This was one of the craziest.  Christmas Eve 2021, this guy just started smoking crack right on the train, 7-8 feet away form me.  Why does he have an orange construction vest on?  I don't know.  Nothing inconspicuous about this guy.  Holidaze.